Cliffhangers

[Vartan]

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

I'm feelin' that Sponge. When I was a teenager--and was just starting to get my mind out of the dungeon to worry about the storytelling aspects of my role--I read a few articles on DMing that mentioned cliffhangers as good dramatic conventions. I immediately dropped one at the end of a session, the climax of a major story arc.

The players grumbled. I loved it, because (in my mind) it built up their anticipation of the next session. They were disgruntled because it broke their role-playing momentum.

I cooled on the cliffhangers for a while, before dropping another one at an even more curcial plot juncture...and, to a man, my group was vocally pissed. They cursed me all week at school. I was 14 at the time, and I haven't touched a cliffhanger since.

Now, I use cliffhangers during the session when players are separated--cutting from one scene to the next at a dramatic moment, both to heighten the tension and to give me time to plot. But there is no way I'll ever make these guys wait until the next session (which, for our group, is two weeks between) to find out what happens next.

 

[irdeggman]

Fusangite, I think you clearly misinterpreted the flavor and posts on the Am I a Cruel DM thread with regards to cliffhangers. Especially since no one that I could see, other than you had brought that up or made that connection.

OK other than that - I enjoy a well placed cliffhanger both as a DM and as Player. But this should be story-based, It should not be a sudden, unplanned event that turns into a cliffhanger. When that happens it comes across so much like I (or another person) as the DM didn't plan the scenes very well and am using this cliffhanger to cover my tracks and buy some time to come up with something.

None of the choices for this poll reflect this very well, IMO.

 

[shilsen]

Cliffhanger from my last Eberron session:

One of the PCs (Thaylar, the elf sorcerer) had been attacked in his room by a pair of unknown enemies and the others had just broken in, causing one of the attackers to use a doomtide spell (from CD), creating a wall of darkness which could daze people. A couple of the PCs boldly grit their teeth and rush through it into the room to confront their enemies. As they make it through, they see one of the enemies grab the badly wounded and dazed sorcerer by the hair. He pulls Thaylar close against his chest, and then raises a hand in front of his throat, the spikes on his mailed gauntlet glinting wickedly in the light. "Drop your weapons!" he calls out. "Or the elf gets it!"

And that's where we wrapped up

 

[fusangite]

Fusangite, I think you clearly misinterpreted the flavor and posts on the Am I a Cruel DM thread with regards to cliffhangers. Especially since no one that I could see, other than you had brought that up or made that connection.

OK other than that - I enjoy a well placed cliffhanger both as a DM and as Player. But this should be story-based, It should not be a sudden, unplanned event that turns into a cliffhanger. When that happens it comes across so much like I (or another person) as the DM didn't plan the scenes very well and am using this cliffhanger to cover my tracks and buy some time to come up with something.

None of the choices for this poll reflect this very well, IMO.

If you want to argue with me about Ambrus's game, you should do it in that thread. Some people did articulate the position that cliffhangers were bad. But you were not one of them.

 

[Bigwilly]

What he said!

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.

I usually DM about once a month and I'm lucky if I can remember what happened last session, never mind my players remembering. Mind you, that might just be age!

Bigwilly