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Your very first TPK?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7336936" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>A cut rope. The 5th level AD&D party (~1980) had the wizard fly up and tie a rope at the top of a 200 foot cliff. Then the other PCs climbed up after him. However, he was ambushed by the thief they were hunting and killed with a backstab. Then, the thief waited until the rest of the party was close to the top... and cut the rope. </p><p></p><p>The wizard ignored warning signs. The PCs were given a chance to try to catch onto the cliff. However, none of these were executed well by me (I was an 8 year old DM - gimme a break) and the remaining PCs all fell and died. </p><p></p><p>My second TPK was when a 7th level wizard attacked a 5th level party. He was flying and had protection from normal missiles and shield up (also an AD&D era campaign). He took one fireball from the party, but beyond that the PCs could do nothing to him and he had them trapped on a giant plain. It was just an execution. One PC escaped, but fled back into a nearby dungeon and died in the entrance room when he triggered the monsters there.</p><p></p><p>The most memorable TPK was in 2E. The PCs began the game in a small coastal city - that was attacked by the Tarrasque. The Tarrasque was being treated more like an environment than a monster, knocking over buildings, creating opportunities for the PCs to save folks, etc... However, in the final moment of the session, the PCs found themselves trapped out in the open - face to face with a 200' tall Tarrasque - and it squashed them. I rolled the attacks, but it would take a miracle for them to survive. The next session began with the PCs waking up, raised mysteriously from the dead, with a quest to gather the tools necessary to kill the Tarrasque. </p><p></p><p>My least favorite TPKs were a real bad call on my part as a DM when I was far too experienced to make the mistake. In the first, the PCs were a bunch of LG zealots. They were trying to outdo each other in terms of heroics - and I put in a monster army that was intended to force them to flee. They stood their ground - 6 heroes versus thousands - and they were overrun far too fast. It didn't feel like a heroic last stand - it felt like a slaughterhouse ending. </p><p></p><p>In the second, the PCs were infected by something that was draining one hp per round. They were supposed to fight their way to the cure and then take it before they died - but one of the PCs put up a wall of stone in their path without realizing where they needed to go, thinking he was trapping a few enemies in an alcove. Despite hints that they needed to go that way, they didn't figure it out - until after the PCs that could have beaten the wall of stone was dead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 7336936, member: 2629"] A cut rope. The 5th level AD&D party (~1980) had the wizard fly up and tie a rope at the top of a 200 foot cliff. Then the other PCs climbed up after him. However, he was ambushed by the thief they were hunting and killed with a backstab. Then, the thief waited until the rest of the party was close to the top... and cut the rope. The wizard ignored warning signs. The PCs were given a chance to try to catch onto the cliff. However, none of these were executed well by me (I was an 8 year old DM - gimme a break) and the remaining PCs all fell and died. My second TPK was when a 7th level wizard attacked a 5th level party. He was flying and had protection from normal missiles and shield up (also an AD&D era campaign). He took one fireball from the party, but beyond that the PCs could do nothing to him and he had them trapped on a giant plain. It was just an execution. One PC escaped, but fled back into a nearby dungeon and died in the entrance room when he triggered the monsters there. The most memorable TPK was in 2E. The PCs began the game in a small coastal city - that was attacked by the Tarrasque. The Tarrasque was being treated more like an environment than a monster, knocking over buildings, creating opportunities for the PCs to save folks, etc... However, in the final moment of the session, the PCs found themselves trapped out in the open - face to face with a 200' tall Tarrasque - and it squashed them. I rolled the attacks, but it would take a miracle for them to survive. The next session began with the PCs waking up, raised mysteriously from the dead, with a quest to gather the tools necessary to kill the Tarrasque. My least favorite TPKs were a real bad call on my part as a DM when I was far too experienced to make the mistake. In the first, the PCs were a bunch of LG zealots. They were trying to outdo each other in terms of heroics - and I put in a monster army that was intended to force them to flee. They stood their ground - 6 heroes versus thousands - and they were overrun far too fast. It didn't feel like a heroic last stand - it felt like a slaughterhouse ending. In the second, the PCs were infected by something that was draining one hp per round. They were supposed to fight their way to the cure and then take it before they died - but one of the PCs put up a wall of stone in their path without realizing where they needed to go, thinking he was trapping a few enemies in an alcove. Despite hints that they needed to go that way, they didn't figure it out - until after the PCs that could have beaten the wall of stone was dead. [/QUOTE]
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