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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1893120" data-attributes="member: 3424">And that's the crux of the matter. My players and I are friends first, gamers second, and storytellers third (a way distant third). Our games would be considered videogamey hack and slash by many. After the Big Boss Fight, Evil has been thwarted for another session, and everyone goes home happy.As a DM, I could, if I wanted to, pit them against a horde of opponents much too powerful for them, have them all captured, and end the session with them in chains and heading for slavery. However, my players wouldn't like that, and they wouldn't like it so much that it might ruin the game. And that's why FireLance's big idea for today is: Know your players.Ending a session on a sombre note is tricky, and I'm not sure that I will be able to pull it off. Yeah, there's all that dramatic tension, but you have to mix in a bit of hope, too, or your players may not bother to show up for the next session, or get frustrated, as one or two of the OP's players did. Even in the example you brought up, [SPOILER]Frodo was captured by Orcs, but the One Ring was still in Sam's possession[/SPOILER].</blockquote>