There are many reasons why campaigns end. Sometimes it is because crucial players or the game master are no longer available or some other crisis forces the game to end. Other times the story you are telling simply comes to a natural end or you might have a good ongoing game but you or your players want to try something new. In these cases it is often better that the game comes to a definite end rather than slowly peter out.
But as we all know games can have good endings and bad endings. Sometimes when players or GM leave it leaves the story in a lurch with a campaign stopping midway through an adventure or dungeon. Other times a given adventure might be done but there might be major story lines left unresolved.
The issue is how much time one has to wrap up a game. A great comparison is with how TV series often come to an end. If it is abrupt, the writers have no room to write an end and viewers are typically left with a season cliffhanger (or worse) instead of a true ending. The story is left incomplete and unsatisfying. But if the writers (or GM) have more time they can craft an ending that, if bittersweet, is at least satisfying.
So what makes up a satisfying ending? Crucially you want to tie up major loose ends and give the players a sense of where their characters are going at the end of the story.
The first thing to do is understand how much time you have. If you are moving away in a month and you play every other week, then you have two sessions to resolve things. That should be taken into account when plotting. In this example where you are looking at a quick ending, then it is better to plan for less time than you have rather than risk getting cut off partway by events outside of the game. On the other hand if you have no time limit, only a desire to change things, you can take it slower. But even so it can be good to set yourself a limit (such as ending the game in 6 sessions) so that you can properly build to the finale.
Once you have identified how much time you have to work with, the next item is determine what plot elements need to be resolved. For this you need to listen to your players. Talk to them and find out what things they most want to see happen in the game. Perhaps there is a villain they have come to hate and they want to see him pay for his evil deeds. Or maybe they have some goal they are trying to accomplish or some secret they want revealed. Since you typically have multiple players expect to have several different plot elements to explore.
The next step is to figure out how you can resolve these elements in the time you have remaining. In some cases it is easy: kill the villain or recover a tape containing the secret. Other times the goal will be beyond the scope of the time you have left. For example perhaps a character is training to defeat a tyrant in his far off homeland. Logically he is still nowhere near powerful enough to accomplish this. What you might do in that case is see if you can’t leave the character a step closer to reaching his goal. Rather than take down the tyrant, perhaps he gains some ally who promises to help him in his crusade. The ally does not sweep in and take out the tyrant, since that steals agency from the player character. Instead you just establish how he gains this ally in-game and leave it at that. You do not deal with the dethroning of the tyrant.
The vitally important point is that not all plot elements have to be resolved in the game for it to end satisfyingly. Some elements the players might not find important, like who was the bandit leader who they failed to capture in an earlier adventure, and others you can just indicate how they are going to progress without filling in the details. As long as the elements are addressed you will often find your players to be fairly happy.
Now that you know what your players want and have determined how (to whatever limited degree) they will be satisfied, you can build your adventure. Again when planning endings it is often better to write less material than you have time for. This is especially important when the cause involves someone moving away as free time can quickly vanish as the move date approaches (I speak from frequent experience). For those of you with more time, what you might do is begin hinting at this final adventure, introducing new characters now and building up to that final story.
However just because you are building up to a climax does not mean you need an epic conclusion to a campaign. While that can be fun, you can just as easily end the game with a simpler struggle. Several times I have seen games end well, not with final battle, but with the characters coming to understand what the story was about and making a decision on what course their characters will pursue from then on.
This brings us to the final part of the ending, the denouement. After the action of the game has come to an end and the last die has fallen, it can be really enjoyable to go around and talk out where the characters went after the campaign ended. This is a great place to discuss any plot elements that could not be resolved in-game like the tyrant in my earlier example. You might discuss how that player’s character travels with his allies to take down the tyrant, while at the same time other characters, because their goals and actions, may be drawn into politics or other courses.
Feel free to let your players have a free hand with the story at this point. In my previous uses of denouement, I have let players establish kingdoms, challenge lingering enemies to single combat, seek atonement, and change world religions through their final narration. This game is as much their's as it is yours. Let them have the ending they want.
No comments:
Post a Comment