What normally happens after a TPK?

[Jan van Leyden]

The rare TPK in my campaigns usually happen when it has grown stale anyway. As long as I'm motivated, which means that the players are still interested in the campaign, I find ways to avoid a TPK.

When it happens I usually hear these voices in my head, talking about this fantastic new campaign world, game system or story idea, talking so loudly that I can't hear my players begging me to proceed with the campaign anymore.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Fully agreed, and while many is the time I've wiped out over half a party I've never in 26 years of DMing managed to pull off a full-ride TPK.

I've always tried my best to avoid TPKs. Where possible, parties are captured rather than killed, or negotiation takes place.

The last TPK occured after a really, really big fight. The only people standing at the end are the PC monk and the evil cleric. The monk is wounded, but I don't want a TPK so the cleric starts making his air-walk getaway (a hint for the PC to start healing/raising his buddies, and regroup). Unfortunately the PC starts running after the cleric and shooting at him. The cleric uses his enervation wand and zaps the monk and continues trying to get away. The monk easily catches up and continues shooting. Bad guy can't run away, and the only thing he has to hand can't be used to subdue. In the circumstances the only thing the cleric can do is enervate the stupid beggar to death, which he eventually does.

Rest of the players were looking at this guy a bit gobsmacked, but he'd got the bit between his teeth and kept thinking "I can take this guy down", when he really couldn't.

Ah well.

 

[Shazman]

In your experience, what is the normal game effect of a TPK?

Do the Players just make up new characters to carry on the campaign/mission/quest?

Or does everything restart with a whole new campaign?

* I'm using "campaign" in the sense of a story/plot. That is, the new party may start in the same world, even in the same city, but not necessarily on the same plot as the deceased party.

You may have experienced both game effects after a TPK, but what do you consider the norm?

Bullgrit

Well, first the DM loudly exclaims, "You guys just got pwned!" Then the players throw all of their dice at him. After things settle down, everyone proceeds to make new characters.

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, since all of my (D&D) campaigns so far more or less started with a tpk, I voted for 'the campaign continues'.

It's the second (or third) tpk that will cause a campaign to be abandoned (which is what happened once after my group's third expedition into the Tomb of Horrors).

Apart from the apparently inevitable first tpk, real tpks are very rare, though. Almost every time there's a single survivor (or rarely two survivors). We also tend to use character pools, so, there are almost always characters left to continue with the campaign.

 

[Herschel]

I avoid them if at all possible, otherwise the campaign is derailed. If it looks too bleak for them, I let them know when there is one or two left and one can usually escape. It's not optimal, but it keeps things going. Except in the very first adventure of a campaign. I had two TPKs in the ambushes in Keep on the Shadowfell. Then it was re-roll and go because it was their first experience w/ 4E and the rogue wanted to scout ahead solo, for example.

 

[Bullgrit]

I voted Other because of the following examples

You voted Other because all your examples match "Restart the game with another campaign/story" ??

Bullgrit

 

[Horatio]

Once, I was DMing a FR campaign and TPK happened. So, the heroes' souls traveled to (Fugue?) plane, Kelemvor's domain, where souls normally awaits their transition to their patron deity plane. And what happened? A devil approaches them (as they are allowed to try to lure the souls to nine hells), offering them a ressurection (thus allowing them to continue the quest and beat the BBEG) for their souls should they die again sometimes in the future... They took the offer....

That evolved into another major quest, where first they (after finishing the BBEG) sought the knowledge, who did they bargained with, then they were after the information where he can be found and finally a glorius journey to the Nine Hells, where they infiltrated the devil's citadel, defeated the devil's underlings and found and destroyed the contracts they signed.

That made the devil a recurring villain afterwards, of course

That would be "other", right?

 

[IronWolf]

A TPK is pretty rare in our case, but the times it has happened it leads to the start of a new campaign. Trying to pick up the previous storyline with new characters just doesn't seem to go well. So generally we tend to switch DMs after a TPK to give one a break or possibly switch game systems. Or possibly just advance the campaign time line and start in the world with new characters.

Though in the current campaign our characters have taken on a rather epic scavenger hunt for pieces one of the wizards in a previous campaign that resulted in a rather high level TPK has left across the continent. But the time line is much later than that of the original campaign.

 

[Crothian]

A TPK is pretty rare in our case, but the times it has happened it leads to the start of a new campaign.

Not always. Tome of Horrors ended with a TPK and I just had the NPC save everyone.

 

[IronWolf]

Not always. Tome of Horrors ended with a TPK and I just had the NPC save everyone.

Oh yeah, that's right. I had tried to blot that moment from my mind!