What do you do when there's a near-TPK?

[Jhaelen]

Say the adventure you're running is a bit too tough for the players & their PCs. In a battle, 2/3 or 4/5 are killed, and the survivors flee, leaving the bodies of their companions. What now?

Yeah, it's up to the players. I consider this scenario a lot worse than a nice and clean TPK.

What happened several times when I was the DM: Rather than taking their chance to flee the survivors continue the hopeless battle because, they, too, felt that a TPK is preferable.

But I've also had campaigns that continued even though only a single pc survived an encounter. Interest in the campaign definitely declined after the incident, though (and soon after it fizzled and died).

 

[wolff96]

We had a near-TPK not too long ago. Only the Beguiler survived. He disguised himself as a new adventurer and "hired" the new party to help him out. The rest of us made new characters.

Then, a few months later, all but two of the characters got massacred AGAIN. The beguiler survived, but we called it on the campaign that time.

Turns out that Fiendish Behirs with Cleaving Swallow Whole are really nasty when almost the entire party is melee...

 

[Quickleaf]

It depends if they got the mules too. It's not a proper (almost) TPK if you don't get the mules. Gronin is right, try again, with more cowbell.

While I've never had a near TPK, our current DM is running a low level sandbox campaign and had us make 2 or 3 PCs each which we're supposed to level along with the main PCs. This way while the player of a killed PC doesn't sit out for more than an encounter before their other PC is introduced. Most of the PCs have at least one connection to another PC in the group so I anticipate it working well.

So far no deaths, but our group just dropped from 6 to 4 players, and we've entered the iron shrine of Elwyn at the bequest of the cleric of Verge... only to fall thru a tilting floor trap (from the Keep on the Borderlands/Caves of Chaos I believe). Just how much trouble are we in?

 

[S'mon]

But I've also had campaigns that continued even though only a single pc survived an encounter. Interest in the campaign definitely declined after the incident, though (and soon after it fizzled and died).

This is something I've been wondering about. Eg would it be legitimate for the DM to call it on the campaign, even though 1-2 PCs survived the lost battle?

 

[ExploderWizard]

This is something I've been wondering about. Eg would it be legitimate for the DM to call it on the campaign, even though 1-2 PCs survived the lost battle?

I don't think I would ever do that unless it was desired by the whole group. For the DM to just decide that there are no possibilities besides ultimate victory and complete loss seems strange for a game with so much room for the in-between.

 

[darkseraphim]

(1) See if the players want to laugh.
(1a) If so, laugh with them.
(1b) If not, laugh at them.
(2) Remind them of the value of men-at-arms and henchmen.
(3) Remind them of the value of watching Monty Python.
(4) Observe objects being thrown at me.
(4a) If food, catch.
(4b) If soft, bat back at them.
(4c) If hard, duck.
(5) Help them reroll.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I'd laugh evilly at them and boast about killing their pathetic characters with my creations, then tell them to stop whining and roll up a new character because if they go back in to try and kill the BBEG/Creature(s) that just killed them they'll be rolling up new characters again! j/k

I do have them roll up new characters -as long as they are still having fun as well as want to- then continue on the adventure. I don't make them start over at level one, but they do have to meet up with the survivors and give a decent background as to why they want to join forces. They'll even start out with level-appropriate magical items/gold to outfit the new PCs so that they aren't underpowered if they decide to go back and try to kill whatever got their first incarnations.

 

[Redshirt]

I'm lucky that all my player's refuse to run....ever. This is one problem I'll never have.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

[MENTION=61199]Redshirt[/MENTION] so they are all redshirts then.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I just remembered that I once had a "near TPK" where no one died--at least not in game. I wasn't very experienced yet, and running Expedition to Barrier Peaks, with the pregen characters. The whole party ended up locked in the detention cells by the robots. After about an hour of them trying to get out, I started pouring through the module to try to find if it was even possible in their circumstances. "Sorry guys, I don't see how you can get out. I guess you are going to starve ..." I was too raw to think to engineer something outside the text.

So we rolled up new characters, and the running gag while we were playing was, "What day is it? I wonder if so and so has starved yet?"