How to End a Campaign

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Brock Savage

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There is a massive amount of advice out there on how to start a game; from crafting an elevator pitch all the way to session zero, the topic has been covered exhaustively. What I don't see very much of is how to wrap up a game. Do people start games with the assumption they will run forever? Is bringing a game to a satisfactory conclusion assumed to be obvious and not worth discussing? In almost 40 years of gaming I have seen precious few games deliberately ended and brought to a conclusion by their GMs.

I look at it at it as akin to a TV show. Ideally you want to end a game on a high note with everyone wanting more but at the very least you want to end it with dignity and not have it cancelled due to lack of interest. That said, if it were easy I think we'd see it a lot more often in both television and at the table.

So how do you end your games?
 
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More and more over the years I've come to appreciate at least a rough end time for a campaign, whether that's three months or three years. As you touch on, it avoids the situation where the game just kinda peters out with a whimper.

One trick I like is a "were are they now" montage after a campaign ends where the players narrate their PC's future. Because it's the end of campaign questions like balance don't arise and it gives the characters a proper send off.
 
More and more over the years I've come to appreciate at least a rough end time for a campaign, whether that's three months or three years. As you touch on, it avoids the situation where the game just kinda peters out with a whimper.

One trick I like is a "were are they now" montage after a campaign ends where the players narrate their PC's future. Because it's the end of campaign questions like balance don't arise and it gives the characters a proper send off.
I would agree with this. For my latest explore to get rich campaigns then I aim for an epilogue for each character describing where they invest or waste their loot and which NPCs they are still in touch with.
 
A more serious answer would be when critical mass of players and GM get tired. I got tired as DM of our 5e game so for summer we switched to DCC. We're starting back up next week with 5e and we'll see how into it people are at that time. If not enough then I'll probably suggest either a dimensional travel that puts the heroes on an indefinite pause or figure out some grand battle that makes the world a better place from our heroes perspective. Right now they already own a bar in Waterdeep so maybe I'd get them a mirror allows limited dimensional travel and they can put it in the bar and charge a fee.
 
I don’t know about a high note…but I’m all about resolution.

I’ve probably only truly ended 5 campaigns. 4 were with this group, 1 with my group before.

One ended in a TPK against Strahd. Two were very open ended (one in Deadlands and one being Necessary Evil). Two felt very much wrapped up, with the characters having their reasons for doing adventure stuff resolved.
 
We haven't had many that actually properly ended. In one the player characters ultimately chose to side with the armies of heaven against the forces of hell and became angels in the perfected cosmos. There's really not much campaign left after that. In that case, one way or another, the campaign would have ended.

Another ended with the major villain's base assaulted by a giant monster and the villain dead and the PCs fleeing on a stolen ship back to civilization.
 
I'd say the majority of the campaigns I've run reached some kind of fairly satisfying conclusion. Leaving aside running Curse of Strahd where an end was built in (first time I actually ran a full campaign from a book) usually I find that campaigns naturally develop some kind of arc as they go, there's going to be some major foe or whatever that they've spent months dealing with, the campaign wraps up when a suitable grand arc comes to its grand conclusion and I'm reaching the point where I don't want to continue running the same thing.

Of the last five campaigns I've run, one ended because Covid happened, we all moved, two of the players had a baby, and thus we never got back to the table, one was the aforementioned Strahd, one was a Blades in a Dark game where the system didn't really gel with our group but we still managed to resolve it on a nice finish as an arc wrapped up even if it wasn't a grand arc. One was a D&D game which wrapped up with the PCs resolving an arc that had been running for almost two years, with one of the players was chosen to replace the dead god that the arc was about. And the most recent was a Dungeon World game where they resolved a prophecy and defeated a foe ("Skorros Godslayer") that had been built up over about two thirds of the campaign so far.
 
There is a massive amount of advise out there on how to start a game; from crafting an elevator pitch all the way to session zero, the topic has been covered exhaustively. What I don't see very much of is how to wrap up a game. Do people start games with the assumption they will run forever? Is bringing a game to a satisfactory conclusion assumed to be obvious and not worth discussing? In almost 40 years of gaming I have seen precious few games deliberately ended and brought to a conclusion by their GMs.

I look at it at it as akin to a TV show. Ideally you want to end a game on a high note with everyone wanting more but at the very least you want to end it with dignity and not have it cancelled due to lack of interest. That said, if it were easy I think we'd see it a lot more often in both television and at the table.

