So, say the rolls are bad (Or you are just a RBDM) and you TPK on the adventure path. What do you do? Do you start over? Do you role up a party of the appropriate level and continue? Can such a contingency be written into an AP?
Just wondering because for my players and myself there is a thrill in the fact that a party could be wiped out. This element of risk is what makes the game fun. That a character could die or that the party might not make it.
It seems to me that there might be a tendency to let em live simply because the DM wants to play through the adventure. I was wondering what people had for suggestions if you might not finish the AP with the party you started with.
I had a near TPK in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (out of seven PCs, two survived). The PCs walked into an ambush they knew was coming, then tossed some of the suckiest die rolls I've ever seen.
So after the dust settled, I gave them a few choices:
1) We could ditch the whole thing
2) We could make new characters and start from the beginning
3) We could make new characters and pick up near where they left off
3a) The 5 dead PCs could be replaced to join the two survivors
3b) Everybody could make new PCs
4) I could contrive some reason for the five dead PCs to get raised and go on
In the end, they went with option 3b. We had one session where the new characters met and talked to the two surviving members; some knowledge transfer took place (to help minimize the player knowledge vs character knowledge thing), some game-specific items were handed over, and off they went to finish what the first group started.
I think a TPK is really a group decision on how to continue - and part of that decision, unfortunately for the DM, includes going in an entirely new direction.
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Do any of your players keep a journal of the game sessions?
One of my players does. She writes down EVERYTHING.
You could resume the campaign where your original party died by having one of the new characters stumble onto a cache of journals written by the now defunct party.
Using Age of Worms as an example, a new character could be a rogue who heard that there was a group of adventurers who had set-up base in a refurbished mine-office outside of town. Being a bit of a snoop (and greedy) he quickly realizes that they aren't home much and suspects that they've got a stash of loot somewhere in the building. He decides to relieve the absent party of some of their surplus treasure and finds the journals, complete with notes, clues, maps, or whatever (note this helps with the metagame problem of player-knowledge).
The rogue may become intrigued with the situation to the point that he decides to approach the group when they return. Time marches on - and they don't come back. Rogue decides to fund his own expedition and uses the information and money he finds to pull together another adventuring group.
Again, assuming the journals are thorough, the new party will have enough information to make contact with key characters such as Allustan as well - who may be bummed that his other preinds appear to have bought it, but is practical enough to see that this new group will serve his purposes as well.
I had a near TPK in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (out of seven PCs, two survived). The PCs walked into an ambush they knew was coming, then tossed some of the suckiest die rolls I've ever seen.
So after the dust settled, I gave them a few choices:
1) We could ditch the whole thing
2) We could make new characters and start from the beginning
3) We could make new characters and pick up near where they left off
3a) The 5 dead PCs could be replaced to join the two survivors
3b) Everybody could make new PCs
4) I could contrive some reason for the five dead PCs to get raised and go onIn the end, they went with option 3b. We had one session where the new characters met and talked to the two surviving members; some knowledge transfer took place (to help minimize the player knowledge vs character knowledge thing), some game-specific items were handed over, and off they went to finish what the first group started.
I think a TPK is really a group decision on how to continue - and part of that decision, unfortunately for the DM, includes going in an entirely new direction.
Oooh - exceptional answer. You've nicely summed up all the decent possibilities a party really has after a near TPK. I never really thought about it much before but this is a nice little list - presuming of course that your players are not the type to abuse it by alwasy taking the 'save us' option. That'd grow stale in a hurry.
Nah - the "save us" option just leads to more adventure hooks. :)
I think it helps to view the game world as a real and dynamic place. The PCs are not the be and end all, other groups of heroes wander about on adventures just as they do (in fact I will often have a rival NPC party compete in the same adventure, it makes it interesting to have 'good' enemies..)
With this in mind it is pretty easy to introduce a party of new PCs at whatever point the previous party died. Especially if the local news is full of tragedy with locals believing their saviours have died and all is lost.
I remember in 2e we were playing Night Below and we had 4 (count them) TPK's each in exactly the same location - the grell lair. My players were becoming incredibly frustrated and developing extremely elaborate plans, and rolling up characters of grell-slayers but each time they bought. It came to the point where they just wouldn't quite. There was quite a nice haul of treasure there once they did succeed, given all the fallen PCs....
Cheers
Llowellen
...You could resume the campaign where your original party died by having one of the new characters stumble onto a cache of journals written by the now defunct party...
Within AoW, there are points at which certain NPCs (Allustan or Tenser -- errr, Manzorian) might recruit a new group, bring them up to speed with information, and send them into the campaign.
Just a thought.
Jack
In situations like this I've had the new PCs stumble upon the bodies of the former party by accident, usually while on a mission of their own. Often this means they kill whichever monster killed their old characters, which is great because they get revenge, and they get what's left of the old characters' loot after monsters looted what they liked from the body.
I think a good solution is to have PCs find a note on the body (ettins wouldn't bother to poke around in inside pockets to steal some paper they can't read), which leads them to one of the former party's contacts, who clues them in on the whole situation.