What normally happens after a TPK?

[Li Shenron]

Actually neither.

My preference would be probably to have a new group of PCs in the same world, NOT picking up the adventure but rather having to deal with the consequences of the previous group failing their quest.

 

[qbalrog]

Pretty rare for me as player or ref, and that's with playing since OD&D pre-grayhawk. Near party wipes are more common and there we just pickup and continue, with players getting new PCs and an appreciation for the ref's willingness to wipe the party. TPKs haven't happened since my high school days but they usually resulted in a switch of campaign and a new ref.

I'm usually the ref in my group and my players have learned never to rush in to anything so opportunities for wipes are less. In risky encounters, I will consider some outs to avoid a true wipe so that we don't lose campaign momentum if the players just had a spot of bad luck, as opposed to being foolish.

As a player, since I don't play as much and often have an urge to test the ref, I have got my party into trouble at times and was responsible for a near wipe that included my wizard. I had a pair of manacles, I was instructed to put one on my neck and one on a demon's neck. I could only reach his knee and tried that instead... it didn't work very well.

 

[Nytmare]

I threw in with "other." It depends too much on the system expectations, where we are in the game, and players' desires and expectations for me. For us, I don't think that there is a "norm."

I tend to put it back on the shoulders of the group and have them decide what they want to do. I'd say that 9 times out of 10, if they're currently mixed up in a race to save the X, Y, or Z, they'll invent or adopt another group with parallel goals and march onward in an attempt to finish the story.

But if that sword isn't hanging over their head, and they're still enjoying the game/setting, they might adopt an alternate storyline that they had crossed over. Maybe they want to play a band of brigands who are cleaning up and rebuilding the old fortress their old characters had cleared out back when they were 2nd level. Maybe the underdark farming village that they saved that was entirely populated by Warforged tickled their fancy.

Maybe they want to move on and play something else entirely.

My current game is a West Marches styled Torchbearer game, and it falls heavily into that second option. An incredibly deadly, post apocalyptic world, without any threat of overarching world saving story lines, since the world has already come to an end. They already TPKed once, picked up and pointed themselves in a completely different direction, and frequently talk about what they might try the next time when they inevitably TPK again.

 

[glass]

As far as I can recall, I have never been part of a TPK in an ongoing campaign (a few in CoC one shots, but they don't count), so I do not have a "normally happens". So I voted Other, before I noticed this thread was a ten year necro.

_
glass.

 

[ccs]

The usual result is that the game resets to new characters & new story. Often accompanied by a rotation in DMs.

Sometimes though it makes sense storywise that new characters, henchmen, followers, etc can pick up from the original PCs.
In that case the same game continues.

A third common result is that we use this ending of the current campaign to run a completely different system altogether.

 

[Emerikol]

First thanks for necro'ing a thread and it not being me. I feel I am the necromancer around here . A little competition is a good thing.

I've had very few TPK's in my career. I mostly DM. We start over at some point though we might take a break.

If though it's not a TPK but just some PCs got killed, then

At lower levels they'd roll up a new PC. Sometimes they were a little bit similar and sometimes they were not. I don't hand over the old players equipment though. That goes to the other living players. Why give it to the new guy?

At higher levels, most of the time they can raise the dead player and he suffers consequences like lost levels and/or constitution but it's not final death. At least not unless he dies a lot. My players traditionally have been really really good so they don't die a lot. I sometimes think to myself that if I designed dungeons for the average group I'd have to scale back or there would be TPKs.

 

[The Green Hermit]

When individual characters die, players reroll new characters that we find a way to tie into the group, even if only one character lives. If it is a true TPK, though, I follow the autosave rule of combat and they usually find themselves having a bad bout of premonition before the battle/scenario that wiped them.

 

[Emerikol]

When individual characters die, players reroll new characters that we find a way to tie into the group, even if only one character lives. If it is a true TPK, though, I follow the autosave rule of combat and they usually find themselves having a bad bout of premonition before the battle/scenario that wiped them.

That might encourage suicidal attack if only one PC remains.

 

[The Green Hermit]

That might encourage suicidal attack if only one PC remains.

It hasn't so far.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Early in a published storybook, just bring in new characters. I paid fifty bucks for this book, and I'll be damned if I will let something like a TPK mean we only get through $7.35 worth of content.

Late in a published storybook, it means they get The Bad Ending.

In a sandbox, if they still wanna play, new level 1 party in some other place.