D&D General Campaign epilogues

[touc]

As an 18-month long campaign closed with a climactic boss battle yesterday, I began thinking about epilogues as I've got a couple weeks (real life breaks) to come up with a way to satisfactorily wrap up a story that has enriched us, seen plenty of character development that I never could have envisioned and more complex than many novels, brought plenty of laughs, angry moments, a-ha(!) moments, and encompassed about 60 game sessions (lasting long enough to see my kids go from "can't tie my shoelaces" to "don't need anyone at the school bus stop.")

I've got my ideas...I feel like I need to so something just as awesome to bring it all to a close, but before I launch into anything, how do other folks wrap up their epic campaigns (or would want to, but it got derailed)? Do you even do an epilogue?

 

[aco175]

Do you want to spend money? You can buy things like t-shirts or engraved mugs. Even a diploma-like piece of paper to hang on the 'I love me wall". New dice to roll up the next PCs.

You could just order pizza and spend the couple hours talking about how the PCs spend the rest of their lives.

Name a new town after them in your game and have several NPC named after the great heroes.

 

[Tonguez]

Have a dinner/party in which each player presents their own epilogue on how their characters has been affected and goes on in the world. Then give out achievement ribbons and a toast

 

[touc]

Do you want to spend money? You can buy things like t-shirts or engraved mugs. Even a diploma-like piece of paper to hang on the 'I love me wall". New dice to roll up the next PCs.

You could just order pizza and spend the couple hours talking about how the PCs spend the rest of their lives.

Name a new town after them in your game and have several NPC named after the great heroes.

We're all adults with good jobs, so investing isn't out of the question. I also have a dedicated game room. Framing something on the wall isn't out of the question either. Our next campaign will be pirate-based (but in a different world, no continuity), so maybe some custom sea dice would be cool. But definitely the idea of spending some time chatting about how it all played out (not only what they did but how it affected others) is tops.

Have a dinner/party in which each player presents their own epilogue on how their characters has been affected and goes on in the world. Then give out achievement ribbons and a toast

Some of the "greats" of video games do something like this, at least summarizing how the world (and folks in it) changed. I might recommend we go out for a lunch and drinks instead of game table day. Haven't done that before in my DMing career, but might be solid.

 

[bedir than]

I've got my ideas...I feel like I need to so something just as awesome to bring it all to a close, but before I launch into anything, how do other folks wrap up their epic campaigns (or would want to, but it got derailed)? Do you even do an epilogue?

I use a technique I picked up from @SlyFlourish "One Year Later." My last long campaign did this and the one year later moment created a new government, had a player go on a Kaiju hunt and planted the seeds for the next campaign. All fit within the story. We rolled a few dice, but mostly it was a conversation.

Ending Campaigns

At some point our D&D campaigns come to an end, hopefully by a point in the story and not due to real-life events. Today we'll talk about how to run awesome endings for our D&D campaigns. Kitchen Sink...

slyflourish.com

 

[Stalker0]

Part of the answer here depends on whether you envision ever using the particular world/characters again for a next campaign, as if you do the epilogue needs to be more "subdued" than if you aren't.

I would start with asking the players, "so where would you want character X to wind up?" and then if what they want is a reasonable part of the narrative than go for it.

 

[J-H]

There was a great "how to do an epilogue" discussion about 4 years ago that I used to help shape the ending of Against the Idol of the Sun, but I don't remember enough details to find it.
Include a Fallout-2 style ending recap where you give a few details about what happened to all the major factions and NPCs over the next decade, mentioning how the party's actions affected them.
A "what happens next?" with your players is a good idea.

 

[jgsugden]

...I've got my ideas...I feel like I need to so something just as awesome to bring it all to a close, but before I launch into anything, how do other folks wrap up their epic campaigns (or would want to, but it got derailed)? Do you even do an epilogue?

I have a few Homebrew Campaigns. Each has an epilogue.

