So my group, with me as GM, started Kingmaker a few weeks back. We have played a few sessions so far.
If you have run, read, or heard about Kingmaker, then you know the reason why the PCs are exploring. So my question is, what happens if there is a TPK? It would be lame to just say, "Okay, new batch of characters, here's your charter - go do everything you just did."
One of my group has come close to dying already, and they have been in situations in that if they chose to do X, then it very well might have been a TPK (they went straight to the kobold cave, fresh out of Oleg's), barring some very clever plays on their part.
I proposed a "guild" idea, but it didn't catch any traction - they wanted to retain their individuality.
New party discovers journals of old party. No need to do everything again.
PCs only get knocked out and not killed.
Monsters run away easier when the party is near death.
You may suggest the party leave copies of the maps and such at Olegs, just in case. That way if they all die the new party can pick up faily close to where the others left off. Oleg could hold onto the map and let the new group know the state of things.
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When I started Kingmaker I had twelve players. Unfortunately it became untenable to organize them so 6 got cut. Still though as the game progressed I allowed my players to create back-up characters, (Agents of the Council) so they wouldn't get bored playing the same concepts.
So you could ask your players to build back-up characters, perhaps members of Kesten's mercenary company, or Jhod's growing clergy, or bandits who have renounced their criminal ways.
These characters should have some link to the original PCs, and their first quest would be: Find out what happened to the original PCs. Then they can go in, find their dead counterparts, loot the maps and info from their cold dead fingers and become the new explorers of the stolen lands.
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You could also do a search under the Kingmaker Forum for "troupe style play". I think I remember Lisa and a few others talking about trying that out as an experiment. It seems to be much like what Dudemeister is talking about.
I had originally planned to try this, letting each character have a noble, an artisan/craftsman, and a servant/peasant. They could rotate at will between the three, and if one of your characters died, you played one of your others. They were all part of a big group going into the Stolen Lands to settle a kingdom. Eventually I gave up, since my players had a hard time coming up with even a basic background for their characters, much less for three of them. At least that way there would be continutity.
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When I started Kingmaker I had twelve players. Unfortunately it became untenable to organize them so 6 got cut. Still though as the game progressed I allowed my players to create back-up characters, (Agents of the Council) so they wouldn't get bored playing the same concepts.
So you could ask your players to build back-up characters, perhaps members of Kesten's mercenary company, or Jhod's growing clergy, or bandits who have renounced their criminal ways.
These characters should have some link to the original PCs, and their first quest would be: Find out what happened to the original PCs. Then they can go in, find their dead counterparts, loot the maps and info from their cold dead fingers and become the new explorers of the stolen lands.
I don't know if anyone here played Dark Sun, but that's what we all did we made three characters each. In Dark Sun it was 'strongly advised' to do this as it was a very deadly world. Just reminiscing.
Once the kingdom gets set up, I think making replacements will get easier with colonists stepping up to help defend there home.
I've opened the troupe style play option to my players, and it seems to be working well. Some of the folks are playing around with it, whilst others are sticking with their 'main' for the haul. We're just a bit into book one of the AP, they're exploring the northern quadrant of the map and using Oleg's as a base.
Through excellent roleplay and diplomacy rolls, the party has been able to warm up Oleg to the idea that this area is going to be settled at some point in the future. As such, his trading post is starting it's first tentative steps toward becomging a town whilst the characters are off exploring.
The party has rescued a few additional skilled persons (a tinker/smith, a lay healer, a young woodsman, and a soldier) who are all staying at Oleg's for the time being. In exchange for a roof and food, the troupe characters and these NPCs are helping to repair the fort, laying out plans for planting crops, and starting to build a couple of small homes nearby. This sets the foundation for a town, meaning trade, meaning traffic. Once this is underway, it makes sense that others will start filtering through -- a perfect avenue to bring in new characters or even a new party.
Hope it helps!
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We've brought up, many times, that each character (PC or NPC) in a leadership role has a competent staff of characters under them. If there were any irrecoverable deaths, then they could easily promote from the staff and those newly promoted characters could be the new PC's... giving the players the option to swap, shift and redefine roles as suits them... maybe with a point or two of Unrest for the shake up.
The only role that wouldn't really work that way is the ruler. It would be easiest if the ruler came from a large family and obvious, traditional lines of ascension would be readily apparent. In our campaign, the ruler is an adopted PC with no real family to speak of so the players actually drew up lines that go through several of the existing leadership roles... at least until the ruler married (he did) and they produced an heir (baby's on the way... though its not the Duke's child, as he recently learned... but that's a whole different plotline...)
I discussed troupe-style play with my group. They didn't really go for it - for the most part, all of them had concepts before we really got the ball rolling, and being apart of some sort of guild or what have you just didn't fit what they had in mind (one was a simple wanderer).
Once the kingdom actually gets built, I will have less of a problem - I am only a few sessions into Book #1,
Regardless, I've thought of a way. It's a little contrived, but it does fulfill my need.
A little divine intervention.
"Oh, hey, you guys. Listen, I can send you back, but I got a favor."
Ideally, when they get back into a TPK situation (they have been close already, due to their decided direction in dealing with the Stolen Lands), at least 1 will get away, and then it won't be hard to get the others raised or introduce new characters.