Yep, that’s right. I end poorly. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Convergence games it’s this: I can’t ever figure out how and when to end a game. And after a discussion last night with Mark about it, I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

Looking back over my storied career as a GM I’m struck by the sudden realization that I’ve always been afflicted with this issue. While I can usually find ways to throw more hooks and tangents than a forest of trees can shake sticks at, I never seems to know when the right time and the right way to end a good story… or a poor one for that matter.

Let’s take a few examples from my most recent Game Mastering events shall we?

• The Spring Convergence Scenario “You’re all going to die” horror ended with a whimper as the party died a pointless death (which was the point, but it never materialized properly.) Now You’d think that this sort of game would actually make it easy for me to end well… sadly, it didn’t.
• The Spring Convergence Supers Scenario ended when I couldn’t figure out how to continue the story when every plan the bad guys made was either tainted or outright thwarted by the do-gooders (again what was hoped-for, but in my mind not in the way it should have occured.)
• The Fall Convergence Old School D&D Scenario just kind of fizzled at the end as the party frustration never culminated with the desired creshendo of, “Huzzah! We finally saved her!” It was more like, “Thank the Gods! That’s finally over… can we go kill the annoying people in this town now?”

And that actually sums up the endings of most of the games I’ve run over the years. The party either just keeps slogging along waiting for the off-ramp that never seems to present itself, or the game just withers and dies away to be replaced by antoher game that just plods along into eternity.

To be fair to myself, there are benefits to being able to keep a game running for a long period of time. And since people seem to want me to run, I must do some things right. But I’m struck by my inability to close a game well. I can close a session with a cliff-hanger just fine, but I never get the ending right. It seems that Arcs are my hang-up. Single sessions that will continue aren’t a problem, but anything that terminates the game is a real failing in my bag o’ tricks.

If anyone has any bright ideas on how to better develop the Game/Arc-Ending skill, then I’m all ears. I’m sure my players would appreciate it as much as I.

Up to 1d6-1 Related posts:

1. Do your worst…
2. I consider the March trip a success
3. Convergence: Not My First Choice
4. The ol’ Bait and Switch
5. Where it all began

Tags: advice, Convergence, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering, horror, rpg, Superhero