When Does a Campaign End?

[WallyTWest]

I have pulled together a small gaming group, but had some questions.

One question we thought of- when do you gentlemen the choose to end your campaigns? You could hypothetically keep playing forever but what mechanism do you use to bring a campaign to a close?

[cuchulain23]

My group and I generally play a series of scenarios, in a story arc, and one of us acts as a GM to set up the story. Depends on how involved the story is as to how long we keep going. We quit after that and come up with a new story arc, switch GM's and play again.

[Basement Dweller]

That is an interesting question...and it seems to vary depending on the list I create.  I have runs some lists a very long time and eventually you just an old, beat up, multi-phobia old boss who is super tough but so beat up he decides to retire alone in his insanity after surviving so many encounters with unspeakable horrors.  Others, I get bored of the list I made or get excited to try something new.

The point value of your list really shifts how the game plays and the types of bad guys you have to deal with, so I think this is a big part of how long you want to play your list.  While your Threshold can get very tough, life can be hard for them as the Lurkers get extremely hard to deal with at the high point values and death becomes the norm.  Some times I just want to beat up some zombies and giant vermin, so I make a new list...

[WallyTWest]

I think that's part of the problem- there is no end goal. I could see the end of a campaign be to collect enough map prices and artifacts to play a "End Mega Battle/Showdown". A similar thought was you played until a TPK or death of a Nemesis.

Intresting note on the "GM"ing of a game to a conclusion. As I was making a few contingency lists I felt my lurkers were developing into a few very strong theme forces. It might make sense if Lurkers attempt to make an objective/evil plot happen. If they get a total of 20 points for their objective (Points awarded for agent KIAs, Winning Matches, Causing Black Marks exc.) Then the alien invasion/ evil plot/ old one is summoned and the good guys loose.

Sort of a Hybrid is after the baddies/a nemesis scores 20 points it triggers the bad thing happens scenerio with a fixed point value (ie alien invasion with 35pts, great old one summoned at 45pts, exc.) so either the heroes trigger the finial mission by collecting a total of 10 map prices or if their nemesis gets too good at his job then the MiGo invade at 35 points and your pathetic agency team is overrun in a scenerio they are not prepared for!

[Argonor]

With the new promotion system, the main character is not very likely to end up a lone avenger like in 1st Ed., so I think coming up with some 'end goals' for a current story line is a good idea.

I also think a Treshold team should be allowed further story lines, if the owning player wishes to continue using it, though. A lot of Work goes into playing a team up to 'anything goes' status, choosing and painting the models, etc., so although I'd like to start new teams from time to time, I'd also love to go back to an old, battlehardened team of veterans and take on truly powerful Lurkers.

[styx]

Well, to be honest the them of Lovecraft and other writers that this game is based on there really isn't an ending, but really the dark irony of mankind staving off doom and destruction at the hands of monsters and myths. So, having an ending to a campaign is well a challenge because it really never ends. But like a writer in a book series the story has to close out somewhere, the choice is will it be in one book, several books or a whole series of books that goes on and on.

That said, having a DM isn't a bad idea, or having the group be the storyteller for their games when they play the lurkers and they are up against other players, so in theory each player could have a plot thread....a head organizer could tie the games to a finale of some type, perhaps a mega battle of some type. Really once you hit the 15 win mark for Gallantry in Action, the gloves are off as to what games you can play.

You could set it to the first player to win 20 or 25 games in total is crowned the winner of the campaign and helps shape the story in the end at that point as a trigger.

[Uncle Mike]

This is quite interesting stuff. As Argonor pointed out the promotion system allows for endless play really. That said, I always reach a breaking point, for any number of reasons, and start another Threshold list. Always kinda seemed like an endless struggle, as Styx said.  I often use the number of Map Pieces I acquire to determine the length of the campaign as well, spending them on Quest Scenarios which lead up to a final plot arc that (hopefully) concludes the narrative.

I guess from a design point of view it was better to allow players more freedom to continue a campaign but you are always free to do what you see fit. The team really crammed as much as possible into the thing so that the casual player would be entertained and the addict could also be satiated.

[horridperson]

I haven't started yet but my intention is to do a generational campaign.  I'd like begin with a "classic" set in the 1920s that would be representational of my agencies early years.  I define the end point for a campaign era as when (but hopefully before; unlike too many seasons of a TV that should have been packed in) I get bored with it.  Ideally there will be some cool in game events that I will use as kernals for adventures/missions in later eras.

Next stop would be the second world war.  I have some Bolt Action British commandos I always meant to do something with and having them team up with some C.O.R.D. agents in Fortress Europe to disrupt Himmler's occult machinations would be epic pulp theatre.

To finish it off I'd want a modern era campaign with cultists who pass themselves off as insurgents and rifle ancient places for artifacts when the legit insurgents are wrecking them.  I like the idea of a "homegrown terrorist attack" on Gordian House that is a disguised cult action to raid their nearly century old library.  A diary from the twenties from one of my featured agents or an ancestor or....lots of stuff that would hopefully make for some fun imaginings.  I don't have any concerns about the system or the primary setting limiting possibilities.  I'm hoping to avoid self imposed limits.   

[horridperson]

After having a look at Grumbling Grognard's expedition planning thread I may rethink how I conduct my solo generational campaign.  In my previous reply I was considering tackling it sequentially and playing each era to boredom or a satisfactory conclusion.  Looking at it again I think it might be more interesting to build a narrative by playing the eras concurrently so the story of each group of agents grows simultaneously.  I like the idea of time potentially being malleable and the nature of eldritch beings and phenomena not being bound by or to one time.  Lots of cool possibilities; No Heinlein weird stuff just the neat stuff  .