Finishing A Campaign - Thoughts?

[barsoomcore]

Barsoom is entering its final days.

Ky'in, the insane goddess once cast from the world and imprisoned, is spreading her brand of fear and slavery across continents, apparently seeking to destroy the world in order to save it. Did we mention "insane"?

Ghendorik, legendary dragon-sorcerer of ancient terror, has returned from the shores of the Buried Sea and is slaughtering nations, raising millions as undead thralls to his will.

And horrible things are crashing down from the stars, destroying cities with their impact craters and spreading shape-shifting madness. Within these falling stars lurk ancient evils so powerful they have frightened the afore-mentioned Ghendorik and Ky'in into working together to oppose them.

And the super-powered child of destiny that the human race has been waiting two thousand years to deliver them from such threats has been possessed by the most evil, twisted, sadistic villain the party has ever encountered.

And it appears that whatever magic is employed to make Barsoom habitable in the first place is failing, and soon the entire world will fray into the chaos from which it was first forged.

I started this campaign in, um, 1998, I think. Maybe 99. Before 3E came out, anyway. There still exists one character from the very first night, though his player is currently in Afghanistan. There are still two other players from that first night, as well, though they play new characters now. There have been four PC deaths, one retirement, one mysterious disappearance and one sold into slavery to Spider Women.

And there's less than ten sessions left. Probably less than five. And I have NO FRICKIN' IDEA how it's going to end.

None. I have no idea how our heroes are going to triumph. They're fourteenth level, most of them, and arrayed against them are a series of intermediate to major deities, each of whom has perfectly legitmate reasons for wanting to destroy the world. The only assistance our heroes are likely to receive is from completely incoherent lunatics, savage soul-devouring monsters and stoic undead warriors. As far as I can see, they're hosed.

I'm scrambling to tie up plot threads I've let dangle over the years, poring through old notes to find possible ways to tie things together, and generally trying like heck to figure out what on earth is going on.

And feeling very mixed emotions. Barsoom has been a big part of my life for something like seven years now. I won't know what to do with myself without it. I mean, on the one hand I'm excited at the idea of starting up a whole new campaign, taking the lessons I've learned from this one to make the next one (dear god, the NEXT one?) even better, but at the same time I'm sad and worrisome at the thought that the struggles and travails of all my NPCs is coming to a close.

Not to mention afraid that no matter what kind of climactic adventure I come up with, Barsoom will end poorly and my players will think I'm a loser. Cause that's the sort of thing I worry about.

Anyway, is anyone else winding down a big campaign? Has anyone else done so? How did it work out for you (or not work out for you)? Is there anything you would have done differently?

 

[GlassJaw]

Well why does it have to end at all? They're only 14th level - can't you keep playing? You sound almost obligated to end the campaign.

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm of the opinion that you can only play the "world's about to be destroyed" card so many times. And given that I'm playing it four times concurrently, I don't see how to top that.

Barsoom was always conceived to build to a climactic, er, climax.

It's something I was thinking about at some point in response to a post by fusangite once upon a time: what is your campaign the story of?

It's not the story of the PCs, because they can die at any time. It's not the story of the NPCs, because they're not on stage most of the time.

My campaigns are always the story of the setting. And so they're always about some fundamental transformation in that setting, which means that once that transformation is done, the story is over.

Once all this resolves, I guess is the point, I'm actually much less interested in running a campaign in Barsoom. When I first designing Barsoom, I imagined it building to something like this -- a struggle between assorted evils for the privilege of destroying the world. And here it comes at last. And then the story of Barsoom will have been told; time to create a different world and tell ITS story.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Blow some sh*t up. That always works for Star Wars and James Bond.

Let the PCs defeat the uber-villain, but leave just a hint that the uber-vilain may return some day.

Or, go for the dark ending, and let the uber-villain win. Then if you want to revisit Barsoom in the future, you can go for a kind of Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant feel (without the leprosy) (unless of course you want to use the leprosy, I mean, it's really up to you), in which the whole planet is just f*cked up real bad.

Now for a more serious suggestion -- ask the players. It's as much their game as yours. How do they want it to end?

 

[Psion]

Barsoom is entering its final days.

Ky'in, the insane goddess once cast from the world and imprisoned, is spreading her brand of fear and slavery across continents, apparently seeking to destroy the world in order to save it. Did we mention "insane"?

Ghendorik, legendary dragon-sorcerer of ancient terror, has returned from the shores of the Buried Sea and is slaughtering nations, raising millions as undead thralls to his will.

