A 'Dungeons And Dragons' Campaign Has Been Going On For Over 40 Years

A good D&D campaign can be a long affair. D&D campaigns usually culminate with the involved players either moving on to a different one or swearing to never see each other again after just a few months. Not Robert Wardhaugh's campaign, though. That's a man who has been playing the same campaign for over 40 years. For those unaware or even not old enough to understand what 40 years is, It's like two-thirds of The Rolling Stones' career (that's actually not a joke) or over two-thirds of two of Kurt Cobain's lifetimes.

And Wardhaugh's setting should make other D&D aficionados feel inadequate not just because of its longevity, but also because of its size. Wardhaugh bought his current house simply because it featured a room large enough to become his “game room”, and he has been continually building his set since 1982, so one can only imagine how large it has become – or just look at pictures:

Wardhaugh not only has an entire room that serves as his board, but he also has carefully handpainted over 30,000 miniatures, something we still haven't found a way to measure in Kurt Cobains. On top of all this, his campaign rocks because it has already seen dozens of players coming and going (with many still flying in from time to time just to join his game). Some of the players literally grew up with his campaign, like his daughter who joined at 6 and is now 20. Another interesting element is the strict permadeath policy, which means that once a player has all of his characters die, they have to leave the game because they get permanently banished from Wardhaugh's basement realm. On top of a rule that forces people to take the game seriously, it also results in natural worldbuilding that has already seen various generations being born, giving birth, and then getting blasted by dragons, we assume. Wardhaugh claims that this campaign has allowed him to make and strengthen friendships, and is likely to continue it until the end of time.

Top Image: Wizards Of The Coast