How many games you've played in have reached a conclusion?

[Kiero]

By which I mean how many actually reached something you could consider a "proper" ending? As opposed to sudden collapse or fizzling out.

In the past I've only experienced games stopping suddenly as whomever the GM was running it got a bright idea and wanted to do something different. Leading to change in mid-game with no resolution and no return to what we were doing before. My other long run of gaming at school was characterised by that.

In my current group, we're about to conclude our long-running WFRP2e game, something I was surprised to learn last night. While the "campaign that lasts forever" is far from my ideal for a game, I just didn't realise the conclusion was so close. It's been more than two years on and off (we've had breaks with other games at various intervals) and it's been awesome.

But our GM is starting to have trouble with mechanical challenges and we're probably in danger of forever spinning out subplots without ever resolving the things that appeared at the start otherwise. We have a habit of doing that.

It's a novel feeling, that's for sure, but there's also a sense of achievement at properly concluding something. My group have pedigree in this regard, they've had a number of years-long games that have reached a proper finale. So I can't take any of the credit here!

So what are people's experiences? Do you often finish games in a satisfactory fashion?

[Poil]

I've never finished a game. We've changed system, or that one time we restarted the setting, long before we had anything like a conclusion. On one hand it makes it harder to care for the plot when you are essentially guaranteed never to find out what happens but on the other it would be boring to have to stop playing a character I wasn't ready to give up (I've never had one of my characters die, way more luck, cowardice and weak challenges than skill).

[EccentricCircle]

most of the games i've taken part in have been short term games based at my uni roleplaying society, or at the local club to where I now live.
these organisations tend to structure things around ten week games. so even if a game runs for multiple terms/blocks it will still have a finite duration.

a couple of games over the years didn't get to the end of the planned plot for one reason or another but most concluded nicely.
I ran a superlong running game which finally concluded last summer after about eight years of on and off play. for the first three years we all lived in the same place and met every week. for the fourth year we played regular online games but after that it shifted to having irregular games when we were all back from uni in the holidays.
although the campaign came to an end a lot of people dropped out over the years, with only two original players (myself and one other) being present at the finale (although other people had joined the group in the meantime)
consequently while the game came to an end, a lot of people didn't see that end.

i've also dropped out of games which have continued without me on occasion, though always with a nice conclusion from my characters point of view.

so in conclusion i'd say it depends, but its certainly possible to finish a game, every game I have run has finished properly and most of those that i've played in have.

[Mazeburn]

Never finished anything in tabletop RPs, and only once in a play-by-post. As DM I always try to plan things so the whole thing can be wrapped up in maybe five to eight sessions, with the idea that a short finished story is better than a long one that never ends, but the PCs always drive me to add so many extra elements and subplots throughout the game that it would be impossible to do without major railroading. xP Soo, unfinished campaigns it is!

I'd really to finish a few eventually, though, I think it'd be a lot more satisfying that way.

[Talyn]

I have been playing D&D (and, eventually, other RPGs) for 14 years... this year was the first time we actually finished a campaign, with the plot resolved and characters moving on to their epilogues.

So, one.

[Ranos]

It's pretty damn rare. I must have played in dozens of game, and only ever finished two campaigns. Well, almost three. I had a campaign that fizzled out one session from the end. After two years of play, right at the final confrontation

[Yora]

I think one. We did go all the way through City of the Spider Queen, but I think that's the only one.

[Mastikator]

Err, I guess I've played since 10 years back, but not every year.

Two.

Granted, one was a beginners module meant to teach the players the game. So I guess once.

Well, the other was a magical illusion city and the goal was to get out, but my character became a werewolf and left the party forever in the last battle.

So I'm not sure if it counts as finish or failure to be honest.

[dsmiles]

I've been playing for 27 years, and I've finished 7.

2 as a GM/DM, 5 as a player.

[some guy]

The campaigns that I've played in and have ended number two. The ones that have ended unfinished number also two. One because the DM moved (he gave us a fulfilling last session, though) and one because of Problems.

A DnD campaign I'm currently DM'ing is running towards an end, and will end finished. The same with a CoC campaign. I'm playing in a DnD campaign that will probably end, but I have no idea how.

