I prefer campaign games, because of the ongoing character development, but I like to do both.
Variety, as they say, is the spice of life.
One more vote for campaigns - for the character development and story arcs that come with it.
I’m also finding that the effort I like to put into costuming/prop-making pays off more for a weekend game, where I can wear said outfit and use said props a lot more. (Yeah, sure that’s how I justify the time/money I spend on it… er… cost per hour of wear? 
)
Campaigns, hands down.
I’ve had fun at many one-off larps, but I’m a bear-of-little-brain and I tend to find the character sheet learning curve such that I forget what I’m supposed to be doing, or who I’m supposed to find and spend a lot of time being confused.
I much prefer to make the costuming effort if I get to wear it more than once, too. I like the neat and unexpected turns your character ends up taking over the course of a campaign. Some characters just don’t end up where you thought they would when you made them, and I like that very much.
While I’m sure that weekend campaign games can be fun (I don’t have that much experience), the downside is that there’s a limit to the number of campaigns you could/should commit to in a year.
I think I prefer one-offs. I find that more happens in a shorter time frame. But I’m pretty new to campaigns, so some of that is getting used to a different format. I still find physical combat a little jarring. I mean, I love it, it just doesn’t feel like roleplaying. 
Also, for many one offs the event is sort of a turning point in the life of a character. For campaigns it’s more of a journey. Journeys are fun, but they don’t give me the same sort of fulfillment or dramatic revolution that can happen in a short game. For 90% of the time they are less emotionally intense.
I prefer multi-game weekends personally, for several reasons.
I generally find I’m less inhibited with my roleplaying because I’m not trying to protect my character, so it’s easier to jump in feet first even if you get killed. That and I think I have too short an attention span for 12 hours of solid IC rping.
I like the OOC time in between games - especially because it’s often the only time in the year I actually get to see these people, and I really enjoy hanging out with them (rather than their characters).
I also feel like it’s more bang for buck - getting to Wellington or Auckland is a significant investment and not something I can really afford for a campaign that I may or may not like, in a weekend of short games there’s a greater chance of having some awesome moments so for me it’s more worthwhile. And of course there are only two conventions a year, conveniently placed around uni holidays, which makes it an easier proposition than 4 weekend games + misc day games.
I guess the practical upshot is that I would probably play in a campaign if it was happening in my city.
[quote=“No Rectangulars”]
I like the OOC time in between games - especially because it’s often the only time in the year I actually get to see these people, and I really enjoy hanging out with them (rather than their characters). [/quote]
This part is important for me too. 
[quote=“Adrexia”][quote=“No Rectangulars”]
I like the OOC time in between games - especially because it’s often the only time in the year I actually get to see these people, and I really enjoy hanging out with them (rather than their characters). [/quote]
This part is important for me too. [/quote]
I ran IC / OC events for starwars that were very popular and often resulted in us watching some very … interesting videos… cough starporn cough
But the general feel was that of an after larp but between two games instead of after.
How would people feel about that? Two seperate ‘day games’ broken by an ooc lunch? Perhaps allowing two factions to perform quests? The pirates raid a ship at harbour during the morning while the guard crew and then the pirates crew for the guard saving a farm from raiders. etc etc (insert better ideas here etc). Broken at lunch with a nice ooc chat giving time for a kit change and a laugh with friends?
[quote=“Adrexia”]I think I prefer one-offs. I find that more happens in a shorter time frame. But I’m pretty new to campaigns, so some of that is getting used to a different format. I still find physical combat a little jarring. I mean, I love it, it just doesn’t feel like roleplaying.
Also, for many one offs the event is sort of a turning point in the life of a character. For campaigns it’s more of a journey. Journeys are fun, but they don’t give me the same sort of fulfillment or dramatic revolution that can happen in a short game. For 90% of the time they are less emotionally intense.[/quote]
Totally agree with all of this
I know the question is about weekend-long games, but my preferred format to play in is single-evening games. It’s easier for me to commit an evening than a whole weekend. It also means the players aren’t boggled by being in 6 events in 3 days, all the info and costuming that comes with that, so there’s more focus on the game at hand, and short pregens don’t have the slow patches that weekend games tend to have. I’d be happy to play in a campaign of evening events if the game grabbed me, especially if they were on a weeknight (easier to commit than Fri or Sat), playing about once every two months.
