D&D 5E You've just TPK'd in the final fight. What do?

[CleverNickName]

Sometimes the players lose.

Now lets start the next campaign.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Suppose your party TPK’d in the final fight. Would you reset and try again? Would you accept defeat? Or would you expect your GM to fudge the dice just enough to keep the BAD ENDING from ruining a good campaign? What's your philosophy of failure when it comes to the campaign finale?

Accept defeat and start a new campaign. As a player defeating the final boss after rewinding to retry would feel like a very cheap and unsatisfying victory to me. History-making tale will remain better the way it originally happened with a defeat. There's nothing wrong in being the looser at the end.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Bad guys love taking prisoners. Have the villain revifify the party, gloat about how "death is no escape, muahahaha", and send them to the dungeon for interrogation/torture.

This does mean the villain is free to proceed with his evil plans, so when the PCs escape the situation might be significantly worse than before the battle. Perhaps revenge will be the motivation for the rest of the campaign.