Tell me about your best (and worst) campaign endings

[talien]

Worst Campaign Ending: We all decided to start an Oriental Adventures campaign, second edition. In the first adventure, one of the PCs has the possibility of falling into a pit during a battle with ninjas. The first PC fails his roll and falls in.

I feel bad, because it was just a bad roll. So I have this brilliant idea that I’ll let another PC save him. He fails his roll with a 1. He falls in.

At this point, there are two PCs left. One runs for his life, while the other tries to save his friends. He throws an arm out to catch his two comrades, rolls…and rolls a 1. He falls in. All three fall thirty feet or so and die.

The remaining PC tries to climb a wall, fails, and gets pinned by a spear. The end. That was also the last time I ever slavishly stuck to what the dice said, because the campaign was tragically cut short due to stupid rolls.

Best Campaign Ending: I used the Lichlords supplement from Mayfair Games to cap a seven year campaign. Five bad guys, one at a time, had to go down in a battle against the final Darklord. The druid PC rolls a 1 on his Finger of Death save and dies. That leaves the remaining six PCs, each there to sacrifice one of his artifact weapons to release the last five unicorns on the planet. The Gray Necromancer battles the Darklord by shapeshifting into a purple dragon and is torn apart in one round, buying the remaining five PCs a chance to put each of the weapons into the cages. The catch is that the mechanism that drains each artifact clamps down over your hands as well, leaving the PCs helpless as the Darklord (in dragon form himself) starts picking them off. One guy, the psionicist, warps in and out to prevent being eaten. There’s just one problem: the wild mage snapped his staff of the archmagi to kill a bad guy, so he HAS no weapon. As the Darklord-dragon closes in, the wild mage turns himself into a staff (I bent the rules to allow him to do it) and sacrifices himself as he is totally drained. The Darklord is buried, the unicorns are freed, and the remaining four PCs teleport out of there as the whole place collapses. A beautiful, epic battle!

Best Campaign Ending: (SPOILER ALERT if you read Gonnes, Sons, and Treasure Runs) D&D 3.5, using Black Sails Over Freeport with a few tweaks to make the final bad guy an avatar of Cthulhu. Man that was great. Only three PCs showed up though. Cthulhu was defeated, our psion/rogue was smashed to a pulp, and the dwarven defender and dark-kin sorcerer/warlock barely survived. And most of Freeport’s fleet, along with its ruling Council, was wiped out. It’ll take awhile before we get to that point in my story hour: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=103252

Although I wasn’t happy that over time, many of the players dropped out (we went from nine players to three over the years), I took that as an opportunity to kill them off one at a time. I think it reads rather well. And really makes the entire tale interesting when obviously the PCs are playing for keeps and some people DO die.

 

[Teflon Billy]

The worst, well, let's just say there are a lot of ties for first place in this category, including...

• The Rokugan game where the conspiracy was so deep and convoluted that--as the finale was happening around us--we were left going "Who is that guy?" and "Why is she trying to kill Chin Wu?" or "I thought he was with the guys dressed in red?" and suchlike. the GM got very, very frustrated with us...we literally had no idea what was going on.
  
  
• The GURPS Space game where one of the players was passed a note with some info only his character knew...that he promptly (and for no recognizable reason) sat on an refused to divulge for the rest of the game. The players were absolutely baffled when their ship came under attack and they were destroyed at the climax--unaware that the remaining piece of the puzzle had completely passed them by.
  
  
• I've lost count of the D&D Campaigns that ended when the PC's were killed in some unimportant room in a dungeon by a monster unaffiliated with the larger plot
  
  [bq]"...and thus, the exiled Prince of the land, his bodyguard (who is unknowingly his half-brother and a viable heir), the Wizard who has discovered a new paradigm for magic use in the world, and the Avatar of the War God (pledged with devoting himself to healing in the world as penance from other members of his pantheon) are killed by a Yellow Mold during their unplanned and random attempt to steal some silver pieces and a +1 Dagger from a tomb.[/bq]

 

[Doctor DM]

I've never had any particularly memorable ending to a campaign, good or bad.

