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Yes it was evil and yes it was mean...but the players will be anxious to play for another six days.

Yes, Chapter 10 of my ongoing Rifts River Pirate Campaign ("Midway on the Waves") ended in a cliff-hanger.

The pirate groups captain, realizing that the long vendetta of the Black Death Syndicate had begun (through the death of a friend) became infuriated and led the P.C.s to the designated spot where they were mysteriously called out to.

Arriving at the abandoned airfield the group was confronted by one of the Black Death Syndicate's main goons, a chap named Mr. Halloween (they had met before) only to be told that their true fate lies if they are able to best him (and his Shadowbeasts).

The NPC leader of the group and one of the more prominent P.C.s rushed foward to where the true fate lay (at the northern hangar) leaving the rest of the group to take on the advesary before them.

Rushing foward toward where they knew a member of the "Seven Deadly Sins" (The Black Death Syndicate's main vendetta squad) was waiting for them. The NPC leader pushed onward at blinding speed (she is a "'Borg"), out distancing the p.c. that went with her. Just seconds later she was propelled backwards out the door, crashing into a wall - knocked unconscious.

Stopping for a moment to make sure his comrade was still alive, the P.C. proceeded through the doorway only to find the room in flames, a large muscular Bio-Borg in the center. In almost a growl, the bio-borg uttered a single line:

"I am Gluttony, the Sixth Sin...welcome to hell."

And with that I ended the session.

If you notice, I kept the little overview above brief...mainly due to the fact that I intend to post a synopsis of what happened so far when I get around to it. (a lot of posters want me to do so).

Eitherway, it was evil and mean but a great way to end that session...two battles about to flare up and a week before they do.

Ah, 'twas great.

I've done a few cliff hangers too.

Generally if a smiling player insults your parentage when you call the close, you've timed it right.

Agreed, and sounds cool.

Good one Josh. A perfectly timed and executed cliffhanger is a work of art.

What did the players do during the session, before the cliff hanger?

Noon wrote:What did the players do during the session, before the cliff hanger?

A lot of stuff.

Which may be outlined when I do the large synopsis. It was a mid-length session with a lot going on at the same time.

The events leading up to the cliffhangar rose out of cautious serenity with little or no dark themes to them. Although the session of the night before was full of battle and life or death situations with five of the P.C. coming so close to oblivion that they were sweating bullets out of character.

I like it that way, the pacing favored by J.R.R. Tolkien, dark events followed by light ones and so on and so forth. It keeps the Players on their toes and if done right will keep them guessing.

To further cement the cliffhanger, I am starting next time with over four pages of text (a story) of what their advesaries are doing at the same time. Mainly a large conversation between one of the Black Death's founding members and the upstart that now leads the syndicate.



EDIT: Cleaned up typos, added emoticon

always good to leave them on the edge of their chairs with a taste of what is to come

Reminds me of what a friend of mine did to a couple of his players in a Mage the Ascension game from WW. Basically from what I can remember is that one of them suffered a paradox backlash and ended up dragging the other one with him (I have no idea how those work), anyway they end up in a room that is composed entirely out of bricks with no door and an extremely large bundle of dynamite with a timer counting down from ten.
The rest of the party is in a battle against the Technocracy and the ST keeps bouncing between the two groups every round (3 seconds), the 2 in the room spend the first two rounds arguing and the third trying magic when the counter reaches 1 second he looks at his players and says "We will pick up from here next week."

The rest of the group apparently was running from the Technocracy at this point so that left them trying to open a magically sealed door.