TPK recovery ideas

[Fredrik Svanberg]

Ok, so they all died. Maybe it was my fault, maybe they could have retreated, maybe, maybe... Regardless of who is to blame I'm left to try to fix it. I don't really feel like starting over my little campaign with new characters, and the players don't want to create new characters either. I'm not really asking for advice but I'd like to hear what other DM's have done to rescue a game where the whole party died, beyond the old standard "get raised by NPC's and work of the debt"-schtick. Maybe it can give me some ideas.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Dungeonworld: Characters that die come back to live devoid of their possessions in Dungeonworld. It's an interesting concept with... adequate presentation by Fast Fowrad Games. THey did like one core book and two supplements. You should be able to find them cheaply.

Oathbound: Sometimes those whose threads have run out in the regular world move on to another plane of existance where they must forge a new life.

Ghostwalk: Take on the role of ghosts and gain ghostly levels and abilities.

Video Games: If there's no chance of every really dying, perhaps it's time to move to online games like World of Warcraft? That was no one is really to ever blame if it happens again and you can be a player fighting alongside your buds.

 

[Turanil]

For me it's an excellent opportunity for the character now adventure in the land of the dead. They awake naked in a dark, misty, eerie place, and soon notice they h don't need drink and eat, or sleep. However, they could be slain there too (no explanation for this right now). So, they are in the land of the dead, and will be involved in a serie of adventures at the end of which they will be reincarnated (or what not) back into the material plane.

 

[Henry]

The characters get resurrected by a future faction using an artifact of great power; because of the failure of the characters, darkness has fallen across the land, and the good races (dwarves, humans, elves, etc.) have been enslaved, or at least are in retreat. It's up to the PCs, fabled heroes of legend, to reclaim their greatness and make things right.

Only, they're nude, they are just resurrected, and they're not nearly as awesome as legend said they were. Oops.

 

[cmanos]

Start them as dead and they need to journey through the Deadlands.... or wherever.....to get to the citadel of Death where they meet Death and She-Life-in-Death and have to bargain for their lives back. If they want to play the characters they need to do the work. Not you. Make em work for it. Make em ROLEPLAY IT. It's not your responsibility to magically give them their lives back. If they want em back make em work for it.

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

For me it's an excellent opportunity for the character now adventure in the land of the dead. They awake naked in a dark, misty, eerie place, and soon notice they h don't need drink and eat, or sleep. However, they could be slain there too (no explanation for this right now). So, they are in the land of the dead, and will be involved in a serie of adventures at the end of which they will be reincarnated (or what not) back into the material plane.

This is similar to what I have come up with. I created a needlessly complicated cosmology for what could have been a simple dungeonhack campaign, but I never expected I would have to actually use it for at least another 5 levels. Right now I'm struggling with questions like "why isn't the world full of formerly dead people who have crawled back from hades"? If you figure out what happens when they die in there, let me know...

 

[Myth]

Resurrect 'em all. No explanation.

Then, later, they all start having dreams of a conversation in a misty cavern with a dark-eyed white-haired woman in soft focus.

Turns out the spot where they died is sacred to the White Goddess, and she needed a favor..

Substitute Dark Lord, Forgotten Horror, Dragon Ghost, Legendary Historical Figure Assumed To Be Dead, or God Not Yet Born as needed for your campaign.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Have the enemy get a spellcaster who captures their souls in some item which is handed over to some middle-tear evil guy who mocks them regularly, or maybe he can call them forth to ask them questions, which they must answer truthfully. Then that guy gets attacked by some of his more ambitious minions, and in the resulting spell battle the players' prison gets destroyed - and they find themselves in the bodies of their captor and his attackers. Now they can try to impersonate them or flee and try to get their old bodies back (first order of business: get someone to belief them that they're not those well-known evil guys and get attacked wherever they go).

This will mean, of course, that their physical abilities as well as their gear won't be the same.

 

[Li Shenron]

Well, in my order of descending preference...

- start a planar campaign, from the afterlife (use what you have ready even if it's complete, fix the details later)

- wake them up somewhere (they weren't truly dead but only knocked out if possible); make them pay for this by having them restart without equipment, and possibly imprisoned in a terrible place

- play the dream trick, that their death was only a vision of the future if they don't take precautions etc... kinda lame but has the least problem (only be sure to do this ONCE in your gaming lifetime)

- someone resurrects you and you own a debt, only the very last resort IMO

I didn't consider the ghost idea, it's very neat but too hard for me if I was the DM. However instead of ghosts they may be another type of undead, and this would be easier.

 

[Aeolius]

The party awakens, reincarnated as small forest animals with little to no memory of their former lives.