Poor DM/ Game Advice

[robus]

So I fell into this with my group. We wrapped up an epic arc with a battle against Tiamat at level 15. I thought we were done but the players were keen to continue because they’d never played to 20 before. Another year later and they’ve hit 20 and we’re in the final chapter. Things went quite pear shaped at level 18-19 as the OotA reboot I had attempted flamed out. Fortunately they were OK with a massive course correction courtesy of ”wish”.

I’m not sure I would do it again, but it’s been an interesting experience.

 

[Lanefan]

IME even open sandbox campaigns have a natural conclusion. The PCs have defeated the major threats, are 20th level Epic, and sitting on millions of gp. The GM can bring in some kind of new threat, but it may seem forced when the Extraplanar Invasion appears just after the Evil Empire has fallen. Usually it works better to start a new campaign.

This is where planning ahead on the DM's part can help: the party could have been seeing hints and clues of the impending Extraplanar Invasion during the latter stages of the Evil Empire series - hell, maybe even learned that the Extraplanars were behind the Empire all along!

In any case, the players would come to realize that while dealing with the Evil Empire might once have been an end goal, clearly there's more to it now.