PDA

View Full Version : After the TPK: 1001 ways to carry on



Altair_the_Vexed
2011-07-31, 02:47 PM
We've all done it - killed every last party member by accident. Maybe your idea of a tough encounter and the players' idea of smart tactics didn't match, maybe the party healbot was the first to die, or used up all their spells on something other than surviving...

So how do we take this dead party, pick up the pieces of our campaign, and move on?

Let's start with a couple I'm sure we've all pulled out the bag once all the hit points have been used up.

1: A Whole New Party!
Let's get this one out the way. This is how we usually deal with it - it's safe, easy, reliable, vanilla. Roll up new characters and throw them a hook or two. There's nothing wrong with this - it's just been done over and over, and a gang of unrelated characters coincidentally getting together to go on the same quest might feel a little lame.
There are variations to this method that will no doubt come out in this thread - good ones, too.

2: Captured, Not Killed
The BBEG or whoever was TPKing your PCs hasn't really killed them all to bits - no, they've just been captured, brought to the villain's lair, and must now escape to save the day.
Gives you the chance to do your BBEG's exposition dump monologue, which is always a bonus.
See Almost Every Bond Film, Ever.

So - what else have you done to carry on after the TPK?

QuidEst
2011-07-31, 03:01 PM
3. The Bard's death was an illusion! Okay, I think that ranks pretty high up on the list of cheap cop-outs. But really, having any character (PC or NPC) around to start cashing stuff in for the rezzing GP.

4. It's now an undead campaign! Rival Necromancer can't pass up the chance at some high-level undead?

5. Inception style! You open your eyes to see a cold, grey room. There are a number of complex machines, and you feel like you've got an awful hangover. "Oh good- I believe they are starting to come to."

6. Quick bargain. Pass notes around to various party members (preferably lawful evil or lawful neutral) that as they start doing the moral coil shuffle, a small imp appears before them with a proposition…

7. Divine intervention. Not the spell, but maybe the Cleric can cash in some /major/ brownie points this one time. Especially if they've already saved the world once, or some such thing.

VeliciaL
2011-07-31, 03:20 PM
8. That was the D&D game your characters were playing! Now roll up your real characters!

Lord Raziere
2011-07-31, 03:40 PM
9. Now you are all Abyssals
10. the characters sons and daughters rise up and take their place. Even if they are all single people who never married :smallwink:
11. Time for some The World Ends With you!

MlleRouge
2011-07-31, 04:18 PM
12. Death appears and you challenge him to a game!

Siosilvar
2011-07-31, 04:19 PM
13. Here's a couple of undead templates for you to choose from.

begooler
2011-07-31, 04:34 PM
14. Rewind to 20 minutes before and play everything through again, a la Run Lola, Run. Repeat until a serendipitous turn of events resulting from decisions the PC's make prevents them from dying.

Flickerdart
2011-07-31, 04:37 PM
15. Psion in a different dungeon runs afoul of a trap, triggers his Save Point and undoes the day.

ClockShock
2011-07-31, 05:09 PM
15. Psion in a different dungeon runs afoul of a trap, triggers his Save Point and undoes the day.

They're not so much a fan of that one when they kill the BBEG. Double standards much? :smallwink:

16. Switch to the winning side! You now control the enemies who smote you.

Howler Dagger
2011-07-31, 05:14 PM
17. Good News! You are reincarnated as gods! seeeing the mortal world in need, you all send down your avatars(who happen to be exactly like yo were before you died) to save the world!

NineThePuma
2011-07-31, 05:15 PM
12. Death appears and you challenge him to a game! (http://xkcd.com/393/)

Fix'd that.

18. You are now in an after life. Sure, the Material Plane is still in danger, but the BBEG's actually-just-a-pawn-to/Drawing-power/inspired-by something in the Great Beyond. And now you get to deal with this directly.

Quietus
2011-07-31, 05:17 PM
19. "As the pain fades, you open your eyes in the afterlife. What do you do?"

VeliciaL
2011-07-31, 10:41 PM
20. The PCs wake up at the point of their last extended rest. It turns out they are in a Groundhog Day style time loop, which will continue until they defeat the enemy that defeated them.

