Narrate-an-Ending

[Totally Guy]

Does anybody else do this?

We finished off a campaign last night but there were still plenty of little loose ends. But as the loose ends were not the focus of the campaign and all the truly important stuff had been carried out we didn't know what to do next.

One suggested we leave it open for a sequel campaign.
Another suggested we narrate an ending for the loose ends that we all like.

We talked about future battles and what happened in them. We talked about NPCs and what happened to them next. We talked about the player characters and what they all went on to do.

One player described his character being killed in the big battle with the dragon. That suprised me!

[Lyra Reynolds]

Depends. When I'm running a campaign that sees the characters travel from their hometown to a far away land, I narrate what happens to the NPCs who stayed behind in that other country when the PCs went home again, to give some closure ("that NPC used the money you gave them to start a shop and got rich, that NPC married the other NPC you introduced him to..." etc). Stuff they take home might get resolved, too, unless it's a good plothook. And even if it's resolved, it might be revisited - an NPC they bring home may get a narration ("and they went on to do this and that and lived a happy life") but they might just as well become a recurring character. :)
Most of the time I do a narration though, just to wrap the most important storylines up and really give it closure.

Then again, it also matters that I'm running subsequent campaigns with the same character, not unconnected campaigns with new characters every time, so there's more opportunity to revisit loose ends later on.

[dsmiles]

No, all of mine end with a solid, "You saved the world. Attaboy (or girl), now have a cookie, and roll a new character."

Unless we're starting a new campaign with the same characters, then all the open plot hooks remain open, all the loose ends remain loose, and all the unkilled baddies remain unkilled.

[Oracle_Hunter]

I always narrate endings.

But the way I narrate them is "hey, Player, what does your PC do next?" This helps each Player achieve some sort of closure for their character's development arc and - in case of follow-up campaign - provides fodder for the future. As a DM, all I do is ask questions of the Players to make sure everything is tied up one way or another.

[TheCountAlucard]

Depends on the game, naturally. For the horror game I ran last Halloween, I narrated the ending to the PCs... that certainly worked well enough...

There are other instances where narration is appropriate, of course.

[Sir_Chivalry]

I can only speak to the one campaign I successfully ended. It tied up nicely, an ending narration was quite a good piece of catharsis for everyone.