Campaign endings

[EricNoah]

Do the campaigns you play (not one-shots) usually have satisfying endings, or do they more often suddenly stop mid-stream or fade away without a real conclusion? And do you care?

My gut feeling is that most campaigns either peter out or end suddenly, and that it's not something most people prefer.

I suppose there are people who don't like a conclusion to a campaign -- they want the possibility that it could continue on?

I try to run campaigns with a definite conclusion though circumstances (in-game and out-of-game) don't always allow it. I dropped a 2E Planescape game mid-stream when 3E was released. I dropped an AE campaign mid-stream when I realized I just couldn't keep up the quality that I felt was needed. I felt disappointed in myself as DM in those cases.

 

[RangerWickett]

I always start campaigns with a climax in mind. I feel it's one of the greatest sins that a television series can commit to not have a clear end point in mind. How many shows just petered out and sucked the last season? I'm particularly hoping LOST sticks with its announced four-year run, and has a defined ending in mind.

When campaigns do end abruptly, yeah, I feel disappointed. I usually try to wrap them up with a final session, though, even if it's a month or two late, and I have to make it a tragic ending with the PCs all dying.

I've had two great campaign endings. In the first, the PCs figured out who the villain in the center of the web of deceit was after the climax of a fight in one session, then attacked her base the next session, then in the last session were captured and brought in as prisoners as she tried to use them to fulfill a bargain with a demon. The PCs turned the tables on her, and despite being unarmed and surrounded, they managed to defeat her.

What was lacking was a good denoument.

In the second climax, I'd basically set up a group of four major villains who had to be taken down before the threat would be over, because if any one warlord was defeated, the others would grab power in his or her wake. The group had finished off three, and had saved the one who appeared most temperate for last, on the idea that they'd be able to negotiate with him. Of course, this villain was just as power hungry as the rest, just a better liar, so he tried to kill the PCs with an ambush, and they responded by teleporting directly to his headquarters and killing him in a brief but eminently satisfying battle.

There was a denoument, but it was in fiction form. I asked each of the players to tell me what they wanted, and I wrote it up. It satisfied all the players except one, whose character I kinda, um, killed in the epilogue.

The next two campaigns after that were not as good. One ended with tragedy as the group tried to deal with the villains they'd been fighting, only to discover that the mafia doesn't really do the whole 'forgiveness' thing. The second ended with a climax, but the dramatic arc of the campaign hadn't been solid, so the resolution wasn't satisfying.

My current campaign is going to be coming to a close soon. I need to figure out what ways the game might lead up to a good climax, and then how to provide a denoument actually in the game. But this probably isn't the thread for that.

 

[el-remmen]

Hey Eric,

If you are asking how they have ended then I have to choose them all.

If you are asking how I like them to end then I have to choose the first and third options.

I like a definite end. But I also like the possibility of maybe returning to these character down the line and picking up some loose plot ends or even som totally unrelated adventure.

My 'Out of the Frying Pan' game ended in January with a loose end or two, but the ending was still very satisfying - However, we are planning on a "reunion session" for the end of the summer/beginning of fall.

 

[Wombat]

Ummm... it depends...

I have had several campaigns that have ENDED. In other words, we brought the whole tale to a satisfying conclusion and we were very happy for it. In most cases, however, this happened because we knew the interest was beginning to wane in the campaign, so we re-revved our interest and brought everything to a neat ending place.

Two campaigns were "many years later" in campaigns that had previously ended; one reached a definite conclusion, one did not.

Most of my campaigns, however, did not have a definite conclusion. People moved away, the underlying logic of why "The Party" was together vanished, people got bored, a new game showed up on the horizon that everyone was interested in, the GM got heartily sick of running the specific campaign, etc.

For every campaign that I have run where I had a clear conclusion, I had three that just petered out.

And I have never been in someone else's campaign that had a real conclusion. Ever.

 

[paradox42]

Yeah, the way the poll is set up makes me wonder how you'll get useful results. I figure you're asking how our games have ended, so I chose options 1, 3, and 4. I'm not sure whether a TPK counts as a definite conclusion I didn't like, so I didn't also pick option 2.

My 2E college game ended with the party finding the artifact they'd been looking for for a year or so of real time, and months of game time, after briefly allying with the villian who'd been chasing them and was after the same artifact to get inside the ruined, multidimensional city where it was kept. The alliance stated that once inside the city, all bets were off, so for the party the race was on. As it happened, the villian and his henchmen stumbled into a couple of rifts they shouldn't have, and ended up on another plane while the party managed to stay in the city and find the object. The session after that I gave them an extended epilogue, and all went away happy.

