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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson Longinus" data-source="post: 8564769" data-attributes="member: 7025508">GM can of course always fudge and otherwise adjust rules, or cause a deus ex to save the characters. But if things are already going terribly, it might be hard to do in a way that is not rather obvious to the players, which probably would deflate the tension for the rest of the campaign. And I generally feel that if the PCs take the risks, it also entails that sometimes they might lose, even badly.That being said TPK can be a campaign killer. Some characters dying is fine, if at least some survive to carry on the continuity of the story. (And then they have a motivation to take revenge for their fallen comrades!) So what I would do is try to find some plausible way for some of the characters either being able to escape or be taken as prisoners. The lich wanting some service from them is already mentioned. Could they also want some of them to be imprisoned to be interrogated later or for some other purpose? (To be sacrificed in a dark ritual etc.) This would give the characters a chance to escape, perhaps with the help of the alu-fiend, or some other NPC you could introduce (I'm sure you could easily come up with some reason for some of the lich's minions having reasons to work against their master.) Alternatively could the alu-fiend arrange some sort of a distraction that would let some of the characters escape?Failing that, there is always an option the lich turning the slain characters into revenants or some such, so the party could continue their adventures as the lich's undead minions, perhaps secretly working to regain their freedom... But that's a thematic character shift all the players might not be comfortable with.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crimson Longinus, post: 8564769, member: 7025508"] GM can of course always fudge and otherwise adjust rules, or cause a deus ex to save the characters. But if things are already going terribly, it might be hard to do in a way that is not rather obvious to the players, which probably would deflate the tension for the rest of the campaign. And I generally feel that if the PCs take the risks, it also entails that sometimes they might lose, even badly. That being said TPK can be a campaign killer. Some characters dying is fine, if at least some survive to carry on the continuity of the story. (And then they have a motivation to take revenge for their fallen comrades!) So what I would do is try to find some plausible way for some of the characters either being able to escape or be taken as prisoners. The lich wanting some service from them is already mentioned. Could they also want some of them to be imprisoned to be interrogated later or for some other purpose? (To be sacrificed in a dark ritual etc.) This would give the characters a chance to escape, perhaps with the help of the alu-fiend, or some other NPC you could introduce (I'm sure you could easily come up with some reason for some of the lich's minions having reasons to work against their master.) Alternatively could the alu-fiend arrange some sort of a distraction that would let some of the characters escape? Failing that, there is always an option the lich turning the slain characters into revenants or some such, so the party could continue their adventures as the lich's undead minions, perhaps secretly working to regain their freedom... But that's a thematic character shift all the players might not be comfortable with. [/QUOTE]

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