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

[Ravenheart87]

I never use cliffhangers, they don't work well in a sandbox campaign with varying parties. They start every expedition at their HQ, they end every session in the HQ, to avoid problems like "oh we finished in the middle of the dungeon last time but Pete couldn't come, but have to add Bob's character", plus it makes it much easier to handle the campaign. They do have lots of unfinished business, usually related to their long-term goals, which will keep them interested.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Personally, as a player I do not like ending on cliffhangers. I prefer a sense of accomplishment and completion. It's pretty much guaranteed that I won't be as immersed and excited about the cliffhanger when I come back to it in a week as I were right then when the darn game session ended!

Instead of a cliffhanger just give me an interesting enough setting/background/scenario that I can think of things I'd like to do. You could leave some loose ends that I'd want to follow up. Or you could even just start the next session with a bang--jumping right into an action scene that started up despite the PCs wishes. That gives you the same effect of immediate excitement without the frustration of having to stop in the middle of something.

 

[neobolts]

We use cliffhangers frequently, but it is a very steady group and when someone is out another player runs their character.

 

[bedir than]

I never use cliffhangers, they don't work well in a sandbox campaign with varying parties. They start every expedition at their HQ, they end every session in the HQ, to avoid problems like "oh we finished in the middle of the dungeon last time but Pete couldn't come, but have to add Bob's character", plus it makes it much easier to handle the campaign. They do have lots of unfinished business, usually related to their long-term goals, which will keep them interested.

My group doesn't have a HQ yet, but I at least want them in a place where a character joining makes sense, not as they are walking from waypoint to waypoint. That happened once and the joining of a new party member was the lamest telling I've told.

 

[Psikerlord#]

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.

Yeah actually i dont like cliffhangers.

I prefer to have a section "finished" as the session ends, both as player and DM.

Occasional cliff hangers I can put up with however.

I look forward to simply being able to play/DM, cliff hanger or not.