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<blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 6464500" data-attributes="member: 30022">Unless the TPK occurred near the start of a new campaign (e.g. within the first 3 levels), then it's time for a new campaign. Almost always the same world, but a different area and a different theme. Pirates campaign TPKed? Next is Ravenloft horror-themed. Then the next campaign is dwarves reclaiming the demon-infested halls of their ancestors. Then an urban political/criminal saga. Etc, etc.All new campaigns start at level 1.This is absolutely the &quot;social contract&quot; I have with my players. My players (8-10 individuals in 2 separate groups) would probably mutiny if I... a) forced them to keep going with a campaign setting where their established characters TPK'ed; or b) forced them to start at higher than 1st level. We start fresh each time, because the group likes to start fresh each time.We go through a lot of TPKs, and we play a lot of sessions. To give some numbers... over the course of 4e, we went through about 20 complete campaigns. Four of those campaigns reached 19th-20th level. One campaign reached 26th level. Most of the rest crashed and burned somewhere between 5th-10th level. Over the course of those campaigns, the guys lost about 250 characters. I know this for a certainty, because I keep a record of every death. Race, class, player, campaign, cause of death. It's worth pointing out that those are permanent character losses only. If a PC is raised, it's not recorded in the Hall of the Dead.During all that time, with 20+ TPKs and hundreds of permanent character losses, I've only ever lost 1 player from the table. And that was over a treasure-division dispute with other players, where tempers flared. TPKs and character losses are just part of the game for us.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lancelot, post: 6464500, member: 30022"] Unless the TPK occurred near the start of a new campaign (e.g. within the first 3 levels), then it's time for a new campaign. Almost always the same world, but a different area and a different theme. Pirates campaign TPKed? Next is Ravenloft horror-themed. Then the next campaign is dwarves reclaiming the demon-infested halls of their ancestors. Then an urban political/criminal saga. Etc, etc. All new campaigns start at level 1. This is absolutely the "social contract" I have with my players. My players (8-10 individuals in 2 separate groups) would probably mutiny if I... a) forced them to keep going with a campaign setting where their established characters TPK'ed; or b) forced them to start at higher than 1st level. We start fresh each time, because the group likes to start fresh each time. We go through a lot of TPKs, and we play a lot of sessions. To give some numbers... over the course of 4e, we went through about 20 complete campaigns. Four of those campaigns reached 19th-20th level. One campaign reached 26th level. Most of the rest crashed and burned somewhere between 5th-10th level. Over the course of those campaigns, the guys lost about 250 characters. I know this for a certainty, because I keep a record of every death. Race, class, player, campaign, cause of death. It's worth pointing out that those are permanent character losses only. If a PC is raised, it's not recorded in the Hall of the Dead. During all that time, with 20+ TPKs and hundreds of permanent character losses, I've only ever lost 1 player from the table. And that was over a treasure-division dispute with other players, where tempers flared. TPKs and character losses are just part of the game for us. [/QUOTE]

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