TPK on an Adventure Path.

[Aunders]

So, I've recently tried roping my players into an Adventure path, specifically Shattered Star, and I was curious - If there was a TPK during they adventure path, how would I continue the adventure path?

[Bill Dunn]

Tell them at the start that unrecoverable death is a potential outcome of things they do so they should have a backup character idea that would be willing to carry on if their first one fails.

[cavernshark]

I can't speak to Shattered Star specifically, but I'm GMing my first adventure path as well. We're doing Giantslayer. The way I've been preparing for it is to think about reasonable "save points" -- the last / closest places that someone impacted by the adventure might reasonably know something was going on. My plan is to have the new party essentially be a new team assembled to address the threat from as close of proximity as makes sense. It does mean a bit of set back depending on how deep into dungeons people are, but I find it useful to think about this way rather than just hand waving a new party into existence (though I can appreciate the simplicity of that approach).

[Rub-Eta]

It really depends on the situation. Sometimes, it doesn't make sense to introduce an entirely new party into the same story. Sometimes it does.
My group took a break from Reign of Winter after I TPK:d them at the end of the third book - I'm currently planning on how to introduce a high-level party to pick up from where they last left off. Because the original party was probably not alone in their pursuit. Basically catching up to the original party's grinding halt and realizing that they need to take over their responsibilities.

[Kolyarut]

A group I played in recently experienced a TPK while in the First World. If you're familiar with the lore about the First World, things don't actually die there so much as pass into a new form. So we ended up reincarnating together and pressing on.

But sometimes the appropriate move is to set the AP aside at that point. It really depends on your play group. In a Carrion Crown play-through that I GM'ed, a TPK resulted in some really terrible quest events that I don't want to spoil. The players decided at that point that they would rather just pick up another AP instead of trying to shoehorn some new characters into the plot at that point.

[Meraki]

For Shattered Star specifically, it involves the Pathfinder Society pretty heavily, so there could be a new party of Pathfinder members that are sent in after the first party fails.

Otherwise, if it doesn't make narrative sense to include a new party or the players really like their characters, a friendly NPC could get them resurrected, assuming the bodies are in a position to be recovered. (Or a not-so-friendly NPC expecting a favor, if you want to introduce more plot complications/consequences of the TPK later on.)

But I tend to run very character-focused games, so pulling in a whole party would be something I'd prefer to avoid. Your playstyle might vary.

[Quentin Coldwater]

I've only played three-quarters of the first book, but I believe the setup is the same for most. Sheila Heidmarch sent you, and if she doesn't get regular updates, she'll send in a new team to check up on what's happened.
If a TPK happens, have your party roll up new characters and tell them "okay, I haven't heard in a while from my first group, so I hope you're capable enough to pull them out of whatever trouble they're in now, and if not, continue their mission." Or she sends in a high-level Cleric to cast Raise Dead and you'll have a sidequest to pay him off for the material components.

[Brother Fen]

Don't worry about it unless it happens. Worrying about a TPK is not how you want to run an adventure. Just run it.

[OilHorse]

Kill em all and let Pharasma sort it out.

[Ciaran Barnes]

The bones land in a spiral, after all.

[Ierox]

I usually just end the campaign if we TPK. It kind of depends.