[Tyndmyr]

Er, I honestly don't know. I've played a lot of campaigns. Most have not finished, or had a substitute finish, because the most common reason for a campaign ending is people moving/being deployed.

It's a major downside to playing with military folk. Oh well, campaigns are still a blast even if they often end with a fizzle.

We're also terribly bad about ending campaigns right before the final fight. Once everyone knows the major plot, and it's down to just a battle, there tends to be a lack of desire to actually go through with it. Mystery is gone or summat.

[valadil]

Hm. I wanna say half? How are we counting exactly? I've probably been in more games with no ending than games with an ending. But I've played more game sessions within a campaign with an ending than game sessions of a failed campaign. This is because the games that implode do so quickly. There aren't a lot of multi-year endeavors that fall apart.

One of my groups is really good about ending their games properly. I've been playing with them since 2005 and we haven't aborted a campaign yet. While I don't agree with all the group's preferences, they certainly know how to write a game with an ending. Basically the difference is that there are no indeterminately long games. A GM tells a story. It usually takes 4-8 sessions. And then its over and another GM picks up after him. Short campaigns that get the job done rather than endless beasts of games that end up, well, endless.

As a GM, I only have one campaign that hasn't concluded and that's because we're still running it.

I have a trick for ending games. It's dead simple. I write the ending in advance. I feel a little dirty doing this because the PCs could go somewhere else, but so far I've been able to predict where they'll be and what they'll be doing when it's time to end. When GM fatigue hits, I run the ending I've already written.

[Britter]

I've finished 6 in the last 2 years.

I GMed a shadowrun game that wrapped up nicely after the players ended up allied to a dragon. The second arch, which sadly never got started, would have been the secret plns and inevitable betrayal stuff.

I ran a really intencse game, using RISUS, with one of my friends. We had pre-determined that it would only go 3-4 sessions, about 2-3 hours each, and it was brilliant. Knwoing we only had so much time to resolve things, we really busted tail to drive the story hard.

I played in a short game using ICONS to simulate Shadowrun, that went three sessions or so and wrapped up beautifully.

Played in a Song of Ice and Fire game set during the Baratheon Rebelion which concluded in bloody revolt and no small degree of regret.

Played a short Dark Sun 2e DnD game that was a thrill a minute and ran about 5 sessions.

And ran a Burning Wheel game set in a crime-ridden city where my player is a guard captain. Just wrapped up the 10th session, and though we have a sequel arc in play, it ended on a good note with plenty of threads to pursue later on.

I really enjoy knowing that the game is going to be finite in length. I think it prevents turtling and passive play, and forces the players to really push hard to achieve their goals and their agenda.

Edit - Missed one. Played in a very enjoyable 4 session 7th sea game. Tons of fun, great players with great characters.

I actually completed more games in the last 2 years than the prior 15.

[Telonius]

I've been playing for around 12 years. Not counting explicitly one-shot adventures, we've completed two campaigns in that time, both of them published 1-20 adventure paths (Shackled City and Age of Worms). Every home-made campaign I've ever seen kind of fizzles out after a few months.

[Anxe]

I've finished 4 out of 12 in 10 years. My group currently has three campaigns going. We're trying to wrap one of them up cause three is too much.

4 of the unfinished "campaigns" were my players stepping in to be DM's for one session and then not liking it or getting bored with their campaign idea. 3 of the failed campaigns were my own ideas that the players did not like. If I'm the only one having fun then the campaign isn't a good idea, so they go scrapped. The final unfinished campaign was something my dad ran for us when I wasn't old enough to start DMing on my own. Not sure why we didn't finish that one. It just didn't happen unfortunately.

2 of the campaigns that were finished were mine. The players liked the plots and managed to work their way through about 7 levels of experience to confront the BBEG. They only defeated the BBEG in one of those campaigns though. In the other they surrendered to her. My new campaign is going to be about them dealing with the consequences of that decision with new characters.

One of the other finished campaigns was one of my players DMing for a bit. He'd designed a short campaign that got finished in three or four sessions. That campaign was done mostly because I was absent for a large portion of the summer and the group didn't want to be deprived of D&D.

