Sweet, fun TPKs.

[Eolin]

3 TPK's in an hour and a half.

Alright, this probably belongs in the Story Hour forum, but its not really a story.

I set up a DnD game today, primarily because it is super bowl sunday.

I had all the PCs be from the same place, just to make it easier.

Here was character creation:
d6 for race (on a 6, they could choose!)
d12 for class (on a 12, they could choose)
alignment was a d10, again on a ten they could choose.
3d6 for stats, placed in order.
d6 for level, and if its a six, roll again and add.

So the first party was 4nd, 9th, and 3rd level. With stats ranging from 4 to 18. We had a gnomish barbarian and an orc sorcerer with a charisma of about 8. Or some levels like that.

The first encounter they survived. Then the second one was against a CR 10 fire giant. By some table i found in the DmG, a d% roll, they were supposed to find something of their CR +5, so i figured ten was about right. The poor giant was awfully wounded, and the characters did not survive. So they rolled up new ones and nobody cared.

And you know what? Its been about the most fun hour and a half fun I've had in a while. and the players have enjoyed it to, nobody has even thought to take it seriously. Encounters have been at least pseudo-random, and the creatures they encounter do not necessarily want to kill them and will talk. Once they figured that one out, they began to survive a lot more.

Anyway, this has been fun and I just thought I'd share.

does anyone else do this? It isn't exactly a campaign, really just a set of random encounters. Still. loads of fun.

Eolin.

 

[Nifft]

Perfect "1st Edition" feel, I'd say!

-- N is for Nostalgia

 

[CCamfield]

As a player, I'd personally rather play a board or card game. For fantasy stuff... probably Dungeoneer these days.

It's not the random class or alignment determination, but the combination of all those factors mentioned. What did you do with the orc sorcerer with a charisma of 8? What on earth is a 3rd level character supposed to do in a fight scaled against a 9th level teammate? Even if you don't care about a character's survival, being killed early could lead to a somewhat boring experience.

I'm not really surprised you got TPKs.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Perfect "1st Edition" feel, I'd say!

-- N is for Nostalgia

I know what you mean. Some of those old 1st Edition modules made by Gary Gygax were real meat grinders. It wasn't uncommon to be rolling up 2-3 new characters each session.

 

[Eolin]

I didn't really scale it against the higher level ones -- but an average was come for. Unless, of course, the random monster roll suggested something really stupid high -- like the CR +5, which is where the tpk's came from.

Afterwards, I had them make up 20th level characters. A sorcerer, cleric, and a barbarian. They saved a town from destruction at the hands of vile fairly tough goblins, then destroyed the tarrasque. Epic isn't quite the word for that last one, but i sure coudn't stop laughing for about 20 minutes.

Anyway, that's just my last minute round up. It was a fun night.

 

[Orius]

Sounds interesting. It might be a good way to learn or teach combat rules, or test rules from new rulebooks.

I'd drop random alignment. Since these are throwaway characters anyway that are likely to die, you don't really need it.

 

[ph34r]

It would have took me the whole day to make the 20th level character, not to mention the two other characters.

 

[Li Shenron]

d6 for race (on a 6, they could choose!)
d12 for class (on a 12, they could choose)
alignment was a d10, again on a ten they could choose.
3d6 for stats, placed in order.
d6 for level, and if its a six, roll again and add.

It sounds fun to me too

Only thing I would not have rolled ever is level, I would prefer to just have them all at the same level.

Did you also rolled randomly which monster or you rolled only the CR and then choose the creature?

Another thing to try for a fast combat game is the "ladder": put the PCs in a room with a randomly-generated encounter of EL 1, then next room EL 2 and so on, until they are killed. Only way to go on is to eliminate all the monsters ( you can't escape a room without beating them...), but before the next room all wounds are automatically healed and spells/day restored.

 

[Li Shenron]

It would have took me the whole day to make the 20th level character, not to mention the two other characters.

Yes in fact I was feeling the same way about the 20th level... I wonder if they also had to roll for feats, skills and known spells!