Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 5195887" data-attributes="member: 50987">The last time I had a TPK, I described the scene to the players as &quot;everything fading to black&quot; or something to that effect.&nbsp; Then, I started describing to them what I thought the afterlife would look like from their characters' points of view.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; I went on to describe what I thought a raise dead spell would look like from the &quot;other side,&quot; and ask each of them if they wanted to answer the call and return to life.They all say that they do, so I &quot;yank&quot; them back into the game world.&nbsp; I tell them that there is fire everywhere, and the smell of death, and horrible pain.&nbsp; The NPC ally is there, along with a few other minor characters in the story.&nbsp; This ally had seen, in a vision, that her friends were in grave danger, so she put together a rescue party to recover them.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; This item would be assumed to have escaped destruction or theft somehow; all of their other gear was gone.&nbsp; The characters returned to life with 1 hit point, and with 1's in all of their ability scores.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; It did set the story back a few months, but other than that, things went back to normal rather quickly.&nbsp; It became a major event in the game, something that the players still talk about.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 5195887, member: 50987"] 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 [I]raise dead[/I] 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. [/QUOTE]

Verification