Minor Deaths
When you’re ramping up to the end of a campaign, certain tropes begin to appear. The suddenly-expendable supporting cast is only one example. If you’re lurking with Gestalt in the World of Darkness, then political shakeups are in order. Factions declare open war, new Princes assume control, and the Masquerade itself may come under threat. If you’re flying high with superheroes, you can suddenly find yourself a rogue agent. Your handlers at HQ have betrayed you, villains have assassinated the mayor, and your favorite hometown landmarks are piles of rubble. And if you happen to be a sword-swinging wizbarian, you can bet your last spell slot that ye olde potion shop is closed for business. That’s because your town has been sacked, the thieves’ guild has gone into hiding, and every cleric in the temple district is busy tending to the wounded.
This will look different in every campaign, but the underlying principle is the same. The structures that make up our day-to-day play sessions are no longer necessary. Your beloved starship is finally allowed to crash. The time machine is irreparably damaged. Agro falls into the gorge.
It’s the tabletop equivalent of, “There are no more saves past this point.” And in that sense, this move functions as a notice to your players that the stakes are high. The end game is finally here, and there’s no unnecessary baggage past this point.
So for today’s discussion, what do you say we offer our own examples of the “no one is safe” trope from our our campaigns? Did you lose a beloved NPC? Did favorite parts of your setting go up in smoke? And did all of the above feel like a cheap ploy for artificial drama? Whatever your take, let’s hear about it down in the comments!
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Is this final? Is Summoner perma-dead? 😀
Ahem, ahem, *cough*!
Oh, nooooo~ Now how will we ever see Rouge again? 😉
She could either get a job with Lady Celestial or become an Unfettered Eidolon.
Unfortunately, Unfettered eidolons only happen in the case of abnormal deaths. And “Impaled by a Woman” was always a likely end for Summoner.
Through the stomach, though? I always assumed it would be up the… *self-censored*
Consider though: Being a total ass is Summoner’s MO. Therefore….
Summoner is perma-dead. You’re welcome.
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
…
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY, HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY, HAPPY HAPPY JOY…~~~~ 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIdRJlzERo
Heh, the one big “end of story” plotline I had planned got scuppered by the group before they even knew it was a thing. I reused most of the assets in different areas of the game, but the final showdown with the BBEG never happened.
Just a hint, do NOT show an ancient gold dragon who is grieving the loss of his child, the body of a baby gold dragon. After I finished all the rolls, he’d gathered a group of friends (of the dragon kind) and nuked the castle the BBEG and his underlings were meeting. Nice big puddle of molten rock in the middle of the city.
Glorithon finally got his revenge! XD
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/alternative-treasure-acquisition
So, not an end of story event, but it still feels like it fits the prompt.
So for a campaign I’d made this researcher character. I’d worked with the DM to create a hometown, backstory, an organization she worked for and the like.
I’d expected this to be mostly background fluff, people I’d send letters and reports to during down time
So we had our intro adventure, at the end of which the starter island kinda ceased to exist in a bad case of localized reality failure. This was all really spooky, and we wanted to know more. Now, the organization my character was a member of had been established to investigate something similar happening to another country a couple decades back. So I suggested paying them a visit, fully expecting to get diverted to the actual plot somewhere along the way.
We did not get diverted, we made it to my hometown just fine, met my friends and companions, reported on pur discoveries, helped out with local issues even as signs of a coming worldwide apocalypse increased.
And even then it took me way too long to realize that I had made my own doomed hometown for the DM to do the traditional inciting incident stuff to.
When it did happen it really set the tone for the rest of the campaign for me, with me constantly worrying about the safety of any NPC’s and places we visited. And that was despite all named NPC’s in my backstory surviving our town getting eaten by monsters from beyond reality. It really sold the ‘everything is fucked and nowhere is safe’ atmosphere to me.
It’s weird how the “I hate it when my backstory NPCs get killed off” crowd and the “I love it when my backstory NPCs get killed off” crowd both exist. I guess this falls squarely under the “communicate expectations with players” umbrella.
