How to end a scene?

[Ludanto]

Ok, I know when a scene ends, but I'm not sure how a scene ends.

Does it just cut off abruptly after the last conflict is narrated?

Does the person who narrates the resolution of the last conflict get to wrap things up?

If you didn't get a conflict you wanted on the table before the scene ends, are you just out of luck for not planning ahead?

I hope you can see what I'm asking here.

Thanks.

[Andrew Cooper]

I don't know if there is an "official" answer to this question.  Page 20 in the book says that a scene continues until the last Conflict is resolved but it doesn't go into any more detail than that.  I will tell you what I've done.

Most of the time after the last Conflict is narrated, we sorta look at each other and decide whether anything needs to be tied up narratively.  If something got left hanging, we can either a.) unhang it or b.) leave it hanging.  Authors of books often leave things hanging at the end of a Chapter, so I'm not upset should everything not get narrated.

If things are left hanging, then the person who starts the next scene can take care of the loose ends when he sets the the following scene.  If he doesn't want to do that then the loose ends could be dealt with during the free narration portion of the new scene by someone else.  Or the loose ends can just be left hanging until someone decides to set a new scene that deals with them.

Yes, you are out of luck if you failed to plan ahead and the scene ends before you put down a Conflict you wanted.  But fear not!  Save that Conflict!  There'll be a time and place for it later.

[Bret Gillan]

Yeah, you're out of luck. You want a Conflict? Get it out there ASAP, or bring it back in a later Scene. I think you might be able to spend a Story Token to drop the Conflict if it means that much to you.

[Ludanto]

Thanks for your insight.  Being "too late" for a conflict  was fine.  I just wanted to see if it had been a problem for anybody.  And as for tying up the scene, those are good points.  If anybody cares, they'll build it into their next scene setup or free narration, or even reference it in one of their turns.  I feel better now

[Joel P. Shempert]

This can go a couple of ways in my (limited) personal experience:

1) The narration of the final conflict(s)' resolution IS the ending for the scene. Since resolving a conflict is going to be the conclusion of something, iit can easily make sense to work into it a note of finality for the scene as a whole. Since you know the scene is ending with the conflict, you can (and should) work that into the narration. If there are issues left hanging , that's fine, even perhaps desirable--just the tension you need to spin the story off into the next scene, yah?

2) Instead (or additionally), you can easily add some sort of "capper" to the scene that lends finality/sets up the future conflicts. You can leave it up to whoever feels like it or who makes sense to do it, or I suppose you could set up some sort of system. Like in my recent game, at the end of Scene 1, following all resolutions one player narrated his Corrupt CEO (after leaving the scene with the other PCs) ordering the assassinations of the characters who Knew Too Much. It was perfect fallout for what had just taken place and set up our next scene beautifully. You should probably be careful and courteous about narrating contentious things into your "capper," but that's just good Capes advice all around.

Hope that helps.

Peace,
-Joel