### A process, not an event (1:35)

> Greetings, oh dwarven dwarfs who dwarf on the shoulders of dwarfish dwarfkin!

> Recently, after 20-30 years of a role-playing draught, I started listening to your podcast just for fun.

> Thanks to you and your inspiration I started playing last week in TWO different groups: one in which I’m a player, and a family game which I'm GMing.

> Those bright new starts got me thinking:

When do you know it's time to end the campaign?

And how do you do it in a way that leaves everyone satisfied and\or ready to begin something new?

> May the sun shine on your rubies and diamonds,

> Roy Kehat

### When should you finish? (3:30)

The best litmus test is if you are all looking forward to next week's session, or not so much. When you switch from the former to the latter, it's time to make a change.

### Taking the time to end things (5:52)

It’s important to take the time and say farewell in a meaningful way. Don’t let the game dissolve.

### How to end (9:25)

To create a full ending you need three things: foreshadowing, climax, denouement/epilogue.

* Try and tie up as many loose ends as you can, start closing things several sessions before. A good ending is one you can see coming.

* Let memorable places and NPC have a moment in the spotlight, show how the actions of the PCs have affected them.

* Make a conscious decision about the type of ending you want to have, there are many types of ending: an open ending, a closed ending. You can also make artistic choices such as a bookend ending, reversal ending, back to the start, cliffhanger.

You can find a whole list [over at TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EndingTropes).

As a player, this is the time to go full out on your story arc, resources, etc. There won’t be a tomorrow. (And if there will be, in the next campaign, awesome, time to create some new developments)

### Epilogue

Because choices matter!

What happens next in the game world?

Each player tells of their character, the GM expands on the world, major and minor plotlines (minor are very important).

### What’s next for our group (22:50)

Keep the structure going. Game nights, one-shots.

If you want to continue playing together, don’t stop the meetings before you’re on board with what will happen next. One of the greatest powers in the universe is momentum, it can work for you or against you.

When a new GM arises, we recommend a technique that we’ve been using for a long time, and was codified in [Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/116551/Odyssey-The-Complete-Game-Masters-Guide-to-Campaign-Management?affiliate_id=29668).

### Summary (27:10)

### Taking the Load Off (31:00)

Uri - finishing my own campaign “Unrelated Incidents”, that ran for almost 5 years. What I had in mind: a “best” and “worst” moment for each character future, I’ve also considered playing a round of customised The Quiet Year for the city that we created since the campaign was very heavily city-based.

Eran - [Your Best Game Ever](https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/your-best-game-ever//) and [Pathfinder 2e](https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgt6?Pathfinder-Second-Edition-Launches-NOW)

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Intro and outro based on On the Shoulders of Dwarves by the Cliches Duo. On the Shoulders of Dwarves is shared under [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International](https://crea