All PC dead, what to do?

[Olaf the Stout]

I say no way on the listen check each time a PC dies. The PCs were in seperate rooms, with their doors shut and locked. How much noise does it take to slit a person's throat?

I don't know I haven't done it!

Of course you're assuming that the person doesn't scream when you slit their throat. Yes you could argue that you're slitting their vocal chords but I think that you would need a bit of experience to do that without someone screaming in pain before you cut them. Whether a 4th level rogue has enough experience at this is debatable.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

*blink*

*Goes to look up that entry in Doom*

Ah, well, you see, my intent was... That is, what I meant...

Crap. You're right. I offer no defense here. I just screwed up the DCs. And I'm usually pretty good about doublechecking my numbers in the books, too.

At least you admit up to it Ari. As far as mistakes go, it isn't exactly a huge one. Chances are that she would have got through the door anyway. It might just have taken her a couple more attempts.

At least I now know to change it when I run that encounter.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Gundark]

Okay I admit to not reading all 3 pages to this thread.


That said.....about half way down the first page the replies seemed to be aimed at you a little negatively for not understanding the rules correctly. Okay so you may have done the rules wrong...there is no point in going over this, it's over and I think the OP was looking for suggestions of where to go from there.

Dream sequence....IMHO this is a bad idea, it just seems like such a cheap solution. As a player this wouldn't satisfy me and make a bad situation worse.

Also don't fudge rolls, the players will realise this and then it has the possibility to create a undesirable situation where there is no risk as the players will expect you to always bail them out.

Rolling new characters is where I would go with this, maybe they're relatives of the original PCs, maybe they trained together and have similiar stats, feats etc (for the players that where really attached to their characters, all they have to change is the name on the character sheet). Make what happened part of the story, this doesn't have to wreck your story. Main characters die in stories....that's what makes them interesting. In this case turn the TPK into something that motivates the group to get further involved (tracking down the killer). Part of being a good DM is reacting to curveballs that the players, dice, and mistakes (yours and the groups) bring.

 

[Thomas Percy]

DC 10 lock

DC10 is quite good DC for the lock in little inn situated in the middle of nowhere.
There can be no lock in such doors, too.

Dream sequence....IMHO this is a bad idea, it just seems like such a cheap solution. As a player this wouldn't satisfy me and make a bad situation worse.

Idea is good, but cheap, and I'm not Quentin Tarrantino to turn cheap ideas into cool-again. As a player I will imagine: "Everytime I will die, DM will turn it into dream now".
But I will ask my players, maybe they want they characters cheap, but alive, bacause they not feel guilty.

Why didn't the intelligent talking weapons raise the alarm or something?

Well, that's my another mistake, or it's a mistake of the player who has these scimitars. Anyway, non of us have Pentium inside his head .

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also don't fudge rolls, the players will realise this and then it has the possibility to create a undesirable situation where there is no risk as the players will expect you to always bail them out.

Again, fudging is just a tool, its not inherently evil!

Whether fudging is done at all depends upon the situation...and no, you don't fudge things so that everyone gets away scott free and rides off into the sunset with the princess and the pony every time...

You fudge only when it furthers the storyline or increases the fun of your players.

One of the last 2Ed PCs I designed died from a maxed-out crit from a 2-handed sword on the first swing of the first combat of the campaign. Hours of PC design, a campaign-specific PC history, etc...gone on a fluke roll.

The DM informed me that, had the campaign continued (several of the other players actually had to leave town before the next meeting), the PC would have awakened captured, not dead.

And its not like all of your fudges should be pro-player, either. Sometimes, you fudge in the favor of the NPCs.

I ran a campaign that started by having the party kidnapped by intradimensional sea-raiders...except the dice rolls were consistently going in favor of the party. Their initiatives were high, their to hits and damage were all well above average...they were winning despite being outnumbered 3-1 by NPCs that averaged 2 levels above them.

If I hadn't fudged that battle (by recycling the fighter NPCs), the campaign would have died stillborn.

 

[shilsen]

This is the kind of situation that makes me feel better and better about my house rule allowing action pt usage to survive a killing blow/effect, being rendered stable at -9 hp. It prevents death from such situations, while leaving all of the other repercussions of defeat, such as capture, loss of equipment, prevention from achieving some objective, or simple embarrassment.

 

[FireLance]

This is why the main door in my house doesn't just have a lock. It's got a bolt, too.

 

[Greylock]

DC 10 lock

Funniest ENW post in ages. Ages!

I roofled.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I'm sure it's only the female characters

I wouldn't want to either run or play in a game where such a level of paranoia was required all the time. Do they have to go to the bathroom in pairs too?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

DC10 is quite good DC for the lock in little inn situated in the middle of nowhere.

Considering that even the author of the adventure admits that was a mistake, and that a person with no skill to speak of is guaranteed to open it in two turns by Taking 10, no, no it is not.

There can be no lock in such doors, too.

I actually would have an easier time with this than with the DC10 lock...

Well, that's my another mistake, or it's a mistake of the player who has these scimitars. Anyway, none of us have Pentium inside his head .

I would call it the fault of both the player and the DM. And this is the point that I actually would back up time to - a mistake that was at least partly the DM's and that caused a TPK.

I have never caused a TPK in 3.X by a stupid mistake, though I have caused them in previous editions. I personally hate rewinding time, but if the deaths were caused by my making a mistake then I will do it. If it were entirely the players' fault (and they had a bit more reason to suspect an assassin) then I would let the PCs die. Learning to admit mistakes is generally a good thing.

This encounter just sounds like one to do a rewind on, with an explanation of sorts to the players. (Most likely followed with comments about lack of security...) Or, decide that one of the characters screams as he/she dies, waking the rest. (Thus serving as warning of security at the same time as getting the PCs out of a potential TPK.)

As a player this one would tick me off, but your group may have different feelings in this regard. Perhaps the thing to do is ask their opinion in the matter.

The Auld Grump