My 3.X games have had several endings, though none as satisfying so far- because the one game that I think can still have a satisfying ending is still going, after 5 years of play. That's my Epic game. I have plans for the big bang finish, but won't start implementing them until the time is right in the plot- and it's just not there yet. Essentially, the party knows the world is on a countdown to an Armageddon-type battle when an Abyssal gate is going to open and millions of demons will invade the Material Plane; they already plan to be among the defenders when it finally does happen. The date of the opening is known, and it's still two seasons away in game time, so they have time yet for other adventures.

Other games I ran in this world ended several ways. One was the aforementioned TPK- rather upsetting to me because I tried everything I could think of to warn the party away from the place they were going into, which was far too dangerous for their level; they went forward anyway and got fooled by a Will-O-Wisp into blundering into a trio of hungry Bulettes- as a 5th level party. Crunch crunch crunch. I can only assume the players were, on some level, testing their plot immunity to see if I "really would go there." Games since then they've been more cautious.

The next game, and the game after the one that followed that, both ended because the players agreed as a group that they were tired of the heroic game and wanted to try an Evil party. So we ended both of those games in media res, with nothing definite showing what could or would happen to the characters; technically we could go back and pick up any of those games in progress again if we wanted to but nobody's wanted to. Personally I didn't find those satisfying, but the players got to start their desired campaigns so I suppose they liked it.

The first evil game that started ended in party implosion, when the PCs split apart into two camps and attacked each other. Three PCs got away in the end, but three others were dead and with no obvious means of bringing them back, so we all agreed at that point to end the game and start something new. Not very satisfying for me, though it seemed to slake the players' blood thirst for a while at least.

The last game with that group, which started after the last time we left a party hanging, is still going. I'm not sure yet where it's going, but it continues.

 

[diaglo]

can be picked up again where you left off 20 years ago.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I usually always finish running a given campaign unless something external interferes with the completion of the campaign, usually a key person or persons dropping from the campaign.

 

[EricNoah]

Yeah I'm asking how they actually have ended, not necessarily what you planned on. There are a lot of unexpected ways a campaign could suddenly end without a clear conclusion, and I suspect those are "bad surprises" most of the time.

 

[Dog Moon]

Hrm. I think every single one has ended prematurely because of some reason or another, either because we get tired of the DM or the DM gets tired of the game. In the former cases, I'm glad it ends, and the latter, I'm not, though if I had my choice, every game we played in would be good and end appropriately.

 

[el-remmen]

Let's see. . .

I had a ton of campaign false-starts and peter-outs in high school, but since I went away to school I had two groups. Those at h.s. and those back at home during break (esp. summer break).

So ignoring the at school ones which were never as good as the at home ones and moving on into adulthood:
"Old World" Campaign (my pre-Aquerra homebrew mish-mosh setting) - Ended for two reasons: Only one of the original characters was left and the others felt less attached to their new ones and because 2nd edition had come out, and conversion of the remaining character would have made the player unhappy.

The First Aquerra Campaign - When summer ended I was starting college and though I thought that life would continue on as it had before and we'd continue on the next summer or whatever, we never did. We ended mid-adventure - which sucks - but later I worked into a different campaign when these characters were encountered as prisoners when I ran the adventure again.

The Sign of Four Campaign - No definite end "story-wise". A combination of work schedules and a failed relationship between two of the players drove a nail into this one. I was left with two players. We tried to make it work for a while, but it was hard to keep interest. A couple of years later, me and one of the players did a little campaign epilogue via e-mail, bringing the characters to a spot where they might be found/rescued in a later campaign. I was also playing in an FR campaign at the same time with the same group of players so obviously this game ended for the same reason at the same time.

The Oath - A very unsatisfying TPK. It was a combination of stupid moves by one player while the majority of the party was incapcitated, and then a poor ruling on my part that I wish I could take back.

"Out of the Frying Pan" - We had a definite end, but there were enough extra loose ones that we can take it back up later and not feel like we are ruining the resolution of the game itself.

The Promised Land - I played in this Aquerra game, but the DM between crazy work hours and a coming baby could not put the time into prep anymore and it was officially called off. :\