Pie Guy
2011-07-31, 10:47 PM
21. In a completely unrelated event, Superman flies around the world to rewind time.

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-07-31, 11:10 PM
22. As your eyes open, you see the Lord Mayor standing nearby with a gleeful smile on his face.

"That was a most exquisite performance! Your deaths were absolutely spectacular! I'll expect to see you all at the cast party!"

The PCs have been acting in a play where the special effects are quite real and quite lethal. In fact, they were fully expected to die during the production for the amusement of the disgustingly corrupt nobles watching. The Lord Mayor, an admirer and patron of the arts, specially funded this show to ensure you'd be raised from the dead after the show was over, so you could put in an appearance at his sumptuous feast in your honor for having the guts to star in such a gruesome and lethal performance. (This is actually something that happens in the second adventure of Pathfinder's adventure path, Council of Thieves.)

SowZ
2011-07-31, 11:15 PM
23. The Warlocks soulstone, bound to the cleric capable of casting rez, activates.

Techsmart
2011-08-01, 12:12 AM
24. The PCs emerge from their own heads.
For details, see
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUsx_uO2o6SBvg_PfJeW9ZW54KNAeyk mvHzDVxuri4eQp_FZ-L1g

VeliciaL
2011-08-01, 12:52 AM
25. Holodeck, end program!

Tenno Seremel
2011-08-01, 01:49 AM
12. Death appears and you
… set your diplomancer on him.

Necroticplague
2011-08-01, 05:49 AM
26.Your party wakes up where they died, incredibly refreshed, though with no memory of anything beyond their own abilities and item use, and immediate goals (maybe even forget own name). Then, the next time they return to a town, they see a mass funeral, because of (amount of people in party) suddenly dropping dead (alternately, have each of them be haunted by a ghost of some kind). Then, have them realize, either through knowledge (religion, the planes, or arcana) checks, or through their own inferences, that every time they die, someone else does so in their place. How the heck this came to be can be a plot hook of its own (and one they are fairly sure to bite).

Thrawn183
2011-08-01, 07:51 AM
27. The Dragon they hired to recover their corpses and resurrect them performs his duty and then demands payment.

Yeesh, do none of you guys have parties with contingency plans?

Zen Master
2011-08-01, 08:14 AM
28. Everyone is gluud back t'gether - IN HELL!

Tyndmyr
2011-08-01, 09:00 AM
29: Ghostwalk!

30: You are offered a ressurection. As per the rules, you know only the alignment of your rezzer. Lawful. Evil.

31: The gods have difficulty determining which afterlife you should go to, due to your wild variety of actions(Most PCs easily qualify). They set before you a test.

hydroplatypus
2011-08-01, 10:27 AM
32. Some high ranking NPCs are grateful to you for saving their life/town/kingdom/world/universe. These NPCs are keeping tabs on you and were informed of your deaths. A few months later (can be explained many ways) the PCs are offered a rez. This lets the party continue, but the few months will advance the BBEG's plans, and still make their deaths significant.

Traab
2011-08-01, 10:42 AM
The parties cleric wakes up with a gasp of terror! How can this be? Why am I alive? Wait, why are the rest of my friends alive? Was it all a dream? "No, cleric, I, Godzolonplatz, your chosen deity, have sent you this prophetic dream as a warning. You have yet to enter the dungeon in which you died. Remember, loyal follower, there is no fate but what we make."

Basically, the entire dungeon crawl is turned into a dream of how things could go if they dont do better this time. Or choose the rest period before the boss fight if you dont want them to rerun the entire thing.

Altair_the_Vexed
2011-08-01, 10:55 AM
Good stuff - here's a quick summary of the emerging tropes...

It Was All a Dream
The party aren't really dead, they were just dreaming about things going really badly!
Cool variations on this theme include deity-delivered prophesy as a simulation, It Was All a Play For Decedant Nobles, Groundhog Dungeon, and Inception / the Matrix / Holodeck.

Resurrection Ex Machina
Powerful allies raise the party in some way.

World of Darkness-ness
The party are raised as undead.
(I was planning on using this one as a contingency when I was concerned that I might kill the whole party - I made up vampire templates and a rule for trying to overcome your new evil alignment / master's domination. Never needed to use it though.)