On the other hand, when it comes to running games I prefer weekend-long campaign events. 
They just give the GMs so much more time to work out how the game world can react in big ways to player actions, and responsive creative leeway with things like briefing NPCs on the fly (as opposed to pregens where most of the creativity happens beforehand in writing the PCs). I love collaborating with a team of GMs on the fly while running a weekend event, that’s the main thing I miss about running Mordavia.
I had a bit of a discussion on a similar thread on my Livejournal.
I prefer campaigns, more from the perspective that you can make your own character. In one-off’s you are normally given a GM created character. I generally find these characters to not quite mesh with what I want to play.
Jon
[quote=“Xcerus”]
How would people feel about that? Two seperate ‘day games’ broken by an ooc lunch? Perhaps allowing two factions to perform quests? The pirates raid a ship at harbour during the morning while the guard crew and then the pirates crew for the guard saving a farm from raiders. etc etc (insert better ideas here etc). Broken at lunch with a nice ooc chat giving time for a kit change and a laugh with friends?[/quote]
Bryn ran Kingdom this way (exactly) in February. It was successful.
[quote=“Jon Ball”]I had a bit of a discussion on a similar thread on my Livejournal.
I prefer campaigns, more from the perspective that you can make your own character. In one-off’s you are normally given a GM created character. I generally find these characters to not quite mesh with what I want to play.
Jon[/quote]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…
[quote=“Adrexia”]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…[/quote]
That would be a really interesting challenge
While I prefer one-offs for variety and experimentation, I’ve had the opposite experience with emotional intensity. I can’t get enough intensity in the one-offs and for that I prefer the weekender campaigns. I like the long-term character development campaigns give me, and the emotional investment I have from weekend games.
Yeah. It kind of means that the story would need to be relatively generic (i.e. no plot specific to a character), and inter-character plot would be limited (did I say limited? I think I mean non-existent). I have considered it as a launch for the W40k LARP I’m planning.
Jon
[quote=“Adrexia”][quote=“Jon Ball”]I had a bit of a discussion on a similar thread on my Livejournal.
I prefer campaigns, more from the perspective that you can make your own character. In one-off’s you are normally given a GM created character. I generally find these characters to not quite mesh with what I want to play.
Jon[/quote]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…[/quote]
That essentially is the premise of Mythos… Although not one offs, but separate day games
Yeah. It kind of means that the story would need to be relatively generic (i.e. no plot specific to a character), and inter-character plot would be limited (did I say limited? I think I mean non-existent). I have considered it as a launch for the W40k LARP I’m planning.
Jon[/quote]
Or, you put people in groups once characters have been received and either a. get them to make their own connections, or b. write connections between the characters, but leave the feelings up to the players. Alternatively, get people to sign up in groups and submit characters who are already part of a group.
What would be harder would be dealing with surprises. It could be done, but would take a bit of working with people if you want the surprises to come from PCs rather than an external source.
You can write plot specific to characters too. Again, it would take some work, and players would need to be okay with their character’s background being messed around with (but their personality staying intact).
Getting a bit off topic but…
One of the things I have in the rules I’ve currently written is factions. So that sort of fits what you’re talking about with “groups”. Although it’s entirely possible that you could end up with only one person having chosen a specific faction.
Similarly there are “Careers” and “Origins”. You can target specific plto to specific Careers or Origins (e.g. Have something in an enclsoed space where all characters with the Feral World origin feel claustrophobic; Religious plot which would appeal to all characters with the Cleric class). But I guess you take the risk that there might not be anyone who has selected those particular Factions/Origins/Careers.
Anyway…
[quote=“Jon Ball”]Getting a bit off topic but…
One of the things I have in the rules I’ve currently written is factions. So that sort of fits what you’re talking about with “groups”. Although it’s entirely possible that you could end up with only one person having chosen a specific faction.
Similarly there are “Careers” and “Origins”. You can target specific plto to specific Careers or Origins (e.g. Have something in an enclsoed space where all characters with the Feral World origin feel claustrophobic; Religious plot which would appeal to all characters with the Cleric class). But I guess you take the risk that there might not be anyone who has selected those particular Factions/Origins/Careers.
Anyway…[/quote]
You’d need to get the characters far enough in advance for that not to happen. If there aren’t characters, you ignore the plot that would target them.