So how do you end your games?
Satisfactory endings are rough. Sticking the landing isn’t easy to do. That said, at the table there’s a smaller number of people who need to be pleased than there is with movies, books, and TV shows.

So far, my players have all been pleased with the campaigns that ended.

Necessary Evil: The PCs successfully thwarted the V’Sori invasion on Earth, and one of them assumed control of the terrorist network OMEGA. They eventually went to the V’Sori home world and defeated the V’Sori Overmind, but were left stranded there in a very open ended conclusion.

Deadlands: The PCs thwarted a Mexican outlaw claiming to be the son of The Devil (and the PCs got help from Old Scratch himself), and thwarted his allies, including corrupt Pinkerton Agents and a Servitor of Famine. One Harrowed PC was restored to breathing life and another was trapped in The Deadlands with a giant spider demon. Left very open ended.

Tyranny of Dragons: Tiamat was banished back to the Nine Hells. Dragonborn Ranger PC died in the battle. Of the two remaining, Jarlaxle recruited the Drow Rogue who had no House due to being time displaced by hundreds of years, and the Tiefling Barbarian returned home to her tribe, having repaid her tribe’s penance for helping the Cult gain a foothold in the Sword Coast in the first place.

Curse of Strahd: TPK. Sorcerer PC was buried. Human (or half-elf, I don’t remember) Ranger and Half-Orc pirate Fighter were turned into vampire spawn. I narrated out how the pirate essentially became a Darklord bound to his ship while the Ranger became Strahd’s Dark Hunter. The last PC, an Elven Wizard, was fed to the wolves. Too risky to bring back. My players actually loved this ending.

East Texas University: After venturing into the hell-like mirror of this dimension, only the Star Quarterback (PC), Vampire Hunter Final Girl (PC), and Star Running Back (NPC) made it out. The Eccentric Wizard (PC) and Badass Ghost Hunter (NPC) were trapped when the portal closed (the wizard intentionally sacrificed himself to stop the advance of demons). The Badass Ghost Hunter was the Star Quarterback’s girlfriend and the Vampire Hunter Final Girl’s best friend. The football players put monster hunting behind them to pursue their, the Running Back and Vampire Hunter broke up, and the Vampire Hunter went on the road, fighting evil where she could.

Of those five games, the only ones we’ve even considered revisiting (character wise) are Deadlands and Necessary Evil, hence the more firm narrative wrap ups for the rest.
 
Typically, my players' characters end their stories the traditional way...

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More seriously, I also wish there was more advice on how to wrap up campaigns. I've done okay with short, highly goal focused campaigns (e.g. stop the mad Warlock from completing the ritual that will bring all the kingdom's dead back under their control...6 to 8 sessions; or, stop rogue elements of the Romulan Empire from fomenting a war with the Federation...6 sessions).

But longer campaigns of mine have mostly just...fizzled out. Sigh.
 
It depends. Some campaigns are really just a set of story arc and adventures tied together. The end might just come at the end of random story arc, when everyone feels like its time to move on to a new game, but with no greater attempt at closure than that. Like a TV series that doesn't get renewed for another season. And that's OK. It's less OK when the campaign gets cancelled mid-season, but that's just how things go in the real world.

For some campaigns like Slipstream of the above mentioned Necessary Evil, kind of demand a proper climax as the the endgame is baked into the premise . Running the climax itself isn't particularly tricky. What can be a challenge is structuring things in a way that the player characters have true agency when it comes to triggering the endgame. Running a bunch of filler adventures until the GM is ready to open up the endgame is not something I enjoy (even if the filler adventures are fun and thematically appropriate).
 
I probably have a different understanding of the OP's question than some folks on this thread, as I often use published adventure materials but basically never follow their intended campaign structure (when present). E.g., if I used part of the Tyranny of Dragons published campaign, there would be no expectation that the PC's would stay on track and reach some sort of intended narrative conclusion, and, given the way my players typically behave, I'd say there would be almost no chance that would happen (they tend to take over any adventure they stumble across and steer it in a direction that suits them. Or they just run away!). I also don't really 'pitch' planned campaigns that have intended structured narrative arcs. So, if a campaign is going to reach a natural conclusion, it will arise through the player's understanding of their characters' plans. Or because someone knocked their heads off.
 
It depends. Some campaigns are really just a set of story arc and adventures tied together. The end might just come at the end of random story arc, when everyone feels like its time to move on to a new game, but with no greater attempt at closure than that. Like a TV series that doesn't get renewed for another season. And that's OK. It's less OK when the campaign gets cancelled mid-season, but that's just how things go in the real world.

