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© 1998-2001 Dru
Pagliassotti
All rights reserved.
Ending Campaigns
 So you're about to move
away, or your school or job responsibilities require more attention, or
you're just tired of an old campaign and ready to start something new.
How do you, as GM, end your long-term campaign? Of course, you can always
just stop running in mid-adventure, but that's never completely satisfactory.
The real trick is to close down a long-running campaign in a way that
will make everyone happy.
The first step to ending
a campaign with panache is to know how many games you have to do it in.
If you have a close deadline, then you'll need to work quickly. Otherwise,
you have a little more freedom to map out your story arc over a few months'
worth of games. Estimate how many games you have left and let that estimate
guide you as you go through the next steps.
The second step is to
decide how you want to end the campaign, preferably taking into account
what will please the players the most. Some groups might be willing to
end the campaign in an all-out hero slaughter, but most players would
like to have a happier closure. Assuming that you would like to end your
campaign on an upbeat note, here are some elements to consider:
• What
story arcs need to be wrapped up? Do the characters have major
villains who need to be faced? Is there a background war that needs to
be ended? Try to tie up the campaign's loose ends. You probably can't
wrap up everything, but give your players a chance to see the major subplots
resolved.
• What
will happen to the characters after you end your campaign? Are
the players likely to retire the characters, or are they likely to take
the characters to a new game run by another GM? If the characters are
going to be retired, you can feel comfortable giving the characters positions
of power, special abilities, and so forth that would reasonably lead to
their smooth transition to non-adventuring life. You're never going to
deal with the characters again, so why not make the players happy? But
if the characters are going to be played elsewhere, you should try to
avoid giving another GM a headache. Reward the characters but don't make
them too powerful; leave them playable and hungry for more.
• What
does each character want? What has been each character's goal
throughout the game? Money? Power? Love? Whatever it is, think about how
you can either grant it to the character or set the character on a path
that promises to deliver the goal in time. Thus, a money-hungry character
might be greatly rewarded at the end of the campaign or might be made
part owner of a company that promises to bring in great wealth. The power-hungry
character might be granted a position of power, either extremely high
in its own right (e.g., queen) or fairly high with promises of advancement
(e.g., member of the inner council). The love-smitten character might
get to marry his beloved, or might just go out on that first date at last.
Try to resolve each character's story arc along with the larger campaign
story arcs.
• What
does each player want? This is slightly more subtle. Most players
want for their characters the same things the characters want for themselves,
but how they get it is another question. For example, some players thrive
on melodrama, in which case you might want to arrange a scenario granting
that player one last chance to wax soap-operatic. Some players thrive
on intrigue, in which case you might want to give them a chance to backstab
or be backstabbed. Some players thrive on violence, in which case a rousing
final combat seems called for. If you can combine them all, so much the
better ... for example, intrigue is uncovered, combat results, and everything
wraps up with a melodramatic finale.
Some GMs may prefer
to run campaign-closing games with the whole gaming group; others may
prefer to run one-on-one sessions with individual players. One-on-one
sessions provide more intense roleplaying possibilities and make completing
a character-specific story arc easier, but they should only be run if
the GM and player are comfortable with one-on-one roleplaying. Players
may have different attitudes toward one-on-one sessions, and GMs should
be sensitive to their players' preferences.
The third step is to
try to weave all of these elements together with your main plot. Because
you're working under a time constraint, you may need to truncate the original
adventure by getting the characters into the final battle more quickly
than you'd expected, ignoring subplots and red herrings that you'd originally
intended to use. Most of the time players will never notice, especially
if you're picking up the overall pace to hurtle them into the campaign's
closure.
However, even if you're
rushing to end the game on deadline, try not to close all of the campaign-wide
and character-specific story arcs at once. Space them out over the last
few games. One character might get promoted in one game, another character
might get married in the next, and so forth. Handing out all the rewards
at once is easier, but it's also less satisfying from a storytelling point
of view.
The fourth step is to
actually run the campaign to closure. With luck you've planned on the
right number of games and you've managed to pace the adventure so that
it ends on or before your final scheduled game (for more on actually ending
individual adventures, see Ending a Successful
Adventure). At the end of a successful campaign, players should feel
happy about the game and satisfied with what's happened to their characters
(even if it's just that the character died a heroic death saving the universe).
Be certain that every player is content; nobody should walk out of the
game dissatisfied.
Ending a long-term campaign
is always a little sad; players have seen their characters grow in power
and maturity and feel a special bond with them. However, a thoughtful
GM should be able to end a campaign in a way that ensures that it will
be discussed with affection for years to come.
originally written June 28, 1999
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