thread: 2005-04-21 : Planned Endings
On 2005-04-22, Victor Gijsbers wrote:
I think that Emily points to the important fact that 'ending' can either mean "significant resolution of major plot conflicts", or "final end of the story, after which it can never be developed further". I would argue that the latter is impossible, but at least not very desirable; and that the former meaning of ending implies that long campaigns with many distinct story arcs actually have a lot of endings.
Of course, there is very good modern fiction which does not have the conflict-resolution scheme of most fiction, and there is nothing wrong with trying to capture this in RPGs. So endings may not be necessary - but I guess that very, very few of the games without endings are attempts to create modern or postmodern literature.
(Hm, I now realise that the latest game I've been working on actually does try to drive the players towards a "final end of the story, after which it can never be developed further". I retract my statement. Somewhat.)
