Final Session
How have you all approached the final session of your campaign?
My next to last session is this Wednesday, with the final next Wednesday. BECAUSE it’s so narratively driven, after this week’s session I plan to hand out a small questionnaire about how players feel about the fates of their characters.
Question number one is: Would you prefer your character to live or die, or would you rather just play to see what happens?
Have any of you done anything like this? If not, why not and if so, how did it go over? Should we just play to find out what happens?
My primary reason for doing this is to set up my next campaign. My players know that the next campaign will take place in the same world, but at a different time. They don’t know yet, but I plan to set it 20 or so years in the future, based around a villain that they will meet for the first time in this weeks game.
I play to see what happens. If someone survives I let them retire their character if they want to, like the option for when you reach level 11, but regardless of their level. It’s fun seeing old characters as part of the world in later games. Though keep in mind that unless the player is ok with it, you shouldn’t have their retired character get killed or die of anything but age. At least that has been my experience.
Well, 20 years may or may not be a lot of time depending on the characters’ ages. If the char was young enough the player may just want to pick it up again, unless they reached max level.
If so, it means that this character is complete and may somehow take an important role in the near future of the setting. You should let the player decide at least the role and some achievements they accomplish. Once they did this you are free to build almost anything around it, with the excuse that 10-15 years have passed since.
Thanks Scott Selvidge and Shaken, Not Stirred.
I didn’t explicitly say it, but my players also know that new campaign equals new characters. So whether their characters live or die, they will be part of the new campaign as NPC’S or Lore only.
I’d play to see what happens, and then leave the fate of any survivors up to the players. Ask them what they go off and do next.
I always instruct players to give their own epilogue. “What happens now that Thrimgor, the greatest fighter in all the land, has lost his right arm?”
Thanks Jeremy Strandberg and Aaron Griffin.
I think I’ll skip the questionnaire.