And They Lived Happily Ever After. The End.

I talked with some players the other day, and one topic of concern was that of unresolved story lines.

There are many unfinished stories in Clan Lord, all started by assorted GMs who, at one time, had a clear vision on how their story would unfold, or in some cases, would unfold the story based on the actions of players.  But GMs come and go – sometimes our lives change in a way that lead us away from Clan Lord – and some stories are left without a conclusion.

This is a bit of a quandary for the younger GMs such as myself.  I face numerous issues in attempting to resolve someone else's story line:

• Documentation on the story is either sparse or non-existent
• Unfamiliarity with the story and characters in question
• Visionary handshaking: will my story match that of the original GM's vision?
• How and to whom shall the story conclude?  Is it a large event which involves as many players as possible, or a subtle resolution to which a small group of players are privy?

I suppose that I shouldn't worry too much on how to resolve a five year old story, as long as it gets resolved.  Disseminating the ending to the players may be the hardest challenge of resolving a story.  We all want to participate in the Happily Ever After ending, don't we?