The rocks fall, everyone dies trope is what happens when the GM intentionally causes a total party kill, often in a particularly brutal or entertaining fashion. Let us all post the best ways of invoking this trope that we can think up.
Personally, I like the idea of constant streams of comparatively weak creatures. No matter how many the PCs kill, more and more and more will appear, and any party of any level will eventually be overwhelmed. It is inevitable. This seems particularly fitting if done with mindless undead.
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YO.
Literally call out "Rocks fall, everybody dies, roll reflex saves."
If anybody makes a natural 20, that character gets to be in the next campaign (unless you're completely done with the group or game, at any rate.)
I like that idea.
You really seems to delight in the death of your party characters :)
Oh, I never went through with the stuff in that other thread. That campaign went south a whole different way.
I've never actually TPKed a party. This thread is just a hypothetical conversation abound how we would do it. I neither condone nor condemn such behavior.
summoner, witch, and alchemist.
Two people that can kill and another that will debuff and and buff. fortune+cackle+evil eye+slumber+mount=lulz
In the three or four times I was ready to whip out Rocks Fall Everyone Dies in my years of gaming, the PCs did it for me by splitting up into factions and killing one another.
All but one of those times were in high school playing D&D. The other time was in a Call of Cthulhu game that ended up devolving into Tommy Gun and dynamite action theater. Good Times.
The one time I played in a campaign that made it all the way to Rocks Fall without a pvp abortion, we all got sucked into a pocket dimension and (realizing we were at the end of the line anyway) took turns drawing from a Deck of Many Things until deck's worth of many horrible things happened to us.
I doubt I ever get into one of those situations again, but if I did, I would probably grant all the PCs multiple wishes and put on the Jerk GM hat for once, twisting their wishes into horrible reality. I've only "screwed" a player on a wish once in all my years GMing, and all it ended up being was him using a wish to achieve something he could have done with a 3rd level spell he was capable of casting (and I warned him a handful of times that he should really step back and think it through before pulling the trigger). Urinating all over a wish is something I want to do at least once before I die.
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An anitpaladin called the rock that was previously a paladin.
Hmm...I've never done a TPK before. But I kinda cheap killed a Pally in my old group before >> Pally randomly turned CE (No idea why) and tried to sell out the group to a Demon...soo...He got insta cleaved by an avatar of his god.
Director of Game Development
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Call me a softie, but if I was ready to wind up a campaign with something like that, the first step I’d take would be asking the party if they were fine with that.
Then you take the gloves off and give them a fighting chance to die with flair…maybe. (If you’re lucky.)
As a player, I’d be pissed if something like that was sprung on me when someone could have just said they were “done”.
I've had a total of two, count 'em, two TPKs in my decades long career as a GM. One was simply the luck of the dice. In the other, the party was killed by the treasure.
The game day had wound down to the usual identification of items and division of treasure after a successful delve. (AD&D 2nd ed.) One of the items was a bag of beans. In order to determine if it was the bag or the beans themselves that were magical, the character proceeded to dump them out on the table for further inspection...
*BOOM*
BEST WAYS TO INVOKE THE ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES TROPE.
AM BARBARIAN
Step 1. Make sure they really deserve it.
Step 2. Take your biggest miniature. (In my case, heavy metal Cthulhu)
Step 3. Place on table with satisfying thud, commence TPK.
EDIT: Hastur Hastur Hastur is also acceptable.
D&D is a team effort. You, as DM have no right to kill their PC’s that they have spent so much time and effort on “just because”. Although, you could sit down and discuss it like rational adults and ask them how they’d like the campaign to end.
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I used to unleash the "Incantation of Dice" on my players when a game had run its course years ago. This was accomplished by me simply dumping my entire two-pound bag of dice onto the table, adding up the results and then adding another +1 for every die. The total represented damage taken by everything on the planet.
This calamitous event was usually preceeded by some absurdity like someone pushing an unlabeled red button they found on the back of a chicken or pulling a rope hanging from a cloud.
I never did this to punish players or exercise supreme GM power. The Incantation was reserved for times when the campaign was officially over and, sometimes, I even let the players dump the bag.
