How have you handled the campaign denouement?

[Jack Colby]

I don't agree that the Star Wars celebration was hokey, but I think your idea of ending a "campaign" like that is very hokey. Also, when did campaign come to mean "a story" and not "a particular GM's world"? Greyhawk was a campaign (Gary's), and players and their PCs came in and out of it for decades. There is no denouement to a proper campaign!

Also, D&D is a game not a story, so there's no need to replicate literary techniques in it, but obviously that's not even a question for you, so... good luck with your hokey denouement!

 

[The_Warlock]

For those who commented....thanks. Both I and my players enjoyed the finale.

As to setting it up over the long term - yes and no.

I didn't introduce the Nightmare god part of the story until almost 2 years in to the campaign.

I did have some seemingly minor houserules that only applied to the PCs from the get go (like, when they cast auguries and divination, there was no percentage chance of success, it worked, but complex questions always got riddles, but auguries never worked that way for NPCs).

I didn't really toy with the notion consciously that everything was a Nightmare until almost 8 years in. I'd certainly laid some framework, but all of it was minor and subtle things that the PCs hadn't jumped on at the time, and the World Nightmare was one way I could take it.

In the last two years, I started connecting dots, and laying out more hints, and keying in to more and more of the things the Players were mentioning as goals for their characters "if the world had been different", or "once this whole thing is over", or when they reminisced about why their characters had started adventuring or what had gone right and wrong, and the NPCs they had loved to hate.

So, keep in mind, if you are doing something that you think might have an epic ending, and you want a nice finisher at the end, you don't have to know everything up front. Laying framework for reveals as you go and seeing what interests your players certainly worked for me. And I believe in keeping things fluid with multiple possibilities until absolutely necessary, so you can tailor to your players' and your preferences as the game develops.

 

[Barastrondo]

I don't agree that the Star Wars celebration was hokey, but I think your idea of ending a "campaign" like that is very hokey. Also, when did campaign come to mean "a story" and not "a particular GM's world"? Greyhawk was a campaign (Gary's), and players and their PCs came in and out of it for decades. There is no denouement to a proper campaign!

Well, I'd guess the meaning of campaign as "a series of stories that comes to a climax" is probably derived from the usual non-gaming use of the word. A military campaign isn't endless; it has a goal in mind. The difference between "a world" and "a campaign" as I've always come to understand it was that a world was something in which many campaigns could take place, each one maybe taking place in a different area with a different group of PCs. Heck, even wikipedia notes a difference between a roleplaying campaign and a campaign setting.

I haven't had a chance to do a proper denouement for one particular game, though I can think of several things that might crop up: a wedding, a tower being built, a wyvern coming of age, things like that. Having the heroes be called out for a major festival in their honor might be fun, but the personalized "where you're headed now" scenes are of more individual interest, I think.

 

[The_Warlock]

Also, D&D is a game not a story, so there's no need to replicate literary techniques in it, but obviously that's not even a question for you, so... good luck with your hokey denouement!

Actually, I disagree completely with you there. To me, D&D is a game AND a story. The system is the engine which gives you and your players a common language with which to produce the story.

You don't have to have a story if you and your players don't want to, but I've always found that to be rather flat and uninteresting after a while.

Some stories come to an end, others continue on, sometimes by the same author, sometimes by others. Even stories that seem without end are often told in parts, with their own discrete goals, and come to their own conclusions, even if the characters and world can continue on with further adventures.

Being able to bring closure to a tale as played out through the game can be very satisfying, especially when Players and DMs have grown attached to various characters.

And while D&D is a game that has no true "I win" criteria, the adventures often have goals and plot, akin to a story, and the Players and DM are akin to both Readers and Authors, and being able to see those plots, goals, and characters have a completion and epilogue, if you will, can be just as satisfying as having finished a good novel.

So, I say, denoument is not hokey, go for it, OrcWithin.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

...
D&D is a game not a story, so there's no need to replicate literary techniques in it...

Interesting... Well, I'll agree to disagree But when I look at the Story Hour forum, I see hundreds of stories playing out, some simple, some epic, some un-ending, and some sadly left by the wayside to slowly rot away into oblivion. I guess when I refer to "denouement", I'm talking about the scene that transpires after the DM and players have completed whatever goal the PCs decided to pursue in their world; such a scene would be the literary denouement later recounted by bards long after the PCs themselves have left their mortal coil

There have been some nice ideas presented, btw. Looks like folks often stick with some form of character exposition, whether it's involved like Edgewood's banquet finale, or the simpler "Well, my character goes on to do this..." - which sounds ideal for less involved mini-arc (good word, Fenes) campaigns.

In other words, "Trust the players. Let them do the work and roll with it." Great advice, thanks!

 

[renau1g]

Well, I have only successfully completed one story over the years. I was a Paladin of the fledging church of the Red Knight in Forgotten Realms, along with a Cleric of Selune and a Barbarian PC. We defeated the BBEG in his flying fortress (a previous PC whose player left, but corrupted by demonic influence). The Barbarian got the girl he was going after throughout the whole campaign, the Cleric finished developing his keep from the Deck of Many Things into a burdgeoning town, and my Paladin went off to lead the armies of Cormyr in great and epic battles.

We all got the ending our PC's wanted. After we defeated the enemy, we RP'ed out the ending with the leader of Iriabor (sp?) and then had a celebratory feast at the keep before agreeing that our group's time was at an end. It was a bittersweet moment, and after that we sat around for another few hours reminiscing about the adventures we'd gone on fondly. In fact we sometimes still recall these PC's, but have yet to have another game last that long and be that successful. (I guess we're all a lot busier now, that was University-time...)