How bad is the cliffhanger?

[trashHeap]

Ive heard lots of good things about Sandman, and keep thinking about picking it up to try running it with my game group. Though from what I understand the core mystery is emphamously unsolved.

How complete of an experience is it on its own? Is my gaming group going lynch meet when they discover there isnt a satisfying end?

[moofrank]

SPOILER ALERT:







It just kind of stops. There is almost zero information about what is actually going on, as Sandman completely lacks any setting or background material.

The basic structure is simple enough to tweak. It is pretty much a linear collection of scenes and environments and areas held together by an intentionally artificial structure. Like a cloud of mist descends and you are somewhere else. The end result is actually pretty linear, but occasionally opens to some very tiny one scene sandbox situations. It is designed for non rpg players and inexperienced GMs.

There is a hint of a loop running through the set adventures and I have been thinking about setting the entire thing in the Timemaster universe with the agents stuck in a loop in the middle of a Time Storm. I would drop hints about the nature of the Time Corps and the Sandman as a rogue time agent who started the storm via an event hidden somewhere in the time loop. The first pass through would run pretty straight, with dropped hints. Then they find themselves back on the train Ina Groundhog Day scenario. That would need to get a bit improvisational as they begin to screw with known outcomes, and if they want the same outcome for a scene as the first time through, just allowing them to wave it through. You could get through one or two full loops Ina session that way, ,warming that the entire thing wraps up in one or two more freeform sessions.