Literally call out "Rocks fall, everybody dies, roll reflex saves."
If anybody makes a natural 20, that character gets to be in the next campaign (unless you're completely done with the group or game, at any rate.)
I had a one-shot at a convention end this way once. The game had run some 2-3 hours over, some people were starting to want to get out of it (including the GM), and so the cave collapsed, and anyone who rolled a natural 20 got the McGuffin and won. I think someone actually did.
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I am interpreting the 'rocks falls, everyone dies' literally and the absolute best way to implement it is way I did in a campaign long ago.
Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, it was not a deliberate attempt to TPK but it was a very deadly 'trap' of sorts.
The party was adventuring in a dwarf underground stronghold. After fighting their way deep into the stronghold, the party finds a passage that has numerous traps along its length. Dwarven runes are etched into the wall at the entrance.
Ending in a trapped door with numerous locks. Entering reveals a 10 x 10 room with a lever in the floor. The lever has a lock bar safety in place to prevent the lever from being moved. More dwarven runes are on the wall.
The party deliberates for some time. They search the room throughly and find only the lever. No one can read ancient dwarven (actually, noone in the party could read contemporary dwarven either). After much deliberation, the party thinks better of it and elects to leave the lever alone and leaves....
.... until they reconsider and go back to use the lever. Their reasoning was the amount of problems accessing the lever room. All those traps.... the door with the multiple locks... that means the lever is pretty damn important, right?
They disarm the lockbar and used the lever.
"Rocks fall as the self destruct device operates devices which cause the collapse of the entire stronghold. You are all crushed under tons and tons of rock. You are all dead."
Now, lest everyone thinks this was unfair, the outcome was not arbitary. No one elected to find out what the runes meant even by magic like comprehend languages (The runes basically stated it was a self destruct device). The beauty of the outcome was the party gave in to the temptations of curosity and greed. They could have found out more about dwarven strongholds (in that campaign, all of them had self destruct devices and the party could have found this out). Knowing they were going into a dwarven stronghold, they could have elected to hire a dwarven guide to translate wall writings and explain something about dwarven culture, the 'siege mentality' (dwarves in that campaign were under constant and repeated sieges by humanoid forces) and the dwarven determination of 'If I am going to die, I am taking you down with me'.
And finally, they could have just left the lever alone, as was their original choice. Lesson here is go with your gut (they thought using the lever would be bad, originally) and don't second quess yourself.
Literally "Rocks falls, everyone dies" done right, IMO
D&D is a team effort. You, as DM have no right to kill their PC’s that they have spent so much time and effort on “just because”. Although, you could sit down and discuss it like rational adults and ask them how they’d like the campaign to end.
Again, this is a hypothetical. I'm not saying GMs should actually do it. It's like discussing how we'd take over the world or whatever. It's a fun conversation about something we probably aren't ever going to do. That goes for all of you saying the GM shouldn't be TPKing. THE THREAD IS NOT ABOUT THAT!
Now I get that this forum is strictly on the side of "Don't be a dick to your players", but if it makes them feel better how about "fulfilling a doomed prophecy". Aka the players knew right from the start they where GOING, may even HAVE to die, the only question being if they manage to save the world first.
What would be the coolest way to fill their dramatic finale?
Now I get that this forum is strictly on the side of "Don't be a dick to your players", but if it makes them feel better how about "fulfilling a doomed prophecy". Aka the players knew right from the start they where GOING, may even HAVE to die, the only question being if they manage to save the world first.
What would be the coolest way to fill their dramatic finale?
An epic final battle where no one survives while bringing the castle down on the ancient evil to crush it under many tons of stone and mortar. Spells are flung, traps are sprung, the evil is killed, and the world is saved by the unsung heroes who had to do it all.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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To the bitter people who keep saying you shouldn't do a Rocks Fall scenario: The point of this discussion is NOT to gain advice on how to do this, or to encourage people to be mean GMs. It is a thought experiment that is meant to be fun and possibly light hearted. Please don't say anything if you cant say anything nice or productive.
