Two campaigns I was in and enjoyed was we retired the characters when they hit level 20. Later we played their offspring after they hit teenage years. My favorite quote was "You know Shensen - your mom is kind of hot." :)

I maintain a consistent homebrew world, so I opt to do something a little unique. When a campaign ends for my group, I allow my players to leave behind some sort of legacy. A Wizard might craft a series of spells that is available for future games, the first Hobgoblin PC I allow works to establish his race as a major power and nation and so now Hobgoblins are a base race in future games, the Rogue that made a deal with a devil is now a full-on fiend that appears from time to time and rises within the Fiendish hierarchy as Eras (campaigns) pass the world by. Stuff like that. I've had players come up with all kinds of cool ideas for leaving their mark.

We do epilogues. show the consequences of our endings. Typically it's Fallout style, just going through each PC and loved/important NPC, and what happened. all our places. and things close. we may pick it up again eventually, using different characters after time has passed, or using the same characters. but I like it when things end. the quest is over. personally I may not give an epilogue, but I go for a good conclusion. everyone walks into thier respective portals and arrives home. The terrors and hunts of this world go on, but that case they've worked on is finally closed, and thier detective adventures continue. Its good to end things when you can, grant them closure so they can move on.

I have a twist for the end of my current campaign, when they complete the quest they start the problem for the next campaign.

@RagingKarma2

7 жыл бұрын

One thing I did was that I hosted 3 campaigns where nothing seemed to connect. Part 1 they climbed a tower to a god. Part 2 they stopped an colonel of an army from finding this really powerful artifact to 'protect' the world. In part 3 in kind of was just a follow up of part 2 with one of the npcs running away for an unknown cause the day after they beat this man in power. Only for them to find out of a man the led this evil organization. But in the final 'credits' they learned that he was just 1 head out of many and that this group caused all of the events to happen. And that lead into chapter 2 of my campaign series. There is a total of 4 chapters.

@ahmedjaber86

7 жыл бұрын

Good ol' anime storytelling :)

im from Argentina too, was really excited when they mention the letter was from here!!!!

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

We are equally excited to see the different countries we are being watched in. Thanks. Nerdarchist Dave

@Nico-jj8oi

7 жыл бұрын

you guys and critical role are my role models when i play D&D

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Wow, we feel honored to be mentioned in the same sentence with Critical Role! Thanks so much! -Nerdarchist Ryan

I've "ended" a campaign after a big boss fight but started a new campaign in the same world with a couple of the people from that first one in the new one. So I can now throw in little nods to their other characters.

For the hardcover campaigns I just go around the table asking my players what their characters would do from that point. At the end of Curse of Strahd, I had a cleric open a forge in Barovia before returning to their homeland, a monk open a monastery dedicated to the extermination of the undead, a wizard return to his home city to study magic, a rogue open a ferry and founding a town, a paladin leaving to search for his sandwich (long story), and my DMPC remaining to hunt remaining vampire spawn. From there we took a week break and began Storm King's Thunder after rotating DMs.

Hey, seems i wasn't the only Argie around. You're great guys, keep it up!

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Haha, I didn't know Argie was a term! Now I know! -Nerdarchist Ryan

My first campaign started at level 4 and ended at level 7 after 10 sessions. My second campaign was a sequel to the first and started at level 7 and ended at level 3 after 9 sessions. - The party was drained 21 levels by a vampire, but they slew him in the end. After that, no-one wanted to continue the campaign. Then I made a wrap-up-session where I told all the secrets. Then we talked about what was good and what was bad and what I should have done differently, so that I might improve my DMing skills. It sounds boring but it was actually pretty funny. Among other things told them that I had planned a quest for a stolen phoenix egg, and it was a complete coincidence that one of the players wanted to buy a phoenix. BTW: I am from Denmark.

When I ended Tyranny of Dragons, Tiamat's avatar dragged my characters to Avernus (First level of Hell). That was the winning scenario.

In probably 15+ years of playing these sort of games, I have only ever 'finished' one campaign to the very end, which was the red hand of doom. We basically ended after the fight, though had a quick summary at the end. We already got a keep earlier in the campaign, and the city loved us so we had a pretty good idea of where we would go after the final battle.

Love your video, curious if you want to address this: I want to make a final boss-level Doppleganger for my campaign (my personal O-P avatar). Can you go step by step on how to turn a regular monster into a boss level character? Legendary moves and stuff?

"Hold your characters for future adventures but, at this time, this campaign is complete." simple.

@nerdarchy Well the most RPG thing to do when the campaign is getting close to the end, have the players talk to each other at their inn or campfire, that gives the players more role play and fill their characters out more. When the end happens you montage the descriptions the players swore to do after it is all over. If there was fallen in the last battle then his best friend in the group goes to inform those close to that player of their passing and any ramifications that give. Make sure to include how the world is affected. If the players all failed and the villains won then in the ruined world new heroes arise to fight back. If they retire they have a decendent that takes up adventuring because of your heroes legends or first told by that hero enough stories they take up the helm. It helps for them to actually tell each other what they plan to do so you can impact it, or if they change it because of someone dying or other significant events changed their minds it can be even seldom and show how the world once again changed them, reforged them into older versions of themselves in ways that normally they wouldn't have become.