For some campaigns like Slipstream of the above mentioned Necessary Evil, kind of demand a proper climax as the the endgame is baked into the premise . Running the climax itself isn't particularly tricky. What can be a challenge is structuring things in a way that the player characters have true agency when it comes to triggering the endgame. Running a bunch of filler adventures until the GM is ready to open up the endgame is not something I enjoy (even if the filler adventures are fun and thematically appropriate).
My trick with the Savage Worlds plot point campaigns is to make as much of the “filler” as deeply personal as possible.

Also, at least with NE and ETU, the actual plot points didn’t feel like they had big, neon signs on then marking them as important, so the group wasn’t suddenly more invested for those.

In general, I find that most Savage Worlds plot point campaigns are skeletons and the GM and players have to hang the meat on the bones, which has worked out very well for us thus far.
 
I like the Picaresque format, very Conan-esque "this ends X story of how Y came to accomplish Z" and blah blah blah "on the way to becoming more awesome, but that is a tale for another time..." /Cue Rastan arcade music. :music: I like it but rarely can pull it off beyond a Big Bad Evil Guy climax, happy resolution with phat loot, then walking away as if the characters did more but we may never know...
 
One of my longest D&D games ended when the necromancer they were hunting and trying to stop, released the WraithLord, God of Undeath on the world. It had been imprisoned for violating the natural order, and because the PC's stopped for a long time to hunt down a an ancient red dragon who only dealt with the necromancer once--and had little to do with the plot, he managed to get three steps ahead while they were busy wandering an ancient drow city after the magma of the volcano the red-dragon's death triggered drove them underground. I.E BBEG won, the world fell to hordes of undead, but for one island that held back the dark ships and was the sole refuge of survivors of the good side.

Wanted the next campaign to be them or their heirs dealing with driving the Wraithlord back out of the mortal realm and locking him out but never did.

High Valor: Oh boy, they fought and (temporarily killed) Mhallelovens (Malevolence) the Mother of all dragons at least according to her. They thought she was gone, but so long as parts of her remained they managed to find ways to get back together and ressurect her. After helping one PC who was believed to be the child of a lost king claim a ruined fortress at the top of a waterfall and bring peace to the area except for the dragons trying to aid Malevolence, they hunted down one in between the Veiled Lands (where old elves left when they wanted to remain well Elves). One hero a giant of a man named Cadwallender with one eye, who'd fought with immense bow (badly), and huge sword couldn't fight it as it kept to the air, turned to magic to kill it, but lacking the training it cost him his life. The others a criminal who acted like a leprosy victim, a lady archer, the boy king managed to thwart everyone else and claim all the pieces of Malevolence, and used a powerful ritual they learned from Sturmsaeger (a good dragon) to split her heart in four--and two gave up their lives (with a ghostly Cadwallender called to serve with them) to move the heart as far as the lands would bear them to travel as spirits--a fourth woman sacrificed her life for the lady archer (he was in love with her) so four spirits to stand eternally over the heart and keep it scattered. Would it last forever? No but it gave mortals time to seek a final solution to her.

They learned that Malovelence had once been an elf (not true of all dragons) who turned to evil and well became the first dragon--but the truth--did she spawn all others? Remained a mystery.

I'd planned a follow up game for that as well.
 
I always plan a campaign with the end in mind. And I plan my gaming calendar at least 9 months ahead and I communicate that to my players, so they know how to plan their calendars. So if someone has something that will keep them away from gaming for a while, they know they should sit out an upcoming campaign and when they can rejoin us.

Typically we play 12-session arcs for the "standard" campaigns. At the end of an arc we discuss if we want to have another season and what direction that should take based on how the preceding arc ended. Almost all my campaigns end with enough hooks for another season, sometimes not with the same characters bit set in the same world, sort of like a spin-off series.

In between the standard campaigns we have shorter campaigns. 4 to 6 sessions, typically using a new set of rules and exploring a different genre.

Like I said, I always plan with an end in mind. The campaign may start out as a sandbox, but once the PCs have found a BBEG that they want to tackle, that's what gonna define the end of the arc. During the course of the campaign i try to either weave in the PCs' individual goals and backstories into the plot, or resolve them as a side quest. My players happen to not do so well without clear directions, so the arrangement works for us.
 
