Considering engineering a TPK

[Breakdaddy]

It was was like Pro wrestling's storylines: look too closely and it all falls apart...

What are you saying..? No.... Noooooooooooooooooooooooo, the wrestling is REAL!!!!

/world falls apart around me

 

[lukelightning]

I've been thinking about this, and I believe engineering a TPK because you can't keep people interested in you game is very similar to crashing a risk board because you are losing or taking your ball and going home.

The Ukraine is not weak!

 

[delericho]

Maybe, just maybe, you're not the ideal DM for this group and they're not the ideal group for you (vice versa, versa vice)...

The weird thing is that this is the exact same group I ran through Shackled City, and that was a great campaign. (Well, actually, it's the same group plus one player... but he's a good guy, a good player, and basically not the problem. I think the problem is that I expected to run the same style of campaign again, where the group's desired campaign style has changed while I was away. Hence, we have a clash of expectations.)

Anyway, as I said in an earlier reply, I've been persuaded against the TPK, for many good reasons. It does look like we'll be putting this campaign on indefinate hiatus, and I'll be running something more suited to the group instead. Which is cool.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The Ukraine is not weak!

That is a great reference for a couple of guys taking a game too seriously.

 

[IcyCool]

Another vote for "talk to your players".

"Hey guys, I noticed that you don't seem to be enjoying the game I'm running. I kinda get the impression you want to play something less serious. How about we fold this campaign up and try something else?"

There, now you don't even have to think up something to say.

Of course, actually talking to your players is significantly less viscerally satisfying than just killing their PC's. So it's your call.

 

[Nightfall]

Bah talking to uninterested players only makes the irritated. Just kill em and feel good about it!

 

[Agamon]

My last TPK was semi-engineered. I just wasn't enjoying the campaign, the players weren't having as much fun as they usually do (they weren't complaining, but I could tell). During one session, the players did something kinda dumb. I usually make them pay for that, but not usually with extreme prejudice. This time, I saw my chance to start again and gave it to 'em with both guns. End of campaign.

The best part about it was that they knew they acted foolishly and blamed themselves. Score.

 

[Nightfall]

Aggy,

Now that's just sweet. I give you 2,000 XP for that one.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

So, I'm at a point where I'm seriously considering just throwing an overwhelming encounter at them, wiping out the party, and starting a far less serious game.

Any advice? Thoughts? Anyone want to point and laugh?

First:
Talk to your players - not us. THEY are the ones you need to really be communicating with first regarding what is working/not working in your campaign and why. If they DO want a less-serious game to the degree that its interfering with your "serious" game, then you need a compromise or an understanding with your players. But you won't find that out from US.

Second:
It is NEVER a good idea to fix meta-game issues with in-game sledgehammers. If you want to end the campaign and start another then TALK to your players about ending the game and starting another rather than INFLICT a TPK upon them without warning and then expecting them to say, "Ha ha! How amusing! Of COURSE we'll play yet another campaign where you, the DM, feel like tossing a TPK on us at YOUR whim." Regardless of what you tell them after the TPK it won't do much to alleviate the feeling of arbitrary betrayal by you for the TPK prior to them being informed WHY.

Betrayal and generating hard feelings is not what you're TRYING to do, but it's the message you send when you're not talking to your players and they suddenly get this sort of response from you.

You say you want to do Savage Tide justice - but how CAN you if your suspicions are correct and the players just aren't up for that? So just save Savage Tide for another time and run a campaign that everyone can enjoy. SUSPEND the campaign after talking with the players. You can then decide later if you want to pick it up where you left it off or start that one over.