Wrapping Up

As mentioned on the other blog, LC and I are in the process of moving house. This is largely driven by work, and in particular the commute, which has become significantly more difficult since Christmas.

One of the consequences of this is that it is likely, though by no means certain, that I may want to wrap up one or both of my ongoing campaigns sooner than expected. (Ironically, this comes just as the one started to have something resembling a plan and just as the second was about to start on an actual story arc rather than being purely unrelated one-offs. Oh well.)

And so, I find myself thinking about endings, and the endings of campaigns in particular. Now, at this point in time I haven't come to any decisions on the two existing campaigns - that will depend on how long the move takes, where we end up, and such like. But considering endings in general, there are several ways a campaign might wrap up:

The Campaign Reaches Its End: The best way for a campaign to end is if it completes what it set out to do, and so comes to that conclusion. I've been lucky enough to have several campaigns do this: "The Eberron Code", "The Shackled City", "Company of the Black Hand", that sub-Tolkien campaign I ran in high school, "Vampire: Rivers of Time", and a few others. That's always good, because the story wraps up, there's a nice sense of closure, and the job is done. Huzzah!

The Campaign Reaches an End: This includes a campaign that ends in a TPK, but more commonly (in my experience) it has occurred because the game has been flagging and I've felt a need to end it prematurely. And so the current arc has become the last arc, and the whole thing brought to a conclusion. Examples of this would be "Star Wars: Imperial Fist", "On Tracks of Lightning", the Tollis campaign, and the most recent 4e campaign I played. This is probably the second best way to end: there is at least some closure, and there's a plan behind it, even if it wasn't the original plan. So, yay, I guess.

The Campaign Fizzles: Third best is what happens when people start to lose interest. Games become less and less frequent, attendance becomes sporadic, and eventually you just... stop. This was the fate both of the last D&D sort-of-campaign I ran at high school and also the last game I ran for the old Saturday group (about which I can remember literally nothing) - the group just drifted apart and eventually ended without a formal full stop. This is a shame, but is perhaps preferable to what follows for one simple reason: if a game fizzles because of lack of interest, it means nobody's going to be too disappointed that it's done. After all, if they'd cared that much, they would have kept going!

Abandoned: This happens if it's found that a game's concept just doesn't work, or if the GM finds he simply can't run the game, or if sufficient players drop out that it's no longer workable. It was the fate of too many high school campaigns to even try to name, of half a dozen games with the old Saturday group (though generally from before it became the Saturday group!), of the short-lived game I ran in Yeovil, of the Numenera game, of my attempt to run "Lost Mine of Phandelver" for 5e, and I'm sure of many other games I'm forgetting. This is always disappointing, since the game started with high hopes, but it happens.

Just Stop: But probably the worst possible ending is when a game just... stops. This tends to be due to a sudden and unexpected life-changing event. Unlike when a game is abandoned, this happens with no warning at all. One day the game is there, then something happens and suddenly it is not. Argh! Fortunately, I don't think I've ever had this happen to one of my games. But it's not good when it does.

Looking forward, as best I can, it seems to me that "Eberron: Dust to Dust" isn't really in a position to be brought to an end quickly - it's right at the start of a multi-pronged plot structure which makes it impractical to wrap up in a satisfactory manner. Which is a shame, because that probably means that if it has to end it has to just be abandoned.

Conversely, "Firefly: the Lost Episodes" is structured so that it can run or not run as schedules allow. It would be better if we either didn't start the "Ghost in the Black" arc or were able to bring it to its conclusion, but even that arc should be fine provided we don't end between the last two episodes. Tuesday's episode is intended to seed a name for that arc (but isn't actually part of it), so that's fine - I'll just hold off on starting the arc for a little while.

Obviously, we'll need to see what happens. With a lot of luck, both of the campaigns can continue as-is, albeit likely with a change of host. Failing that, one or both may need to stop. In any event, I'll be on the lookout for a good end point for "Eberron: Dust to Dust" - or, failing that, a good place to pause the game with the option of either resuming or not at a later time.