Different expectations...

Message:

The Vert Valliant campaign ran closer to two years (broken up with Outlands), but also seemed to be more open ended. The Ref was letting the deck mostly guide things, but built story elements based off player action/interaction. (Then it got wiped out in a PC crash - crashes being mentioned recently, like in the recently resurfaced Flaws table, prompting the actual critique of, "Dude external drives are cheap, back up your stuff," and a note that *I* have almost everything dating back to 1997... ")

The second Cutlass Campaign ended because the Ref decided he'd written himself into a corner after we tracked down the World's Greatest Gunsmith and World's Greatest Marksman to assassinate the World's Greatest Target.

Since then the Ref has seems to have mostly generated Campaigns with predetermined through lines (not counting the current Cutlass 1488?) where a goal and ending were predetermined.

If we KNOW (to pick a real example) the Campaign is to eliminate all the pirate bands in the Bahamas then, yeah, it's a rush to level up because once the goal is attained, the Campaign ends. Up course in that situation it's more of a rush to level up.

But the Ref is more devoted now to shorter goal campaigns, interspersed with new designs and refinement to other systems. This is NOT a critique, just a statement. If the intention was to run a single, open ended Cutlass campaign for several years advancement would slow. Back in the Vert Valliant campaign we'd have lvl 7-8 characters who would have to take an entire mission to earn a single Ignoble.

Because, ultimately, it's the Ref who determines speed of character advancement. Sometimes a higher level character needing an entire mission to earn the single Ignoble is what you want. Conversely, in a goal oriented Campaign the Ref is going to be more likely to accelerate leveling so the group can see who hits Swashy by the end.

It's a different style of play determined by the Campaign purpose.

Yours,