I killed my entire group

[mmadsen]

I have a brother-in law who was interested in D&D so I told him that one night I would do a one shot for him, his wife(my wife's sister), my wife and my wife's brother. I started them in the Sunless citadel, fully expecting that all of the women would be bored and just do it as a favor to the one guy who was actually interested. Everybody loved it and wanted to start a campaign.

Very cool.

Expecting that it was a one shot I hadn't put much thought into it and I wanted to create more of a world, so I told them that we would finish the module and then restart. So in the last encounter at the tree with the Druid and his wand of entagle I killed them all.

Um, not cool. Why didn't you just run them through another adventure? Did you really think they'd be upset that you hadn't created an in-depth world?

 

[EOL]

Um, not cool. Why didn't you just run them through another adventure? Did you really think they'd be upset that you hadn't created an in-depth world?

I agree that in hindsight I didn't need to kill them all, but as far as the restarting. The characters they'd created had no backstory, no ties to the world, very little personality. I suppose I could have done all those things after the fact, but I guess I'm just the kind of guy who would rather start from scratch then try and make amends midway through...

But yeah it was cool that they all got into it.

 

[Squire James]

My take on those tactics was that you as a DM was being very unfair if you decided to kill the characters off ahead of time. Not all retired adventurers are 20th level! If you didn't plan to kill them, and they died from bad luck, that's okay.

My only TPK was in a Rolemaster game, where a bad critical can kill something quick. Two PC's fell dead from the first hit they took, and the other 2 KNEW there was a Black Troll Martial Artist in the tower (and they knew how... unkind such critters were), yet they went in there anyway! It's been pretty much a running joke that my players carefully check all my trolls to see if they have "karate belts", even now when we're playing D&D.

I had a near-TPK recently when a party of 3 2nd level oriental characters was fighting an ogre Clr 1 and a bakemono with +1 frost nekode. The ogre knocked the samurai out quickly (not before taking a lot of damage), and the monk fell to the bakemono that everyone seemed to forget about (it wasn't a rogue or anything, just a plain old bakemono with a decent magic item). When the dust settled, the shugenja left standing was real happy that ogre only had 2 hp left when he ran out of spells (and that he had a chakram handy)!

 

[Trellian]

I think I've had 3 TPKs, and 1 where only one survived... last time was in Dungeon of the Fire Opal from Dungeon magazine, where the characters were ambushed by the tiefling bard when fighting the dragon... it was kinda hopeless for them, but they did not kill the tiefling at first, so they got what was coming for them..

anyway, due to some extensive magical item selling, they had enough money to afford a True Resurrection, so I let them be raised by one of the characters wife (who had connections in the local church).

Its one thing killing of the players (I can't say I hate it), but its worse that all the work you've made in the campaign, and all your plans go to waste.. so if there's a tiny chance that they'll make it, I'll let it happen.

Some adventures later, they entered through the portal of disintegration in Cradle of Madness... all but one died... and the druids wolf companion of course.. hehe.. the one character (a fighter) actually manage to finish off the adventure on his own, so I "restarted" the campaign around him..

 

[jasper]

How about this.
They wake up next week. To discover another adventuring party has killed or run off the ghoul.
But the other adventurers have looted your party leaving them only the clothes on their back, and holy symbols.

 

[enrious]

You might want to read the adventures of the Knights of the Silver Quill (over in the Story Hour forum)- when most of the party dies, they go back to town and recruit more members (new PCs)

They seem to do a good job with that.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Total Player Kills can be wake up calls to players... but for the players its usually very disorientating.

I think your group should have more than 3 players... only 3 PCs makes for very little insurance when the dice start rolling. One lucky critical can kill 1/3 of the group ... with 5 players the DM has more flexibility and is less afraid of overpowering the group (thou challenging them can be a problem).

 

[TheDayKnight]

Just my 2 cents-

We play D&D to have fun.

Total Party Kills are not fun.

 

[bolen]

I agree we do need new blood in our group. If anyone is in the memphis area drop me a line.

I also have a bookmark at the Player seeking players.

Note-- I think I was clear, I am not a killer DM. Quite the contrary. I was as shocked as the players

 

[med stud]

Its one thing killing of the players (I can't say I hate it)

The police usually dont like when you kill players