One long-running Oriental Adventures is nearing end-game / epic-level content. The players *sort* of know this based on their characters’ levels and the governmental rank of the party’s samurai (“jito”). Until everyone gets back in town, the game remains temporarily frozen in the midst of a HEAVY duty mission (I sent them to Tibet) that will result in their further social advancement.
What I don’t think they anticipate is the return of the only villain that made the *players* shudder, along with a few heavy minions. (I’ve been waiting to put this one in game, as it’s a painting the players are familiar with.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gashadokuro#/media/File:Mitsukuni_defying_the_skeleton_spectre_invoked_by_princess_Takiyasha.jpg
If a kaiju is simultaneously dispatched to each of five different locations (each of which is important to at least one PC), now they have a trolley dilemma. How will they possibly protect all of them at once, which locations do they sacrifice for the good of the many, and how do these “heroes” hold onto their vaunted status following the decision? As DM, I steeple my fingers and await the chaos.
That is a supremely badass bit of IRL inspiration. I hope you can come back to it soon!
Oh boy, I don’t have complete confidence in my knowledge of Shinto legends, but iirc (and interpreted the wikipedia article correctly) the Gashadokuro is indestructible. If the villain has the same power, I don’t think those minions will be needed. If the minions are the ones based off of the Gashadokuro in the painting, I don’t want to see the villain. Either way, I would love to hear how it goes!
In our Age of Sail campagn, we knew The End was Nigh when it started raining salt water. Then we took on supplies for the last time and gave the crew the “this is your last chance to get off” speech before setting sail for Carcosa.
Phrasing.
Depends on the exact supplies they took on.
I hope you punched His Majesty straight in the yellow!
The videogame ‘Okami’ does this no less than three times, once for each ‘major boss’, making you think that the game is about to finish / you’re approaching the point of no return. It only does that after the third time.
Gotta love the skillful meta manipulation. I was sure that the first Orochi kill was the end of the game!
How dare you remind me of Agro. The wound is still tender.
At least I didn’t remind you of Artax!
Oh, man… Artax.
That is a wound that will never fully close for anyone capable of feeling who ever saw that scene in the Swamp of Despair, I fear. 🙁
Not a game, but the film Serenity — which was made as a follow-up to the short-lived TV series Firefly — in one instant did a devastatingly effective job of shifting the mood from “characters we love doing dashingly heroic things” to “holy shit, I’m fully convinced that nobody is making it out of here alive.”
I won’t describe the instant, because it’s still a film worth seeing without spoilers (and/or because it’s Still Too Soon), but I wager that everyone who’s seen it knows the one I’m talking about…
https://9gag.com/gag/aB2EdOA
How do marauders clean their spears?
I rana Paranoia campaing I coumd swear me and players had competition wvo can kill off most charactets, plauets or not. Most memorable was when player was trying to get an NPC punished for percieved endangerment, the npc and player tie so Friend conputer decides that sibce both are convincibg the other must be traitor and excecites both on spot. And since memories do transfer, I got a reoccuring “villain” for free. Was the NPC memorable? well, Trey-(went through orange-yellow-green back and forth over the various encounters)-TOR was at least easy to remember.
Well I mean, that’s par for the course in Paranoia. You dirty commie mutant.
Commie mutant traitor you mean, your failure to properly evaluate threath of the commie mutant traitors is treason. Punishment for treason is death. Trust Friend Computer.
Oh no, i care for Summoner!!! 😛
Rip him XD
I’m not really a fan of that “okay, and now it’s serious” nonsense. If you weren’t willing to burn your whole setting down in session one, why bother trying to “suddenly there’s stakes” it later?
Nah, I’ll whack a beloved N/PC in the first few sessions if it’s that sort of game, catch the kingdom on fire immediately to watch the PCs scurry about trying to put out the flames. No, my Players know from Zero on, it’s serizz bizzinizz. PC death can come at any time, the ‘kingdom’ could be snuffed out like a candle at any moment, we could game over in the midst of any scene*. No handholding or coddling, it’s on from day one.
There may or may not be lulls, downtimes for healing/resting, or the pressure might not let up until the final resolution, it all depends on how the PCs handle things.
But the “and now we pose like it’s gettin real” is right there at the end of session Zero…
Ahhhh you get it! Nothing is safe. Safety is earned! And if I ever say otherwise, it’s in character and a trap!
