How did you handle your TPK?

[reanjr]

So, at this point, the heroes from The_Universe's Kingdom of Ashes (see sig for link to the story hour) are 12th level warriors in midst a battle with all odds against them...

Though it probably won't result in a TPK, it very well could... so, I was just wondering if, in any of your long-running games, have you experienced a TPK?

If so, how did you handle it? Did you just quit that game? Write up new characters at first level? The same level as the characters that died?

Just curious.

--LizzyB

I have these happen more often than most I think (I'm kind of a rough GM; but when I tell a player his character's personality has changed to homicidal maniac, I do not expect him to promptly blow a hole in the hull of the sunken space ship they are occupying and proceed to boobytrap the engine system on their own ship and then run around with a shotgun blasting people in face; maybe I'm just naive). I console the players and ask them what campaign they would like to play next.

Recently I've thought of doing a generational campaign where the players play the descendents of the original characters or close NPCs. If any of your PCs have kids, this could be an option for you. Let the players choose the class they want, though stress that it is likely they have followed in their progenitors' footsteps. Equipment might be inherited. Start 'em out at one level less than when they died (two if they pick a different class). Make them reroll ability scores (don't allow them to simply remake the exact same character; it'll muddy the feel of the game).

 

[Arnwyn]

so, I was just wondering if, in any of your long-running games, have you experienced a TPK?

Sure we've had TPKs. Not often, but there definitely have been a bunch of them throughout the years.

If so, how did you handle it? Did you just quit that game? Write up new characters at first level? The same level as the characters that died?

The players just wrote up a bunch of new characters at first level, made the choice of whether to continue on the same campaign timeline or reset the timeline, and went on new adventures.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

Well-- not a TPK... but, we did loose our archer L'Aurel (she has her own journal to go along with the groups Story Hour).
She and my character, Justice, have a sort of special relationship and so, there will be the long quest in order to attempt to get her ressurected as those were her wishes...

Justice almost died a couple of times-- was dropped down to negative as she slayed the enormous white dragon... very dramatic...

Yay for no TPK!

 

[the Jester]

Congratulations on (mostly) surviving!

 

[frankthedm]

For a TPK I let my players keep thier XP totals for the next character, and I pay for the photocopies.

They don't seem to realize when things are over thier heads and that not all challenges are overcome by hitting it really hard.

Last time i thought for sure the 1d4+2 gargantuan voices crying to it's Father from 30 feet above the stone circle would have tipped someone off.

Two players, ranger-barb and fighter, went off into the woods, they were avoiding the other PCs for a few reasons, [casters resting, rogue building guild]. A few days prior, the group had seen the gargantuan clusters of indentations 'big around as barrels and filled with slime of indeterminate colour' heading all the way up into the hills. The keenest eared players had also heard an unpleasant voice from up in the hills. from time to time.

Since the other players were willing to 'burn they day' and they were not, they followed the trail of tainted and unnatural flora those tracks left behind. they questioned their sanity when they heard the chanting coming from the hilltops. They had to run from a psudonatural treant[who another group of PCs 'defeated' by burning down a forest it was in.] and a tainted orchard flinging bloated and exploding fruit. They were creeped out by the corrupted & dying ankeg [which the put out of its misery with arrow fire.] They were concerned by the crushed and drained out husks of large animals near the high hill's summit. They were not sure just what was going on at the stone circle. I honestly though the players at one point along this little expedition would have doubled back to town and grabbed the other PCs for advice and input[other PCs had a lot of good skills VERY pertinent to situation at hand]. instead they tried firing arrows at where they guessed it, whatever IT was, might be.

The arrows drew the attention of the Invisible / half-psudonatural kraken-like creature, which until that moment had been quite wrapped up in the long duration ritual. That two person party ended.

 

[Gnarlo]

Very rarely have we had any TPKs. The last one that happened was over a year ago; I used the opportunity to slip them into the world of Ghostwalk for a while until they were able to come up with a solution to getting their bodies back and returning to the land of the living.

 

[Dave Turner]

How about...

Spike the winning d20, football style, jump on the table, and do the Mocking-Jig as an impromptu victory dance, and screech "Dual Wield this, you Nerf Munchkins! How's that for broken! Na na na na, na na na na, hey-ey-ey, Goodbye!"

Then flee for your very life. If you stop to pick up your books and dice, they'll probably make you eat your d4s.

Actually, I've never managed a TPK. But should any of you GMs get an unplanned TPK, give it a try and tell me how it goes. I hear that you can type with a pencil stuck in your nose if both of your hands are broken.

Omnipotent wins! Fatality!

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I don't do TPKs as a DM unless they are plot-relevant. I have had two that I can recall:

1. In a fairly lengthy campaign, I had the PCs running two seperate groups; their regular PCs, and a gang of orcs, goblins, and bugbears who were working for the local head baddie. The second group was an intermission tale; once every couple of hours, as story demanded, we would switch to that group for a time, and the PCs would get to run errands for the villain, see a side of the tale invisible to their heroes, and have fun being evil. The storyline eventually wound up to the finale: the villain they worked for being annihilated by a much more ominous villain from days of yore, returning to take his rightful place as chief nemesis of the campaign. The PCs were given an option to escape, swear fealty, or defend their boss.....they chose the final one, an act of loyalty, and it was a slaughter. Everyone had a great time, though it helped that they could play their monster PCs fatalistically.

2. The second TPK was for a party of about 5 who were trumped by the villain of the campaign, they walked in to a trap which was almost guaranteed to kill one of them, and the rest fought valiantly but died. The storyline involved the villain capturing their souls, reanimating their bodies for himself and his arch lieutenants to possess as they returned to the kingdom to start a new era of evil rule; they couldn't let the heroes' souls pass on in to the afterlife (lest they warn their gods), so they were imprisoned in soul gems and sold to a liche, who was a prior nemesis from an earlier adventure who wanted very badly to mess the PCs up. The next game session, everyone was ready with new PCs.....but discovered that the story continued, a year later, when they had a chance to escape the soul gems and occupy homunculi bodies which they could shape in to their own chosen forms in the liche's laboratory.....resurrecting them, sans equipment!

The story was a pleasant surprise for all; they had been convinced they were goners, and instead discovered that they could return, and then seek out revenge against the villain who now had a year to commit terrible mischief.....in their old bodies! It was a wonderful twist.

As for unplanned TPKs: I don't believe in it, but it's not out of the question, and it has happened in my younger days of gaming. A a rule, I feel TPKs are disruptive to the storyline and character development, and so try to avoid such things. A group I play in seemed to have TPKs and near-total kills on such a regular basis that the DM has had trouble even justifying why the latest generation of adventurers are still out there, wandering around on the original quest of which no one PC currently in the group is directly connected to. The campaign arc over the last two years has tied in to the FR Netherill setting, leading in to Forge of Fury, then moving to an old Dragon module set in Myth Drannor, then the Deserts of Desolation series, where everyone remains so far. I lost probaly 21 characters in 2 years (two died when I wasn't even there), and after I missed one session and heard my sorcerer got toasted by a flame strike, I said hell with it, no more for me. Not one character in the tale had any meaningful continuity with the story, and the whole purpose of the adventure had been muddled by the constant party deaths. The DM is a great guy, but he lets the dice fall where they may, and that can be deadly, especially in old school modules with a lot of wandering monsters (which he rolls for religiously).