Session Hero


#1

We’ve all been there: You’ve played through the better part of a campaign over many sessions and now, either through schedule conflicts, geographical relocation, or even waning interest it is time to end it.
How do you end this journey you’ve taken with friends (or complete strangers) in a way that is fulfilling and respectful of the time and effort you have all committed to it?

I propose: Session Hero
It is the epilogue, the denouement, the series finale. Most series finales fail on TV because you have a select few trying to come up with something satisfying for a very diverse group of people. But in Session Hero, the group collaboratively creates the resolution.

Start the Session with a turn order recall of the last mission (Previously on Goblins of Mystic Mirth…). Each player and the GM review what happened during the last mission and where the situation stands right now.

The next rounds will be “What happened next?” as each player and the GM create a moment or scene of what happened at the end of the mission. Feel free to add on to what another player has said before. When the players feel that they have contributed enough, then the GM summarizes and concludes.

Then, as with any great DVD of your favorite series, you have a few rounds of the “highlights reel”. Each player, and the GM, take turns recalling those epic moments (or fails) which really stuck out during the sessions. This will likely devolve into discussions of what’s next on the gaming menu. New setting, new rules, switch GM?

My goal would be for this to last one to two hours max. Just the fans paying homage to their epic creation.
Has anyone done anything like this? How did you execute it and what were the results?


#2

Dude…this sounds really really cool. It would be great to end a campaign like this and I’m sure everyone would absolutely enjoy it. I will keep this in mind with my own games.

:herocoin::herocoin::herocoin:


#3

I am blessed with amazing players, and so this process usually happens naturally for us.

I usually plan a denouement based on the story the players and I have created during the campaign: either they win, and all is right in the word, or they fail, and the world is irrevocably changed for the worst. That’s usually just a few moments of description from me.

In our last game, two of the players were down, and @JDStirling sacrificed himself to turn the doomsday weapon on their own location to wipe out the bad guys, then had the weapon destroy itself. Having done that, the world suddenly “woke up,” free from digital control. A final character, safe on earth, got to watch the last bits of the weapon burning up in orbit. We described those moments in terms of what made sense.

And then it’s worth letting the players describe their last moments in the game. For the player still left on earth, he planted a big kiss on an NPC, and got to have this moment where he rode off into the sunset with her on their bike. When she said, “How long do you think we have before the world ends?”, he responded, “forever,” then kissed her, and that was the scene. We all called it there as the natural close to the drama. We sometimes do this at the end of a night of play too throughout the campaign: “what does the final frame of the comic look like?” And then each player describes what that frame looks like for his or her character before we pick up the following week. That same tool can work at the end of the campaign too.

We did highlights later in chat, as well as a feedback session. That’s a post-game tribunal for us, and it was awesome. Ideally, that would happen in person over tacos and beer. Or pizza and sprite. You get the idea, but digitally is okay.

And then you’re right. Then we plan the next campaign.

I don’t know that you need 1 to 2 hours. That sounds like a lot of time. You might only need 15 minutes if the group agrees on how the story ends and where everyone wants to go. Or, if you’re doing it over chat, that might be an ongoing conversation over a couple of days. In any event, I wouldn’t plan on a time frame. I submit that you should let it happen organically and see how it shakes out. In any event, that’s always worked for us, and I don’t think you should limit yourself to a specific time frame.


#4

I agree that 1 to 2 hours may be a bit much. I guess I was thinking that it may naturally flow into a Zero Session or, more accurately, a pre-Zero Session. I would definitely allot 1 hour with the understanding that we may be done sooner. The outstanding group of folks I normally play with appreciate a bit of one-off chat after a session, so I suppose I was building that into it.
As always, appreciate your feedback.