D&D 5E Unexpected TPKs

[Murkmoldiev]

This post contains SPOILERS FOR THE LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER !!!!


We had a wicked very near TPK last night.

2nd level Wizard, 3rd level barbarian, 3rd level Evoker

Find where Wave echo cave is and head in .
Barbarian gets bashed to 1 hp in one of the first rooms due to over confidence.

They get out and set up camp, setting watches. I thought " ok on a 1 on a d 20 the Drow guys is out for a star light walk with his entourage " .... clunk ! A 1 .
( I dont have static Dungeons )

So I rolled all the perception checks ( Bugbears and spiders and Drow are SNEAKY !)
Sentry and the sleeping PCs fail.

1st round. Sentry ( Level 2 Wiz ) HELD

2nd round Spiders rush sentry - start eating.
- Bugbears rush sleepers- 1st hit crushes fighters skull. POW dead.
Wizard ( 3rd lev ) Wakes from the bits of fighter hitting him - leaps up and
burns the bugbear creeping up on him, then is missed by its attack.
Wiz hit by drow magic missiles - but stopped by his shield spell.

3rd round Held Sentry is Dead from too much spiders eating him.
Wiz Burns Both bugbears who are on him now , to death and jumps
on his horse ! Horse hit by magic missiles and goes down .
Wiz Grabs his spell book and RUNS !
A lot of high rolls later he gets away , hiding in the hills.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Heres something Funny-

PC A, B and C are on a quest.
( Lets say its a massive 1-20 Lev Adventure path )

PC A and B die . PC C struggles back to town and recovers .

PC C recruits PC A1 and B1 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters A and B )

On the second foray into the quest PC C and B1 die.

PC A1 struggles back to town and recovers .

PC A1 recruits PC C1 and B2 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters C and B )

On the third foray into the quest PC A1 and B2 die.

PC C1 struggles back to town and recovers .

PC C1 recruits PC A2 and B3 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters A1 and B2 )

You can see where this is going....

After a while everyone is some ways removed from the original goals
and reason of the quest -- all the plot tokens and story notes have been handed on
and on to Characters down the line...and there are NO original members of the group left.

But the PlAYERS are the same... Anyone seen this madness ?

At SOME point a player is bound to generate a PC with a wisdom higher than 3 who will decide that the "quest" can bugger off and find something more profitable and less deadly to do.

 

[Starfox]

At SOME point a player is bound to generate a PC with a wisdom higher than 3 who will decide that the "quest" can bugger off and find something more profitable and less deadly to do.

At which point the agenda of the game has moved from storytelling to murder hobos...

There are different playstyles. One of the things that differentiate between playstyles is the attitude to death. From a storytelling perspective, PC death is a failure of the story, all the plot hooks created around that character are lost. Other play styles do not have this problem. People play differently. Live with it.

 

[ExploderWizard]

At which point the agenda of the game has moved from storytelling to murder hobos...

There are different playstyles. One of the things that differentiate between playstyles is the attitude to death. From a storytelling perspective, PC death is a failure of the story, all the plot hooks created around that character are lost. Other play styles do not have this problem. People play differently. Live with it.

So because players wise up and STOP throwing themselves into a meat grinder they become murder hobos?

Color me confused. I would think that even if the players are in the game to tell a story then they might try and find one that their characters can survive.

Unless the play style in question isn't about telling the story of the PC's but more of "watch the PCs jump through my hoops."

 

[Tony Vargas]

Heres something Funny-

PC A, B and C are on a quest.
( Lets say its a massive 1-20 Lev Adventure path )

PC A and B die . PC C struggles back to town and recovers .

PC C recruits PC A1 and B1 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters A and B )

On the second foray into the quest PC C and B1 die.

PC A1 struggles back to town and recovers .

PC A1 recruits PC C1 and B2 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters C and B )

On the third foray into the quest PC A1 and B2 die.

PC C1 struggles back to town and recovers .

PC C1 recruits PC A2 and B3 to help him on the same quest .
( Played by the guys who played characters A1 and B2 )

You can see where this is going....

After a while everyone is some ways removed from the original goals
and reason of the quest -- all the plot tokens and story notes have been handed on
and on to Characters down the line...and there are NO original members of the group left.

But the PlAYERS are the same... Anyone seen this madness ?

Yes. Yes, I have. Things like that also happen when you have players leave the area and you recruit new ones (or even just have players miss a block of sessions for personal reasons), or change characters for some reason other than arbitrary/random character death.

You can end up with a party encountering something that calls back to an earlier plot-hook, and realize that the only players who were there for it are playing different characters.

 

[Nemio]

The first group of characters aren't the only adventurers in the world, and the trouble in town doesn't end just because the PCs bite it. Maybe one PC has a sibling or cousin who wants to know what happened and puts together an adventuring party to find out. Maybe a justice minded temple sends heroes to town to deal with trouble they've been hearing about. Maybe one of the NPCs calls upon an adventurous relation to come help with the brigands. As long as there are enough adventure seeds planted, it should not take a new party long to uncover the larger plot.

Indeed, I understand that but let me rephrase another way.
How can I get a group of new players going again after a possible TPK happens without losing momentum?

In the event of a possible TPK during their first session I don't want to let them create new PC's for example.
Perhaps I should have a set of backup PC's ready.
Or fudge rolls in case a TPK is about to happen.
Or have them captured instead of killed.
Or all of the above
I just need a contingency plan to avoid losing the interest of the new guys & girls.

The LMoP book says something funny about a possible TPK in the first encounter btw.
"In the unlikely event that the goblins defeat the adventurers, they leave them unconscious, loot them and the wagon, then head back to the Cragmaw hideout.
The characters can continue on to Phandalin, buy new gear at Barthen's Provisions, return to the ambush site, and find the goblin trail."

Ok, they were looted. Buy provisions with what money ?
And leaving them unconscious is nice unless you've got 3 failed death saves.