And horrible things are crashing down from the stars, destroying cities with their impact craters and spreading shape-shifting madness. Within these falling stars lurk ancient evils so powerful they have frightened the afore-mentioned Ghendorik and Ky'in into working together to oppose them.

And the super-powered child of destiny that the human race has been waiting two thousand years to deliver them from such threats has been possessed by the most evil, twisted, sadistic villain the party has ever encountered.

And it appears that whatever magic is employed to make Barsoom habitable in the first place is failing, and soon the entire world will fray into the chaos from which it was first forged.

To quote Kirk:
Kirk: I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim.
Picard: You could say that.
Kirk: You know, if Spock were here, he'd say that I was an irrational, illogical human being by taking on a mission like that. Sounds like fun!

And there's less than ten sessions left. Probably less than five. And I have NO FRICKIN' IDEA how it's going to end.

None. I have no idea how our heroes are going to triumph. They're fourteenth level, most of them, and arrayed against them are a series of intermediate to major deities, each of whom has perfectly legitmate reasons for wanting to destroy the world. The only assistance our heroes are likely to receive is from completely incoherent lunatics, savage soul-devouring monsters and stoic undead warriors. As far as I can see, they're hosed.

I'm scrambling to tie up plot threads I've let dangle over the years, poring through old notes to find possible ways to tie things together, and generally trying like heck to figure out what on earth is going on.

And feeling very mixed emotions. Barsoom has been a big part of my life for something like seven years now. I won't know what to do with myself without it. I mean, on the one hand I'm excited at the idea of starting up a whole new campaign, taking the lessons I've learned from this one to make the next one (dear god, the NEXT one?) even better, but at the same time I'm sad and worrisome at the thought that the struggles and travails of all my NPCs is coming to a close.

Not to mention afraid that no matter what kind of climactic adventure I come up with, Barsoom will end poorly and my players will think I'm a loser. Cause that's the sort of thing I worry about.

Anyway, is anyone else winding down a big campaign? Has anyone else done so? How did it work out for you (or not work out for you)? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Good lord. I feel very ill at ease giving you, of all people, campaign advice. Ever since you related the bit about bringing back the PCs as undead head, you've been the benchmark for freshness and originality in campaigning.

Well I will say this. A year or two ago I ended what I now consider one of the best campaigns I ever had. It was such a hit that my players would ask me to play extra sessions. I never had to worry about absentees.

My biggest mistake was re-opening that campaign once we found closure. So that's my first caution.

Anyway, listening to you describe your campaign above, here are my quick thoughts.

First off, I know that your campaign can be very unforgiving. Nevertheless, if you didn't give me a chance to save the world, I think I'd have to throttle you.

Of course, save the world can have different meanings here. It could be a phyrric victory, engineering an escape to another dimension.

If they do save the world, it seems to me with a tone as grim as I have seen you depict, I would not let it be "and they live hapily ever after" ending. I am reminded of the ending of Final Fantasy VII. Yeah, they save the world, and the "PCs" made it possible. But the solution was not pretty. That sounds like it would fit the tone of your game.

My main campaign world was the product of something like the above mentioned "escape to another world." The world devolved into an apocalyptic war; the only hope for the free peoples was to flee to a new land. OF course, this was an excuse to scrap my world but keep the same major characters and deities, but it worked admirably as a campaign defining characteristic. The aforementioned campaign that the players loved occured in large part on that selfsame world I had devatstated... locked in a magical ice age, with desperate people and strange circumstances. My players expressed a great enjoyment for playing in that setting, but it was just created by me following a grim situation to its logical conclusion.

Heck, who knows. Perhaps your next campaign could be in the remnants of the world that is about to be torn apart, but life was only made possible by the actions of a few brave souls in the last world.

 

[GlassJaw]

My campaigns are always the story of the setting. And so they're always about some fundamental transformation in that setting, which means that once that transformation is done, the story is over.

Honestly, it sounds like you've painted yourself in a bit of a corner. My first thought is that there seems to be TOO much going on. The world looks like it's pretty much over. I guess my advice would be to go for it and destory the world.

My one gripe (and I don't know the history of your campaign) is that the PC's don't seem like they have much of chance of affecting the outcome at all. Telling the story of the setting is fine but the story should be what it is because of the PC's. If they are just cogs in the grand machine, you might as well just write a novel.

Let the PCs defeat the uber-villain, but leave just a hint that the uber-vilain may return some day.

