Ending a Campaign

[airhead]

We\'ve been running one of Dungeon Magazine\'s adventure paths for a while now. Starts at 1 and goes to 20th level or very near it. (3.5e)

We are closing in on the end of the series and have been discussing options for the end.

Other than basically retiring the characters, has anyone done something fun/creative with the end of a campaign?

 

[BarstoolProphet]

How many dead are expected?
How bad can things go if they don\'t conclude successfully?
Do any of them have families? There could be a \'passing the torch to the younger generation\' kind of thing.
Does the campaign conclusion have a good denouement? If not, can you make one up?

It\'s kind of hard to be genuinely helpful when I don\'t know anything about the campaign or the players, but maybe these questions will jog something for you.

Good luck.

 

[Shadzar]

\"With a blinding flash of light, the world goes black.

You awaken and realize you don\'t remember much but....[insert start of next campaign with new characters here]*\"

Somewhere along the lines of the new game you learn of the exploits of the old characters and that you were them and somehow got life anew in your new forms for some unfinished task, or just as a reward for a job well done from the gods.

You never regain all the memories, but jsut the feeling you have lived through those old things before in a past life.

 

[airhead]

(Savage Tide Adventure Path)

Currently they are 18th level and have journeyed to one of the planes of hell to carry the fight to Demogorgon, rescue their sponsor/mentor/lead NPC from a wonderful/terrible prison and kill her brother that has been turned into this great Death Knight/Aspect of Demogorgon.

The final adventure takes them to another plane of Hell (I\'ve only perused it) where they settle this dispute between Demogorgon and Gra\'azzt. Stop Demogorgon from setting off a large number of evil devices that turn large areas into mutated mad beasts (cooler than a tac nuke).

They will retire at 20th level (I really do not enjoy running campaigns in epic - way too much prep work to properly challenge the characters and players.)

My intentions are for them to become legendary heroes in the campaign setting - with the possibility of a very rare \'guest appearance\' as an NPC.

****

Another reason I am wanting a conclusion is that this may be the last of our 3.5 campaign. 3.5 and 4.0 are so radically different that I\'m not sure how much of my old campaign I could port into 4.0 - or even if I want to.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

The best retirement parties are ones that keep coming back.

Have them become features of the campaign world.

In my game world you can find The Hero Smedrin Alemouth at the Rusty Triden still blacksmithing and selling his wares. You can find Teal the Melodious and Swift at the Head of the Bard\'s Guild in Chardonton (ruled by King Chardon the III, grandson of a character from the first game I ran in the world). Etc.

I always start each new campaign 10 - 20 years after the last that way the old campaign becomes the Legacy for the new.

 

[Meph]

A great way of retiring become-heroic characters is make them permanent NPC's in the setting for future campaigns. Have the PC with the nasty streak become a powerful player in the underworld, have the goody-goody bloke become a ruler somewhere or a 'legend' amongst the common folk.

In short, they're great to use in the future as NPC's as they make have fully developed backgrounds and abilities that go beyond the standard quickly generated NPC's. You can even have any subsequent campaigns be a sort of 'sequel' to the old campaign with rekognizable characters and locations and other elements. instant story depth!

 

[Kaledor]

We retire characters once they hit 30... We are on our 15th campaign and usually takes us about 2 years to reach 30.

Couple of options we have used:
1) Demi-gods status
2) Epic Heroes
3) Legends - presumedly dead
4) Leader of factions
We continue to add them to the exsisting campaign. We rotate GM's so each has their own twist to the games.

- Arneson

 

[Lirkas]

My campaign took 20 years to reach level 30.
We are still playing.
Point is, end the campaign if this is what your players and the DM want to do.
Else figure something else or just keep playing.