The final finished campaign was one my friend's dad designed. It was the first campaign we all did when we just ten years old. As such it has a very special place in my heart. That campaign took us from 1st to 7th. I could go into a lot of detail about it, but not super relevant to this topic so I won't.

[bokodasu]

Counting one-shots? Dozens! Not counting them... um, one. In nearly three decades of playing. Zero that I've run. But while it was really cool to finish that one, I have about the same amount of fun-per-time-played whether we finish or not, so I'm ok with that.

[Yukitsu]

DMed 2, and have been in 8 or so.

[The Big Dice]

I've finished a couple. One as a player where I went from 1st to 21st with a fairly not optimised Ranger. Another was a Star Wars Saga campaign that ended when one of the guys moved away.

But it did end with the PCs all battered a bloody having had an epic conforntation with a Sith Lord. Who was completely undefeated at that point. The final words of the campaign came from a PC who said, "How can I serve you, my Master?"

The look on the other guy's faces was a moment to savour.

[Roak Star]

I've played in 5 campaigns, and 2 one-shots, and I've DMed two (well, one campaign that i did twice) campaigns and one one-shot that turned into a two-shot (currently halfway through).

As a player, i've finished zero campaigns thus far, but both one-shots came to conclusions.

As a DM, my campaign finished once, and my two-shot is going to be concluded soon.

[Vortling]

I can't recall a game I played in that finished, outside of one shots and convention games. Conversely I've only had one campaign that I ran that didn't finish due to attendance problems. I do lean towards shorter campaigns and haven't had any that lasted more than a year and a half. However they all finished with concluding resolutions.

Totals:
As a player: 0 finished games
As a DM: 6 finished games
Currently I have 2 more games in progress as a DM and one game that looks like it might finish that I'm playing.

[Tengu_temp]

From zero to three, depending on your definition of a conclusion and what exactly constitutes a roleplaying game. In addition, one long-runner I'm playing in will reach a conclusion soon, and another game I'm DMing will get one once I put it off hiatus. Overall not terribly bad, considering that all of those were played over the net.

[Lurkmoar]

Actual games I've finished as a player: Four. Game goals done with future hooks still outstanding? At least five.

Games finished that I've GMed: three. Games that still had more to do? A LOT.

Games abruptly finished by changed systems, someone leaving or ones that I had to drop out? Lost count.
A few games I've been in there was only session, and the next week I showed up, there was only the GM and one other guy!

My favorite ending was where my Dark Sun halfling escaped the arena in Draj and engaged in an long running campaign that finally ended with me returning to the jungle forests beyond the Ringing Mountains. GM was nice enough to let all the still alive players (only three out six, and I was the only one that didn't burn through my character tree) narrate our epilogue. I thought that was pretty sweet. My guy ended up as a shaman and had a bunch of kids with the respect and admiration of everyone in the community. By Dark Sun standards, that's one hell of happy ending.

[big teej]

well...
never have I finished a campaign as a DM or a player.

mostly because my old group wanted to run a new set of characters for each combination of present players.

for instance, the group contained groups A,B,C,D,E

session 1: everyone shows up, A DM's, roll characters
session 2: C doesn't show up, A DM's, campaign continues.
session 3: B doesn't show up, A isn't prepared, C DM's, roll characters.
session 4: C didn't like DMing, and A didn't show up. B DM's, roll characters.

and so on.

however, I have high hopes for the 3 campaigns my group is in right now.

let us list the names of the incomplete....
-note this is only characters that have actually managed to see play, which is a tiny fraction of characters I've created-

Spoiler

Show

blake hunts-with-bears - a Ranger that saw play in a single sessin in 1st ed.
campaign fizzled due to a busy DM

Cog Skulltaker - a barbarian, he was so much fun to play I refuse to lay down the character despite campaigns ending, so far, I believe he's been in 4.

Gideon - a Knight, campaign is ongoing.

Grok - Ogre Ranger, campaign fizzled after a session due to it only being 3 people, and the DM stopped showing up.

