D&D 5E I made a boboo...

[Blackwarder]

Hi guys! I DM a group that play every Monday night, we just finished the second part of LMoP and I just realized that I made a mistake and left the players with nothing to look forward to, basicaly I finished the session with no cliffhanger.

At the last session, the party entered glasstaf chambers to find them empty, after spending another half an hour in the hideout they left the place and headed to the townmaster hall to report to Sildar and the town master, I again thier surprise when they found Iarno Albrek sitting in the townmaster office boasting about how he infiltrated and destroyed the redbrands, I had some fun using the social interaction rules from the DMGS when the players tried to convince Sildar that his long lost pal Iarno is actually Glasstaf, when things started turning against him Iarno cast charm person on the party charming the wizard and the noble fighter and made a break for it, another opportunity to use the chase rules from the DMG , we finished the session when the players cought him and I glossed over what happened after because everyone was tired.


So I'm look for ideas to spice things up and send my group a short text massage (we use the whatsup app) to get them interested again. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Warder

 

[Kikuras]

For me, what gets me excited to play is knowing I get to play. While we can talk about the artful skill of building cliffhangers and continuations into a narrative, sometimes all of that can be a tad unrealistic, i.e. it's been X hours, and people gotta wake up early and get to work. So you now focus on the hook for the next adventure, maybe tease them a little via text, "Here be dragons" and the like. Wish I could be more helpful.

 

[Blackwarder]

I'm usualy pretty good at that, if I wasn't so wasted and tired I would probably have ended the session when Iarno bolted out or with a massanger that meet the players (but don't tell them anything) etc etc

Warder

 

[wedgeski]

Cliff-hangers can become tiresome when over-used, I find. Nothing wrong with the players feeling they dotted the i's at the end of a session, IMO.

 

[Blackwarder]

For my group, if they don't have something to look forward to they start to lose interest.

Warder

 

[neobolts]

Pehaps start the next session with Iarno having something in his possession that alarms the players (evil plans, a map, etc) and immediately has them involved in the action again.

 

[Nebulous]

Why don't you go back and fill in the part you "glossed over" when they caught him? The session starts with a brutal beating and interrogation!

 

[Ahrimon]

You could always start in-media-res(?) for the next big event. Start them with rolling initiative for a short combat and then when it's over give a short narrative of what led up to that event and then let them go from there.

 

[Shiroiken]

There are three ways to end a session:

Cliffhanger - you end at the beginning of an Encounter
Open - you end between Encounters, but mid-adventure; or you end an adventure with open plot hooks for other adventures
Closed - you end at the end of an adventure with no open plot hooks

Cliffhangers keep people excited, but are IMO way overused. It give little level of suspense, since you have a very strong idea of what's about to happen. However, this can give players an opportunity for strategic planning.

Open is really good, because players might spend the week trying to figure out what they want to do next. Used regularly, the players remain engaged, even if they're plans don't always come to fruition, as they are just delayed.

Closed is useful on occasion to allow players the satisfaction of a job well done. The anticipation of the next session is simply wanting to know what new adventure awaits them.

TLDR: it's always good to have a few unresolved plot hooks floating about, but every now and then either use a cliffhanger or just let the players revel in their victory.

 

[wedgeski]

For my group, if they don't have something to look forward to they start to lose interest.

Warder

Fair enough. I blame "Lost"!