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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6613794" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>It would depend very much on context. That said, there are three main options open: follow through on he TPK; set defeat conditions other than PC death; or have some sort of assistance for the PCs arrive.</p><p></p><p>Here are some anecdotes from my current campaign that illustrate each.</p><p></p><p>(1) Before my last session, which involved the PCs launching their attack on Orcus in his stronghold, I told the players that Orcus doesn't fail forward: ie if the PCs die, the PCs die. (Would I have stuck to this? I don't know - it's not going to come up, because in the subsequent session, which took us halfway through the assault, it became clear to me that the PCs will win.)</p><p></p><p>(2) The only time in my current campaign when there actually was a "TPK", the PCs weren't all killed. Of the five, three were captured. One died because the rules didn't leave any capture option (he had already been reduced below negative bloodied hit points). And a second died because, when I gave the players the choice of having their PCs died or captured, this particular player preferred his PC to die so that he could bring in a new PC.</p><p></p><p>(3) In an encounter <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?330383-Underdark-adventure-with-Demons-Beholders-Elementals-and-a-Hydra" target="_blank">described here</a>, the following happened:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The invoker-wizard also came through the gate, in order to Thunderwave some elementals into the lava, but this turned out to expose him to their vicious melee and he, too, got cut down. In desperate straits as he lay on the ground next to his Gate (he was brought back to consciousness via some sort of healing effect), being hacked down by fire archons, he spoke a prayer to Erathis (one of his patron deities). After speaking the prayer, and after the player succeeded at a Hard Religion check, as the PC looked up into the rock cleft high above him, he saw a duergar standing on a ledge looking down. The PC already knew that the duergar revere Erathis (as well as Asmodeus). The duergar gave the Deep Speech hand sign for "I will offer you aid", and the PC replied with the sign for "The dues will be paid". The duergar then dropped a potion vial down to the PC. (I had already decided that I could place a duergar in the cleft if I wanted some sort of 3rd-party intervention into the fight. The successful prayer was the trigger for implementing that prior decision.)</p><p></p><p>In fact, as things turned out, the PCs didn't actually need or use the potion (they got lucky with some other desperate stratagems).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6613794, member: 42582"] It would depend very much on context. That said, there are three main options open: follow through on he TPK; set defeat conditions other than PC death; or have some sort of assistance for the PCs arrive. Here are some anecdotes from my current campaign that illustrate each. (1) Before my last session, which involved the PCs launching their attack on Orcus in his stronghold, I told the players that Orcus doesn't fail forward: ie if the PCs die, the PCs die. (Would I have stuck to this? I don't know - it's not going to come up, because in the subsequent session, which took us halfway through the assault, it became clear to me that the PCs will win.) (2) The only time in my current campaign when there actually was a "TPK", the PCs weren't all killed. Of the five, three were captured. One died because the rules didn't leave any capture option (he had already been reduced below negative bloodied hit points). And a second died because, when I gave the players the choice of having their PCs died or captured, this particular player preferred his PC to die so that he could bring in a new PC. (3) In an encounter [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?330383-Underdark-adventure-with-Demons-Beholders-Elementals-and-a-Hydra]described here[/url], the following happened: [indent]The invoker-wizard also came through the gate, in order to Thunderwave some elementals into the lava, but this turned out to expose him to their vicious melee and he, too, got cut down. In desperate straits as he lay on the ground next to his Gate (he was brought back to consciousness via some sort of healing effect), being hacked down by fire archons, he spoke a prayer to Erathis (one of his patron deities). After speaking the prayer, and after the player succeeded at a Hard Religion check, as the PC looked up into the rock cleft high above him, he saw a duergar standing on a ledge looking down. The PC already knew that the duergar revere Erathis (as well as Asmodeus). The duergar gave the Deep Speech hand sign for "I will offer you aid", and the PC replied with the sign for "The dues will be paid". The duergar then dropped a potion vial down to the PC. (I had already decided that I could place a duergar in the cleft if I wanted some sort of 3rd-party intervention into the fight. The successful prayer was the trigger for implementing that prior decision.)[/indent] In fact, as things turned out, the PCs didn't actually need or use the potion (they got lucky with some other desperate stratagems). [/QUOTE]
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