Maximillian Thanos - a necromancer, campaign fizzled due to schedule conflicts

mikol - human ranger, campaign turned out to be a one shot

Roche Smoulderbeard - dwarf Knight, campaign stalled after I went off to college. I don't know if I can kick start it back.

Siegefried - cleric - one shot campaign fizzled due to ..... lack of fun and my schedule.

Sohn Riverheart - human bard, play-by-post on these forums fizzled out around the holidays. nobody wanted to pick it back up.

teej - self insert fighter, fizzled due to player frusteration and me moving off to college.

Valek - dwarf rogue, a very promising first session, fizzled out due to the practice of never playing the same game twice, and the DM never runnin it again.

william - monty haul power monk, fun first session, stalled out due to my move to college.

[obliged_salmon]

I've finished 6 in the last 2 years.

I GMed a shadowrun game that wrapped up nicely after the players ended up allied to a dragon. The second arch, which sadly never got started, would have been the secret plns and inevitable betrayal stuff.

I ran a really intencse game, using RISUS, with one of my friends. We had pre-determined that it would only go 3-4 sessions, about 2-3 hours each, and it was brilliant. Knwoing we only had so much time to resolve things, we really busted tail to drive the story hard.

I played in a short game using ICONS to simulate Shadowrun, that went three sessions or so and wrapped up beautifully.

Played in a Song of Ice and Fire game set during the Baratheon Rebelion which concluded in bloody revolt and no small degree of regret.

Played a short Dark Sun 2e DnD game that was a thrill a minute and ran about 5 sessions.

And ran a Burning Wheel game set in a crime-ridden city where my player is a guard captain. Just wrapped up the 10th session, and though we have a sequel arc in play, it ended on a good note with plenty of threads to pursue later on.

I really enjoy knowing that the game is going to be finite in length. I think it prevents turtling and passive play, and forces the players to really push hard to achieve their goals and their agenda.

Edit - Missed one. Played in a very enjoyable 4 session 7th sea game. Tons of fun, great players with great characters.

I actually completed more games in the last 2 years than the prior 15.

You forgot about my 4e game, and the Vampire game (though I know he had more stuff in store). I'm not ready to call Adalbjurg completed, still SO MUCH TO DO.

...

Maybe we just play too many games?

[Britter]

You forgot about my 4e game, and the Vampire game (though I know he had more stuff in store). I'm not ready to call Adalbjurg completed, still SO MUCH TO DO.

...

Maybe we just play too many games?

Damn, I did forget the 4e game, and the Vampire thing....

Wow...I have played many more things in the last 2+ years than I thought I had.

There is, however, no such thing as too many games.

So thats a total of like 8 or so completed for me, with maybe...1 that ended suddenly and 1 that is still ongoing.

[Voice of Reason]

So what are people's experiences? Do you often finish games in a satisfactory fashion?

I have only ever finished three games, two by an amazing PbP DM, and one with my current gaming group at the game shop. The games took anywhere form 1-1.5 years to come to a conclusion, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Of course, when you consider that I've probably been a part of easily 100+ games...the completion ratio just isn't there; my DMs just don't stick with a campaign.

[Kylarra]

Technically I've only ever finished one game and it wasn't all that satisfactory. Unfortunately, party dynamics were such that it only made sense for the game to end, so there it went.

[Skaven]

One, sadly.

[Hat-Trick]

Three completed. One was over Maptools, my Duskblade/Suel Arcanamach pirate became the captain of the greatest ship ever. Another was run by my father in HEROES system, we were a special unit of mech pilots in a Hard Science campaign, started off slumming through terrorists and finished with a raid on an alien spaceship in powered armor because our suits were too big for the small alien dimensions. The last was run by a friend, also in HEROES, we were a group of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse and succeeded in reaching and earning a place at a military installation with 0 PC deaths (three PCs in all, plus 5 npcs, 3 of which died, one horribly wounded but recovering). The real fun part is, the PCs were Noah Scape, Willie Makit, and Imma Jeanna Die. Man, my friend was pissed.

[LikeAD6]

I played in a 3.5 game that reached a conclusion. Our party killed a Cthulhu-based super powerful evil god. My ranger, the cleric, the wizard, and the paladin died.