Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

It hard to end a campaign because an ending implies there is a beginning, and middle. Which is the point of story gaming like the World of Darkness stuff. In contrast most games revolve around the players pursuing their individual goals in concert. Some of those goals aligning because of the plot the referee is running.

The trick is resolve all the players major goals at once in a plausible way. Like a cook trying to bring a variety of hot dishes to the table at once you need some skill and experience to pull this off without looking ham fisted. Otherwise some players will want to continue playing and the for them the campaign doesn't end but rather just stops.

I'd definitely agree.  It's what makes modules so damn useful; someone who designed a whole campaign (whether it's a massive campaign like G-D-Q or a one-off like T1 (prior to T1-4)).  But there's still legwork to be done; Gary notes in B2 that other monsters may take up residence after lairs have been cleaned out.  Unless a DM wants to park the adventurers in that area forever, there's a question of "okay, where from here" that has to be answered, and that (for me, anyway) is where the difficulty comes in.

Yes, absolutely. The higher the stakes have been raised, the more difficult the payoff and the trickier a satisfying ending will be. I've completed two multi-year campaigns and the ending have by far been the most challenging.

On a more mechanical level, I see most campaigns, in D&D especially, tend to tank around midgame anyway, because the DM doesn't know how to handle characters who can throw hugely powerful spells.

My campaigns tend to organize themselves into 'chapters' (sets of 4-10 adventures), which tend to have natural, usually satisfying, endings, any one of which could serve as a decent 'campaign ending.'  Of the campaigns that I've run in recent years, only one had a very unsatisfying end, and that was because I had to move across the Atlantic just after it had started to get interesting.

I don't carefully plan my campaigns to work out this way ahead of time, but rather, as the adventures progress, I see certain cool ways for major conflicts to be resolved, and then plan a few adventures accordingly.

In short, I haven't had any problem coming up with satisfying conclusions to my campaigns over the past decade.

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

Yes.

That's why I only do short story campaigns and sandbox campaigns.   My short story campaigns are about 10 sessions and from session one onward, we are marching toward the final confrontation while the PCs are still scrambling to figure out the story.   My sandbox campaigns are eternal and episodic and I do not put any world-changers in the game, just localized events.

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

RPGPundit

Yes, I would. I think it's because many campaigns tend to fizzle out, so it's very easy to get a sense of how to best start a game simply through sheer practice. Ending a campaign is something one does less often and gets less practice doing.

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

RPGPundit

Yes. It's probably the most challenging part of a successful campaign.

Actually I find the Middles the hard part.  I know where I started. I know where I need to end (for that dramatic climax - and a few ending scenes to wrap up those little things).  It is the road between the two that sometimes gets long, twisted, and one can get lost on.  

Now, I normally plot the important or required scenes on each plot thread, from the major plot arc and the lesser arcs attached to specific characters.  I usually plot a game by choosing which scenes would be available (given situation and location), who is showing up, and giving everyone things to do (often requiring a disposible one shot plot to keep others engaged).  However, the players often skip things or go to odd places or decide the quest to save the world is not as important as making a few tal of silver right now, making these harder to impliment.

End?

I usually try to run open ended campaigns with mini-endings every 2 or 3 adventures, but still with some overarching plot. I don't remember a time when I ever intentionally ended a campaign with a big 'closure' type moment. In the future, I'd like to, but I'll need a definite goal at the beginning and have the end point planned.

I have been running a 4e campaign since 4e came out (played 25-ish games now) and I thought... "you know, we might make it to 30" before we started, but things are coming to this climax where we are (level 12) and I'm thinking we will actually wrap it up mid paragon tier. The way it is heading, we could really go out with a bang - who says you have to play to 30, hehehe.

So yea, I think they can be hard but in this case, a good chance at an epic ending is coming and so I'll probably take it (if it works out) - we are ready for another campaign anyway (something new)

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

RPGPundit

Yes.

This is like your Tull/Led Zep question about RPG bands.

No discussion is necessary. Just yes.

Sort of. The players at my table seem to find the end before I do. Usually better than what I was thinking too.

The worst is when we miss the ending and keep playing pointlessly.

Quote from: RPGPundit;321422Would you agree with the statement that the endgame of a campaign, bringing it to a successful, exciting and fulfilling close, is probably the hardest part of the campaign and the one that the most GMs have difficulty doing with sufficient mastery?

RPGPundit

Yes, I would agree on that. Knowing where to end is really hard for me, as I tend to drag the game a bit more than I should.