How have you handled TPKs?

Party totally wiped out or perhaps one or two left. Campaign lost or in jepordy. Character plot lines shreded.

Can it be saved? Should it be saved?

Let's hear some good stories.

Lela said:

Party totally wiped out or perhaps one or two left. Campaign lost or in jepordy. Character plot lines shreded.

Can it be saved? Should it be saved?

Let's hear some good stories.

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Oh, there are so many ways to save a campaign from oblivion after a TPK.

- Have the players roll new characters of the same level as their old characters (I would go for an average of the previous PC's levels). Have one of them be a relative of one of the previous PC's, who learned of their demise, and decides to pick up where they left, to save the world/defeat the BBEG/revenge. Campaign goes on with but a slight hiccup, and gives a chance for the players to try out new classes.

- Same as above, but the new PC's are an unrelated rescue team that fetches the PC's bodies, bring them back, resurrect them... because someone needs them for a quest. They must accomplish that quest to pay back their savior. Make that savior less-than-good to add a little spice.

- Someone who knows them well learns of their demise, and decides to true-resurrect them (you don't need the remains for that spell to work). Very similar to the previous one, but this brings back the PC's right-away without the need to play out the rescue... however, 5 true-resurrects are much more expensive than 5 resurrects/raise-dead, the quest=cost will be that much greater.

- Old cheezy divine intervention, their god brings them back, but use this only once per campaign/character, or your players will rely on this to save their butts.

- They are dead, and their spirits soar to the place souls go. However, when the soul-gate-keeper meets them, he tells them that it wasn't their time to die. They are now trapped in some "waiting-plane" where souls linger when they don't have a clear destination. An Aasimar eventually comes to them, and tells them that they can either wait here until their appropriate time of death passes (which can be many years of gruesome waiting, especially for elves), or attempt to go through the well of oblivion. By going through that well, the players are faced with many mental challenges (puzzles and riddles). If they fail, their spirits will be lost FOREVER, they won't even go to the place they would have gone (Heaven ?) if they would have waited for their time of death, but if they succeed, they will be brought back to their bodies, a few rounds before they "accidently" died. Because they have a few rounds foreknowledge (they already lived those next rounds), give the players a +5 circumstance bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving-throws (you have to make sure they survive this time around, or all the previous scenario doesn't make any sense).

HTH

Trainz has some great ideas. Speaking from experience I have had TWO TPKs in the last year and I have taken different approaches both times. The first time we just rolled up new characters and picked up the pieces in my old campaign world. The second time it went down I restarted a whole new campaign world and threw a lot of twists in - jumped up the magic level among other things.

Lela I have two words for you, Dream Sequence.

I wiped out an entire party of 1 and second level players with a Yellow Musk Creeper and 4 Gnoll Yellow Musk Zombies. It was horrible and the players kept on fighting on and on until there was the mage with a dagger. The three Gnolls closed on him and then I had him make a will save. He rolled and I said that it was good enough and told him that he woke up.

I managed to play the whole thing off as pre planned but just bearly. Let me say that quick thinking saved my butt and the campaign that day. Hople that helps you out a bit.

TPK is no prob in my game. I have so many plot threads out there that should the PCs die, then they can make new characters and pick up one of these plots. The former party in fact becomes another plot thread. That is the previous party's actions still have an effect on the game world... So while the characters have stopped, the world and the campaign has not.

Aaron.

There once was a TPK IMC, although they weren't actually killed - the fight ended with all PCs being unconscious (between -3 and -8 HP, IIRC). It was pretty early in their career (level 2 or 3), so I had them survive.
But they were humiliated, and all their stuff was taken away from them. They regained consciousness hanging naked and upside down from a pole. They were able to escape and regain their stuff (but avoiding fights is so much more essential when you ain't got any equipment, it scared them plenty ). And it had repercussions in a very, very unkind way...

Worked out fine. It was a lesson learned (now they try to avoid fights if they're obviously underpowered), and in a recent adventure half the party turned on the other half (the repercussion mentioned above).

jester47 said:

TPK is no prob in my game. I have so many plot threads out there that should the PCs die, then they can make new characters and pick up one of these plots. The former party in fact becomes another plot thread. That is the previous party's actions still have an effect on the game world... So while the characters have stopped, the world and the campaign has not.

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This is pretty much the way I see it. I don't like anything that smacks of a reset button unless I'm playing a CRPG. Dead is dead. However, it's a big world with many stories to tell, just like our world. So a new party can start somewhere else and make their own history.

Now, if you're sick of your current campaign world, and you want to start anew, a TPK is a golden opportunity....

Death_Jester said:

Lela I have two words for you, Dream Sequence.

I wiped out an entire party of 1 and second level players with a Yellow Musk Creeper and 4 Gnoll Yellow Musk Zombies. It was horrible and the players kept on fighting on and on until there was the mage with a dagger. The three Gnolls closed on him and then I had him make a will save. He rolled and I said that it was good enough and told him that he woke up.

I managed to play the whole thing off as pre planned but just bearly. Let me say that quick thinking saved my butt and the campaign that day. Hople that helps you out a bit.

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Not to single you out, Death_Jester, but...

If I did this, my players would string me up and leave me to dry.
Seriously, this is (IMHO) the worst possible solution, because it doesn't allow the players to fail, also making their successes meaningless. Especially first or second level characters - were they that indisposable?

I vividly remember all the TPKs and near TPKs I or my players suffered - and hey, I remember them fondly. They are war stories, battle scars. When we were cornered in a haunted inn and slain to the last by low level undead. When the party was exploring some ruins and got eaten by a Shambling Mound.

Your session could have been awesome, the party making a desperate stand against the plant monsters and failing. It could have been heroism, and the material great tales are made of. Oh well, I guess that campaign was at least good once they woke up and moved on.

Near TPK...

The party paid the price for being over-confident and they deserved what they got. Depleted in spells and hit points after a battle with duergar, the party not only chose to press on without rest, they also proceeded with a light source and some bardic music, despite knowing that somewhere not far ahead of them may be hidden a dragon's lair. They only thing they didn't know was that the outer lair was what they were boldly marching straight into. The juvenile dragon heard and saw the party and had a few seconds to prepare...

Two characters bravely and quickly died in combat. Two others found the escape hatch and, running the serious risk of drowning, duly escaped with very little equipment.

Of the two remaining party members, a necromancer and a cleric, the magic user was toyed with before being slaughtered. The cleric was simply humiliated. Rather than kill the cleric, the dragon let him leave (by the entrance, not the escape hatch), taking the body of the magic user - the only recoverable corpse - in return for the cleric stripping his and the magic user's bodies of all equipment and clothing.

The dragon's capricious personality explains its action. It represents another assertion of the creature's control over its underground neighbourhood and all who dwell there.

It remains to be seen if the ranger and the rogue can rescue the cleric.

Whenever I DM a brand new group I try to do a TPK the very first game to establish my authortiy as DM.

































Just Kidding.