D&D 5E (2014) You've just TPK'd in the final fight. What do?

[abirdcall]

The campaign wasn't ruined. We all had a great time doing our best knowing that victory wasn't certain.

 

[Rabbitbait]

There always has to be a possibility of failure. If that does not exist, then any future game is not as fun.

 

[DND_Reborn]

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?

I would jump up and cheer, crying out:

HA! I GOT YOU, I got you all SOOO good! You all thought your characters were invincible, huh? Right? Well, yeah, now you know. Now you see that they weren't such "hot stuff", huh? HA! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Then I would run around the gaming table, hollering and skipping in mirthful glee. Finally, exhausted from celebrating, I will fall back into my chair, let out a big sigh, and merrily ask the players, "So, everyone ready to return to 1st level? Let's roll up some new PCs!"

 

[Weiley31]

Begin the actual campaign now that the prologue has been completed.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Replace the DM if they try to rub it in by montaging how we've screwed up the world or telling us maybe our next three years of investment will pay off and somehow that will be meaningful because this one wasn't.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I would jump up and cheer, crying out:

HA! I GOT YOU, I got you all SOOO good! You all thought your characters were invincible, huh? Right? Well, yeah, now you know. Now you see that they weren't such "hot stuff", huh? HA! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Then I would run around the gaming table, hollering and skipping in mirthful glee. Finally, exhausted from celebrating, I will fall back into my chair, let out a big sigh, and merrily ask the players, "So, everyone ready to return to 1st level? Let's roll up some new PCs!"

You let them get past first level? Soft.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I would (and have) put forth the option A- Do we start new characters next time? B- Do you wake up in a cell?

Interestingly for me, it has been about 4:1 over the past few years or so. The higher the level of character the more interest in starting a new campaign, strangely.

 

[LordEntrails]

New campaign. And maybe the next set of heroes are challenged to fix the problems of the last group's failure!

 

[aco175]

If it is the last night of play in that campaign, I may let it stand. The players now have a reason to hate the BBEG and I just place him in the next campaign. Maybe ask if the new PCs are related or know the old PCs.

 

[CreamCloud0]

A mini-arc of the group fighting/bargaining/sneaking or otherwise earning their way out of the afterlife, if they manage to achieve exiting they resurrect in the living world again with any new experience or boons they aquired, for maximum story drama they rez right in the same exact time and positions they died in no time having passed in the living world to continue the final battle right where they left off but fully healed