Establishing the End Game: Hitting the Abort Button

We’ve all been there; your epic adventure has stalled.  Your players are in love with the game and you could care less.  It’s more than just writer’s block you’re just not feeling it, so what’s a GM to do?

Talk to the Players

Players have an excellent way of revitalizing interest in a campaign.  Ask them what they want out of the adventure and what they are hoping to do.  If your players are anything like mine they’ll have had goals from the get go and would love time to expand upon them and be able to achieve those goals.  This could prove for some good material to move the campaign forward.  With this try to focus more on the characters instead of the overall storyline, it’ll keep the game moving.  Play to your strengths, and keep working on the overall plot you’ll be back on track in no time.

Switch Adventures

During a Planescape game, Paul had three to five adventures running simultaneously.   We would be doing research on one and be tracking a villain from another. While I’m sure it required some juggling on his end as players we could pick the type of adventure we were most interested in.  As he was using prebuilt adventures, he was never at a loss for material. If your current campaign is going nowhere try changing the focus of the campaign for a couple of sessions.  The brief stint away from the main goals may prove to be enough of a refresher that work may begin anew on the main plot.

Give up the Ghost

Sometimes everything you do just proves to be in vain and you need to press the abort button.  Keep in mind a couple of things when ending.

Your players are emotionally invested.  They’ve spent countless hours playing in the game and developing their characters so try to give them some closure.  Try to wrap up as many character plots as you can.

Leave the story open to continue. Just because you’re done running right now doesn’t mean you won’t want to pick up this game in the future.  Try to leave a couple of threads around to pick up later.  Some suggestions may be that the villain they’ve been tracking the entire campaign sets a trap and lays in wait, only for the players to find out that there is another more powerful villain lurking in the shadows.

Give a sense of closure. As you are leaving some threads open you won’t be able to wrap up everything.  However, it is paramount that you give some sense of closure to the current storyline.  Choose a downer or a happily ever after ending but don’t just end it out of hand.

Have you ever had a campaign that you had to abort? How’d you go about it?

  • http://www.ApathyGames.com Jeff Carlsen

    I must apologize to our audience for Tyson's brash use of links to TV Tropes. He was unaware of the crime he was committing at the time. If you find yourself unable to leave the site after a single article, immediately pull the plug on your computer and give yourself three to six hours to recuperate.

    Remember, friends. TV Tropes ruins lives.

    –This message brought to you by the Apathy Nerd Hospital and the Association for Gamers Getting Exercise.

  • http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

    Heheheh, I've been caught in the T.V. Tropes web once before. (Linked from a Blog post no less. ;P ) I knew better than to click those links. ;P

    I've had campaigns that I was not into before. Typically I would just bring the players into another campaign, either pausing it or moving their characters over. This normally went over rather well. Other times a game wasn't as engaging as anyone had thought it would be, and we've all agreed to just pull the plug “Cold Turkey” on it, and start fresh.

    I do remember one game, it was in a setting that had seen quite a few reboots already, and I decided that we wouldn't “Just” reboot it again. So I ran an Armageddon scenario. It was fun for me because I've got a few of those running around and it gave me the opportunity to “See it in Action”, and fun for the players because they got to see the characters they knew and loved reacting to the end of their world.

  • http://www.ApathyGames.com Jeff Carlsen

    I must apologize to our audience for Tyson's brash use of links to TV Tropes. He was unaware of the crime he was committing at the time. If you find yourself unable to leave the site after a single article, immediately pull the plug on your computer and give yourself three to six hours to recuperate.

    Remember, friends. TV Tropes ruins lives.

    –This message brought to you by the Apathy Nerd Hospital and the Association for Gamers Getting Exercise.

  • http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

    Heheheh, I've been caught in the T.V. Tropes web once before. (Linked from a Blog post no less. ;P ) I knew better than to click those links. ;P

    I've had campaigns that I was not into before. Typically I would just bring the players into another campaign, either pausing it or moving their characters over. This normally went over rather well. Other times a game wasn't as engaging as anyone had thought it would be, and we've all agreed to just pull the plug “Cold Turkey” on it, and start fresh.

    I do remember one game, it was in a setting that had seen quite a few reboots already, and I decided that we wouldn't “Just” reboot it again. So I ran an Armageddon scenario. It was fun for me because I've got a few of those running around and it gave me the opportunity to “See it in Action”, and fun for the players because they got to see the characters they knew and loved reacting to the end of their world.