All PC dead, what to do?

[Derren]

Start a new game. Everything else would be very lame.

 

[Agamemnon]

Sod that. Starting over after 31 sessions, all undone by a stroke of bad luck? How's that not lame?

To me as a player it'd feel like a knee to the groin.

 

[Ciaran]

If the thief gets to take 20 on her roll to pick the lock, doesn't the PC in the room get to take 20 on the Listen check?

 

[Thanee]

I'm not happy, my players too.

Death isn't the end, it's just one more obstacle to overcome.

You could insert an adventure, which allows the players to play their characters while they are dead... somewhere else, where their souls go. Be inventive and creative, I'm sure you could do something very fun and memorable out of that situation.

Then, at the end, the characters will have a chance to return to life, if they succeed in whatever task is set before them.

At this point you could continue the current campaign...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thomas Percy]

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 is my first TPK in 12 years DM career,
so I'm little confused.

Have them wake up in the Shadow World. They need to find their way back to the "real world" because they don't want their souls to their final resting place.

So, I have another interesting idea to propose my players.

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?I'm sure it's only the female characters

And another, because only female character of fellowship was absent, and she will help her friends if she can play next session.

The rest ideas to handle TPK are (for now):
3.

Turn it into a capture scenario. The coup de grace was with a sap, not a shortsword, and each of the PCs was knocked out. They wake up in the prison of the guy who hired the rogue to get them, due to be questioned in a few days time. They then have the opportunity to escape from the prison, find their stuff, kick off the adventure in a new direction (and with a new enemy that they can really hate).

4.

My solution? Continue the campaign in the afterlife. All the PCs go to Limbo / The Astral Plane / etc. and have to earn their mortality back. After a couple of adventures, the PCs regain their lives and are shunted back to the moment before the assassin began to pick the lock. Now, with an extra level or so (in addition to being awake), the assassin fails miserably.

5.

I guess if the PC's have some unfinished business, you might want to consider letting them stay in this world as gosts, give them a time limit, limited area of influence and some harsh esoteric restrictions.
They need to either have it arranged that they get raised or finish their business within those limitation, otherwhise afterlife claims them and they are truly lost. Don't make it to hard, but fun.

6.

Well, it's not like the spell "Raise Dead" doesn't exist in the game. Just have an NPC raise them, but expect something in return. Someone could find a party of 7th level PCs fairly useful.

7.

Assuming that the PCs were sleeping in an inn in some sort of town or city, then their bodies will be discovered in the morning. The next game session could start with one of the PCs being questioned by a cleric using Speak with Dead. Once the authorities discover that a mass murderer in on the loose in their town, they may want to hunt him down. But their militia leaders are off somewhere else on official business, who could we get? Hmmmm. Why not make a deal with the dead PCs, cast raise dead on them, in exchange for a quest? A quest that is over and above finding their murderer. This gives the DM the chance to have the PCs take revenge, and sets them up for the next adventure.

 

[Thanee]

TPK = Total Party Kill or what you got there.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Agamemnon]

Incidentally, how much XP are three 7th level adventurers worth to a 4th level rogue?

 

[Crothian]

Incidentally, how much XP are three 7th level adventurers worth to a 4th level rogue?

Normally 3200 each, but as the situation highly favored the rogue I would use the rules for altering the XP down by 50%. Still, enough to level.

 

[Thomas Percy]

Thanks all for suggestions how to handle with game crisis.

I have another question for DMs on this topic now.
I assume my players were not fully responsible for situation described above. I don't want to make >>redo<< action, so there will be probably raise dead or something similiar. Lost level, XP etc. is something they (my players) will get over,
but
what to do with magic and mundane items?

Situation is like this.
The killer is little evil cowardly girl from some thorp. She has no equipement, no spellcraft etc., but she know - of course - mithral and magic items are expensive.
She killed all my 7th-level party, and she's shocked by her success no less than my players and me .
She done it in the inn. The inn is in the middle of hamlet surrounded with palisade with the gate closed at night. She knows there are guards near the gates, and at the top of tower nearby (they have commanding view).
She will try to sneak out of this hamlet as soon as possible - until down, and she can't get a horse.
So, imagine you are this killer, and suggest me please which items she can steal her victims and bring them away hidden with her?

 

[Thanee]

The small ones (no weapons and armor, but jewelry, wands and such). It's not unlikely, that she gets caught, too. Maybe they have dogs that can follow her trail by scent. She won't get too far alone.

Bye
Thanee