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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8930977" data-attributes="member: 29398">Sometimes the happy ending is simply that the characters - or at least some of them - get to the end. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />More seriously, oftentimes adventure authors seem to expect things will end a particular way and give little or no consideration to alternate possibilities, which can really leave a DM twisting in the wind if that ending the author had in mind isn't what happens in play.SPOILERS AHEAD for H1 Keep on the Shadowfell - I assume most here know it well, but for those who don't now might be a good time to skip to the next post. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I mean, consider an adventure like Keep on the Shadowfell, where the goal is for the party to interrupt a ritual and prevent an interplanar gate from opening.  It's set up such that when the party arrive on the scene the ritual is well underway, the gate's already partway open, and a huge extraplanar creature is coming through it.  There are so many different ways this could end:--- the PCs interrupt the ritual and find a way to close the gate before the creature gets through (the heroic option)--- the PCs fail to interrupt the ritual in time and either have to deal with the creature (good luck with that) or flee for their lives (the "we tried" option)--- the PCs allow the ritual to finish, somehow get the creature to ignore them, and then go through the gate themselves to see what adventures might await on the other side (the stand-the-campaign-on-its-ear option)--- the PCs themselves join and-or continue the ritual in hopes of gaining control of the creature (the facepalm option)The author of the module so clearly expects the first option above to be what happens in play that no guidance whatsoever is given on how to deal with the other three situations (or any others) should they arise.  When I ran it, half the party went for the first option and half for the last; it came down to a single timing roll to determine which group won, and the gate-closers succeeded a mere few seconds before the gate-openers would have......</blockquote>

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