Campaign endings

[Lanefan]

The only time I wrapped up a campaign with a definite "this is it, the story ends *here*" conclusion (after a very long run) I thought my players were going to string me up by my thumbs. That said, I was very pleased with how it shook down as a story.

My current campaign is probably going to die before too much longer because (again after a very long run) the old well of adventure ideas is drying up fast and it's time for someone else to take the helm. I intend to leave the door open for later re-visits, all-star or reunion games, etc., however.

Two other campaigns - one very long, one very short - I've been in died due to system collapse - the parties became too powerful for the setting.

And another long one died due to simply running out of players.

Lanefan

 

[Mercule]

I've had exactly one campaign with a solid ending. Otherwise, it's been end of semester, some similar outside force, or just petering out. As a player, I've been in one wrapped up game. The rest have been, again, outside forces, or just dragging to a painful end -- sometimes bordering on a polite revolt of the players.

I'm trying very hard to drive my current game to a coherent resolution, and actually have most of the arc mapped out. The biggest problem that I'm having is that I fear I may have started it out at too large of scope and am having a really hard time managing it. I really need to learn to limit character generation more, and to not push the PCs beyond their bounds too soon.

 

[The Shaman]

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?

They more often suddenly stop mid-stream or fade away without a real conclusion.

And do you care?

Not really.

I've had games end with a TPK, or player interest faded, or because the gaming group broke up due to real-life issues that took precedence, but that's gaming and/or life, so...*shrugs*

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I've had one or two campaigns actually end with their intended climax. One of them ended in a TPK at the point of the intended climax, so I suppose that's... close... to how I meant it to end. Its nice (except when everybody dies) when things work out and you can come to a clean ending, but its oftentimes just doesn't work out that way.

I usually run pretty open-ended games, where the player's characters are free to do, interact with, and ignore pretty much whatever they want... So there is often-times no overarching plot to the campaigns that I run... So... no clear beginning, middle, or end for them to get to.

In the most recent campaign that I ran, I think I managed to work out a nice balance between open-endedness and interconnected story events. The characters managed to get themselves wrapped up in three or four ongoing bad-guy doings, and miraculously wrapped them all up within just a few sessions of each other, also at about the time that they all hit 23rd level. So... through *almost* no fault of my own, the PCs managed to tork off about four groups of bad-guys, all bent on world domination/conquest/destruction/whatever... They interacted with each of them off and on throughout the course of the campaign (for about five years of bi-weekly sessions), and then within about six of these sessions, at the 'end' of the campaign, they finished off / thwarted the BBEG in a semi-permanent manner all four of these groups. At that point, they had only their own personal interests left to pursue... So I made that final session of butt-kickery extra big, slapped them up to the next level, and congratulated them on a fabulous camapign, with the assurance that I'd come back to it at a later date, to allow them to pursue their epic desires to their hearts' content.

Usually, my camapigns that are open ended continue on until either they or (more likely I) get tired of them and decide to move onto something else. Which, while not a terrible thing, because it keeps us moving on to new and fabulous things, is not nearly as satisfying an end as... an actual end.

Later
silver

 

[Agamon]

I need a sense of finality to a campaign or I consider it an utter failure. That doesn't mean the end of the setting, or even the PCs, another campaign could come invloving both again, but the game's metaplot needs to go somewhere and the players need a sense of accomplishment, somehting I don't dole out very much of during the campaign.

 

[Ishmayl]

Option 3 all the way. Think last episode of "Angel."

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I always build in a campaign ending. Whether the game lasts long enough to reach the conclusion is another matter...

The Auld Grump

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

The ending should provide closure, but remain open for sequel if necessary.

 

[LostSoul]

I've had games end with a TPK

That's a pretty definite conclusion, isn't it?

 

[Beckett]

I'd like my games to reach a definite conclusion, and occasionally I pull it off. My AU game I ended with anticipation of AE's release, but I was able to tie up the major plot thread, with the players teaming up with the antagonistic NPC party to defeat the Evil awakening in the north.

A lot of my games are in hibernation right now, but I don't think of them as truely closed. I can sometimes be distracted by shiny things and want to start something new, but most of my games I want to get back to at some point.

There are a few that are deader than others. Sometimes I just can't figure out how to challenge the characters anymore, or my plot lines run dead. Other times, I just get frusterated with some aspect of the game and let it die; a Sith War style Star Wars game ground to a halt when the players, having discovered the location of a secret weapon, rather than going in to destroy it like heroes, went to check in with the Council first. Another Star Wars game, set just prior to the original movie, my disgust was against one player showing he just didn't get it ("I know you said we couldn't start with lightsabres, but why should that mean my character can't have the lightsabre components his Jedi mother left him? And does that mean I need to get rid of my training lightsabre?") Just left too much of a bad taste in my mouth to want to continue.

That said, I think more of my current games are headed toward satisfying endings (along with more of my games heading into higher levels... hrm). I'm running Age of Worms, as well as having my ToEE players continue to the GDQ series; these should both have good, definite conclusions if we make it all the way. For self-created adventures, I've had the ending of my Eberron game in mind for months. Just need to get the characters there.