Frequency of TPKs?

[Gilladian]

I've been playing since '76. In the first 10 years, I played a LOT of pickup games at the game shop. I really remember very little of those games, but I don't remember any TPK's. A few games where one person survived (often, me!), and many that fell apart after several characters died, but not TPK's.

In later years, we played more regular campaigns. Probably 2 games a week average, about 45 weeks a year. I remember 1 TPK in those years, during a supers game of sorts. I think several CoC campaigns ended in TPK or at least "mostly dead and insane"... but that was "expected" for CoC.

In the past 15 years, I've played almost exclusively 3rd ed DnD and we have never had a TPK. Some running away, some near misses, but no TPKs.

I'm also in a 4e campaign online, going on 2 years now. We've not even had 1 PC death, in that game.

 

[Dice4Hire]

TPKS re a fact of life in my face to face. There are only three of us and even when the DM plays a characters, three is not a lot. Roles are not there, the number of attacks is 60% or so of the recommended amount, and in a bad combat, things go south.

But it does not bother us. Sometimes we pick up where we left off, sometimes it is time for a new game

 

[Abraxas]

We had a stretch where every time we hit levels 5-6 there would be a TPK - that was back in our 2E days. It's still a running joke in new campaigns - ooohh, we're 5th level, Brian's going to kill us all now. Then it switched to levels 12-14 (near the end of 3.5). I've been playing since 78-79 and in those 31-32 years I've been in 15 or so TPK's (I've played in up to 3 different campaigns at any given time).

 

[Corathon]

I have been playing since 1980, and probably half of those sessions would count as 2 by the terms of the OP, so that's probably about 3000 sessions. During that time I have presided over one TPK as GM, and been a part of 2 TPKs as a player (both under the same GM). So 1 in a thousand is what I voted.

 

[wolfpunk]

Every other campaign.