As DM, ever TRIED a T.P.K. -- and FAILED?

[Hypersmurf]

Several recent threads mentioning total party kills got me thinking about the ONE time I tried a total Party Kill (or knockout) - and failed.

"I dedicated my life to the study of meatgrinding. So the next time we meet... I will no' fail! I will go up to the players, and say, 'Hello. I am your DM. You killed my BBEG. Prepare to die.'"

-Hyp.

 

[Rel]

You know, while I love pretty much everything of Brust's I've read (Athyra was weak, and To Reign In Hell was.. interesting...), and particularly enjoy The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After, Paths of the Dead just didn't grab me.

I'm waiting for Lord of Castle Black to come out here in paperback. I snapped up Paths of the Dead in hardback as soon as it hit the shelves, but it disappointed me a little.

-Hyp.

Have you read The Sun, The Moon and The Stars? I enjoyed the artfulness of that one (though I still think the early Jhereg books are my faves). I think the problem with Paths was that it didn't really have much of a resolution and the one it did have was one that we knew was coming (assuming you had read almost anything else in the series). It also hurt things a bit that the book focuses on characters who we know and love less well than most of his other books.

I too am eagerly awaiting The Lord of Castle Black. Morrolan is a fantastic character in my opinon. He's got my kind of arrogance.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Have you read The Sun, The Moon and The Stars?

It's about the only Brust I don't own... apart from Phoenix (which I'll have to buy from eBay, I think, or wait for a new edition) and Lord of Castle Black (which I'm waiting for in paperback).

I've also lost my copy of Agyar, which makes me sad.

-Hyp.

 

[Kastil]

Sorry, couldn't help it, but this is a pet peeve of mine. Jumping through windows is nowhere near as casual a matter as adventure movies pretend it is.

Probably not. I once got so mad at my sister while bowling that I stormed away to leave. Instead of using that nice little bar on the door to let myself out, I threw my hands on the glass. It shattered...it was plexi-glass. Not supposed to break. I went through the door and received one cut that bleed like a stuck pig. Another scar to join the others on my right hand. This one happens to be no more than an inch away from that nice big vein. Needless to say I try very hard to control my anger these days.

 

[Darklone]

I heard about three accidents at school when someone "jumped" through a plate of glass... two got bad cuts, one did not get hurt at all. Lucky fella.

Another ugly story: A girl who is trying to become a fakeer has a performance where she walks on broken glass... even jumps from a chair into the glass splinters. One time she slid and fell on her back.

 

[Henry]

The one and only time I purposely tried a TPK, I did not fail. But how could I fail, if a TPK was my purpose and I was the DM?

Mainly because I have found that in my experience players get upset with DM handwaving; there has to be a plausible reason that they are hosed, or they balk at the situation.

In my case. they walked willingly, though unknowingly, into the trap the thieves had set up to rid themselves of the nuisance. Even though they (I) figured that NO ONE would be able to save more than two or three times against the drugs they used, one spunky little halfling managed to not only beat the odds, but (to use the phrase) beat them like a red-headed step-child and still manage to go for help.

Perhaps the term TPK isn't as accurate as "no-win situation" - I've heard some good example of this (like the Blackcollar example - that was awesome!) but it always amuses me when I come up with a plan and the players still outfox me in a stunning way. By the time the player had burst through the window and made two successful hide checks, I didn't have the heart to throw an unblockable obstacle in her way - she duplicated Captain Kirk's Kobayashi Maru, plain and simple, and I gave her the "win" without regret. Plus, at the end of the day, you can't beat the looks on the players' faces after an event like that. Mission was accomplished, whether the ambush succeeded or failed.

 

[Zappo]

I'm at work, so I'm afraid I'm paraphrasing from memory... but this reminds me of an exchange in Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guards.

Heh. There is a similar scene in Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times where a dozen or so 90-years-old barbarians (a lifetime experience of not dying) is facing an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. It's a pity that the entire hilarious quote is probably one and a half page long.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

It's about the only Brust I don't own... apart from Phoenix (which I'll have to buy from eBay, I think, or wait for a new edition) and Lord of Castle Black (which I'm waiting for in paperback).

I've also lost my copy of Agyar, which makes me sad.

-Hyp.

For a unique collector's item, take a look at this auction (Brust's Phoenix Guards - kind of):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3594839081&category=2229

I have to admit, it's tempting...

 

[Ziggy]

"Jumping through plate glass would be suicidal" is definitely pushing it IMO - I grew up on University of Ulster campus where my mother was a lecturer & campus warden, looking after the students. Drunken Irish students would often fall through plate glass windows and doors (plate glass doors & drunken students, great combination), and they pretty much all survived, though usually hospitalised. For D&D something like d6 dmg, equivalent to a shortsword thrust, might be ok - I'd say d10 at most, so high-levellers ought to be able to do it.

As a kid I ran through a glass door to a restaurant (it only had markers at adult height). Escaped with only a small cut on my knee, while the door was totally ruined. I still remember the shocked faces of the people sitting inside when I arrived through the door in a cloud of glass splinters.

.Ziggy

 

[drothgery]

I think the problem with Paths was that it didn't really have much of a resolution and the one it did have was one that we knew was coming (assuming you had read almost anything else in the series). It also hurt things a bit that the book focuses on characters who we know and love less well than most of his other books.

I too am eagerly awaiting The Lord of Castle Black. Morrolan is a fantastic character in my opinon. He's got my kind of arrogance.

The thing to remember is that The Paths of the Dead is just part 1 of The Viscount of Adrilankha. Lord of Castle Black is part two. Sethra Lavode, coming next month in hardcover, is part 3. It's not a trilogy; it's a novel in three parts.