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Terracotta
2017-03-04, 11:56 PM
I'm going to be ending a long-running campaign of mine in a few sessions. It's not going to end the way I wanted it to, but I'd rather have an abrupt conclusion than have a game peter out due to boredom or dissatisfaction.

What are some memorable ways that other GMs have ended their campaigns? Did any of them involve sweeping or last-minute changes?

For players, what are some campaign endings you really enjoyed and what contributed to that enjoyment?

BWR
2017-03-05, 01:35 AM
I have been terrible at ending games. I did sort of force my Mandalorian Wars game to the conclusion I wanted, despite a rambling and incoherent game up to that point. The Jedi heroes discover the Sith academy on Malachor V and have an internal showdown, because one of them had fallen to the Dark Side and thought it was a cool place. The others didn't agree.

I'd say the most memorable campaign end was the Brussels story in V:tM where we set off Gehenna. It was kind of abrupt and the best part of the game was the actual game and not the end, but I remember it vividly for being such an unexpected ending.

MarkVIIIMarc
2017-03-06, 01:10 AM
I rather like the open ended endings.

If the surviving characters become somewhat famous and make appearances as NPC's in future games all the better.

Pugwampy
2017-03-06, 04:35 AM
The Deck Of Many Things was test tube bred to end campaigns . Go on give em draw as many as they want . :smallbiggrin:

Delta
2017-03-06, 05:38 AM
It's hard to give general advice without knowing more about your campaign.

My most successful finish to campaigns had both been long-running fantasy campaigns (one ran for 2.5, one for almost 7 years) which both reached their designed finish. There was heroic sacrifice, there was victory, there were great speeches, there were tears, it was great.

In my experience, the most important thing from a players perspective is closure. Even if you didn't get to the ending you intended, you need to leave with a feeling of "this story is concluded", which is not the same as just saying "it's over". Every character should get some kind of sendoff, that's important, definitely take an hour or so after the "finish" itself for that. Even if the character died heroically during the final showdown, he still deserves a sendoff, describe his burial, his family getting the news, his sister naming her newborn son in his honor, something like that.

Even if you don't have the time to tie up every knot, don't just ignore everything but the big central plot hook. Maybe you don't have time to go into every detail, but still, taking a minute to somehow include that one NPC that the players simply loved that one time can go a LONG way to make the ending memorable. Again, this is just general advice that's by definition very vague, the details should obviously always depend on your campaign and characters.

Klara Meison
2017-03-06, 04:49 PM
In one campaign I participated in, party grew bored with the **** DM was pulling, summoned Volnagur and boarded a ship leaving the continent. Volnagur then had a climactic fight with the BBEG.

Cluedrew
2017-03-06, 05:26 PM
I think generally you only need 2 things:
End of last chapter: The last of the imminent threats have been dealt with, the moral of the story has been told and so on. Avoid any major unresolved plot threads and take care of any big questions about what is going to happen.
Talk about the prologue: Don't play it. Its only role is to wrap up everything that the last chapter didn't cover and to let the characters settle into the comfortable positions that will carry them into the future. Answer the little questions and fill in details here.
Generally, if you feel that the end is near the last chapter is already on its way, so pull in as many of the big questions as you can and set up for the prologue.

Anxe
2017-03-06, 11:48 PM
I've never had a great end to a campaign. Campaigns have ended sure, but never something big where the PCs have finally defeated the BBEG and can now move on to what they've always wanted to do (underwater basket-weaving).

I'm closing in on an ending for the campaign I'm currently DMing. I plan on letting my players narrate the end. The campaign has drifted into Epic levels, so its reasonable for the PCs themselves to shape the world during the epilogue after the BBEG is defeated. The players are looking forward to it, unlike past endings which have been abrupt or unsatisfactory. Given that, I think letting the players decide the ending is the best way to go. Their PC can keep adventuring or they can go start a noodle cart. Whatever they want is what they get to do.