All good things must come to an end. No, no, I'm not ending this column. But with 2007 drawing to a close while two of the campaigns that I'm in also approach their conclusions, endings are on my mind. I have to admit that I'm not fully qualified to write this particular column. As a GM, I've never actually ended one of my campaigns... they've all just dwindled away. As a player, many of the campaigns that I've been part of have also just dwindled, or been put on hiatus and never returned to. A few of them have completed, however, and it's been a mixed bag. I've observed that it's hard to end anything that people enjoy. This isn't just limited to games. Anime, books, and movies can have the same problem. Oftentimes, when you're enjoying a story, you build up this ideal ending in your mind, and then the reality just isn't as good as you imagined... and sometimes you just can't imagine that something will end. It's just so good that you want it to last forever. The truth is, of course, that nothing can last forever. Most campaigns have some end built into them, the completion of the overarching quest or whatnot. And even open-ended campaigns have to come to an end, to make way for new games. As a GM, your job is to try to make an ending worthy of the game that leads up to it. In my experience, a lackluster ending can sour the whole experience; as a player, you feel almost as if you've wasted the time that you spent on the game, even if you enjoyed yourself the whole time. My personal preference is for an ending that has a sense of completion, without a sense of finality. You don't necessarily have to leave the campaign open for a sequel, but if you leave the characters in a position where the players can imagine their future, that's pretty nice. I like it when a game ends with the party going into semi-retirement, with the possibility of future adventures when they get bored with the easy life. If possible, it's nice to set it up so that the events of the campaign that you're ending will have an impact on the next campaign in that same setting. Just be careful with this. Our EarthDawn campaign is a sequel to a much smaller EarthDawn game, and it's come dangerously close to seeming like this current campaign is all about those of us who were in the first game. The GM is taking steps to curtail that feeling, but it would have been better if it'd had never gotten that way in the first place. Try to avoid an ending that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the players. The previous D&D campaign ended with the world being destroyed and the player characters becoming deities of the new world. While being deities is cool, some players who had been a part of that world for years were a little bummed out by its destruction. And the Mage campaign that ended with the group scattered throughout different horizon realms was really anticlimactic. Then there's the Mage and Rifts campaigns that ended with most of the party dying... Of course, sometimes you can't help it. The Mage party wipe happened due to bad player actions. The game had only been going for a month or two and was supposed to continue for a while. After that disaster, though, everyone voted to switch to EarthDawn and I'm much happier for it. If your players do something stupid and get themselves all killed, you shouldn't feel like you have to give them a do-over to prevent a lousy ending to the campaign. One nice thing you can do at the end of the game is do the big reveal. This is where you tell the players everything that was going on behind the scenes. It's when you finally get to share all of the cool things that the players never quite uncovered. It's also when you can rub all of their stupid mistakes in their faces. Yeah, I'm still bitter about that first Mage game... The current L5R game is nearing its end, so we'll get that final big reveal soon. The GM keeps dangling it in front of us like a carrot - as well as the promise of a Scion campaign. That's another good way to keep the players from being too depressed about the end of a game. Get them excited about the next game. I am looking forward to Scion, and to finally getting all of the answers... but I'm still not ready to let go of this L5R game! My character has so many goals left to achieve, that I know she'll never get to. I'm really hoping for that "completion without finality" so I can pretend that she goes on to fulfill all of her dreams. So, the next time on of your campaigns nears its end, take some time to think about just how it's going to happen. Make sure that it's satisfying. Don't make it a lame "WTF?" moment. Don't let it peter out. Give the game an ending worthy of all the fun sessions that have led up to its completion. I'll catch you all in the New Year... Until then, Happy Gaming!

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Copyright © 2007 By AJ Reardon E-mail AJ at: ErtheFae@aol.com Visit AJ at: www.erthefae.com