Drawing towards the close of a campaign... it's tougher than I thought.
- Thread starter Dr Midnight
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
Piratecat said:
Ooh, are you going to go epic???
As for your problem, Doc- I recommend that you leave some loose ends, that way the next group you run can tie in with this one to a certain extent. I always find that I start about a hundred times as many things in-game as I finish... but that's okay! And heck, maybe sometime you'll run the first group again at epic levels and have some leftover stuff to deal with...
King_Stannis
Explorer
I can sympathize with you Doc. It would be my natural inclination to tie up every loose end, too. I woulld argue that you should at least attempt to do it, as long as it does not unduly confuse your players.
Good luck.
Good luck.
You can leave some loose ends at the end of your campaign. I remember we ran a terrific 2E campaign in Kalamar in 1998 and 1999. It was an epic campaign where we ended up defeating the evil emperor Kabori to save the world.
However, along the way, we had a lot of loose ends that were left open. At the end of the campaign, the DM had intended to leave at least some of them open with the intention of enticing us into a high level campaign where we could attempt to wrap them up
Some issues we had open were: why was there a drow mage leading a party of orc slavers? We never saw another drow the whole campaign, and this was maybe two months into the campaign. The DM later told me his intention was that the mage, who escaped, would have come back to haunt us at high levels, as he was a spy from the evil nation of Pel Brolenon, and we had a few elven PCs in our group that were from a forest area not too far from this evil nation.
Another issue was an evil band of thieves that assassinated our group’s priest (who, we later raised…) – this group was from the priest’s homeland. Why were they after the priest? And, why were they so far from their homeland – imagine a group from east Asia being in Europe.
And, what happened to the above-mentioned elven PCs. The father of one was elven royalty, and he had turned to evil, and my human ranger had to kill him. What would happen to the elf when she went back to her homeland?
All in all, we ended up deciding to not continue the campaign, much to my chagrin, and the chagrin of our DM.
However, along the way, we had a lot of loose ends that were left open. At the end of the campaign, the DM had intended to leave at least some of them open with the intention of enticing us into a high level campaign where we could attempt to wrap them up
Some issues we had open were: why was there a drow mage leading a party of orc slavers? We never saw another drow the whole campaign, and this was maybe two months into the campaign. The DM later told me his intention was that the mage, who escaped, would have come back to haunt us at high levels, as he was a spy from the evil nation of Pel Brolenon, and we had a few elven PCs in our group that were from a forest area not too far from this evil nation.
Another issue was an evil band of thieves that assassinated our group’s priest (who, we later raised…) – this group was from the priest’s homeland. Why were they after the priest? And, why were they so far from their homeland – imagine a group from east Asia being in Europe.
And, what happened to the above-mentioned elven PCs. The father of one was elven royalty, and he had turned to evil, and my human ranger had to kill him. What would happen to the elf when she went back to her homeland?
All in all, we ended up deciding to not continue the campaign, much to my chagrin, and the chagrin of our DM.
WanderingMonster
First Post
Piratecat said:Huh. I blunder forward blindly, having faith that I'll figure out something cool when the time comes. It seems to work well for me.
This actually works well. It's my technique out of necessity. I don't have the time to devote to things such as "planning" and "organization". If you're bold enough (and often lucky enough) to pull it off it's really fun.
Grim
First Post
Its fine to leave loose ends. Look at the campain you already ran. Because of that whole sabaticle from KotSQ thing, it was technically two campains, with the second having new characters and set much later in the line of things. The entire point of the "second campain," so far anyway, has been to tie up loose ends with Gorgolund, which led to finding that OTHER evil cult, etc. But if the campain ends at 20th level, with a plethora of left over plot threads, just do what you did last time: advance the timeline, extrapolate on the previous characters actions, and have the new characters (presumably first level ones) adventure in a world shaped by the actions of the old ones.
So Vec would presuably survive his fight with Ascensual (sp), and possibly use the dragons treasure and his army to buy the kingdom where the dragon lived, making him the "Sort of evil Frozen Ice King Lich," a major NPC in the new campain.
And Shade would retire from adventuring to start a fighting school, at which one of the new characters would train.
Gryph would... do something... with shape shifting... like have a bunch of doppleganger kids...
Maybe Dartan would turn perminetly evil, find some evil woman, and sire evil children to oppose the new PCs.
Orthos might ascent to sainthood, or just start a family, or possibly just train a successor.
Jo'nas might... do magic... and become a powerful ruler.
the possiblities are endless. And you could just ASK what the players want thier characters to become, without telling them that the new campain will be shaped by those actions.
In any case, good luck. And its OK to leave loose threads.
So Vec would presuably survive his fight with Ascensual (sp), and possibly use the dragons treasure and his army to buy the kingdom where the dragon lived, making him the "Sort of evil Frozen Ice King Lich," a major NPC in the new campain.
And Shade would retire from adventuring to start a fighting school, at which one of the new characters would train.
Gryph would... do something... with shape shifting... like have a bunch of doppleganger kids...
Maybe Dartan would turn perminetly evil, find some evil woman, and sire evil children to oppose the new PCs.
Orthos might ascent to sainthood, or just start a family, or possibly just train a successor.
Jo'nas might... do magic... and become a powerful ruler.
the possiblities are endless. And you could just ASK what the players want thier characters to become, without telling them that the new campain will be shaped by those actions.
In any case, good luck. And its OK to leave loose threads.
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