Cliffhangers

[jizbrand]

I'm looking for some guidance and ideas, please.

Yesterday we played episode four of my pulp campaign.  Two of the previous episodes (Boneyard Blues and Pharaoh's Amazon Jungle of Terror) have had pictures posted here by one of our players.  I imagine he'll be posting pictures of our most recent outing as well.

We've been using 45-Adventure as our baseline rules with some house modifications.  And we've been gradually adding more of the basic rules with each episode.  By our next session, I expect we'll have the full rules integrated into our play.

Now, on to the main topic.  The previous two episodes both had a supernatural twist to them, and both focused heavily on combat.  So, I decided to try something different this time.  I planned to go with a Weird Menace theme -- it sounds supernatural but turns out that it all has a natural explanation.  And I wanted to focus more on skills other than combat so that some of the underutilized character archetypes could get into play productively.

So, we had another nice table setup; all the figures were painted, and the scenario was pretty solid.  Each of three players controlled a separate faction consisting of 7 grade levels worth of figures.  There were plenty of clues but they relied on players comparing notes (i.e., working together for a change) in order to collate all the information.  Everyone played in character:  Professor Peril attempted to stamp out the opium growers, Mandarin Wakizashi preserved his opium plantation intact, and the Japanese tried to maintain order.

I had wanted to end the session on a cliffhanger rather than a clear resolution, but the players were so widely spread apart that I had to improvise three separate cliffhangers.  I felt l did a poor job at improvising, and the end of the scenario was pretty unsatisfactory.

So, my questions are these.

Do most games focus on combat rather than information-gathering or cooperation?  If so, I'll structure the next episode to be primarily combat oriented again.  But to that end, should I be very explicit as to the players' objectives?  Or does anyone else rely on the players figuring out their missions as play progresses?

Does anyone use cliffhanger endings?  Or is it better to end with a clear resolution?

Finally, aside from the Wait action, how do others integrate the, "Drop your gun and put your hands up!" situation where it is clearly to the player's advantage to shoot or run away rather than comply?

Thanks for any advice.  We've got a pretty good group going at the moment, and I really do want my players to end a session with a good feeling of accomplishment rather than a feeling of unfulfilment.