Life after TPK?

[JoeGKushner]

Well, a 18th level Necromancer wiped out a 16th level Priest of Madriel, 10th lvl Fight/4th lvl Monk, 7th lvl Ranger/7th level Vigil, 6th lvl sorcerer (+2 lvls Pevishan) and a few others. Bad dice rolling and some stupidity on the party's part (like having no dispel magic spells or looking through the trapped treasure instead of helping to fight the necromancer in the first few rounds), lead to a TPK.

Now I'm trying to decide if I start a new campaign or wait for 3.5. There are other characters in the campaign but they're fighting the same forcers that the 'whole' group was against. This was supposed to be a little side trek for the higher level characters that turned into a bloodbath.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well hey, you don't have to have them be killed. Fiction is full of dramatic defeats and captures, followed by daring escapes. Hell, the villain's a necromancer, right? See if the PCs want to keep on playing in the current campaign, and give them the option of coming back partially undead. The villain animates them to send them to do his bidding, hoping that he'll be able to reap great benefits from loyal former-heroes. But the PCs (or maybe just one of them) manage to shirk off his control for a little while, long enough to get help.

Or the Necromancer just traps them and tortures them for information, then traps their souls and sends out his minions in their bodies to wreak havoc. Reak havoc? Reakk?

Anyway, there are lots of possibilities if you don't want to end the campaign. Of course, you don't want the PCs to assume that failure carries no penalty, so give them a chance to continue if they want, but make it tough.

 

[Cedric]

Back to basics for those guys...

Start em over at 1st level, and let them know ahead of time, you are pulling no punches.

Make sure you kill someone in the first three gaming sessions (only if it's appropriate obviously...if they win, they win). But make it tough on them.

Cedric

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

You could always run some oneshots or a campaign designed from the start to be short (perhaps setting background for your larger 3.5 campaign).

 

[JoeGKushner]

As far as the captured thing... No. Doesn't make sense in this case. The Necromancer is an old arch-enemy of the party from about 6th level (so we're talking real term months of game play and about 8 levels of xp) and he wanted them dead. One of the characters missed his save vs. Finger of Death in the first round (the monk-fighter), another killed by the traps on the chest during the second round. The third, the 16th level cleric with no dispel magics, cut down by a few basic spells maximized as was the paladin and the pevishan.

I've also used Dungeon World already as a 'back-up' if you will for some of these characters and while I could do it again, a few of the players have already let me know it's cool when used once with lots of foreshadowing, but used twice? It then becomes a 'clutch' if you will.

I'm talking it over with the players as well. They might want to do something where the focus shifts completely towards their 'secondary' characters ala Game of Throns or one of David Gemell's books where all the main heroes get wiped out and things have to start with new legends.

Make things interesting if the back up party mets Darwel though. (Funny thing is that I picked up Darwel in the old FFG module Darwel's Tower. He was unstatted and just a NPC plot line that's used to get the adventure started. Suffice it to say I've added quite a bit to 'em.)

 

[Dark Jezter]

Back to basics for those guys...

Start em over at 1st level, and let them know ahead of time, you are pulling no punches.

Make sure you kill someone in the first three gaming sessions (only if it's appropriate obviously...if they win, they win). But make it tough on them.

Cedric

I disagree with the idea of killing someone in the first three sessions... A player dosen't usually enjoy being made an example of just so the DM can show the other players that he means buisiness. If players think that you are willing to kill off their characters just to prove a point, it can really sour a gaming session (or even an entire campaign).

OTOH, if the players are being reckless and using moronic tactics, they have no right to cry when their characters die.

 

[ForceUser]

...looking through the trapped treasure instead of helping to fight the necromancer in the first few rounds...

LMAO. That is priceless.

 

[JoeGKushner]

LMAO. That is priceless.

It basically was the turning point for the whole encounter. When that trap took out the vigilant who rolled a 1 one his save... pitiful.

The worst part is that I use Hero Points per the Forbidden Kingdoms. Basically +20 to a roll to get critics, skill checks, SAVING THROWS, etc... In both cases the playes wanted to "save" them because they get 200 xp per point for them and they were afraid they'd need them for the 'damage' based spells, not the all or nothing ones.

 

[Black_Swan]

Why not have them come back as sentient undead? Just have them wake to the strange hum of ritual magic and have an explosion or something rock the chamber they are in. The Necromancer yells out to his lieutenant to continue the ritual while he finds out what's going on.

The explosion disrupted his spell and caused the pc's souls to become trapped within their corpse's...heck maybe even the bodies got switched up. Now you can have the players running around trying to find a way to restore themselves.

Just so they don't decide to stay undead for the "cool" resistances, have them slowly rot and suffer ability damage until they find a cure or decay and change to regular undead.

 

[Sniktch]

No easy choices, and I don't envy you, Joe. My CotSQ group just got nearly TPK'ed when a keening spirit (banshee, basically) showed up and wailed at them... all but 2 of the group's saves came up short, and worst of all 2 of the deaths were party necromancers, which unleashed a fair amount of previously controlled undead on the two survivors...

Yeah, the two who were left managed to survive and retreat but it really deflated my desire to keep the campaign going - bringing in new characters again (this is the 2nd near TPK of CotSQ) doesn't sit right to me and allowing everyone to be raised seems too, I dunno, too easy...

I would advise what I want to do in the situation, which is just start over at level 1.