I hope “the end times” does not signal that you are planning to end Handbook of Heroes soon.
Oh no, we’ve lost Rouge (probably)!
When I ran “In Search of Sanity,” the first book of the Pathfinder Strange Aeons AP as a standalone adventure, the players got really attached to survivalist changeling Cleric of Pharasma Winter Klaczka. I had added a subplot where the dimensional-breaking mind fog affecting everyone caused a resurgence in hag-like thoughts that Winter had mostly suppressed after changeling puberty. This was mostly intrusive thoughts like “what DOES that kid taste like?” which would never be welcome, but were particularly unhelpful in a highly stressful life-or-death crisis. The PCs learned of this and decided the best thing to do would be to keep Winter away from the other survivors by bringing her along with the party. She seesawed between being helpful or not in combat (not being optimized for it) and ultimately had her intrusive thoughts problems worsened when she caught ghoul fever. I had some plans for what would happen if she went back near the front door, but the party never went back there.
Thus, it was when the party was approaching the final boss room that I played my remaining cards. Winter completely lost it – I don’t remember exactly if she started biting an enemy corpse, or just broke down in tears trying not to. Then she seemed to have an epiphany, whispered “Mother” and tried to run away. The party tripped her and tied her up, leaving her flailing and screaming incoherently while they went off to fight the final boss and try to put an end to this. It had a big effect on the players, watching a character they liked be driven to such a breakdown. (I often tell this story in discussions about horror games – it’s hard to actually hurt PCs, but you can get a similar effect through NPCs.)
As a bonus, once the PCs defeated the boss and passed on into the Dimension of Dreams (long story), I narrated a montage of various characters in the aftermath. Winter’s appearance was just her, still tied up, sleeping calmly.
(One of these days, we’re doing a sequel to that campaign, and I plan to have Winter as a significant NPC, generally confident and doing well in the several years since the previous campaign. I think the players will really dig that.)
Rouge the Eidolon is going “I’m free! I’m finally free!”
Thaumaturge is going “Thank the gods I’m in heaven and he’s not.”
As someone who heavily, HEAVILY associates with music, I always have a channel in my campaign discords for music thematic to the story as it develops. It’s always been a point of pride to me to have a song feature both very early in the campaign, and near its end, but with the context around that song changing how it relates to the campaign.
For example, in one campaign that featured a time loop that wasn’t revealed until the final stages of the campaign, I used Dream of Goodbye, by Miracle of Sound both very early in the campaign, and at its ending.
Early in the campaign, when the party was trying to remember who they were and why they were there;
“I begin at the end, Time will buckle and bend.
Forlorn faces, running from the cold regret.
Empty spaces, something that I can’t forget.
All I wanted, was to wish the past away
But time’s the cruelest ruler that we all obey.”
And, at its ending, when the time loop was revealed at last;
“I begin at the end.
Time will buckle and bend.”
Well, in KAP (King Arthur Pendragon) the end is more or less scripted. Arthur, and Mordred, and most of their respective armies, die in the battle of Camlann! And as you are probably part of Arthur’s army, there is a very good change that you, and all your friends, will die too. Only if you managed to be part of Lancelots force can you have any hope for survival, as his army only arrives after Camlann. When we were playing the GPC (Great Pendragon Campaign) we collected all played, and retired, knights and others in their respective families who could wield a weapon, and using the battle system, played a whooe session of the battle. And eventually only two of the 20+ knight survived the fight. And those two were severely wounded. So, as is true for KAP in general, any knight(PC) can be, and will be killed
The adventurer’s guild stopped taking and assigning requests, as well as accepting monster body parts and cores as killing proof.
it’s a bit later the party learned all them ‘monster parts’ and cores were actually used to make the mutant army the gild used to try and take over the world!
“what were you thinking we were collecting all those bits of monsters for?!”
Say what you will about Ms. Gestalt, she IS efficient!
I mean, i know he was kind of a creep, but i was hoping his death would be a bit…meaningful at least. Like, maybe he did one good thing in his life before being brutally murderered like save the next class introduced character, or send his eidolon with a dying message to warn of impending doom, something, not…this. i dont know, just feels…pointless