What normally happens after a TPK?
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
TPK does not really have to mean they are all dead now, does it? I know this is exactly what it is supposed to mean, but perhaps some are unconcsious and stabilized by villains interesting in "reeducating" their enemies through torture or magical compulsion? Or slavery at the low ends of the heroic tier. Perhaps one or two of them could be resurrected by other agents, be it whoever sent them on this quest or power groups vested on their success. Then the resurrected with some assistance might try to reclaim the bodies of the rest of the group, with the assistance of temporary characters for the rest of the players to play. And especially in 4E epic tier, epic destinies can make TPKs really hard. Some of them really make it impossible to kill a player for good.
Emirikol
Adventurer
I have zero shame in killing off PC's and doing TPK's and that's simply because I have rules for it that don't penalize it:
New characters come into the game with the same xp as your last character (and loot is in the NPC gear chart).
My players also know ahead of time that I'm a rat-bastard DM and that I kill PC's on a whim. Whiny-ass/needeth-a-wetnurse players don't play in my games.
That said, it's a more delicate issue when playing LIVING games at conventions, where whiny-asses are an infestation (I know, I'm one of those whiners
jh
New characters come into the game with the same xp as your last character (and loot is in the NPC gear chart).
My players also know ahead of time that I'm a rat-bastard DM and that I kill PC's on a whim. Whiny-ass/needeth-a-wetnurse players don't play in my games.
That said, it's a more delicate issue when playing LIVING games at conventions, where whiny-asses are an infestation (I know, I'm one of those whiners
jh
I voted "Other". I run a sandbox style game, which means that the form the new game takes isn't completely in my hands. I usually start a new group of PCs in the same area of the campaign where the previous game ended. The death of the previous PCs has some effect on that area of the campaign world, depending on what the previous PCs were doing at the time they died. Those events may become part of the new game, the new PCs might even end up dealing with some of the same opponents that the previous game touched on. Or the new PCs might head off in a different direction completely. The new game is definitely an extension of the previous campaign WORLD, but not necessarily an extension of the EVENTS in the previous game and it depends mostly on the player's choices, not mine.
Various TPKs when I was the DM:
Star Wars – Party rammed a Star Destroyer’s bridge with their freighter. Everyone thought that was awesome, made new characters, and we continued in the same setting, but new storyline.
D&D 3.0 - TPK vs. orcs. This was the second adventure and we were all new to this edition at the time. I had the orcs “revive” the defeated characters (I just ruled slain characters were actually just knocked out) and they dumped the PCs down a crater, which was the entrance to a goblin/kobold lair. The orcs were at war with the goblins and kobolds and figured (rightly so) that the PCs would fight the goblins and kobolds kill a bunch of them. This ended up being the lead in to Sunless Citadel.
D&D 3.5 - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil – First TPK against hobgoblins. I had each character roll a d6 and if they got a 6 they were dead, otherwise the hobgoblins revived them for prisoners/ransom/slaves. Two characters died and created new characters and then rescued the other players, and game resumed. Second TPK fighting water elemental and other water themed creatures. This ended that campaign entirely.
Many years ago I used to DM high level campaigns and we had tons of TPKs. My rule was that you could lose one level and resurrect in town. The cleric wound up taking one for the team, losing a level, and then resurrecting everyone else. Since the cleric could resurrect dead players but no one could resurrect the cleric we wound up eventually with 28th level characters and a 15th level cleric. Somehow at that time we found nothing wrong with this.
Star Wars – Party rammed a Star Destroyer’s bridge with their freighter. Everyone thought that was awesome, made new characters, and we continued in the same setting, but new storyline.
D&D 3.0 - TPK vs. orcs. This was the second adventure and we were all new to this edition at the time. I had the orcs “revive” the defeated characters (I just ruled slain characters were actually just knocked out) and they dumped the PCs down a crater, which was the entrance to a goblin/kobold lair. The orcs were at war with the goblins and kobolds and figured (rightly so) that the PCs would fight the goblins and kobolds kill a bunch of them. This ended up being the lead in to Sunless Citadel.
D&D 3.5 - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil – First TPK against hobgoblins. I had each character roll a d6 and if they got a 6 they were dead, otherwise the hobgoblins revived them for prisoners/ransom/slaves. Two characters died and created new characters and then rescued the other players, and game resumed. Second TPK fighting water elemental and other water themed creatures. This ended that campaign entirely.
