Tell me about your best (and worst) campaign endings

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

So, next weekend, I'm getting a second chance. The end of my last campaign was rather disappointing, but due to one of our players moving out of town, we are reviving the old characters and the old world for one last hurrah. We're going to do a day-long session, and this time I want to end on a high note. As I started to think through what I wanted the adventure to contain, I realized that I've never been in a campaign where the end was more memorable than the beginning (as a player or DM). Of course, I've only been in two campaign ends. I'm a monkey see, monkey do kind of guy , so I'm looking for other people's experiences.

I'll go first. My worst end games have mainly been bad because they attempted to change the tone of the campaign in the last session. In both cases, the entire campaign was mostly a kick-down-the-door, crawl-through-the-dungeon game, but the last adventure didn't feature a big fight. At the end, all the players were left wondering where the big battle was.

I understand that a great end of the campaign has to be a great adventure as well, but I'm thinking that there must be some special sauce that makes it even better. So, what elements were part of your best, and worst, end games?

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

All the characters from my FR games since 2001 that where still alive (up to 2006) teamed up to stop and Blue Great Wyrm Dracolich, The Cult of the Dragon, a Wizards Apprentice posing as the Wizard that had the knowledge to recreate the Karsus' Avatar Spell with Epic Magic, and army of Kobold Half Blue Dragons, and Army of Blue Dragons from accross Faerun and a Captive Tarrasque.
Things where actually really good until the characters messed with a Spellweaver pyramid and caused the whole time space continuim to cancel out the events of the last year and erase everything from history that the magical time field touched. Everyone was really disappointed when I started the next scene how I started the very first session of that game with some notable differences.

Thats not a really a bad one. Never really had a bad ending, at least not in D&D.

 

[BlackMoria]

Worst campaign ending was in the Return to White Plume Mountain, which I ran as part of a campaign.

The party mage cast Mordeinkein's Dysjunction (most of the party was subsumed by the Keraptis virus ath this point) off of a scroll to defend himself from the bad guys and recently 'recruited' former party members.

It was in the room with the big magical 'walls of force' windows looking into the heart of the volcano. Three of the eight 'windows' failed the save and super heated gases and lava poured into the room doing 20d6 damage per round. And the module states that the gases/lava will fill up the dungeon by going through open doors and eventually burning open doors.

Goodbye dungeon under White Plume Mountain. Goodbye party.

 

[Gilladian]

One campaign ending I was reasonably happy with had the PCs band together to rescue the parents of one PC from imprisonment and execution. Since this fate had been brought upon them in part by PC actions, it seemed only fitting that the PCs be the ones to rescue the poor (ha), helpless (yeah, right), good (not quite) parents from their evil fate at the hands of arch-baddie cultists.

Because the PCs were using magic (forbidden in that area) to effect the rescue, they were forced to then flee the kingdom for far-off lands. In the process, they left behind a budding slave revolt and a shattered church.

This could have led to another whole campaign arc, but we were ready for a restart, so instead the Great Escape left us with a very "ride off into the sunset" feel.

 

[demiurge1138]

Best campaign ending ever was the end the "third season" of my long-running Eberron game. Dungeons and Dragnet: Sharn Freelance Police. After writing him off as a meddler and a braggart, the party was finally cognizant of the dangers a yugoloth calling himself The Artisan posed when they learned of his insinuation of control into House Cannith, and his role inspiring the creation of the boneforged - undead warforged used to fight with the Emerald Claw in the civil war engulfing Karrnath.

They'd learned from a stoolie that the Artisan made his lair in a ship frozen in the ice of the Frostfell, and with no other way of getting there in time, the party summoned the Crimson Ship, captained by an ultraloth and able to take you anywhere in the world... for the cost of a well-fought battle. The Freelance Police met his demands (fighting a mockery of dragonkind made of burnt corpses at a small island off the coast of the Demon Wastes). Disembarking in the polar north, the Freelance Police melted their way deep enough into the ice to catch the attention of the Artisan and his mezzoloth guardians.

The battle was fast and violent. Prepared for his teleporting tricks, Rife the warforged artificer hit the Artisan with a scroll of dimensional anchor immediately. The Artisan assumed his true yagnoloth form, and quickly dismantled Tao, the party's shugenja and diviner. Turning to face the rest of the Freelance Police, he took a critical from Joe Zor's mighty maul, and was slain.

And then they searched him, and found the note written in spidery letters on parchment made from human skin.

Thanks to your efforts, my plans are all in place. Within the week our armies march into Karrlakton. The impostor king will be overthrown, and Karrnath will know a new ruler.

It was signed, simply, Vol.

Demiurge out.

 

[Thurbane]

Worst ending we've had recently was RhoD, which we ran as a mini campaign for almost a year.

***SPOILERS***














After trouncing the head Wyrmlord, an aspect of Tiamat appears, we get zapped in a massive energy blast for standing in the wrong spot, Tiamat snatches up the BBEG before we can loot his still twitching corpse...

