Well, my campaign's kaput! {update: not so kaput anymore}

[RangerWickett]

My game jumped the shark a few weeks ago. For those unfamiliar with the term, 'jump the shark' a TV-derived expression for going beyond the realm of good taste and thus ruining the story.

I'd been having a good run for a year. One PC died, and the player came back with a new character that fit in and drove the plot forward. A new player joined the group but worked her PC into the plot very solidly. Another PC left when the player moved away, but we still had a solid group of four PCs with a clear goal -- stop the Supreme Inquisitor Leska, who was screwing with everybody else.

And they did stop her, even though she was immortal. They dumped a few thousand tons of rubble on her at the bottom of a cavern where time doesn't flow, and then celebrated. One of the PCs sacrificed himself to kill off the main bad, leaving us with only one member of the original group. However, the other two characters had been around for a good majority of the game, so not too too much had changed.

Well, the group continued on, bringing on one new player and two new PCs, one of whom died in two sessions by taking on more than he could handle. That dead PC was replaced by another new PC, and at the same time one of the old PCs died and was again replaced. So a lot of dying and replacing was going on, and still we had one of the original PCs, so I thought, maybe, maybe the game could go on.

Well, this past session, a new PC came in, betrayed the party, and died in the span of six hours. I realized that betrayal has become the standard in my game, not a plot twist, and with all these new people coming in with their own interests, the group lost its sense of where to go.

I know now that the game should have ended back when they killed Leska. Now, I don't want to just call the game quits before the long-term players get a chance to finish up some of their desires, but that's just character-specific desires. I would have involved them in upcoming sessions, balancing character-driven stuff with group-driven stuff, but there's no group left, so I see no reason to keep the game together.

So, should I just let the game blither around for a while and let the PCs do what they want without concern to any overarching plot? Or should I just tell the group that nothing's really going on, and start a new game? I mean, I'll enjoy what this party does, and I'll have fun, and I'll even let them try to get the game back on track to having an honest plot if they all decide to get interested in the same thing. But I don't want to just keep together a big group of strangers in a game with no point, especially since I'm about to graduate and I don't feel right ending with a whimper.

What do you think?

 

[the Jester]

The problem with overarching plots is, once they're over, it's hard to figure out what to do next.

Let the pcs lead the game for a while- you may find that they lead you to a fantastic set of adventures. Or not; but you won't know unless you try.

Stop worrying about fitting the group into a mold and just see what develops.

 

[reiella]

Find a "quick epic" adventure to tie up party interests.

It's ok for it to be a lesser event than the inquistor, possibly start playing up asking the players for hints on "resting goals" and how they would like their characters to fade. It may well be possible to go ahead with just a couple of side-quests for the Long Timers (on private time possibly) for them to just get to their retirement point. After all, the player's goals can be reached with another campaign (assuming the same world).

 

[Tuzenbach]

Too much death involved. I've never heard of so many PCs dying and being replaced. After a while, if I was a player in your campagin I'd just become numb to the idea of my character dying. Numb is always the antithesis of fun.

Make death "important" again by having it be a very rare occasion.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, how well I know from personal experience how hard it is when a campaign gets off track.

Let me give you the single best bit of advice I've learned.

If the DM isn't into the campaign, it will suck, no matter how hard you try to force it to do otherwise.

The energy of a game/story/whatever flows from the outward. You can run a game here and there when you aren't in the mood, but if you're truly unhappy with a campaign, beyond any hope of regaining your enthusiasm, it's already dead. It just doesn't know it yet.

I know you said you'll have fun just letting them do their own thing, and if that's the case, then go for it. But if, after deeper examination, you realize that what you wanted to do with the campaign ended with the death of Leska, better to call it off, even if means a whimper instead of a bang, because going on past the point of your own enthusiasm will just make things worse.

 

[JoeGKushner]

If your going to keep GMing, one thing to try might be characters from another part of the world that are just getting their start. Maybe give the old characters some over arching goals and describe to the new characters how those elements are fitting into the world.

One notable problem with higher level play is that even as you become more difficult to kill by the little stuff, your own level opponents can often take you out with a single shot.

 

[RangerWickett]

I figured as much. I think I'll go for a tragic ending. One of my players told me that recently he's noticed that I haven't been going so much for GMing the world as I have been going for 'defeat the party.' The party has pissed off lots of enemies, so I figure I'll just follow logically and have them go along with their plans fully.

Nah, nah. I'll just tell the group how I'm feeling, see what they want. If they want to keep on going, I'm perfectly willing to let the world end in a cinder.

 

[Telperion]

I figured as much. I think I'll go for a tragic ending. One of my players told me that recently he's noticed that I haven't been going so much for GMing the world as I have been going for 'defeat the party.' The party has pissed off lots of enemies, so I figure I'll just follow logically and have them go along with their plans fully.

Nah, nah. I'll just tell the group how I'm feeling, see what they want. If they want to keep on going, I'm perfectly willing to let the world end in a cinder.

Personally I like to define the beginning and the ending of any given campaign that I run before the first session. This way I can finish things up in a satisfactory fashion and move on to the next campaign before the players reach the point of pointless adventuring.

I actually quit (as a player) one group last year, that was going exactly nowhere. I had been playing with that group for a lot of years, but the drive to play interesting and intense RPG's had just gone out of the group. So, even though I lost a friend by leaving I feel much better for having moved on...

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I'd suggest that you poll your players regarding their feelings about starting an entirely new campaign. They just might be into it.

Perhaps the player who betrayed the party was not emotioanlly attached to the campaign - this may change with a new one where he/she is just as emotionally attached as anyone else.

 

[D+1]

My game jumped the shark a few weeks ago. For those unfamiliar with the term, 'jump the shark' a TV-derived expression for going beyond the realm of good taste and thus ruining the story.

I am unfamiliar with that definition. As I have always understood it the classical definition of "jump the shark" would be a TV show that lives on despite having died. Like a shark that always circles the waters of TV shows, all of whom are destined to die eventually. A good show is one that calls it quits before it has to be cancelled; before it is eaten by the shark. When a show clearly SHOULD have been cancelled long ago instead of living on it is said to have "jumped the shark." It doesn't deal with good taste or bad taste, it deals with pushing good shows so far that we all have to watch them sink into sad, boring shadows of their original incarnations.

Examples: X-files jumped the shark when Duchovney left. Happy Days jumped the shark when Fonzie did the motorcycle jump. M*A*S*H jumped the shark when Alan Alda started directing. That sort of thing.