Many years ago I used to DM high level campaigns and we had tons of TPKs. My rule was that you could lose one level and resurrect in town. The cleric wound up taking one for the team, losing a level, and then resurrecting everyone else. Since the cleric could resurrect dead players but no one could resurrect the cleric we wound up eventually with 28th level characters and a 15th level cleric. Somehow at that time we found nothing wrong with this.
My group took it hard. Like MASSIVELY hard. We tried playing new campaigns in different settings and different systems, yet everyone had nothing but apathy for what we were playing. After a few sessions of literally paying my players to show up at the table, I said f--- it to myself and we replayed the original campaign - same characters, same setting, same baddie - all from the beginning again, yet this time making sure that they won. It was the only way I could actually get anyone hooked enough on another story.
Ath'kethin
Elder Thing
I've personally seen only 2 TPKs in the 25+ years or so I've been playing. The first was in 2004 or 5 during the 3.x era and we shifted the characters to the Ghostwalk rules and setting for a bit as a result.
The second was last weekend in the game my 7yo runs; we quickly made new characters who had no problem picking up our previous folks' signature equipment and feeling compelled to follow the same quest.
The second was last weekend in the game my 7yo runs; we quickly made new characters who had no problem picking up our previous folks' signature equipment and feeling compelled to follow the same quest.
AnotherGuy
Hero
Necrothread nvm.
pming
Legend
Hiya!
"Other". We all talk about it, we go over what caused it...and yeah, as DM I will give out some pertinent info at this point about pre-made NPC/Monster plans, things they missed that lead to their downfall, and some "behind the scenes" things, but still keep the "big stuff" a secret.
Then everyone makes new characters and we choose a starting location for them. Sometimes it's in a completely different part of the campaign world, but usually it's "in the area". For example, if the TPK happens in a ruined keep a few kilometers outside of the Town of Threshold, we may start on a different road, just coming into Threshold.
What "happened" still happened. We don't "start anew" or otherwise wipe the slate clean and do a complete reboot. We aren't playing a video game... we are playing in a table-top campaign setting, with a history and timeline and all that. If the TPK happened on "Day 19", I might have the PC's arrive at Threshold on "Day 22". They go to the one and only good 'adventurers inn', and after a light meal the bar maid might ask "So, you adventurers part of those other guys who came by a few days ago? Headed out to the Old Keep an hour or so down the West Road?" or something like that.
Then the Players decide; they take it and go to the keep, or they say "Nope. Not us. We're new here" and so on.
EDIT: At least it's a GOOD Necrothread!
^_^
Paul L. Ming
"Other". We all talk about it, we go over what caused it...and yeah, as DM I will give out some pertinent info at this point about pre-made NPC/Monster plans, things they missed that lead to their downfall, and some "behind the scenes" things, but still keep the "big stuff" a secret.
Then everyone makes new characters and we choose a starting location for them. Sometimes it's in a completely different part of the campaign world, but usually it's "in the area". For example, if the TPK happens in a ruined keep a few kilometers outside of the Town of Threshold, we may start on a different road, just coming into Threshold.
What "happened" still happened. We don't "start anew" or otherwise wipe the slate clean and do a complete reboot. We aren't playing a video game... we are playing in a table-top campaign setting, with a history and timeline and all that. If the TPK happened on "Day 19", I might have the PC's arrive at Threshold on "Day 22". They go to the one and only good 'adventurers inn', and after a light meal the bar maid might ask "So, you adventurers part of those other guys who came by a few days ago? Headed out to the Old Keep an hour or so down the West Road?" or something like that.
Then the Players decide; they take it and go to the keep, or they say "Nope. Not us. We're new here" and so on.
EDIT: At least it's a GOOD Necrothread!
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Marc_C
Solitary Role Playing
80-81: Many TPKs with B/X. Just used the same characters, bring HPs back up to full and keep dungeon crawling from were the TPK happened!
I don't recall having TPKs after switching to AD&D and other D&D editions. Campaigns were more likely to fold due to group or availability problems.
If a TPK happened today, I would prefer starting a new campaign with another RPG of a different genre. From fantasy to sci-fi for example.
I don't recall having TPKs after switching to AD&D and other D&D editions. Campaigns were more likely to fold due to group or availability problems.
If a TPK happened today, I would prefer starting a new campaign with another RPG of a different genre. From fantasy to sci-fi for example.