We've always just stopped at the end of an adventure once we've grown bored of the campaign, or we just can't do it anymore due to other reasons.

However, THIS has to be the coolest ending I've ever heard of:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=197996

 

[Eolin]

I once conquered Kalamar.

Whether that's good or bad, I leave to you. My battlemage took on Emperor Kabori in a one-on-one deathmatch. No magic allowed.

Divine Intervention, and not bothering to remove my stoneskin -- and Kabori saying we woudn't wear armor -- are what let me win that one.

And a generous GM.... and the Sword of The True King of Kalamar.....

 

[Psion]

Good:

My second 3e game. What was special was not the session with the end, just the way the whole campaign came together.

I've posted tidbits about the campaign on the board in the past, but to sum up the events, the party rescued a prince kidnapped under their care, stop the acquisition of ancient super weapons by the resident evil empire, and then, discovered that a young prophetess was really the reincarnation of an ancient hero-queen of legend, who they hoped would be the key to restoring proper rule to the throne of man.

But as the same blood flows through her veins, she could not assume the throne. But there was another. They had to track down a previously unheard of crown princess in exile, and put her on the throne of the emperor. They found that she was imprisoned in an arena in the imperial capitol. There they went and rescued her and took down the Emporer. But it was a phyrric victory, for the undead underpriest claimed his body and escaped.

The empire was now in the hands of a somewhat decadent empress, but a tolerable one. And the looming threat that the emperor would return is out there.

Worst #1:

After the above, I entertained an after-campaign that had nothing to do with all with the previous plotlines. One adventure afterwards was pretty decent. But after that, I started a twisted version of city of the spider queen. We never managed to finish due to changing life circumstances. That left a bad taste in my mouth.

Worst #2:

An AD&D 2e campaign set on a fantasy ringworld, with a number of riveting fantasy elements. I had two characters, an steely ranger and a ninja who, after finding her lord was behind the main villain in the campaign, forsook him. The main villain was uncovering caches of ancient technology and we were out to stop him.

Then the DM became a D&D hater and we never finished. I was torqued.

 

[Moggthegob]

my worst campaign ending a party of 4 halfling and a goliath were doing White Plume Mountain. They were crosssing the room with the swingy thignyou hadto jump across while therewere geysers goin. The halflings all goto nthe goliaths back. the goliath rolled a negative 5 on his balance check when hit by the geyser. they all died in the boiling mud.becus of failed swim check by the halfling wizard and cleric and nowhere to go for the goliath. Worst TPK ever.

 

[Obrysii]

The best, and truthfully, only conclusive ending to a campaign was my first campaign I'd ever ran, which had run for about two years virtually weekly.

The PCs ... a Human Wizard, Human Wilder, Thri'kreen-turned-Insectile Rogue, Winged Elf Archer-type, and Elven Cleric ... had been selected by the Powers That Be to become the warriors of light (cliche, I know). As a result, they obtained wildly powerful artifacts, each molding its powers to that particular character's class.

They were then charged, by no less the last remaining deity (a DR 21+ being with all of the powers of the now-dead gods), to track down and destroy the six monstrous enemies of the light, who possessed counterparts to the PC's new artifacts (twelve in total; the sixth good artifact was given unto the wilder's cohort). These enemies possessed earth-shattering power, and while the PCs were on another quest beforehand, had decimated the continent.

With powerful magics, artifacts, and melee talents, the PCs set off to take down these enemies. One by one, the enemies fell ... although one, a Phrenic Umberhulk Wilder 20, managed to sneak attack and nova the PCs, killing all but one. In the afterlife, the dead deities spent the last of their power to bring the PCs back to life.

At one point, they captured one of the monsters, and upon their confession of why they fight for light (which activated the artifact's true powers, doubling their strength), he converted to Good.

In time, all six monsters had been slain or defeated, and the PCs became aware of where the BBEG was. The BBEG, the demon-spawned Tadasi, slayer of deities, has trapped in sleep far below the world in a place called Antelemar. There the PCs gathered, and fought the guard of Tadasi: the Tarrasque.

But the Human Wizard dominated the Tarrasque, and took it back to its original master.

There, they had to fight a potent sword which was borne from the heart of a corrupted bronze wyrm.

