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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BSF" data-source="post: 1114783" data-attributes="member: 13098">I tend to like to overwhelm the PC's initialy.  Then I let them deal with that and start to get a bit of the upperhand.  Then, I hit them with something new.  Something designed to make them sink further down.  If your players are well-versed in the contents of the various monster books, you will have a harder time surprising them.  Rely more on in-depth descriptions than stock descriptions.  Make each creature sound worse than it is described in the MM. If you are playing with incorporeal undead, take advantage of it!  Attack from the walls, the floors and the ceiling.  The 5' square the undead is in, is a wall!  How can the PC's attack back?  Make some house rules that they can ready an attack and try to swing when the wraith peeks through to swipe at them.  Maybe a positive energy burst can go through walls?  Maybe they can still turn, but they won't know if it worked until the attacks stop ... and there is nothing saying that smart undead won't stop and wait for the cleric to turn his back...If you want to continue the campaign for a while, you have to strike a balance.  You can easily kill everyone off quickly, but where is the fun?  The PC's have to feel like they _can_ make progress, but it requires that they adapt to each situation and they can never drop their guard.  At least, not for long.  It is OK to sometimes throw in a holy temple that is still safe.  (Or it will be for the next few days.)  So the PC's can pause, regroup, reflect in pithy ways on mortality, fighting the darkness, just wanting to hold a loved one again, etc.  If your players are into the RP, they will take the time to go through the "movie scenes" before the undead manage to crash down the doors and the Evil High Ghoul Priest casts a desecrate and it is time to fight and run again.  (Yes, change the rules so that Desecrate and Unhallow can affect someplace with an existing Altar to Good.)Once the players get into a routine with the zombies, work with it.  It will be tedious to play through 20 fights with 5-10 zombies once they go up in levels.  Make your players adopt a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for easy undead.  Maybe the first 3 times during the day, they will use a Turning from the Cleric, then the fighters hack away.  Figure out what the "average" time to take out the zombies is and just apply that for those encounters.  Sure, arbitrarily deciding that the cleric successfully turns 8 zombies to dust every time and the fighter takes 3 points of damage in the ensuing battle after the turning seems to be anti-DnD.  Yes, you miss elements of luck.  But, this just allows you to have random encounters that retain the atmosphere of the campaign while you get to the next _important_ battle.  This is the combat equivelant of taking 10 so that you don't get into a humdrum routine of "more zombies, let me roll my attacks, there is my damage.  Hey, did you see Buffy last night?"  At least, that has worked for me in the past.  You do need your player's buy-in for this though.  As a side note:  Anything you can do to discourage none-game conversation will help retain the atmosphere.  Don't be afraid to drop the lights and use candles.  Just make sure you can read what is important.  Maybe you can setup a TV tray off to the side with a desk lamp so you can roll dice there and check character stats.  Or, ask people to bring small flashlights.  If people are chatty, take a bit of a break.  Start off the night by asking for initiative.  Setup the next important encounter ahead of time and go through the flavor, RP, and small encounters.  Then, when the big encounter hits, immediately ask what the first person is doing.  Do not give them much time to think!  Tell them what they see and ask how they are reacting.  If you have an encounter that might turn to combat, or not, let everyone begin their actions, but as soon as a PC or NPC makes a hostile action, drop into combat mode.  You already have initiative, so work with it.  Shock and vulnerability are harder to bring across for heroes in DnD.  Anything you can do to keep meta-game thinking out of it is good.  Also, if 90% of the population has died, do you include non-humans in there?  Non-humanoids?  What about undead animals?  Undead monsters?  This is DnD after all!  Also, make up monsters. Take a troll and turn it into a big skeleton.  I probably wouldn't give it regeneration, but the rend attack ... oh yeah!Hope this helps some.</blockquote>

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