I guess I'm a REAL RBDM now - First TPK

[Allandaros]

I, too, just had my first TPK, sticking with my first RPG love, AD&D 2e.

The Fists of Light were wiped out by one of their own, the fallen barbarian warrior Brun (NPCized). Changed into a skeletal warrior, he killed off the paladin (who had turned to evil and pulled an Arthas), the elf thief (who also fell to evil), and the human assassin. The party's evil abjurer had been killed by the assassin, and the wild mage got cut down by the giant skeletons nearby. The party might have actually been able to pull it out, had skeleton Brun not critted the dark paladin...

Admittedly, I hadn't been expecting a TPK. But I set up two subplots (the abjurer's mentor was in the dungeon, and the paladin had been given word of a ludicrously powerful evil-smiting sword in the dungeon as well) which turned out to have been a bad idea to combine. Add to this the fact that the paladin leveled high enough to start using cleric spells again (he had dual-classed earlier), meaning he could quite sneakily charm the unsuspecting abjurer.

I'm not going to continue the campaign further, I think (although the two surviving PCs not present at the massacre might come back for another game sometime).

 

[Morpheus]

Do it two or three more times and then we'll talk. I remember just recently having a group of PCs TPKed, not once, but twice by the same minotaur. The first time they were unlucky with some traps right before the encounter. The second time, they were unlucky with the dice rolls. On second thought, they're always unlucky with the dice rolls. Good times, good times.

 

[Berandor]

Am I wrong or do TPK and Rat Bastard DMs not necessarily go hand in hand?

I also ask for the sake of my players, mind you.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

You probably couldn't go wrong with "Killer DM" in a pinch.

Well, I like to think I just give the players enough rope to hang themselves. Besides, since most of those deaths were running "The Rod of Seven Parts" and "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" (twice), I like to think they authors are the killer DMs.

 

[Rel]

Am I wrong or do TPK and Rat Bastard DMs not necessarily go hand in hand?

IMHO, not necessarily. I've been considered (by myself and my players) to have been a RBDM for quite some time. But despite all the nastiness I'd thrown at the players I had never had a TPK to happen. I'm not proud of it and I certainly wasn't gunning for them but I didn't shy away from it once it became the only plausible outcome of the situation.

I guess I view it as something that is likely to happen to every RBDM given enough time and the vagaries of the dice.

 

[Berandor]

IMHO, not necessarily. I've been considered (by myself and my players) to have been a RBDM for quite some time. But despite all the nastiness I'd thrown at the players I had never had a TPK to happen. I'm not proud of it and I certainly wasn't gunning for them but I didn't shy away from it once it became the only plausible outcome of the situation.

I guess I view it as something that is likely to happen to every RBDM given enough time and the vagaries of the dice.

On behalf of my players, I say "Thanks!".

On behalf of myself, "Damn."

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I guess I'm lucky that I've never had a TPK, but I've had close. (Sometimes a near TPK occurs because the players won't flee. I've had three near-TPKs that I can think of, although one was the players' fault.)

Do you think those druid feats might be overpowered? In a campaign I'm an Eberron player in, the only new druid feats that can be used is Child of Winter (as it doesn't actually make the druid more powerful, just more flexible).

My group is to the point where I have a hard time determining what to throw at them.

Same here!

 

[Quasqueton]

In 25 years of DMing, I've had, I think, 6 TPKs (or very near TPKs). 3 of these happened since D&D3 in 2000. The last 2 happened with the same (current) group.

So far, in our current campaign, we've gone 20 game sessions without a single party death. Uh, well, actually, there've been 4 party deaths, but 2 were NPCs, and all were caused through intraparty battle (on the same adventure). And 1 of the PCs was raised, and the other rose as an undead. So, actually, the original PCs are still adventuring, (though one, technically, is dead).

Quasqueton

 

[Henry]

Never had a TPK. Rel is mean!

Ain't nothing quite like a good group of friends, is there?

Glad to hear the Eberron game will continue.

A moment of silence for the former heroes of Sharn...

 

[Sagiro]

Am I wrong or do TPK and Rat Bastard DMs not necessarily go hand in hand?

I also ask for the sake of my players, mind you.

Using only myself as an example, I'd say not.

On the one hand, I get called a Rat Bastard on a regular basis by my players and Story Hour readers.

On the other, I've been running the same game for almost 10 years, the characters who started at 1st level are now in the 14th to 16th range, and I've had TWO real* PC deaths in all of that time. Two! It's not for lack of trying, mind you, but the party is large, healer-heavy, and very concerned with taking care of one another in combats. I just can't seem to kill 'em!

-Sagiro

* I did, in one battle, kill two PC's in a "dream combat" of sorts, for which the penalty was a permanent -2 WIS penalty.