There must be more variations on these themes, and others! Bring it!

KineticDiplomat
2011-08-01, 11:46 AM
Fight For Life

The party is in some form of purgatory like afterlife. The camapign now consists of them scratching their way out of purgatory/hell/the afterlife via wits, combat, or other means.

Variations include:

There can only be one: upon reaching the exit, only one of the players can come back to life. This can be anything from a communal decision to a last man standing brawl...

The dying game: The longer the party stays in the afterlife, the more their characters are weakened as they lose their ties to the mortal plane. Every time you rest, the PCs get knocked down a level or some stat permanently. Whenever the level/stat/whatever goes below 0, their soul has completely dissipated into the afterlife. Now you are really TPK'd.

sdream
2011-08-01, 12:21 PM
In ressurection Ex Machina, they don;t have to be allies, and they don't have to be that powerful. Alternately, the ressurection could take place a lot further in the future, as a side effect of the BBEGs eventual defeat.... or success....

randomhero00
2011-08-01, 01:21 PM
The three biggest way my group deals with it.

1. Sorry it was real. Reroll.

2. Prophetic dream.

3. and finally but most interesting... we all wake up in a different reality. A new storyline that somehow coincides with the old in some way. It really depends on storyline.

Jay R
2011-08-01, 01:22 PM
You hear a voice. "I have just cast Speak With Dead over your corpses. My first question is this - are you willing to pay all your current wealth, and serve me in my quest, to be raised rather than buried?" I have a Raise Dead and a shovel, and I don't care which one I use. Do you?"

Daftendirekt
2011-08-01, 01:46 PM
Well, my group has never had a TOTAL party kill. If you die, you make a new character. Plain and simple.

randomhero00
2011-08-01, 01:50 PM
You hear a voice. "I have just cast Speak With Dead over your corpses. My first question is this - are you willing to pay all your current wealth, and serve me in my quest, to be raised rather than buried?" I have a Raise Dead and a shovel, and I don't care which one I use. Do you?"

woa dae ju vu

The Glyphstone
2011-08-01, 02:04 PM
You hear a voice. "I have just cast Speak With Dead over your corpses. My first question is this - are you willing to pay all your current wealth, and serve me in my quest, to be raised rather than buried?" I have a Raise Dead and a shovel, and I don't care which one I use. Do you?"

Only problem, Speak With Dead doesn't work that way. It 'talks' to the imprinted memories of the corpse, the actual departed spirit/soul of the person never gets involved.

SowZ
2011-08-01, 02:16 PM
Only problem, Speak With Dead doesn't work that way. It 'talks' to the imprinted memories of the corpse, the actual departed spirit/soul of the person never gets involved.

Then use commune.

Altair_the_Vexed
2011-08-01, 02:24 PM
Well, my group has never had a TOTAL party kill. If you die, you make a new character. Plain and simple.
Wow - never?

I guess I'm old school: it used to happen quite often. Generally, yes, the players would have to make up a bunch of new characters and play something new - but that's not what this thread is for.

Winds
2011-08-01, 03:02 PM
My group's normal reaction: Everyone died, eh? Well, who wants to DM next?

VeliciaL
2011-08-02, 12:55 AM
33) A certain short, ginger-haired, glasses-wearing cleric shows up and pulls out the duct tape. Better hope she can find all the right parts... (http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2003-09-03)

KineticDiplomat
2011-08-02, 02:21 AM
Another approach (only works if there's a reason someone would know the party was dead or missing). Is the great rescue mission.

The characters take on the role of a party sent to either rescue the party or retrieve their corpses. This works especially well if the party were low powered or more investigation oriented: the quest giver or the villian send a bunch of combat monsters to retrieve the party. Your players get to kick some a** for a few sessions, and then your party is now back on track. Or they fail horribly, but at that point, really, they should just accept being dead.

Kojiro
2011-08-02, 02:29 AM
33 (or whatever number we're really at, I'm not counting). Nothing happens; they're dead, but still aware somehow. The rest of the campaign is a surrealist narrative from the perspective of the <however many> corpses.

Thyrian
2011-08-02, 02:47 AM
The silver mirror darkens with a click as the classy elf swivels back around, clipboard covered in notes underneath her left arm. Pulling her spectacles down she glances over the 4 stoic figures in the room.

