Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 3310078" data-attributes="member: 5122">It seems like most people are answering, "What breaks up a group?" rather than "What kills a campaign?"  We've been lucky enough to keep a healthy group -- three, in fact -- going for several years, so I'll answer the latter.In my case, I tend to overestimate what my players can handle.  It generally becomes a problem right when D&D PCs and NPCs take their first leap in power ... i.e., around 5th level.  My players aren't optimizers, and only a couple of strong D&D tacticians, so if I go by the CR system, they're often overmatched.Combined with that, my players can be stubborn in combat.Add in even a little bit of bad luck, and a TPK becomes possible, even in even-CR fights.My first campaign -- the adventure path beginning with Sunless Citadel -- ended in a near-TPK at level 4.  The monster responsible was a rather notorious CR 10 encounter in Forge of Fury, though I altered the (utterly ridiculous as written) encounter to have the creature immediately willing to negotiate before any deaths.  My stubborn players would have none of it.I tried resurrecting that campaign with a replacement party, which ended in a TPK at level 5.  In that case, the killer monster was a troll.  CR was 5, with five PCs.  Supposed to be a relatively easy fight.My next try -- a Freeport game -- went substantially longer, to level 10 or so, at which point they were wiped out by a diviner vampire with the mind fog spell and a nearby fathomless chasm.  CR was 12.  To be fair, the vampire's advantage probably pushed the CR up by one more.Next came a Scarred Lands game, which ended with a TPK at level 5 in a modified Sons of Gruumsh adventure.  This one was a combination "fair fight" -- i.e., CR 8 or so -- combined with simply abysmal luck on the part of my players.  Luck on the order of failing to make DC 5 balance checks, multiple rounds in a row.My current game is an Eberron game.  We're approaching the climax of Whisper's of the Vampire's Blade.  The bad guy is CR 8 as written, but IMO a weak CR 8.  My party is level 6, with 5 PCs, and I want the fight to be tough, so I've upped the CR to 10.  I'm concerned that I'm overestimating them again, but in the last session they demolished an EL 8 encounter, including a CR 6 fighter.  Hopefully I'm reading their abilities accurately this time.</blockquote>

Verification