End Your Game As Soon as Possible

Oops, I think I just wrote a clickbait title. This isn’t about canceling all your groups or never playing tabletop RPGs ever again. This is about closure. I read a lot of anecdotes about TTRPGs online. I’m often saddened to hear about game groups falling apart and leaving everyone hanging in the wind, lamenting the lack of a complete story and wondering what could be.

When you contrast this reality with the stereotype of the 10-year long neverending D&D campaign, there’s a risk that you could feel like you’re missing out on something or failing to play RPGs correctly. I don’t think that’s true.

Below are some best practices that I think you can use with your group to avoid an unsatisfying ending to an otherwise great game.

Order sessions like a network would order a TV Show.

As always, almost all good RPG practices are founded on communication with your group. Talk about how long you expect to play a game. Propose how many sessions, be it 104 sessions or just 10. Knowing what your group wants will go a long way. If you want to play for a very long time, make sure you plan to do regular check-ins.

If you hit your planned number of sessions and want to keep playing, you can find out. These pauses can also give you moments to explore other aspects, times, and themes in the same setting or game.

Work on pacing.

Long journeys require breaks. Find the downtime in your game and relish it. Use these moments in your story to change up the pace, revisit your direction and themes, and make sure your group is good to continue forward with your game.

If you’re worried about fatigue, consider taking a brief break with a one-shot or mini-arc. This can often be a great moment for another member of your group to practice GMing and help share the load.

Look for logical endpoints.

In the moments that you’re getting exhausted or need a break, you’ll want a stopping point. As you run a game, think about the natural ending of arcs and move in that direction.

Beyond giving you places to take a rest, thinking of natural endings means that you’ll be engaging in the healthy act of looking for a good way to write endings and working to write natural ends to your stories. I think that this can help with the flow of the plot.

Check-in with your group.

Oftentimes, the flow of the game, casual table conversation with players, attendance regularity and more will give you a sense of when a game is ready to wind down. Don’t let those subtle cues lead you to avoid direct communication about the subject. Ask players how they’re feeling about the game. Ask when they’d like to be done, or what plot questions are still outstanding.

Sometimes talking with your players about their feelings on a campaign can bolster your mood and keep you going if they’re more interested than you are.

End your game before it dies.

I know this sounds cynical, but there are probably infinite ways an RPG campaign could end that are out of your control. Everyone in your group lives complex lives that inevitably take priority over the game. Even in the situations where closing off a campaign could leave some harsh feelings, I think being able to reach a point where the story ends feels better.

Never sacrifice your well-being at the altar of finishing an arc, but when the game is becoming hard to schedule or you’re noticing interest wane, it might be time to look for an ending.

A few tools for ending a game:

Announce the ending in advance.

This gives your players time to start changing their behavior, seeking out their goals, and taking the big, bold actions befitting a finale.

Narrate the journey home.

Briefly revisit the places the players explored. Find out how the characters impacted these places and revisit favorite NPCs.

Your character’s epilogue.

Let your players narrate themselves out. What do they do immediately after the campaign? If you’re curious, delve deeper. What’s the remainder of their life like?

Epilogues about the larger world.

Consider asking them questions about organizations, friends, or even entire places that they care about. Your players are probably pretty invested and it can be satisfying to give players an ability to help author the final state of the campaign. Be a fan of their ideas and trust them on this.