Tee Pee Kay

[BlueBlackRed]

We nearly had a TPK in the RTTOEE.
I lost my wizard to a failed save versus the red dragon.

We also lost our mystic theurge and a rogue to the same thing.

We would have lost my monk had he not thrown a bead of force at himself and ran for his life like a hamster in a ball.

We knew the dragon was there, and he knew we were coming, and we knew that he knew.
We had a plan, he watched make the plan with a clairvoyance type spell.
Our plan was hosed before it went into action.

Round 3 was the "Flee for your lives!" round.
Half of us made it out. I guess that would a HPK?

 

[diaglo]

my current character killed 2 dragons in the courtyard of the Moathouse.

one young blue dragon and one juvenile deep dragon

you can read about it in the story hour in my sig.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I nearly had a TPK in the RttToEE, with one survivor, and one PC dominated and left for dead.
The party attacked a Sorcerer lord and his eliete bodyguards, after he had decimated the air temple and he tried to (arrogently) open negoiations.

of course this was after we had all gotten bored with the dungeon crawl - and the temple had errupted. In the middle of the ocean. On the other side of the world.
The next game started in the aftermath of the resulting Tsunami.
The one survivor eventually joined the new party, once they caught up in levels.

 

[Gez]

We would have lost my monk had he not thrown a bead of force at himself and ran for his life like a hamster in a ball.

Was that the comedic scene to relieve from the tragedy going all around? Clever use of the bead, but very funny.

 

[EricNoah]

I think it's high time I had a TPK!

 

[Evilhalfling]

Originally a double post, added 40 min after the orginal. The lag made me do it.

Hanibal king - one TPK in 12 years? really it was prolly entirely their fault. I try and avoid TPK's but it sounds like you gave them plenty of chances to back out or find other options.
are they willing to start over? without allowing memory bleed over as suggested below it would be difficult to play the same modual again.

 

[AuraSeer]

Ouch not the splitting up TPK. I brought my fiancee into the gaming fold about 3 years ago. Now whenever we see a movie where the characters split up I see her cringe and say " Dont split up, the DM will pick you off one at a time that way".

I've got a bumper sticker stuck across my GM notebook:
"Stay together, slay together. Act apart, get hacked apart."

 

[Dark Dragon]

Ahh, RttToEE... Hm, the party made it to the crater island. After being repelled by the Fire Temple in a huge battle. We had sessions just with making plans, getting equipment, searching allies and so on. And? Two dead PCs during the fight against the fire guys (plus two other casualties before). Raising them was expensive. But still we pushed on (the DM made clear that time was running out, and a PC was held captured by the cultists), had a last brutal fight to escape from the island but we failed. TPK. All good plans didn't help.

Why? Partly it depended on the system (it was 3.0), being harmed followed by a quickened ILW is quickly boring.
Partly it depended on the DM who tried to adapt the module to a level 14 party. At some point, he used opponents too strong and wasn't able to make it easier when it became obvious that the group won't survive for long. And if time is running out, the group is forced to fight as long as possible.
Partly it depended on the PCs who tried to push through by sheer power. Negotiations were barely an option, our paladin refused to work with evil guys. With the countdown in mind, ideas like infiltration were set aside.


Personally, I'd try to avoid TPKs unless the group is following some stupid plan. If the dice roll in favor of the DM's monsters and the PCs' rolls are bad...hm, so be it. This equals sooner or later. Have seen a HPK in a Demons vs. Party fight. The barbarian died by a failed save on massive damage, the cleric was hacked into pieces by a balor, and the fighter by a vorpal hit (the player forgot that his PC had an armor of med. fort.). But in the end, the deepwood sniper critted the remaining, almost unhurt balor, rolled up about 70 damage. The DM rolled openly the balor's Fort save for massive damge - it was a 1...half of the party was dead...the other half survived the explosion with luck. This fight was controlled by the dice, less by planning.

So, if the group acts to receive a TPK, let them. If the DM makes clear that PC death is possible during the campaign, it is likely that the players will be a bit more careful about their PCs actions.

 

[Crothian]

depending on if your players can handle it, don't end the game there. Have them resurected, or even better reincarnated as new characters but with their old memories. Or even better have the players use the memories of a character they didn't play before.

 

[BlackMoria]

RttToEE is brutal on parties who tend to act before they truly think out the ramifications.

I was the sole original character to survive RttToEE, after getting the rest of the party shot out from under me on three separate occassions. Yep....three very near TPKs in the same adventure.

Once we finished RttToEE, the other players' characters had died on average 5 time each.

Ironically enough, one of the near TPKs was in almost the exact same circumstances as poor Mike's party.

I was the guy who kept insisting on trying some other than the 'assault through and consolidate on the far side' approach. I always had a Plan B.

When discussing things after the third near TPK, I told the others they needed a Plan B. 'What Plan B', they said.....

"Exactly my point", was my response. The Plan B they needed because Plan A was dead on its legs from the word 'go'.