"Fear not: Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier and Acrobat. That was Venger, the force of Evil. I am Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of...1983-1985 Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon... If you've done it or if you were to, what do you think of playing THOSE characters (closest equivalent) in 5th edition? How would you do it? It would have to be a loooong ongoing campaign that you visit periodically between other campaigns. How esoteric or existential would it be for the DM to have his own avatar in the game as the Dungeon Master, literally the DM playing him/her self as the DM ?!

@dragonfire7354

7 жыл бұрын

Omg Jesus what a Throwback XD

Yea ending the campaign is always hard for me. whether as a player or dm. kind of for the same reason that it annoys me that pokemon games only have one save file. It's like I took these characters from level 1 to 20 and I don't want it to end!

google doc is the best way to go. after you have the victory lap session you post before/after the areas of the world they effected, npcs and lastly characters. this lets the players go back and have a reminder of what they did and if your running a legacy world then this is vital. Just finished a game where the party killed a bunch of demon lords, closed off the abyss and pretty much nuked it with a giant holy bomb and flooded the hole said bomb made with oceans of radiant light and holy water(with the help of elder water gods and solar), then used fire magic to turn it into vapor and allowed it to be incorporated into the environment and created a angel goddess and most of the party was rewarded with divinity. had to write a six page doc for it all, but it was worth it.

chicken wizard! I like it ^^ Sadly, my games always seem to end with someone ragequitting after one encounter :/

Just finished but a game which ended with the PC trying to defend this town from a siege. They barely make it through with multiple deaths in the group (5/12 died). They end up capturing the main enemy but one of the secondary villain betrayed the main villain and stole away this orb which was important to the realm. So it starts the next campaign of having to hunt him down in a new setting.

Each character should have a plan for their post quest life (mine plans to open a restaurant, thanks for asking). Rather nice if the DM takes them forward in time and see how it pans out.

How long do your campaigns run? It could be one long campaign like Game of Thrones. You could do a series of campaign arcs like Netflix's Daredevil where each season is a campaign. Or, each adventure could be its own thing and your game could be episodic like Star Trek. I've always liked doing the campaign arcs because that lets you move on to a new enemy and new area so you're never getting tired of a particular campaign.

Greetings from Spain! (Or Ireland Depending on the time of the year)

I don't have a problem with people figuring out the best way to end campaigns. I'm guessing that in most cases, campaigns will just end - because people move away, get tired of the game system, want to rotate in a new GM, etc. I've always thought it best to leave things hanging enough that the game can be resurrected at some later time if people want. One thing that does bother me about 5e is the notion of the "1 to 20" campaign. I don't see any reason to end the game at 20th level, or to structure it to do so (by making sure that the characters progress to 20th within a given span of time). Most characters, when they reach, say, 8th level, maybe, are already much much more powerful than the vast majority of beings in the world, and capable of confronting most challenges at least under certain circumstances. I just see debates about capstone features, and other high-level powers to take up so much energy compared to how much time is spent playing such characters, to be out of all proportion. One of the best things about old-school D&D is how open-ended things were when you reached name level. I wish it were more like that in this edition, or at least that people wouldn't take the "1 to 20" progression as a given, because in practice it's not, anyway.

I'm working on a pretty big campaign that I'm writing from scratch, I was wondering what I could do to keep it from just being a long boring mess

If I can make a suggestion: let the players narrate what their characters do at the end of the campaign. One might go off and get married (or if they are married, return home and have kids). Another might go off and start a Wizard's College, that goes on to produce the greatest Dark Wizard in history (a'la Hogwarts).

Dude, my group does the same thing. we say "yeah we'll go back" and then never do lmao

I've ended a handful of campaigns in my time. I've had two campaigns end and go into a new campaign, and both times the new campaign has fizzled and died quite early. It's really made me a believer in endings. We don't need to see Aragorn and Eomer fight the remnant orcs, or the evil men of the south. Ring destroyed, Sauron dead, story over. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't use the same setting again. I've had one setting persist for a long time, and every finished campaign has become a building block of the world. I skip time sometimes, years or even decades. Truly heroic characters become revered NPCs for future adventures, but direct sequel campaigns have always failed for me. Also, I've only ever had one campaign come to an end in failed that wasn't just "we all died, we're done" but was actually just a handful of the party dying and the players saying, "We like that ending. We lost." That through me for a loop, but it wasn't coming from bitterness, just acceptance of how the story unfolded. Personally, I believe every campaign should have an end point in your mind, as a DM, when you start. It may be just a scene in your mind, or a final villain, but you should have that in your mind to shape the course of you campaign, even if the campaign lasts for years.

Spooky Scary Skeletons each with plate armor, 200 HP, and enchanted great swords with 40ft speed. For Halloween

@Egalitariat-likesecretariat

7 жыл бұрын

Skeletal Champion cavaliers riding Bone Devils wielding flaming lances.

