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My oldest surviving character is my priest (actually the 3rd one I created), and he is now 24th level. My wizard is 23rd, the ranger is 22nd, and I have a half-orc Grandfather of Assassins (also now a low-level priest of Shargaas). My campaign had a few quiet years early on (when I was in the Air Force, but there was still the odd adventure with other players here and there), but has otherwise been continuous since 1988 with no breaks, using the same characters with two of the same original players (my dad and one of my brothers).
We've been rather unsuccessful in starting with new 1st-level characters, because all the established ones are so powerful now and have their own nations that it's really more fun to play them, because we know we can actually get things done! I'm not sure where to start in elaborating on things, but to forewarn you, my campaign is not strictly medieval like so many others: we all like action/adventure and science fiction, and so many elements of each appear (for instance, Rary's and Robilar's troops used a magical brooch of communication to stay in contact with each other, and they are exactly like communicators from The Next Generation).
My brother once DM'd an adventure in which we encountered a huge magical dreadnought that swallowed smaller vessels and attacked villages and cities along the coast (the Dreadnought was directly inspired by the Liparus in The Spy Who Loved Me), and my dad DM'd one in which we encountered sky pirates who used a flying ship, a vimana, to raid villages; both of these adventures occurred on other worlds, not Oerth. After having captured the first vimana, we began to encounter and capture others, and after an unfortunate encounter with Iuz' lackey Kermin Mindbender experimenting with his own vimana (we discovered from Lesser Boneheart member Vayne that Kermin had an interest in such things, but he could never make the magic permanent; it turns out all the vimanas were enchanted 5,000 years ago on another world, and we were in control of the only gate there, and so secured several more for ourselves, some of which we've leased out to Belvor IV of Furyondy), we've taken several steps to ensure that none of them are ever destroyed.
Since Kermin lightning bolted our ship and nearly destroyed it, we have since covered each of them with magic resistant paint, and installed giant pearls enchanted with various abilities that simulate a starship's shields and cloaking device, and have recently given them artificial intelligence much like Zen, Slave and Orac on Blake's 7, such that all we need do is give orders and the vimanas run themselves.
One of the best adventures I ever DM'd was when we were searching for the Five Blades of Corusk, and discovered one of them was in the Sea of Dust. I'd been wanting to adventure there for a long time, and finally came up with a great idea: once they found Stalker, they explored the city of Zinbyle and discovered the residence of Slerotin, and found evidence that they had been there already. In fact, they found their Space and Time Interdimensional Vehicle, which looks like a small crystal pyramid, in Slerotin's courtyard, and so they knew they had to travel back to the final days of the Suel Imperium to discover how it got there. The Suloise were not evil as so many in the present believed, but were just regular folk, mostly good like everywhere else. They met and befriended Slerotin and his old friend Kevelli Mauk, the man who founded the Scarlet Brotherhood, and realized they had to ensure his survival or they'd be in danger of seriously altering history. I'd intended Slerotin to die in the Rain of Colorless Fire, and he wrote the final words in his journal, just as the characters found 1,000 years in the future, but at the last moment, as he was about to go outside and see what the strange lights were that were falling from the sky, I suddenly decided against it and he accompanied the characters back to the future, where he now teaches Suloise history at Kron City University (and he occasionally adventures with us too). They teleported to The Null, a device not unlike a stargate on Stargate: SG-1, except that it was a trilithon arch instead of a ring, and escaped the Rain of Colorless Fire.
Each of our characters has a medallion enchanted with tongues and comprehend languages, so speaking, reading and writing other languages is no problem; in fact, whenever they encounter someone who speaks another language, they occasionally ask why the characters' lip movements don't coincide with what they're saying, and they have to explain it's magic that enables them to understand (like watching a Japanese martial arts movie dubbed in English).
The level of technology is much higher too, equivalent to ca. 1800 (pre-industrialization), and there is universal education in most countries; feudalism exists only in evil nations, and many are seeing the benefits of a free market system such as exists in the Kron Hills. Two printing presses were recovered from the Sea of Dust, and so now there are two newspapers in the Flanaess, The Greyhawk Gazette and The Greyhawk Enquirer (we obviously don't take the campaign too seriously, lol), both of which have created a new industry: there are now reporters, artists who do the pics, editors, typesetters and so on, with the usual stories, letters to the editor, advertising and op-ed pieces, and Nerof Gasgal even has a regular column in the Gazette!
The Kronites (as they're often called) are a bane to evil nations throughout the Flanaess and have certainly vanquished more than their fair share of bad guys, but there are always more: Turrosh Mak, Stalman Klim and the Earth Dragon are next on the list...
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