Endgame Ideas?
So BitD is a blast to play to find out what happens to the scoundrels trying to make something of themselves. However, what have you done to provide satisfying closure to a campaign or story arc?
My player group with the cult crew played probably 15-20 sessions and ended the campaign when one of the members moved. We plan to revisit the campaign again with the full rules later this year.
Fortunately, we were able to wrap up that moving player’s character’s main projects and story arc in a way that also instantiated their first use of the Glory Incarnate cult special ability (thus encountering a manifestation of their supernatural leader for the very first time). This coincided with supplanting their campaign-long rivals the Lampblacks in a climactic rise in tier and a big nasty gang fight. Bombs in the PCs’ Lair were involved, mysteries and twists in relationships and origins were revealed, and the leaving player’s character was the first PC on the crew to die (aside from his dad who originally founded the crew).
This was great for closure in our case, but really only centered on that one character’s arc. The others went along with it due to expecting to continue later on. Nevertheless, I’m curious how others aim to work toward an endgame in BitD, both mechanically and narratively.
To have a satisfying climax, I think you need to first have a big underlying conflict, ideally that weaves in each PC’s personal arc. I love the emergent player-focused nature of the system for regular play, but I’m less confident it naturally produces such an underlying conflict. What have you experienced? Similarly, in heroic games, there can easily be bad situations to thwart, or good situations to bring to be. In a scoundrel game, is there the same satisfaction in bringing about a bad situation (that’s good for the crew) or thwarting good situations for the world (that are bad for the crew)?
Should players work to identify for the GM (or can the GM infer somehow from player pursuits) a whole-crew big picture goal other than “move up”?
Is considering an endgame-style plot structure with rising action to a big climax followed by resolution even appropriate for this game?
I always try to gives the characters elements that drives their personal agendas, and do the same for NPCs. Intervining story arcs that the Players Comeup in the first few sessions with some epic scale conspiracies or secrets and start to connect formerly unconnected heists into a sheme that s slowly revealing itself.
I’ve been putting some thought towards this question as well. I started a crew and we had two players, and after about five sessions there was some restlessness, so we decided to go to the end of the year and consider that a “season” like a tv show. Assuming no cancellations, that will be ten sessions. We have played seven.
The initial group of 2 has grown to 4, but I’m going to focus on the original two for plots and sub-plots that need wrapping up. The others can find their stories in those bigger plot threads, I am confident of that.
From the very first session one of the players wanted to get into the leviathan blood trade, and that’s been a theme through the whole game so far. Alliances and enemies have formed around it. I plan to focus the confrontation and conclusion of the game around that illegal trade.
They found suppliers (who are weird) so that’s nailed down, but their buyers are drying up due to fierce Inspector action. Even a rival crew that was also in the trade has been broken up and imprisoned, and the authorities are closing in. Can they back the authorities off and find buyers for the goods? We have three sessions left to work out an answer to that question.
Two subplots too; one, a character is Chosen by the Outsider, so he’s pulled into this supernatural swirl of events that are chronologically confused and potentially involving enfleshment of a pagan god. We will want to get that to a good stopping point.
Another subplot is a character’s interconnection between his anger and killing power on the one hand, and restlessness and devotion to the Forgotten Gods on the other. The particular peculiarity of his situation is underscored by a protothought construct of Tsthoggua embedded in his psyche and the strange adoration the Dimmer Sisters have, where they’ve sort of adopted him. I’m confident there are some revelations in that situation that will break cover and shake things up, and that should happen in the next three sessions.
I really don’t know if the players will want to play in my Duskwall any more after that. I’ve got some house rules which causes some ambivalence, and there is some tension between wanting to focus on heists or wanting to focus on empire building that slows enthusiasm down. And, you know, life moves on and there are lots of games out there.
I hope they do want to continue, but my plan is to have a great conclusion to the first arc so either way it’s a satisfying experience.