What normally happens after a TPK?

[Umbran]

Depends on the game.

Back when I was playing and running mostly dungeon crawls, or when continuity otherwise really didn't matter, we'd just roll up new characters, and send them in.

In many ways, this wound up unsatisfying. Some folks say that having resurrection too easily obtained makes death mean less. Well, if you can replace the character in a half hour without substantially changing things otherwise, the death isn't all that meaningful either.

Later on, we had a situation that wasn't so much a total party kill as it was a total party rendered unplayable. The GM devised a trap for the PCs, and had designed a couple of ways for us to escape. One was never hinted at, and we closed without ever knowing it was an opening. The other way out was deemed so morally reprehensible by the PCs that we refused to take the route. We told the GM that we'd prefer to simply assume the old party sat there forever, and create new character, than take his route.

Rather than have us create new characters, the GM decided to negotiate, and he took one of our other plausible escape plans.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Other: It depends how far into the campaign we are and/or the interest level of the DM and players to continue the campaign. I've also started new campaigns that eventually melded back into the previous plotline when the PCs reached an appropriate level.

 

[CleverNickName]

The last time I had a TPK, I described the scene to the players as "everything fading to black" or something to that effect. Then, I started describing to them what I thought the afterlife would look like from their characters' points of view. Everything is calm, you are at peace, and so forth.

Just as the players were about to reach for their dice and blank character sheets, I change my tone of voice. I started telling them that they hear someone calling their name, a soft, peaceful, and familiar voice.

It was the voice of an important NPC ally. I went on to describe what I thought a raise dead spell would look like from the "other side," and ask each of them if they wanted to answer the call and return to life.

They all say that they do, so I "yank" them back into the game world. I tell them that there is fire everywhere, and the smell of death, and horrible pain. The NPC ally is there, along with a few other minor characters in the story. This ally had seen, in a vision, that her friends were in grave danger, so she put together a rescue party to recover them. She spent two months and enormous amounts of gold on this mission, but was successful.

Then, out-of-character, I let each player keep one piece of equipment that was most important to them. This item would be assumed to have escaped destruction or theft somehow; all of their other gear was gone. The characters returned to life with 1 hit point, and with 1's in all of their ability scores. It took a month of bedrest and powerful elf magic to get them back to full power.

I created a series of adventures to allow the party to exact their revenge upon the lich who did them in, and recover most of their lost/stolen gear along the way. It did set the story back a few months, but other than that, things went back to normal rather quickly. It became a major event in the game, something that the players still talk about.

 

[Doug McCrae]

wrong thread

 

[Obryn]

Usually we go on and do something else.

In most circumstances, TPKs just bum me out, to be honest, and I work fairly hard to avoid them. That doesn't mean I don't like to come close - but so far, my players have managed to pull would-be TPKs out in the end.

Now, I had a TPK in my Call of Cthulhu game that also ended in victory for the PCs. So that was a pretty awesome campaign-ender.

Right now, I can't imagine we'd pick up the same adventure if a TPK ended up happening. It just wouldn't make much sense, to be honest.

-O

 

[SteveBetney]

In my experience TPK's are thankfully ultra-rare, but when they do occur it normally descends into a blame game. If it's down to exceptionally bad luck then that's not too bad, it's just good-bye campaign. If the group decides it's the referee's fault then he can kiss goodbye to running a game for the next year or so!

The worst thing that can happen is that TPK is down to the actions of one or two players and (and they were pre-warned by the other players that their actions or attitude would lead to the ruin of all). THAT'S A WHOLE PILE OF GRIEF!!!!

 

[Steel_Wind]

Now, I had a TPK in my Call of Cthulhu game that also ended in victory for the PCs. So that was a pretty awesome campaign-ender.

Woah! Woah! Woah! Time Out!!

When it comes to TPK's in Call of Cthulhu games, I think the default assumptions that we have discussed so far in this thread need significant correction and restating.

In CoC games, TPK's are not, in my experience, rare. Moreover, even if they end up being somewhat rare in practice, they are nevertheless expected by the players as a real and present danger and one which is not unusual.

So while the players may have ugly thoughts about the DM in a game of D&D who threw a plainly unfair and unbalanced encounter at the players in the context of a dungeon crawl, those same player expectations are not present in a game of Call of Cthulhu. In CoC, unbalanced encounters and death arising at the hands of the Old Ones or their agents are expected by the players.

In CoC, it might be that new characters are rolled up and the investigation continues - or at least - some other investigation is started. CoC is a very different beast where the focus of the game is on the immediate investigation and plot of the adventure at hand; it tends not to be on the characters. Even the metaplot can be picked up by outside benfactors and NPCs who hire new investigators to continue the plot, as it were.

Any player who get attached to their investigator in a game of CoC is a player who is destined for disappointment -- usually sooner rather than later...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In CoC games, TPK's are not, in my experience, rare. Moreover, even if they end up being somewhat rare in practice, they are nevertheless expected by the players as a real and present danger and one which is not unusual.

Agreed- I didn't even consider the games of CoC (or Paranoia) to count towards TPKs because the underlying game assumptions about mortality are so different.

 

[Obryn]

Woah! Woah! Woah! Time Out!!

When it comes to TPK's in Call of Cthulhu games, I think the default assumptions that we have discussed so far in this thread need significant correction and restating.

In CoC games, TPK's are not, in my experience, rare. Moreover, even if they end up being somewhat rare in practice, they are nevertheless expected by the players as a real and present danger and one which is not unusual.

Well... I make the same distinction Hobo did in another thread - there's a difference between CoC campaigns, and CoC One- or Two-Shots. In the latter, TPKs are almost foreordained. In the former, where you have probably as much or more story investment than you would in most D&D campaigns, they are (IMO) to be avoided. Having at least one or two Investigators survive is helpful - heck, essential - for continuity's sake.

IME, from running some long-term Cthulhu campaigns, any given character's lease on life is, indeed, short. But the group has a lot more longevity than any single character - deaths are best left staggered. The propensity of CoC characters to run from danger helps, here.

-O

EDIT: I don't think many people run Paranoia campaigns, but I think the expectations would be similar there. I've only run one-shots with super-high body counts, myself, as God and Varney intended. If you have an ongoing plotline (like in a "straight" style game outlined in Paranoia XP), TPKs should still be undesirable, and the body count would have to be lower.

 

[Uder]

Interesting. The only assumption seems to be that campaign = mission/story/quest, not campaign = adventures in a setting. Very narrow view, that.