Our CoG guidelines say:
Every ending should be awesome, even if it’s a failure or a tragedy. There should be something dramatic and satisfying about every ending.
Examples:
- In Choice of the Dragon, the PC can get killed early…by getting struck down as divine retribution for setting themselves up as a false deity.
- In Psy High, the PC can get arrested, but have the awesomeness of knowing that they’ve destroyed the magical mind-control device.
- In Choice of Zombies, the PC can succumb to the zombie hordes, but have the awesomeness of knowing that they were able to not only save their foster child, but also get word out about how to fight the zombies.
- In Hollywood Visionary, the PC’s movie can flop at the box office, but get the awesomeness of having it turn into a cult classic
Finally, the player should understand why they got the ending they did. There should be enough clues in the text to show how the story led to that destination: references to past events, allusions to stats, etc.