Huge epic battle.. then either the player characters are all dead, or hold an awards ceremony like the end of the first star Wars movie. And, yes, you can kill the characters when its the last session of the campaign. If the players get bad rolls and the enemies get good ones, it happens.

A a writer whose taken a recent interest in DnD I'd like to ask; how many story ideas are there where 4 or so humanoid champions are actually going to influence world events on a large scale through might of arms? For example: Any creature that could possibly be defeated by 4 humanoids could destroy the world, or even a kingdom. You might need to do a stealth mission to assassinate a powerful general/ king, and hope his army / kingdom will disintegrate. Or maybe a small party needs to rescue an influential leader from jail or take a vital message across dangerous terrain, but even these would be unlikely to have global consequences.

Well... usually there are two approaches to this: high and low level. Actually... its just one. The only difference here is scope. My players know they can die during the game, i always looked onto this as essential to keep the challenge alive. To absolutely reinforce that point somebody will bite the handle, usually very early on, so starting over with a new character has not that much of an impact for progression. Early on i did hold my players too much by hand and this is a way better solution by my experience. It just is. People start treating the game a lot more serious when you hit them over the head. So whenever i sense there is too much routine creeping in, i'd crank up difficulty. High level there are a multitude of options, like for example the Tomb of Horrors, Atropus (3.5 Elder Evils offers a lot of interestign material on the subject) and such. At lower levels there isn't that much material but there is alway the cthulian route and legendary monsters, not as a means for a combat encounter but as foiling a plot to awaken such evil. Its kinda a test of mettle, a gentleman's exit, so to speak. Either they fight for their lifes (and i do notice) or they are basically up to ending it, but with fireworks. Most of the time... it isn't even a consistentend notion among the group. Keep running with those who want to play. If you screwed up the world in the process... there is always a way into the next. Is that... is that a portal to the world of Dark Sun? Or maybe the city of doors? The Far Realm? It also really helps to sort out between players who like to play and those who simply tag along. Sometimes a bit of downtime is just the right thing, even for players. You always can ask them if they want to participate in the next campaign. Collect character sheets, you may need them for NPCs :)

I'm trying to end my campaign now. The world was destroyed and the characters are trying to put it back together/create a new one just like the old one. If they succeed I'm going to basically have them become the gods of the new world they create. Out of character I want it to be an opportunity for us all to do some world-building together as a group.

Well the DMG gives us an option under the disclaimer that involves Tiamat.

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Just out of curiosity, are you Ukrainian with your user name? -Nerdarchist Ryan

cheers from brazil

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Hey what's up Brazil? Home to the most beautiful woman. Nerdarchist Dave

@douglasbaiense

7 жыл бұрын

another Brazilian here :)

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

oh no they are coming out of the woodwork. Nerdarchist Dave

@jgr7487

7 жыл бұрын

somos 3! (there are 3 of us!)

@dylanflynn1895

7 жыл бұрын

random other appears! don't worry I'm a New Zealander

how you end it is obvious...after the final boss a tarrasque shows up and I think we all know the outcome of that...

rock falls from sky, planet burns and splits in two

@christopherbrase5307

7 жыл бұрын

LOL and two giant beings continue to play marbles with the universe

@JeoshuaCollins

7 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of a way I ended a campaign world. Comet is spotted in the sky, fulfilling an ancient prophecy. Comet splits into multiple points of light, points of light begin falling from the sky: It's not a Comet, it's the Elder Gods returning. Gargantuan Grells fall. Everyone dies. Campaign has yet to continue, but I'm thinking Dark Sun meets Underdark meets Pillars of Eternity in feel :D

"Archanoborg Survivalist Game" I'm sold. Shut up and take my money!

i have a fight coming up and im uncertain if they will die and if they do my buddy will dm and im sure we will start after the world is destroyed

1.I buy a awesome campaign game. 2.Plays 2-3 missions 3. Puts shelf 4. Never plays it again *cycle starts in another game😂*

in 5e defeat a tarrasque, in 4e defeat a tarrasque and Orcus. Those would be epic endings for me. And afterward have a way to describe the life of the character such as your rogue joins a new ninja guild in a foreign land, or the paladin becomes king, stuff like how Dragon Age would end their games after combating the main threat. and if you want, leave it in such a way that heroes later on could continue working towards a goal for your world such as with dragon age they can come back to fight another Archdemon or something.

The players are turned into wheels of gouda by an evil tyromancer

Unfortunately I usually run into players not wanting to keep playing.

How about you go through the epilogue, have everyone describe the bright futures ahead of their characters, and then roll some dice and say "Rocks fall, everyone dies."

or they just see the resuts as they goback somewhere

Is the guy On The far right on worst cooks in America

@Nerdarchy

7 жыл бұрын

Hmm, I've never tasted Nate's cooking to confirm or deny this fact... -Nerdarchist Ryan

un argentino?, puta la wea fome jkajkajka. Translation: cheers from Chile.

@aguBert90

7 жыл бұрын

Los chilenos cansan tanto

The campaign should not end before the players have vanquished every last god in the multiverse. Ending at 20th level is lame, that's when the fun begins.