The first ends in a little bit of a Railroad as the PCs discover that something was underway a thousand years before they started adventuring that needs to be handled. While there are many solutions to the problem, the one that every group that has run it has utilized ends up with a PC needing to sacrifice themselves by being on the other side of a portal that leads to a very bad place. As an epilogue, I run a '5 years later' adventure for the PCs where they try to save their lost ally when they discover a brief window in which it might be possible. The person with the lost PC (and and player that had their PC be lost in the final adventure) get to play NPCs or make a one shot PC. So far, every group has failed to save their lost ally. However, the epilogue also features a return of elements from the campaign that I get to wrap up.

The second is a Megadungeon that focuses on a ruined mansion on an island along an abandoned trade route. The Megadungeon takes the PCs to the Shadowfell (and specifically a Ravenloft domain), Feywild, and Ethereal (which in my setting is a transitive plane between the Far Realms and the Prime) in "reflections" of the manor, the dungeon and the surrounding environs. Then they get into extraplanar antics to solve the mysteries of the Megadungeon. In the end the PCs can either destroy the place, claim it, or send it elsewhere. Whichever they choose, I have an epilogue that I run based upon their choice that introduces elements that sets up campaign three...

Campaign three is a war campaign. If the PCs elect to play in this campaign, they are told their PCs will be pressed into military service, so the game does not work if their PCs are unwilling to fight to protect their families and friends ... although they don't have to be happy about being pressed into service, they can't run from the obligation. They go from refugees to soldiers to a strike force, to leaders, to generals to the decision making body for the war effort ... and the future of a large section of my campaign world hangs in the balance. Underlying the entire campaign are the legends about two historical figures - the first Archmage and the world's most talented 'Artificer'. The two times it ran, the PCs made the same ultimate choice - and regretted their choice (although I feel like the regret is a "grass is always greener" regret. Regardless, the epilogue moves the world ahead a decade and features the resolution of a prophecy that comes from the 'Artificer' - one of several that the PCs can/should address during the campaign.

I have others, but there was no appreciable epilogue ever run for them.

 

[touc]

Part of the answer here depends on whether you envision ever using the particular world/characters again for a next campaign, as if you do the epilogue needs to be more "subdued" than if you aren't....

No continuity, no plans to run a future campaign here, so it'll be a true wrap up.

Include a Fallout-2 style ending recap where you give a few details about what happened to all the major factions and NPCs over the next decade, mentioning how the party's actions affected them.
A "what happens next?" with your players is a good idea.

That's where my initial thoughts went. We went to the Dragon Age setting, and the best of them all (Origins) did a fantastic epilogue based on player decisions. My brainstorm map is forming of:

• And then it was over. Sum up the immediate repercussion of defeating the BBEG, stopping the horde, and the sacrifice of the player character. Shamelessly steal any pre-written material from DA that directly applies because they had great writers.
• Coronation (Epilogue part 1). The country needs a new ruler (not the PCs), and this gives a chance for them to see old VIPs before they mingle with the masses and see their sac'd friend's body off to its home, a trek across the country. Slain PC needs some reason to interact, maybe he can assume the persona of some NPC?
• Visuals. I thought it'd be nice to print the major NPCs and painter's tape those pics to the game room wall so they can "go chat" with them. Easier to remember and visuals are nice from time to time.
• Funeral (Epilogue part 2). Time for a PC speech about their fallen comrade? On way home, visit a town they saved, more NPCs from the less than VIP crowd. More wrapup stuff, long term years-down-the-road stuff, PCs can pick what they want to know about and interject if they intervened.
• Tragic Calling (Epilogue part 3). There's a reveal. Anyone who took the ability to permanently destroy the BBEG (old gawds) don't get to live long lives. They took tainted blood into their bodies, and slowly and inevitably this will corrupt them. 2 players had this feature, 1 "lost it" (very long story involving necromancy). Let the players play out how they handled this.
• Final homage & Inside Joke. Anything else the PC who sac'd his life to destroy the BBEG once and for all wants to say, and then maybe an inside joke (our player convinced(?) the other gamers that in this setting, dwarves reproduced by laying rocks heated in lava and that's why you don't have dwarf-human relations).