My thoughts on Rocks Fall Everyone Dies (RFED):
There are two main types of RFED; part of the story and non-sequitur.
Make it part of the story:
You can have it be part of the story in any number of ways. Having the RFED happen because of a story element is possibly the main source of accidental TPKs, but if you plan on a RFED there are ways of doing it tastefully and epically. My favorite way is to make the RFED happen as the end of the campaign.
There are plenty of movies, books, and stories that have an ending where everyone dies. America seems to hate them with a passion, I don't know why. Maybe we don't like the idea of the heroes not being rewarded afterwards. However, if done tastefully the RFED can actually be the end result of the campaign and be a satisfying and non-jerk ending.
This is dependent on the players being aware of it as being a possibility and still choosing to take the actions that lead to their ultimate demise. You must make it clear they have a choice of death or being cowards long before they are forced into the RFED scenario. They have to feel as if they had the choice to run away. The trick is they also have to feel as if the option to run away is going to carry with it terrible consequences. For example the choice might be battle against the main bad guy and ultimately die (for any number of reasons, or run away and let him destroy the kingdom.
Then all you have to do is set up the RFED scenario to be the end. Maybe the party needs to destroy an artifact and they not only have to fight against all odds to complete a ceremony but the artifact will explode like a nuke at the end of it. Maybe they have to kill the main bad guy, but his base self-destructs his he is killed.
However it is done, the players are aware of this type of RFED and if it is done right they will be satisfied with it.
The Non-sequitur Rocks Fall Everyone Dies:
These RFED happen in a way that the players not only never see coming, but they happen independent of the story. The very name, Rocks fall everyone dies, is a reference to a non-sequitur RFED scenario. For no apparent reason, rocks fall and kill everyone.
But where is the fun in crushing people suddenly? If a GM decided suddenly they want to take out the whole party, and don't want to bother tying it into the story, they can have some fun.
For times when you don't have any preparation time, simply find a monster encounter with a CR 5 above the parties level. You could go higher then 5, but if you do it won't feel like an accidental TPK. Any lower and the monster won’t be challenging enough to cause a TPK.
Why do you want it to feel like an accidental TPK? Simple, even if you won't ever see these guys again, they will talk about you. Remember, the gaming community is small and everyone knows who the jerk GM is in their area.
Now you have a monster, play them smart and have them not only ambush the party but buff them up with lots of spells. Even a Gelatinous Cube can become a monster you should run from with enough buff spells on it. I suggest the lower level stackable buffs. Giving them invisibility, deflection and natural AC, lots of pluses to attack and damage, and (if possible) a fly speed are all basic ways to make a monster better at killing your PCs. Oh, and give the monster more HP then the average number it is listed with.
Now play them smart. Ambush the party and take out the healer first, caster second, and everyone else after that. Don't let the party flank, use AoO intelligently, and make sure you use the monsters abilities to their fullest.
If your TPK fails, award experience and play it off like you planed it but didn't expect it to be as over powered. Learn from it and go for the planned non-sequitur RFED.
The planned one involves taking the time to hand craft a scenario. Use multiple monsters, tricky and dangerous terrain, and less than ideal conditions. Pull out all the stops and make the fight as epic as you can. A book could be written on how to design this, but I trust most people already know the basics and can do this well enough.
If you can calmly tell your group you don't want to keep running the game but you do want to go out with a bang, let them know you have a last stand like scenario for them to go through. Inform them it is a RFED, and that you just want to do it for fun. Most players will understand and find it fun to do.
If you want to be a jerk and just kill everyone without informing them first, don’t say anything and just run what you planned. Be prepared to leave quickly, as you might be run out as soon as everyone realizes what has happened. Also, be prepared to never talk to that group ever again.
Maybe I will return later and actually post some scenarios, but I wanted to post something on execution first. I also wanted to post to point out that there are ways to make RFED acceptable and tasteful.
CalebTGordon... well done! Most impressive presentation.
I came up with a RFED thing in a campaign once... sort of.
