RE: [DL] Wrapping Up

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

At 06:55 PM 2/25/2003 -0500, you wrote:
 >  I'm nuking them all to hell.  ;-)

Belay that, Marshal.

The only time I'd recommend a TPK is when the players don't have anything 
invested in the characters like when you hand them NPC's to play* or when 
they completely bone the situation.  What you risk is leaving the players 
with a bad taste in their mouths for Deadlands in general.

(Well - I suppose if the majority of your players are Kurosawa or psycho 
anime fans a noble samurai's death would resonate with 'em - your call)

But here's an alternate possibility - end on a high note.  Give 'em the 
tough fight, the toughest that they can handle.  Wrap up /most/ of the 
loose ends and have 'em take a major major villian.  Let them know that 
they just saved the whole city/country/future/whatever the scope of your 
campaign is.

And then give them what almost never happens in an RPG - a happy 
ending.  Write up what the futures of their characters are going to 
be.  Tailor their endings to the character - but be vague enough that you 
don't end up stepping on their concepts (think John Edwards).
For example, a martial artist on the run from enemy martial artists from 
China would end up building a small temple in San Francisco and become a 
humble but respected member of the community, at some point work in 
whooping up on the bad guys and forcing a peace.
A Confederate Captain would go back home a respected gentleman and spend 
his remaining days drinking mint juleps and entertaining old friends such 
as Rangers, various Agents, people he helped that also made it big.
Or whatever works for the players.

The happy ending has the advantage that if you ever want to restart the 
game, the players' characters now have something to lose.  :-)

----------------------------------
* It was an idea in one of the DnD modules - the PC's were given characters 
like big name  characters Mordenkainen, Bigby, et al to play, only to get 
slaughtered in the first scene.  Then the player's real characters step up, 
and if you think that the players weren't psyched out by that, you've 
another think coming.  :-)   That's a similar reason why I like to do a TPK 
during demo games - it drives home how lethal the setting is and it's 
always in the back of the minds of the players as they play - BUT you have 
to be able to follow up with a real game in order to take the sting out.

-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

Lest we forget the echoes of the giants who came before us.