Ending TTRPG Campaigns | The Ironsworn Guyz Podcast | Ep 6
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- čas přidán 11. 05. 2024
- With Matt's Starforged campaign having recently wrapped up, the Ironsworn Guyz have a chat about their experiences ending TTRPG campaigns, but get lost a little talking about character backstory and railroading yourself before Matt finds a way to make everything about The Between.
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You two guyz are simply the best. I truly enjoy these monthly chats. You are masters of your craft and I look forward to everything that you do. Thanks
Thanks so much! Appreciate the kind words!
Thanks, chef!
I just had a conversation about this recently! It's not only rare to bring a campaign to completion, but because it happens so infrequently, I feel like people don't get to practice sticking the landing often, so a lot of endings actually still feel like there was so much to improve upon. I know it's not entirely the same, but I really prefer to keep my games shorter in length nowadays, somewhere in the 3-10 session range, which makes not only getting to wrap up a story more likely, but helps me realize different ways to approach endings. All threats dealt with and neatly wrapped up with a bow can be fitting, but many stories want an open ended "what if..." or loose thread at the end. Plus, with those, you can always go back for more!
That’s true!
I do think that shorter campaigns are the way to go. I wish I could play games like I did in college, but as an adult with a busy life trying to schedule with other busy adults, planning on 3-10 sessions is a great idea!
At about 38:00 minutes in you mention something along the lines of, "Wouldn't it be interesting if all the players were open about their character goals/storylines and helped each other achieve them?" - Which sounds like exactly what I remember about playing Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. To be fair, my memory is a bit fuzzy as I only played twice while the Kickstarter was still on-going and I haven't actually read the game ever in my life (in spite of backing the Kickstarter on the strength of those early plays of the game), but it's also exactly *why* I backed the game. (And also exactly why I knew it would be awhile before I found the right group for it.)
Because in a group game, that's how I like to play! As soon as I start becoming aware of the other players' goals/what makes them light up as a player if it comes up, I enjoy giving them more opportunities to actually have it come into play. (If, y'know, it makes sense to. I try not to shove square pegs into round holes or anything.) Most of my characters end up being very 'social' because of this, even if I didn't intend for them to be, because as a side effect of having a character pay attention to the other characters, they end up just falling into the role. If I want to play a 'lone wolf' type, I can only really do that in solo play because it's hard to keep that going if your character is always sidling up to the lone wolf and going, "SOooo.... You're a prince, huh? Doing jobs for your dad and he doesn't even acknowledge you. That's gotta be rough, buddy. Wanna hug it out?" But the game becomes a whole lot more fun for me when I can be engaged in /everyone's/ story at the table. (Though that comes with a side-effect of being leader in the pack of 'adopting' NPCs, so... I have ruined many a GM's plans to off an NPC because my character ended up ride-or-die for them, haha.)
Anyway - I just wanted to mention the game as something you might both be interested in checking out even for 'academic curiosity', so to speak, and give a +1 that playing that way is a lot of fun.
Also - re: the end of the episode.... One of the ~three times in my life where a spit-take would have been appropriate, haha. Thanks for the episode! Much thought was had, as usual!
This sounds super interesting!
I'm looking for a good eay to lead all three of my D&D games towards endgame soon, so this was very much Relevant To My Interests. Nice discussion, thanks for sharing!
It’s tough to tie things up. 3 games all coming to an end at once is wild!
Whoa, ambitious! Let us know how it turns out!
I can think of five occasions where games I have participated in have reached an actual conclusion; 1) the first D&D game I ever played and the DM had planned for it to end when we left school; and; 2 - 5 ) four Vampire The Masquerade games (two of which I ran), all of which were run as chapters of an ongoing story with planned endings.
Running games as chapters or like seasons of a TV show has become my default way to run games: it provides a nice conclusion to a game, rather than things just being left hanging (which was the unfortunate ending of about 95% of the campaigns I have played).
I’m starting to think that people prefer making characters and setting up campaigns more than they actually like playing them.
@@thebadspot There's truth to this. Also, power level: a good proportion of the games where it has just tapered off has been because the PCs should really retire or move up to another tier of gameplay.
@sanctumsanctorum4130 Also a good point
I've also started thinking of running games as seasons of a TV show, and not just because most of what I'm doing is running serialized APs for the amount of time it takes to finish an arc. Back before covid, I was planning a campaign for my friends that had a very definitive season 1 end. We never got to play it, but as I alluded to in the video, I'm using those ideas for my current Traveller campaign.
@@thebadspot > "people prefer making characters and setting up campaigns more than they actually like playing them"
I think you're right. The unfulfilled potential can be addictive. I love as the ideas start to crystallise. Playing the game often leads to disappointment, whereas the potential is unsullied.
Perfect end to this video lmao
I thought it would be pretty funny tbh
It's all Matt's fault, he's cheeky like that.
@@thebadspotIt was. I actually laughed at that one. Nice work!
@Eynowd yeah I thought it was pretty funny