Having defeated that, and upon the urging of a spirit within him, the 9-year old Human Wilder stepped inside of a seal, and the final Key which bound Tadasi to sleep was removed from him. But Tadasi would not be allowed to awaken so easily: a Solar appeared, and apparently corrupted by the influence of the monster, possessed all six of the evil artifacts. Using their combined power, it posed some problem to the PCs, but once dispatched, Tadasi awoke.

An epic battle occured, with the PCs using Wishes to reduce his Con score to as low as possible (although he reversed the effect). Nearing the end, he unleashed the void which nearly absorbed the Elven Cleric ... but the deity, Elek, appeared in time to save her.

He then engaged Tadasi in battle, but it was in vain: he could not harm the beast, and instead requested a Miracle from the Wise One, and it was granted: Tadasi's psionics and spellcasting abilities were sealed.

Without spells or powers, Tadasi tried in vain to escape, but the PCs quickly destroyed him, Wishing him to be eternally bound in hell.

The gravest threat to the world destroyed, the artifacts had to be returned to their place for sake of balance, and the PCs were free to return to their pre-adventure life: peace returned to the world, and for a time, good prospered.

The end.


Sorry for the length.

 

[EATherrian]

I've literally had 2 campaigns in which I played end in a TPK from stirges. In both cases we were 3rd and 4th level, and the encounter with the stirges wiped us out. Needless to say, I've become quite cautious around stirges or even the hint of stirges since.

 

[Thurbane]

What level were you guys? I mean, Tiamat is a dragon. A really big one! And a god.

I'd assume that as well. You know, Tiamat.

We were 9th level, and had made it past the other BBEG with surprisingly little damage.

I guess we (incorrectly) figured an aspect wouldn't bo so tough.

 

[scourger]

The best campaign ending I ever DMed was Omega World d20 using Alternity Gamma World adventures. The setting was great, the rules fantastic and the story compelling (literally drawn from reading the book from cover to cover). The heroes explored the area, learned the secrets of the Ancients, and saved their village. They did not prevent the androids from unleashing the atomic power of the ancients, and much was destroyed; but it was a great ending nonetheless.

A close runner-up is Tour of Darkness for Savage Worlds. The hero soldiers finally wound up with a team of men in black at a Cambodian pyramid taking out an alien queen who had defeated the dragon who came there to end the otherworldy threat. Literally the last shot from the last ray gun stopped the queen from fleeing into the jungle. The whole set up harkened back to a dream prophesy that they received from an elephant man in one of their horrific patrols in the jungle. They never figured out the vampire threat in Saigon, although they fought several vampires. The players really bought into the game, which was nice. They do not, however, want to reprise the game or their characters, which is the only reason it's a runner-up.

Honorable mention to a fun little Spellslinger d20 game that I ran with several modified adventures from Dungeon. It was a treasure map quest, but the map was a McGuffin since they would never be able to get to the emerald mine after all. It ended abruptly because I ran all the adventures I had planned for it.

The worst campaign ending I ever DMed was my Rifts Coalition Soldiers Campaign. The rules had morphed to DragonStar d20 and then to Omega World d20, which I thought were vast improvements each time. The players apparently did not agree because the last night only one player was there--at his house. Even his roommate ditched. The one guy wisely decided not to go it alone and to spend the night with his girlfriend instead. I was hurt and stopped DMing for the group for a year. Ironically, some of my best sessions and my best story came out of that game.

As a player, the best campaign ending was a 10-year conclusion to a Gamma World module, Legion of Gold. It started as a modified Rifts game but ended with Omega World d20 rules. I liked it so much I bought the module but haven't read it just in case it comes back even though the DM says it isn't.

As a player, the worst campaign ending was one in which we were playing an old D&D module converted to d20. I'll spare the specifics. The broad strokes were that my character died partially due to the cowardice of the others, the DM didn't like the way I played the NPC that I took over, my PC was reincarnated in an unsatisfactory way, the party only achieved a couple of the plot points, the DM gave us an "out" of the final battle we did play and then declared that he didn't want to finish the module. I would have preferred it just fade away like so many others.