After the TPK: 1001 ways to carry on

[Altair_the_Vexed]

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]

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]

8. That was the D&D game your characters were playing! Now roll up your real characters!

[Lord Raziere]

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
11. Time for some The World Ends With you!

[MlleRouge]

12. Death appears and you challenge him to a game!

[Siosilvar]

13. Here's a couple of undead templates for you to choose from.

[begooler]

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]

15. Psion in a different dungeon runs afoul of a trap, triggers his Save Point and undoes the day.

[ClockShock]

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?

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

[Howler Dagger]

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]

12. Death appears and you challenge him to a game!

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]

19. "As the pain fades, you open your eyes in the afterlife. What do you do?"

[VeliciaL]

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]

21. In a completely unrelated event, Superman flies around the world to rewind time.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

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]

23. The Warlocks soulstone, bound to the cleric capable of casting rez, activates.

[Techsmart]

24. The PCs emerge from their own heads.
For details, see

Spoiler

Show

[VeliciaL]

25. Holodeck, end program!

[Tenno Seremel]

12. Death appears and you

… set your diplomancer on him.

[Necroticplague]

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]

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]

28. Everyone is gluud back t'gether - IN HELL!

[Tyndmyr]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?"