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The TPK curse
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<blockquote data-quote="Forrester" data-source="post: 547138" data-attributes="member: 1279"><p>Everyone is saying that this was an OVERWHELMING ENCOUNTER in which the party had little chance -- let's note that that's just not the case. Four 2nd level PCs against a Ghast and three Ghouls is a pretty even matchup, especially when they get to take a bunch of potshots early on. It sounds like it was a die rolling problem on the players' part. </p><p></p><p>I don't think the encounter was unfair -- it was challenging, but not unfair -- I mean, the party could have always retreated. They, as PCs, knew what ghouls could do to them, right? </p><p></p><p>As a DM, you have two choices: </p><p></p><p>1) The Heartless Bastard approach. Death happens. Next time they'll be more cautious -- and one might even play a cleric (though the way they were rolling, it sounds quite possible that the Turning attempts would have failed). Problem with this is that it might push them away from RPville and towards Powergameville, and it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do. </p><p></p><p>2) The <strong>nonchalant</strong> <em>deus ex machina</em> approach. As the party is about to be eaten and/or killed, a mysterious NPC shows up and saves their sorry asses. Maybe it's a good-aligned cleric on a quest of his own, out to talk to the party about a little mission he needs them for. Or something like that. The point is that YOU need to act like it was All Part Of The Plan -- you didn't just make this guy up to save them, he was going to be a plot hook all along. (Yeah, right!) </p><p></p><p>In other words, wing it. The party lives, they don't think that you rigged the system to save their asses . . . the hitch is that you need to do some quick improvisation on the spot. Shouldn't be too tough -- just don't get into too many specifics -- you can figure those out after the session is over!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Forrester, post: 547138, member: 1279"] Everyone is saying that this was an OVERWHELMING ENCOUNTER in which the party had little chance -- let's note that that's just not the case. Four 2nd level PCs against a Ghast and three Ghouls is a pretty even matchup, especially when they get to take a bunch of potshots early on. It sounds like it was a die rolling problem on the players' part. I don't think the encounter was unfair -- it was challenging, but not unfair -- I mean, the party could have always retreated. They, as PCs, knew what ghouls could do to them, right? As a DM, you have two choices: 1) The Heartless Bastard approach. Death happens. Next time they'll be more cautious -- and one might even play a cleric (though the way they were rolling, it sounds quite possible that the Turning attempts would have failed). Problem with this is that it might push them away from RPville and towards Powergameville, and it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do. 2) The [B]nonchalant[/B] [I]deus ex machina[/I] approach. As the party is about to be eaten and/or killed, a mysterious NPC shows up and saves their sorry asses. Maybe it's a good-aligned cleric on a quest of his own, out to talk to the party about a little mission he needs them for. Or something like that. The point is that YOU need to act like it was All Part Of The Plan -- you didn't just make this guy up to save them, he was going to be a plot hook all along. (Yeah, right!) In other words, wing it. The party lives, they don't think that you rigged the system to save their asses . . . the hitch is that you need to do some quick improvisation on the spot. Shouldn't be too tough -- just don't get into too many specifics -- you can figure those out after the session is over! [/QUOTE]
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