"And that's why we attach scrying fields to the mercenaries we send out from the House, to see if they are worth divine interventions. In this case we learnt two things a) Charging an armed death golem is a bad idea not worthy of divine intervention and b) The reward money has just been increased."

Pushing her spectacles back up her nose she glances down at her sheet.
"You're personal CV's are to be honest, not particularly glamorous but you all DID according to your notes 'want to see the Green Rift' so by putting the 4 of you together we're hoping to kill two birds with one stone.... well I suppose you're the second stone but we like to think you're the properly prepared stone and hence the real first stone."

The room fills with silence as she looks expectantly at the four of you, only the sound of the faint ticking clock, in the corner.

"Oh and please pick up name tags on the way out, it'll help your 3 new team-mates get to know you and you four will be working together unless any of you feel the need to 'solo' a death golem. Ladies and Gentlemen any questions? Because if not I have 3 more meetings today and I am being paid by work done for the House."

ILM
2011-08-02, 05:11 AM
20. The PCs wake up at the point of their last extended rest. It turns out they are in a Groundhog Day style time loop, which will continue until they defeat the enemy that defeated them.
I did that once. They got killed, then woke up again that morning, remembering everything. It took them a bit to realize what had happened and then they were all "well ain't that a cheap cop-out". Anyway, they go through the day, and since they now knew everything about him they trounced the bad guy. And then they woke up and it was the same morning again. Uh-oh. Looks like the real plot could finally begin! :smalltongue:

Eldan
2011-08-02, 07:24 AM
34) Suddenly, Dustmen!

A sickly looking man in a grey robe and a chain with a skull symbol around his neck stands over you with a clipboard. He knocks against the side of your skull, then makes a check mark on his clipboard. "Hmm, weird", he says. "You shouldn't be in there anymore. Anyway, help me burn these corpses."

Skaven
2011-08-02, 04:22 PM
You all open your eyes to see a circle of druids around you. You look down to see you are.

*roll roll*

Ok, Chris your fighter is now a bear. Alex, your rogue is now a Jaguar. Mary? Your cleric is a squirrel. Bill? Sorry man, your mage is a snake. You must now undergo a quest to protect the woodlands from the bandits who killed you. if you succeed, the druids say they will look into finding a mage to polymorph you back.

SowZ
2011-08-02, 06:31 PM
I did that once. They got killed, then woke up again that morning, remembering everything. It took them a bit to realize what had happened and then they were all "well ain't that a cheap cop-out". Anyway, they go through the day, and since they now knew everything about him they trounced the bad guy. And then they woke up and it was the same morning again. Uh-oh. Looks like the real plot could finally begin! :smalltongue:

This happened once in a WoD campaign I was in. I thought it was a way to save us, too, until we did the day right the next time and it happened again. And again. And again. Thing is, my character started in Denver at the beginning of each day and the rest of the group was over 4 hours away. Steal a car/motorcycle, drive down there, find everyone else became pretty standard...

Lord.Sorasen
2011-08-02, 06:34 PM
Number one billion or something: Start a new campaign! The heroes have failed and now a much later generation must fight against the cost of the PCs' failures.

Acanous
2011-08-02, 09:46 PM
Usually, in games I play in, if there's a TPK, the DM makes a couple rolls and lets us know which of our contingeant ressurrection plots happened first. The player with that plot scratches out the gold, and we're back at whatever area they wrote down when they came up with the plot.

SowZ
2011-08-02, 11:14 PM
Usually, in games I play in, if there's a TPK, the DM makes a couple rolls and lets us know which of our contingeant ressurrection plots happened first. The player with that plot scratches out the gold, and we're back at whatever area they wrote down when they came up with the plot.

On a nat one do they all fail and does the villian have a chance at preventing those plans?

turkishproverb
2011-08-03, 03:41 AM
This is the reason my characters usually have SOMEONE with a connection to them that can come looking for them. Good way to continue, and a good person to start a new party.

Malimar
2011-08-03, 08:32 AM
Number one billion or something: Start a new campaign! The heroes have failed and now a much later generation must fight against the cost of the PCs' failures.

This is what happened in the only TPK I've been involved with.