When the Session goes Pear Shaped

[Blackbrrd]

....
Of course, for this session, for the first time ever, all three of the fighters showed up. It was a last minute thing and some of them arrived as the session was underway, so I didn't have the time (or then, the skill) to change things. When they caught him, they took out the big bad in the first round and his bodyguards the second.
....

Have you picked up a few tricks since then?

I have a couple in my regular campaign due to very varying number of players:

• Adjust the HP of monsters +50% -50% and so on
• Adjust the attack of the monsters +50% damage, -50% damage
• Adjust the to-hit/defense of monsters by +/- 2

You can even adjust hp of monsters in combat, but don't do it by more than 20-30% or it will be noticed. Don't let the monster auto-miss or auto-hit or auto save/fail.

For 4e I just use a template for my monsters: +100% hp +100% attacks OR damage, one free recharge or a power. I add this template to one monster for every player more than 5. For smaller parties, I remove one monster per character less than 5.

 

[Iron Sky]

Have you picked up a few tricks since then?

4e solved it for me. I don't change anything mechanical, just adjust the xp budget as recommended.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Some of you mention puzzles and riddles. I'd be curious to know the specifics.

In my game, I have one player who likes mathematical and logical reasoning puzzles. He doesn't like riddles, because his mind just doesn't work along a verbal, creative, right-brain path. Nobody else (except me) seems to like puzzles or riddles of any sort.

I've found that in order to successfully use puzzles, I have to (1) make it a mathematical or logical puzzle, (2) estimate what I think I could solve in the alloted time and then drop the difficulty significantly from there, and (3) make sure there are things for the other players to do while the one player works on the puzzle (with very occasional input from other people). It also helps immensely to have props.

(The second point, BTW, isn't a crack or boast on anybody's intelligence ... it's just that IME a puzzle or riddle looks much, much easier when it's not being puzzled over "live," so to speak.)

 

[jdrakeh]

The next week we rebooted, but they insisted that I had to run the new campaign in order to learn from my mistake.

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think the mistake was yours. They were the ones who decided to battle against a numerically superior force, despite being warned ahead of time how it was likely to turn out.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I have a bad habit of not preparing as much as I should, so I have no idea what I am going to actually do until I get to the table. This has resulted in sessions that just kind of meander around. Of course, it has also resulted in some of the best sessions I have ever run with the right player input. The style I use with my group(when I can GM for them) relies heavily on the players creating goals for their PCs to fulfill, and being proactive in attaining those goals. If the players are choosing to be lethargic for some reason, the game kind of sputters and dies, as I have nothing to react off of.

 

[Daern]

I standby the fix to bring in an outside assist. The player/PC knew they lost, no sense killing them and ruining a longer story arc. If an encounter's going bad and you want to spare the PCs, you have to bring in an external event or party to change the nature of the situation, so they can escape, parley or win. The trick is to not be deus ex machina about it.

I think this is interesting. The key is to try to maintain the narrative. The heroes need to lose, but if at all possible, they need to survive as well. The classic "wake up in a cell with no clothes" is a classic because it works. The players have lost and that has fundamentally shifted the story. Perhaps not all are alive, perhaps they will never recover all their items, etc. It may be cliche, but it is much better than "oh well, lets just say that last blow didn't hit and oh, these guys have much fewer hp than they seemed..."

Apropos: Last night I got TPK'ed. The Great Zanzibar (wiz4) and his three companions fell to a grell, carrioncrawler, and gibbering mouther in a Temple of Ghaunadar. It was the first time I've been in one so it was actually pretty rad. We're making new characters and going back in for revenge, delve style.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I have no problem with a TPK as a player. However GMing style is important here. If the GM forces you to face every challenge, without ever allowing the runaway option (i.e. the adventure doesn't move until you beat every encounter he or she has planned), and a TPK occurs because the GM misjudged the difficulty of an encoutner (and not because of player choice during the encounter), I think that is a problem. If running away is always or usually an option, and the players don't run away when they should, I don't take issue with a TPK. For me if the threat of character death or TPK isn't there, it lessens the excitement of the game.

 

[Mark]

I say, "When the Session goes Pear Shaped, Make Pear Juice!"


The second part of our Sandbox Sessions when south when two of the four characters went down but a Hail Mary pass by the Halfling gave me an excuse to allow for a narrow escape. They limped off to a safe haven, regrouped and came back to finish their mission.


Picasa Web Albums - CreativeMountain - 2010-01-13&20...

 

[Undermountain]

I was recently in a campaign (Rise of the Runelords AP) where the story had just gotten really good and the party went into this huge bell tower only to get totally overpowered by some flying medusa-like she-devil. The wizard got turned to stone, the rogue was smashed by flying boulders, the cleric tried to run but got smashed to death by the statue of the wizard when the she-devil pushed it off the top of the tower on him, and the fighter got dominated and became her slave. It was a totally spectacular failure except - after that the campaign never really took off again. We all rolled new characters and tried to pick up where we left off, but we just never could get back into the story. Something about the psychology of the TPK really did just end it right there.

 

[S'mon]

We all rolled new characters and tried to pick up where we left off, but we just never could get back into the story. Something about the psychology of the TPK really did just end it right there.

I think that as a general rule, after a TPK it's best to start a new campaign. Most D&D games only work with a sense of threat and risk of failure, and nothing says failure like TPK. Of course if the GM has already paid a lot of money for an Adventure Path I can see he might want to keep it going, but I think it's better to start afresh and maybe go back to the AP later when the new PCs have reached a suitable level, adapting the material as necessary.