Never TPK'd

[wolff96]

Came very, very close last Saturday.

I'm a player in a campaign. The DM has repeatedly warned us that he doesn't follow CRs closely -- that the occasional need to run is both expected and necessary if we want to survive. So far, we've been mostly lucky when we get in over our heads.

This weekend, however, the party rogue was kidnapped from a city prison and we set out to find him. A note was delivered to the Inn where the party was staying, saying that they wanted us to show up and return an item that (before I joined) the party had taken from an evil wizard.

We went out and fought them. The fight should have been far too tough for us, but we managed to use the terrain against them (I'm a druid, it's my specialty... ) and win the fight with good tactics. End result: Everyone dead but me, including my animal companion and all of our attackers.

In looting the bodies, I found a note -- they had been sent specifically to deal with us. They were bounty-hunters hired to kill us.

-----------------------

TPKs -- or even near TPKs like that one -- don't bother me at all when they are for story reasons.

If the DM is just killing to be killing, I'll leave. But if it's my fault or has a story line basis, then I want the world to be lethal. Otherwise, what's the point?

 

[Dagger75]

TPK's, as a DM I have never had a TPK.

As a player for D&D, never been in a TPK, I have been killed but never the whole party.

Now Cthulu is another story. I think the rules say TPK's are required Just so everybody knows in my 17 years of gaming I have never lived trough a Cthulu game. My characters ALWAYS die and almost always by the party. Come to think of it I have probably been murdered more by the party than by the flesh eating zombies.

 

[megamania]

I have had only two TPK's when I was GMing. The first was due to dice and too this day I laugh at it. Under Mountain Setting in Darksun I had two Skeletons riding Skeletal Frogs attack my group of four which included a 1/2 Giant. Not one but both skeletons rolled 20's! The party lasted about two rounds after that.
The other time was bad planning on the player parts. I set it up where as 8-10th level characters we faced 20-30 skeletons surging through a narrow door. It was designed to allow two PCs to get the EXP they needed to reach 9th level so I could bring in the main villain- a Psionic Lich (Darksun again). Instead of holding the door and allowing only one to exit a round they either charged through the door into the mass or held back allowing them to overrun them outside. We called it a game when the last two surviving characters had 3 HP between them.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I never try to kill the players. But sometimes my hot dice hand can wreak havok on the best of parties. Sometimes PC's run into things they cannot defeat, they should know they have to run sometimes. If they don't...what can I do?

 

[Voadam]

I played in one where our very high level characters were just easily outmatched in one round by the god the DM had us go against.

 

[Arnwyn]

I've had about 5 or 6 TPKs in the 11 years or so of gaming, but most of those were when the players were rather inexperienced and insisted solving every problem through swords and spells. I haven't had a TPK in 5 years now, and am thankful that the players have (slowly) smartened up. All the TPKs have come through player incompetence.

I despise TPKs, and as a DM want to avoid them at all costs. However, I still will have tough encounters, as well as encounters that PCs should run from or negotiate through. Otherwise, as a poster above noted, what's the point? Time to quit the game and take up knitting.

So, to the originator of this thread - *that's* how it works. I don't try to have a TPK, but if the players are incompetent, then I refuse to save their sorry behinds - because that's even *worse* than a TPK. YMMV.

Edit: added something.

 

[reveal]

Once. I have done it once but I actually meant to do it, kind of. I was getting burned out on DMing and wanted to take a break. My players all loved their PCs and didn't want to quit, so I told them we would just take a break for now and come back with them in a few months (someone else would DM in the meantime).

The party had been chasing the MBG (Main Bad Guy) for the whole campaign and caught up to him. Of course, they thought they would be able to go in and clean up, since it was the end of the campaign. Well, the party went through a dungeon and was "surprised" by some fungus growing on the walls. I HAD planned on them being killed by the bad guys, but they ended up failing saving throws and having hallucinations and killing each other.

They were definitely shocked, but I assured them that all would be enlightened when we started up again.

 

[jdavis]

TPK's, as a DM I have never had a TPK.

As a player for D&D, never been in a TPK, I have been killed but never the whole party.

Now Cthulu is another story. I think the rules say TPK's are required Just so everybody knows in my 17 years of gaming I have never lived trough a Cthulu game. My characters ALWAYS die and almost always by the party. Come to think of it I have probably been murdered more by the party than by the flesh eating zombies.

The only way to have a character live through Call of Cthulu is to have him retire early (the only sure way is to have the character retire as soon as you create him). If you have characters in Call of Cthulu who live or actually win in the end, then you are doing it wrong. There are lots of COC modules out there that are written to be one shots with the characters dying at the end, what else would you expect out of a game based on the writings of H P Lovecraft.

Oh I forgot you can go insane instead of being killed, if that can be considered any better.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

The only way to have a character live through Call of Cthulu is to have him retire early (the only sure way is to have the character retire as soon as you create him). If you have characters in Call of Cthulu who live or actually win in the end, then you are doing it wrong. There are lots of COC modules out there that are written to be one shots with the characters dying at the end, what else would you expect out of a game based on the writings of H P Lovecraft.

Oh I forgot you can go insane instead of being killed, if that can be considered any better.

Of course, my friends and I played CoC waaay back, years ago. Now we only play "Travel CoC" - the CoC game you can play in a car, at a picnic table, anywhere.

It's simple:
Roll 1d6
1-3 You die!
4,5 You go insane!
6 Roll again.

Hours of Lovecraftian fun for the whole family!

 

[MaxKaladin]

Had a near TPK once. The only survivor wase the guy who didn't show up. It wasn't my fault, though. It was a reasonable encounter. The PCs just screwed up and then had bad luck.

They had all huddled into this little hole on a hillside watching a cave entrance they thought Drow raiders were coming out of. They hid themselves behind an illusion. Sure 'nuff, the drow showed up, but their wizard had a magic item that let her see through illusions, so she spotted them. She fired off a chain lightining. The PCs could have survivied it easily. Then the PC wizard declared he would absorb it into his staff of the magi. His FULLY CHARGED staff of the magi! It exploded for 31d6 damage and people started making saves. Then the unused necklace of missiles failed its save and contributed more damage to the tightly packed group. I seem to recall something else explosive being in the party as well. Needless to say the party died from all the explosions.