What do you do when there's a near-TPK?

[S'mon]

TPKs are nice and definitive. The party are wiped out. The players can make a new party more or less in the same campaign/setting, or you can all go do something else. However...

Say the adventure you're running is a bit too tough for the players & their PCs. In a battle, 2/3 or 4/5 are killed, and the survivors flee, leaving the bodies of their companions. What now?

 

[steeldragons]

Time for those whose characters were left behind to make new characters.

...who will probably be a bit darker and have a beef with the surviving characters...

But, yeah, the players of the deceased and left behind (assuming they will not be getting retrieved and raised) need new characters.

--Steel Dragons

 

[Argyle King]

I first pose the question of what next to do to the surviving characters. The current story could potentially continue with new allies.

I then ask the players what they'd like to do.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Old school, have the survivors go recruit some help (new PCs) and start again. Different levels don't matter. If these guys can salvage enough to raise dead on the previous characters, consider the new PCs henchman after the fact. The players are happy, because this is considerably easier than starting over with everyone at 1st level, in a game where TPKs are a real possibility.

More recently, I haven't had this happen. Character death has been infrequent. I've had two characters die on the same adventure exactly once since 2000, and that was separate fights--in an adventure that was billed by the patron as such a suicide mission from the get go that the party arranged to get two raise dead scrolls before starting it. I complimented them on their calculation of the odds.

I guess if it did happen now, I'd let the players decide how to handle it. But if they wanted new characters (all or in part), they would be the same level as the old ones. So it really doesn't matter much. We aren't playing to level.

 

[Jack7]

I've always let the players decide.

The survivors have always done the following:

1. Use relatives of the original party to stock the next round of characters, if any of the relatives or descendents (brothers, children, cousins) are of age. This the most common method.

2. Recruit from known NPCs or Henchmen or Retainers who wish to be promoted.

3. Roll up several new characters who are considered "New Recruits" who are then submitted for training and those that pass training join the group.

4. Or with the Basilegate (the team sponsored by the Byzantine emperor and the Orthodox Church) then the Emperor and the Patriarch will submit several new candidates and the players will choose which of the candidates they think will best fit and serve the Team and then the players take over playing those characters. The players can also roll up their own characters and submit them to the military (who oversees the Basilegate) and if the commanders feel those characters will make good Team members they will sponsor those new characters before the Emperor and the Patriarch for approval.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Time to ask all parties involved: do you want to proceed with the campaign?

If so, it's time to pull the replacement characters out. For longer story arcs I usually ask my players to prepare a backup character each. This backup has a defined connection to other characters of the group and this way has some sort of reason to join the party.

How this change is handled depends on the situation. A near-TPK somewhere deep in the dungeon could mean closing both eyes and just define the replacements as being there without giving much thought to some weird reason for this to happen. If it happens closer to the surface, I tend to cut to the next scene where the survivor(s) plan their next outing with the newcomers.

For old school-style campaigns where a new character starts at level 1 regardless of the survivors' levels, I expect more work from the players. The survivor(s) have to get out on their own and at least return to civilization in order to find new party members.

 

[the Jester]

Same thing we do any time the pcs lose one or more characters: make new characters for those guys and move along.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Say the adventure you're running is a bit too tough for the players & their PCs. In a battle, 2/3 or 4/5 are killed, and the survivors flee, leaving the bodies of their companions. What now?

Ummm.......I think we're gonna need some more FBI guys.

 

[Pilgrim]

TPKs are nice and definitive. The party are wiped out. The players can make a new party more or less in the same campaign/setting, or you can all go do something else. However...

Say the adventure you're running is a bit too tough for the players & their PCs. In a battle, 2/3 or 4/5 are killed, and the survivors flee, leaving the bodies of their companions. What now?

As DM I don't do anything.

It's up the the remaining survivors, with whatever resources are available to them. This determines whether or not the fallen PCs are able to be recovered and revived. Otherwise, new characters are introduced and the game rolls on.

 

[howandwhy99]

Near TPK? We keep playing. As a player I'd want to talk about what just happened, so we could attempt to keep it from happening again. A standard debrief really.