TPKs - ever been through the Underworld and back?

[Errant Mercenary]

Hello, I came to discuss a topic around TPKs, the much dreaded, much debated campaign ender/betrayer.

I am interested in hearing if someone took the route of continuing the campaign after a TPK but all starting in some other plane/underworld to make their way back to the current campaign.

I myself have a little back up plan for when this happens, and I am debating whether it is a good idea at all. Of course, it'd have to be well done but it'd basically add another chapter to the campaign.

As for reasons, many campaigns do end up dead in the water if the current party doesnt make it. We run a pretty gritty-no res campaign and I absolutely loathe deus-ex-machina unless they are done very skillfully.

This also gives the opportunity to change the pace/flavour of the campaign, going through the realm of the dead and facing perhaps the crimes theyve done before, or even change it to a more whimsical thing if it's appropriate.

So, ever done it? How did it go? Think it is a good idea?

[Isonaroc]

I haven't done it yet, but I have designs for it to happen if the worst should come to pass.

I have been in a party that got killed during a crazy undead uprising, ended up as undead ourselves, and played the campaign like that.

[Boomerang Nebula]

It sounds like a great idea.

I have never tried it though.

[UnArcaneElection]

Another (admittedly highly situational) option is to convert a Total Party Kill into a Total Party Capture. Instead of ending up in the (probably Lower) Planes, you wind up in a prison run by bandits, a hostile tribe, a hostile noble family, a major villain, or a dystopian state, and then the campaign continues from there.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

I'm planning on using either Up from Darkness, or No Response from Deepmar when the PCs get killed or captured.

Sold to pirates would also work well, pt. 1 of Skull and Shackles, or whatever old PFS mod has the gnoll slave ship. I used that as a rescue, PC's had to rescue one of their own.

[Corathonv2]

Errant Mercenary wrote:

Hello, I came to discuss a topic around TPKs, the much dreaded, much debated campaign ender/betrayer.

I am interested in hearing if someone took the route of continuing the campaign after a TPK but all starting in some other plane/underworld to make their way back to the current campaign.

So, ever done it? How did it go? Think it is a good idea?

I haven't done it, but an old friend of mine once ran a dungeon in which everyone that died ended up in "hell" (another set of dungeon levels). To escape "hell" and return to life you had to fight your way out.

The only time that I presided over a TPK I went the Deus Ex Machina route, but I had sort of unwittingly set the stage for it from the beginning of the campaign. A very powerful NPC lurking in the metaphorical shadows had been aiding the group surreptitiously so as to thwart the campaign's Big Bad without revealing himself. With the part slain almost at their (and his) goal that NPC had to decide whether or not to act and tip his hand; I ruled that he did and he wished the party back. They returned to a position of great adversity (no items, trapped in underground tunnels) but they did come back and ultimately triumphed.