Cliffhangers

[Darkness]

As I said in the other thread, I like ending my gaming sessions with cliffhangers and shocking revelations. Of course, many of my games are horror and even most of those that aren't are dark.

 

[arscott]

As a player, I dislike ending a game session with a defeat or a setback. I have seen these types of game session endings sap the morale of the players. Too many setbacks or defeats usually results in players leaving the game. If it is not fun, why continue playing? Game sessions that end with a challenging cliffhanger entice me to play the next session.

A setback or defeat isn't a cliffhanger at all. Defeat implies some sort of resolution. Cliffhangers are "the only thing keeping Sir Garathus from falling into the pit of damned souls is the quickly fraying rope that he grasps with one hand. And since I've got to go home and cook dinner, we'll let him hang there for the rest of the week", not "the paladin falls into hell and dies. What'll you do about this next week?".

There are two things you should get from a session ending. The first is a desire to return next time. Unless Overused, cliffhangers do this quite well. The second is a sense of the problem you face. If you're in the middle of a dungeon, then you'll want to have a week to think about how to defeat that beholder. But in your courtly intrigue campaign, the problem is how to get the King to marry Princes Stephanie to Berkhart instead of the Black Knight. Having a dragon carry off the princess at the end of the session is just distracting.

It's important to adjust cliffhangers to account for the amount of time between sessions. If you won't be meeting again for three weeks, you shouldn't end the session in the middle of a duel with the BBEG. That'll just drive everybody nuts for almost a month. But if you'll be meeting again on friday, then it fits just fine.

 

[Philip]

In my experience the effectiveness of cliffhangers depend on the frequency you play with. I play with several groups that meet, at best, once a month. If something like a month passes, most memories and emotions about the session will have ebbed away, and players need some time 'getting back into it'. In such cases cliffhangers can be very disruptive to the play experience.

Just imagine going to a convention, participating in a D&D session, and having the DM say at an exciting moment: that's all for now folks, see you for the sequel next year!

 

[Glyfair]

I enjoy cliffhangers, unfortunately, in my games (as a player and a GM) they aren't practical. Because our gamers are older players, real-life often intrudes and players go missing between sessions. It's much easier explaining an absence if you break "outside of the action."

 

[Doug McCrae]

I don't think the session ending presented in Ambrus's thread, 'Am I a cruel DM?', counts as a cliffhanger.

 

[BluSponge]

I am a DM and love cliffhangers. Too bad my players don't.

 

[Darkness]

I don't think the session ending presented in Ambrus's thread, 'Am I a cruel DM?', counts as a cliffhanger.

Yes, it doesn't.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

We play short sessions (in a weeknight game with everybody having things to do bright and early the next morning), so enjoying cliffhangers or not is less important than utilizing our game time to the fullest. When we hit a cliffhanger, it's because we're out of time and can't reasonably tackle what's coming up next without making spouses very angry at some of our players.

That said,

Cliffhangers on a setback/defeat isn't much of a cliffhanger -- "you know that great red wyrm you saw at the end of last game? Yeah, it comes and eats you."

Cliffhangers on success aren't necessarily that great either -- "and we're going to stop here before you can complete this task and thus get a minor sense of accomplishment out of this game because you all enjoy cliffhangers, right?"

Ending a session needs to be done at a good point in the game. Maybe it's a cliffhanger, maybe it's not. How much people enjoy that kind of thing has very little to do with, oh say, "The DM has fallen asleep and cannot continue."

 

[fusangite]

Thanks everyone; this was one of those polls that kept essentially the same proportions as the number of responses went up. It looks like about 2/3 of the people share my taste in cliffhangers, which is a larger proportion than share my taste in most things.

 

[Ibram]

My last D&D session (which ended back in October) came to a close with the party sitting on a crudely made raft in the middle of a stormy ocean while the ship they were just on burned to the waterline. When we start up again in about a week or so they will have washed up on the shore of an uncharted isle.

I have no problem using a Cliffhanger as an ending (both as a player and a DM), but like all things it has to be done in moderation.