...so, we being good and bold adventurers, decide we will stand and fight Tiamat, for the greater good and all that. Tiamat proceeds to shred our party in about 4 rounds flat. Game over man, game over.

Apparently the module assumes you'll turn tail and run when you see Tiamat. Heaven forbid that a band of adventurers might stand their ground in the "final battle"...

 

[jdrakeh]

Best ending ever (and some backstory). . .

In the first AD&D campaign that I played in, we were questing for magical keys to unlock the prison of an extra-planar deity. We were having the party dwarf hold them, as we figured that he wouldn't be tempted to use the magical powers they conferred (said powers were simulataneously powerful and evil, the dwarf abhorred magic of all kinds).

This was a large-ish campaign that spanned most of our DM's homebrew world. In our quest we had travelled to many different islands (we bought a ship and hired a crew, many of who were lost to a harpy attack), slain many different creatures, and had to overcome many, many, different kinds of challenges to locate and liberate said keys. I think that the campaign may have been inspired by the Doctor Who 'Key to Time' story arc.

Anyhow, with all of that going on, we didn't notice the subtle alignment shift in the dwarf until it was too late. And then we discovered that when all the keys were held by a single living being they became the gateway to the imprisoned deity's cell (or, more correctly, that the imprisoned being was invoked in their physical body).

By the time that these 'details' came to light, the dwarf was completely psychotic (though hiding it well). All ended with the dwarf, along with the keys and other items held for the party, being thrown over the side of the ship in the middle of the ocean after being wrapped in heavy chains (and after the death of two other PCs). Whether he survived his hike across the ocean floor, back to dry land, I cannot say.

The campaign ended there (it had to end there, as some of the players were moving away), though after two years of play, it was a fitting climax that proved fun for all. And, someday, that dwarf (or his body) will turn up

 

[Dice4Hire]

Hmm, some of my campaigns have ended well, and some badly. I'll tell you about a TPK ending

Well, our nice little group, known as the 'Black Candle Gang' after a trio of necromantic black candles we had found (and threatened to sue on certain thankfully dead city founders).

Yes, we were psychotic, and way more trouble that we were worth in the city infighting this adventure featured. Mostly we took out targets of opportunity and made the city a much more dangerous place. But enough about these bozo's attitude

The final fight (though we did not know it when we started) was against a vampire woman with several companions including a juggernaut in a large room in her castle. The fight itself was long and fierce with our three characters (about 16th level at the time) eventually taking out everyone but the vampire and the juggernaut with huge use of restorations and heals because the vampire could steal levels like they were going out of style, plus inflict massive damage with her claws.

But the highlight of the fight, just before we all died, was when my fighter died after fighting the vampire and falling. Well, on the next initiative tick one of the mages finally used his wish spell he had been saving for far far too long, and I was up. Healthy, ready to go. Until the juggernaut ran me over, killing me on the next initiative tick. From life to death to life to death in about a second and a half. Enough to make Charon's head spin.

 

[Baron Opal]

The best campaign ending was way back for me. We were seniors in High School, growing up and growing apart. Still friends, but inside we knew that we would probablely never see each other again after the summer, college and life. Our characters were mighty. For the last 4-5 years they fought against my plans and tricks. It culminated in the siege and investiture of Castle Scale in Avernus, lair of mighty and fearsome Tiamat.

A month of preparation by the players was in place. Information gathered, plots discovered and foiled, kidnappings reversed and dopplegangers discovered. Legend Lores, Visions, Wishes and the like were cast daily; there were many long telephone conversations. The cleric, Leshif - High Priestess to Osiris, dared to read three whole pages of the Codex of the Infinite Planes! Such was the dire peril of the foe they faced.

Such stealth! Such magic! Such valor! All contributed without stint for the tenacity and cleverness of the foe was well known. She, with all her consorts, resided within and it was a battle for the ages. The characters were victorious, although not without cost. Brendand's castle was ruined, known as he was to be an ally of Bahamut. Leshif claimed bodily into the Osirian afterlife, bypassing the dread 42 questions. Nirneith, acclaimed across the kingdom but with no kin to share it with, last of his race.

As counterpoint, the worst ending to a campaign was one where a couple of many years were suddenly divorced. A past lover of his, vowing revenge, tracked down the wife and emailed incriminating photos to her. Upon further investigation it seems that he had probably met his current lover just as the wife discovered his infidelities. The campaign was revolving around their two characters. She has left the game, although we retain her friendship. He still games with us, and we have chosen to let him.

 

[DragonLancer]

Best:
The best was Shackled City. The final fight had everyone really psyched. It was tough but ultimately they won, and even now my players speak fondly of that final session of the campaign.

Worst:
Some time ago I ran a campaign that was built around the original 3.0 adventure modules. The finale of the campaign was Bastion of Broken Souls, and one player (who no longer games with us) had twinked himself to the point that he single handedly took out the BBEG in two rounds. Everyone else just felt that he had ruined the entire campaign because of his twinking. A real anti-climax.