Which one? There are four.

 

[Ravilah]

I have been DM for two different campaigns that have both come to a successful close. The most recent one ended a few months ago, and the players were generally happy (They found the Eye of Krark, fooled Sauravirthos the immensely powerful green dragon, and destroyed the Cup of Tentacles thereby averting the return of an evil demigod). The PCs saved the world, had their names cleared of false accusations, garnered fame and cool trinkets, and went their separate ways to fight evil and deal with some personal issues (revenging himself on his wicked father, starting his own monestary, finding his lost love, etc). We had played for only a year or so, but it felt like longer.

The other campaign was about three years ago. It all started with a simple game between just me and my roommate (one on one roleplay), but my not-yet girlfriend joined us later. We really go into this game because all the characters were family (the whole first year of the game was locating all their scattered syblings and bringing them together to defeat their evil cousins and half-fiend aunt.

At one point, I, as the DM, was playing five NPCs and six villians!

The second year was all about locating the lost Called of Celia (three mysterious beings who had been defeated and locked away after their attempt to defeat a demon lord). In this half, the PC became major world-shakers, almost on accident. They deposed the Sultan of Uzor and placed a new King on his throne, destroyed a countryside of Psionic Halfing slavers, discovered the Harp of Taliesin (a major artifact), ended a war and averted several others, slew Madame Sorticia (a major figure in the criminal underworld of Carceri), cleared out a secret citidel hidden on the fifth level of Hell and killed their blackgaurd leader, beheld Tiamat (from a distance, mind you), freed the Called of Celia thereby allowing a whole level of the Abyss to be destroyed, and recieved a boon from Bahamut the god of dragons.

They ended the campaign as self-made kings of a new country (the one no longer filled with psionic halfings), and one of the PCs was invited by the Celestials to become an immortal champion for the forces of Good. Nice.

I developed one campaign world for both of these campaigns (there are 9 material planes, so there's lots of room to explore) and it big enough and versitile enough to use again and again (so I never have to "say goodbye" to it.) We still talk about the old campaigns though, like refering to a well-loved TV show.

By the way, are your players the type that want realistic adventure with gradual, hard earned gain--or would they more enjoy any means by which they can become powerful and kill royal butt?

 

[Kaodi]

Let Us See...

You could let the players try the empower one evil being to destroy all the others trick... Or something like sending them to find some powerful artifact or knowledge the possessor needs, only to find out that the soul of the child of destiny overcomes the intruder and uses that knowledge (being that the possessor knew what they were looking for, while the child of prophecy did not), then manipulates the goddess and the sorcerer into helping it destroy the falling star evils, but in the process destroying the world, making it into some sort of ruin that only one or two types or creatures can survive in... Add in the escape to another world, and " Presto! " the end of the campaign...

 

[Ravilah]

Call me cheesy, but if I were a DM handed a situation like this one I would end it something like this:

Almost-dead yet good-aligned gods pool togther and imbue these legendary (higher than level 12) PCs with whatever strength they have left.

The PCs face the forces of evil and as they take down each one, they themselves grow stronger.

Since the evil gods are already at war, they don't work together to face this unforseen threat until its too late.

A few epic battles later, the world is nothing but a shattered wreck, but the PCs are the new gods who can recreate the world it their own image.

I'd love to be a PC in that game.

 

[elrobey]

Allow the players a reasonable opportunity to experience success. The only real issues are how should success be measured, and how do you manage the expectations of the players so that they buy in to that measurement.

For example, success could be "PCs save the world from the brink of destruction". Let's call that the Lord of the Rings model. Come up with some sort of plot device by which the PCs succeed. Maybe there is a ring they can throw into a volcano. Maybe there is a time machine they can use to go back in time and undo what has been done.

Or success could be "survive until other forces save the world from the brink of destruction". Let's call that the War of the Worlds model. Come up with some sort of plot device by which the world is saved. All the PCs have to do is survive until that happens. But this is not very satisfying, IMO.

Success could be "preserve something that is worth preserving". Let's call this the Noah's Ark model. The world can't be saved, but perhaps something in it can be preserved: it could be a person, a place, a thing, a bit of information. Art? Literature? Magic? History? A creature? A flag, crown, or other symbol? The task of the PCs is to find a way to preserve whatever it is, by sending it elsewhere, by putting it into a "time capsule", whatever.

Success could be "defiance". Just simply going out in a blaze of glory.

There are other options, too.

Good luck.