Alright, let’s talk about this hunt I went on. Finding a tabletop game with a real campaign feel, but one you can actually play when you only have, like, an hour or maybe ninety minutes? It felt impossible for a while.
See, my gaming group, we love the idea of campaigns. Characters getting stronger, a story unfolding, all that good stuff. But life happens, right? Work runs late, kids need attention, suddenly finding a solid four-hour block to play something epic like Gloomhaven just wasn’t happening anymore. We tried. We really did. We’d schedule a night, someone would bail last minute, or we’d get halfway through setup and realize it was already 10 PM. It got frustrating.
The Search Begins
So, I started digging. Spent hours scrolling through forums, watching review videos. Lots of games claimed to be quick, but they usually meant the rules were simple, not that a whole session was short. Or they were campaign-lite, more like a string of unrelated scenarios.
I looked at legacy games, but many still demanded big time chunks per session. I considered just breaking down bigger games, you know, playing half a scenario and packing it up. Tried that with one dungeon crawler. Man, what a mess. Saving the exact position of every monster, every token, figuring out who’s turn it was next week… it was more hassle than it was worth. Took away the fun.
Finding a Contender
Then I stumbled onto a few possibilities. Games designed with shorter scenarios from the ground up. One that caught my eye was specifically marketed as a smaller, faster version of its bigger brother. Skeptical, you bet I was. But I was also kinda desperate.
I picked it up. Wasn’t cheap, mind you, but cheaper than the giant box games. Got it home, punched out the cardboard. The usual ritual. The rulebook looked manageable, which was a good sign.
Putting it to the Test
Called up one buddy who’s usually free on short notice. “Got an hour tonight? Wanna try this new thing?” He was in.
We sat down. Setup was surprisingly quick. Instead of a huge map, it used scenario books, where the map is printed right on the page. That cut down time immensely. Character stuff was straightforward. Pick your person, grab their deck, boom.
- Grabbed the scenario book.
- Opened to the first adventure.
- Put our character minis on the starting spots.
- Dealt out our starting hands.
Seriously, we were playing within maybe 15 minutes of opening the box. That felt like a win already. The scenario itself? It was tight. We had clear goals, ran through some rooms, fought some baddies printed right on the page. The core mechanics felt familiar, like the bigger games, but streamlined. No fiddly stuff slowing us down.
We finished the whole scenario in about 50 minutes. Fifty! We actually completed something, made some progress in the little story booklet, got some experience points. It felt… satisfying. Like we’d had a proper game night, just compressed.
How it Works (The Good Part)
The key seemed to be a few things:
Integrated Map/Scenario Book: This was huge. No laying tiles, finding specific doors, none of that. Just open the book and go.
Streamlined Rules: Less bookkeeping. Monster actions were simpler. Loot was easier to manage.
Focused Scenarios: Each adventure felt self-contained enough to finish quickly, but still pushed the simple narrative forward.
Easy Save: Packing up was basically putting our character cards and gear back in their little boxes, marking off the scenario we finished, and closing the book. Done.
So, Did it Stick?
Yeah, mostly. We’ve played it quite a few times now. We can knock out a scenario or two in an evening after work without feeling rushed or staying up too late. It definitely scratches that campaign itch. We’re seeing our characters change, we’re following the story beats.
Is it as deep or epic as those massive campaign games? No, probably not. The story is simpler, the choices maybe less impactful in the grand scheme. But here’s the thing: we’re actually playing it. Consistently. That beats having a giant, impressive box gathering dust on the shelf because you can never find the time for it.
So, if you’re like me, struggling to fit those big campaign dreams into a tight schedule, don’t give up. There are options out there. You might need to adjust your expectations slightly, look for games built for speed, or even cleverly adapt existing ones (though that’s tricky). But getting that campaign progression in short bursts? It’s doable. And honestly, it’s been a game-changer for us.
