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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6358342" data-attributes="member: 6776279">I don't think I've ever experienced a TPK in 30 years of gaming, either as player or DM. I've had half or more of the party wipe lots of times but never everyone--mostly it's just one PC getting dropped by unlucky rolls or rank recklessness. My groups have had pretty lenient 'run-away' rules which probably has something to do with it. We also switch between narrative games where TPK's are frowned upon as anti-fun and tactical-minded games where we proactively take steps to avoid them.We had a 12-hour session back in high school (D&D 2e) that culminated in a showdown with a mist demon that was eating its way through this city. We lost 2 PCs earlier in the adventure, then 2 more PCs to the first bout with the demon (including a poor player's replacement PC), 2 more got KO'd but not killed, leaving 3 PCs in the final face-off (including my ranger). We were all in single digits with no healing left. We ended up tricking it through a gate spell into another dimension which was only possible due to a freak combination of available magic items, lucky rolls, and sheer desperation. The thief dropped in the effort leaving me and the dwarf fighter.In another campaign, we had the misfortune of stumbling across a powerful demon that was posing as crime lord--a crime lord our mid-level characters wanted to knock-off due to some scheme or another. We were quite surprised when the crime lord turned out to not be such a pushover, but started dropping PCs in almost trivial fashion. Then we basically <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ourselves when we learned the truth but we were trapped by that point. We took the bastard down by using up every single trick, asset, trump card, etc. we had. We threw everything at it. I think the battle went 13 rounds--11 of which we were fighting just to stay alive. I think the final numbers were 2 KIA, 2 KO, 2 standing (but both previously KO'd and revived). Still the single best combat I've had as a player.</blockquote>

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