In fact, there was literal rocks (or rather one large one on which a city was built) involved and everyone would have died, if they hadn't gone with the option they did (there might have been another way, but I didn't have one planned, and they didn't come up with anything). Effectively, they shaved off a piece of an evil goddess (Shar) and accepted the Shade Template (well, four of them did - two instead "consumed" or took the place of two her avatars, thus denying her them*) and by doing so pooled their powers to gain control of the flying city and were able to keep it flying instead of dropping it on the helpless land below. The non-good character's player was all about it, and, while the good guys certainly wanted to save everyone, they were loathe to accept the taint of darkness and evil.
It was very interesting to watch the results later - one player spent the game trying to rid himself of the template (instead he gained another to "balance" himself out), one player attempted to alter the template (and did so), one PC embraced the darkness and became evil (and a villain, the player rolling a new PC), one PC died nobly, and one leveraged the avatar-power to become a goddess.
Eventually the party completed their goals, and it was a great story-telling experience. :)
* Humorously, they gained the least amount of power.
I removed a post and a bunch of replies to it. What people do in other parts of the internet is their business.
Also, flag it and move on, please.
I am interpreting the 'rocks falls, everyone dies' literally and the absolute best way to implement it is way I did in a campaign long ago.
I really love this story.
I once caved a roof in on my players because I wanted to play the other gm's kingmaker that night.
He then countered by ruling the tarrasque attacked us and ate us all, at Gregori's order. "F!@# you, we're playing your game."
Parody campaigns are the best campaigns.
I am interpreting the 'rocks falls, everyone dies' literally and the absolute best way to implement it is way I did in a campaign long ago.
Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, it was not a deliberate attempt to TPK but it was a very deadly 'trap' of sorts.
The party was adventuring in a dwarf underground stronghold. After fighting their way deep into the stronghold, the party finds a passage that has numerous traps along its length. Dwarven runes are etched into the wall at the entrance.
Ending in a trapped door with numerous locks. Entering reveals a 10 x 10 room with a lever in the floor. The lever has a lock bar safety in place to prevent the lever from being moved. More dwarven runes are on the wall.
The party deliberates for some time. They search the room throughly and find only the lever. No one can read ancient dwarven (actually, noone in the party could read contemporary dwarven either). After much deliberation, the party thinks better of it and elects to leave the lever alone and leaves....
.... until they reconsider and go back to use the lever. Their reasoning was the amount of problems accessing the lever room. All those traps.... the door with the multiple locks... that means the lever is pretty damn important, right?
They disarm the lockbar and used the lever.
"Rocks fall as the self destruct device operates devices which cause the collapse of the entire stronghold. You are all crushed under tons and tons of rock. You are all dead."
Now, lest everyone thinks this was unfair, the outcome was not arbitary. No one elected to find out what the runes meant even by magic like comprehend languages (The runes basically stated it was a self destruct device). The beauty of the outcome was the party gave in to the temptations of curosity and greed. They could have found out more about dwarven strongholds (in that campaign, all of them had self destruct devices and the party could have found this out). Knowing they were going into a dwarven stronghold, they...
Reminds me of this (some dodgy language/incomprehensible Scottish accent)
Awwwww... I thought this thread was going to be about what players have to do to deserve a rockfall squishy death.
::kicks rock sulkily:: Shoot, I was looking forward to that.
Count Strahd.
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We've had a few close calls... that what happens when you've got someone who just HAS to touch things that shouldn't be touched...
When you are in a tomb, and there is a throne... you don't sit on the throne. The one who actully sat on the throne nearly died three times, it was amusing.
We were attacked by something like 30 sand elementals.
But yeah, the best way is to put some smuchk bait in front of them, and see if they take it.
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We've had a few close calls... that what happens when you've got someone who just HAS to touch things that shouldn't be touched...
But yeah, the best way is to put some smuchk bait in front of them, and see if they take it.
A room where the only thing in it is a lever with a big sign that says "DO NOT PULL LEVER"
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A room where the only thing in it is a lever with a big sign that says "DO NOT PULL LEVER"We've had a few close calls... that what happens when you've got someone who just HAS to touch things that shouldn't be touched...
But yeah, the best way is to put some smuchk bait in front of them, and see if they take it.
If they pull it they DESERVE to die