In the past I've always tried (but not always successfully) to end my campaigns in at least a moderately satsifying way, even if I was feeling burnt out or was going to move away or whatever. I tried to have an adventure that resolved at least some issues or PCs' plans, even if we didn't resolve everything or reach a truly "epic conclusion." At the very least I tried to end things "between adventures" (this happened with all my Call of Cthulhu campaigns for some reason).

A couple of years ago I wrapped up an Adventures in Middle-earth campaign in a satisfying way. I had a general idea of how the campaign likely would end when I started it, namely, a confrontation between the PCs and the leader of the dark spider cult that was menacing the free peoples surrounding northern Mirkwood. But how it unfolded, and how soon it would take the players to figure out what was going on, was not predetermined.

I wrote up a brief account of what happened to the PCs afterwards (consulting with the players in doing so). However, I also left things relatively "open" in case we wanted to return to those characters in the future (say, 5 years in Middle-earth time after the end of the campaign).

In general I like the idea of letting the players narrate what happens to their characters after the end of the campaign. That happened in a Mythic Babylon (Mythras) campaign that ended a couple of months ago. I was a player (not GM) and found it to be a great way to end a campaign.
 
Several ended in a TPK, but most are closer to the BBC model than US Television. Sometimes we optioned another episode right away and sometimes it was on hold with the option for another episode, but some of the key players changed (we played something else for awhile and then came back to it). I can't think of one where we ended one in a neat tidy package and put it in the vault.
 
I wrote an article about this at EN World. Basically, I've switched to making a small commitment (like 5 adventures) and recommitting if the campaign goes well. That way the players don't get annoyed, and I don't get trapped feeling I shouldn't change up a campaign that isn't holding my interest.
 
One great thread on storygames addressed this well with several suggestions, the one I used was
when I was near to the end (near is as many sessions as you want) I asked the players to
each secretly write one question about the campaign that they wanted answered by the end.
I wrote one too as the GM, we all then discussed them in the open.
A part of the advice was to keep those questions in view on the table for the rest of the
sessions so we could keep focused.
We did not answer all of the questions, but it was a satisfying way to end the campaign.
 
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This is the only third-party 2e AD&D item remaining in my collection.
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Still relatively (surprisingly?) easy to get hold of, and I found it valuable enough to keep over myriad alternatives.

Even if you don't want to end the world, it's pretty cool for creating grandiose plot lines or the backstory for kicking off a new world.

"...every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..." --Semisonic
 
Very rarely in a TPK.

Latest TPK was with D&D5, Doomvault adventure from the Yawning Portal book. The players were stupid cocky enough to invade the boss monster's lair, knowingly, without any preparation. They were practically begging for it... :devil:
That works, too:grin:!
Idea for next campaign: different system, but at some point the players start realizing they're in the same area, just 100 years later and the lair where their previous characters died is now at the southern end of the map instead of the northern...:shade:
 
Idea for next campaign: different system, but at some point the players start realizing they're in the same area, just 100 years later and the lair where their previous characters died is now at the southern end of the map instead of the northern...:shade:
Dude, this is almost exactly what I am doing for my next campaign! Different system and about 60 miles south of where they started last time.
 
I tend to think of most RPG campaigns as potentially endless. They're more like "campaign worlds" or "campaign universes" where characters, adventures, and situations will come and go, but the world continues.

When there's a campaign working toward some conclusion, I tend to think of that as a longer-than-one-shot framed situation within a game world (which might or might not get used for other things).

And then of course there are also one-shots, which are about the same but smaller.

The smaller the scope of an adventure/situation, and the more gonzo or experimental it is, the less likely I am to consider it part of the "actual" history of a game world, though they might still use an existing developed gameworld for its surrounding setting.


Ways campaigns have ended in practice included:

* Group wants to move to GURPS, but GM doesn't have time/energy to convert their campaign to GURPS, so we stop playing that campaign.

* Main ongoing conflicts in the campaign got resolved, and PCs were feeling overpowered, and GM moved a more inconvenient distance away.

* Most/all of the PCs died, and/or individual players had real-life etc take them away from the game.

* Campaign was mainly about a conflict. Next stage would be rebuilding after the conflict, but then other games got chosen.

* Campaign started out of desire to try another system or scratch some itch. That got satisfied after some sessions, so we returned to other campaigns.

* Similar to above: Campaign started to try out an idea. Idea didn't work out to be what we wanted to keep playing.
 
GM realised the party was mostly just treading water and hurriedly brought forward a climactic conflict that had been building slowly. It was a bit unsatisfying, but the game would have ended up fizzling otherwise and at least this way we got to finish with a major victory.
 
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