Balkoth |
I'm working on four hours of sleep here but I've been drafting something to send to my players. Party is level 11 in a campaign that's been going on about 2.5 years, planned to continue to 20. The game is primarily focused on difficult combat and a recent boss fight the players lost has had me thinking about some things.
The boss had some custom mechanics (similar to legendary/lair actions in 5E or boss mechanics in video games) and while I try to telegraph stuff, I don't think that's going to work 100% of the time. Either I won't make it as clear in-game as it needs to be or the players will misread the situation or both. The question then is how to handle the resulting TPK (or at least near TPK).
Note that I do come from a background of being a high end WoW raider for years.
Looking for feedback/suggestions on the below. And/or overall advice.
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I think we need to decide on some general principles going forward. Without risk of death/loss, I feel the game has less meaning. On the flip side, if there's, say, four boss fights per level and you succeed 95% of the time, that's likely several more TPKs by the end of the campaign (this is assuming you never die to lesser encounters which technically could also happen). There's at least three main options:
1, "IT WAS ALL A DREAM!" I don't really like this option, I think it cheapens death and makes failing meaningless.
2, reset but with consequences. people have mentioned the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor. In this case it would probably be something like the encounter you just wiped to getting a small boost across the board while you get a second chance. If you die again, it gets boosted more. if this happens a few times it's going to become impossible and it becomes a TPK. So you get a few chances but that's it -- and it's a bit harder each time.
3, TPKs are TPKs. If the party is wiped out, that's that. New party (or if one person escaped then most of a new party or whatever).
Part of the concern here is also disruption of plotlines. If one person dies (falls into lava and there's nothing left to rez, let alone raise dead) then that can already disrupt stuff and that's "good" because death should be meaningful...but it's a far cry short of jettisoning every NPC connection/character arc and resetting with a new party. Let me know your thoughts (or if you have other ideas).
Matthew Downie |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
4: Encourage 'Raise Dead' after near-TPK. Allow body recovery (by stealth or whatever). Avoid dropping corpses into lava. If there's no surviving cleric, use NPC allies, town priests, magic items, etc.
5: Don't kill them. More 'illusion of danger', less actual danger. Always have a little give in an encounter. For example: there are more enemies in the next room but they don't arrive in time to help if the party are having a sufficiently bad time already. Or: there are NPC allies of the party hanging back, who participate more or less depending on how things are going. Or: the boss turns out to have a limited number of times per day they can do their legendary actions.
(Do this stuff cautiously - if the players notice, it's bad for the game.)
Kayerloth |
They are high level and as levels increase death becomes ever increasinly a speed bump and increasingly meaningless (in most campaigns anyway). Players have access to Raise Dead, then Resurrect, then eventually True Resurrect (as well as Wish, Miracle and other spells). Even a TPK at those levels is likely more nuisance than real threat to their persons. Friends, organizations, spells (Contingency among others), can ensure they are brought back even from a TPK on a remote extra planar adventure. Failure and set backs to their goals, reputation, equipment loss become more of a potential issue. None of those spells bring the equipment back or restore a failed quest. At best they allow a retry of a quest or regaining of lost items if they are lucky. --> Your new goal is to recover the corpse, if there is one, of the princess you should have protected and to stop the all out war now unleashed on our borders. Oh sure you can go in search of your lost equipment while the common people of our land are slain by the thousands as the Necromancer advances on the capitol.
So my advice is let the chips fall and make them see that death is not the worst thing that can happen, not even close.
I am Nemesis |
fights have consequences. in a near TPK, new allies (dead pc's player's back-up characters) can show up to help save the day.
in a TOTAL PARTY KILL, start a "new game" that eventually leads to the place they last left off. these pc's just happened to get there by a different route. have the pc's hear about a group of adventurers (the TPK group) performing heroic deed's here and there. eventually the stories come to a halt... no one knowing what happened to them on their last foray. maybe a past ally offers to pay the new group to find the TPK team.
Balkoth |
4: Encourage 'Raise Dead' after near-TPK.
If the party wins the fight, that's not an issue. If the party loses the fight, much bigger issue.
(Do this stuff cautiously - if the players notice, it's bad for the game.)
Even if I was inclined to do this, I don't trust myself to be able to hide it and they're usually quite quick on the uptake.
They are high level and as levels increase death becomes ever increasinly a speed bump and increasingly meaningless (in most campaigns anyway).
Aye, but we're talking about situations in which the PCs lose and either all die or retreat while leaving many bodies behind.
Friends, organizations, spells (Contingency among others), can ensure they are brought back even from a TPK on a remote extra planar adventure.
They went behind enemy lines in a way zone guarded by powerful foes -- there's no organization that can assist them in that way (the main army basically staged a costly diversion to allow the party to take out key enemy targets and leadership).
fights have consequences. in a near TPK, new allies (dead pc's player's back-up characters) can show up to help save the day.
So you're suggesting #3. Which advances the story but often aborts story arcs and character development. And can happen several times by the time the campaign ends, even with a slim chance of occurring per fight. Ideally I'd like the same party (or most of the same party) the whole way through.
Magicdealer |
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Your players are entering the level range where a true tpk should be extremely difficult if they've done a little bit of prep. A contingency teleport spell to a friendly temple, triggered on character death, and you're covered.
You can leave your plans with a friendly druid with directions to follow you, sneak out with some material, and reincarnate you if you go missing for more than three days.
There's also things like the clone spell. This is all assuming too that no one in the party managed to escape the party wipe in the first place. If someone DOES escape, it's on them to determine how they're going to bring the rest of the party back - or not.
But if you DO get a total tpk, well... time for a new campaign or a new party. Personally, I'd prefer a new campaign.
No matter what you do, something will be lost. If you have a full TPK and someone brings the party back, you've just informed them that they're not in any real peril and they can coast to the conclusion of your story.
If you let them bring in NEW characters, you're telling them something similar - one way or another the group is going to win even if it means throwing new party members into the mix over and over again. There's no true failure.
So I prefer losing the occasional campaign to a TPK over losing the tension of playing the game.
Caveat time: if you wipe, or nearly wipe, the party because you're homebrewing battle mechanics based on wow raids... mea culpa that. Be up front with it - hopefully before you wipe the party but if necessary immediately after it happens and just rewind to immediately prior to that fight. Admit you f+$+ed up by giving the boss a homebrew ability that was broken, and tell them you're not going to penalize the party because you were the one who made a mistake. Of course, only use that as an option if it was your error and not simply bad decisions made by party members.
Let legitimate losses stand, and be upfront about an error if the loss was unfair and based on a broken mechanic.
At that point, you might let them redo the fight without that mechanic, or just give them a super toned down enemy since, you know, they already fought that enemy once before.
PCScipio |
5: Don't kill them. More 'illusion of danger', less actual danger. Always have a little give in an encounter. For example: there are more enemies in the next room but they don't arrive in time to help if the party are having a sufficiently bad time already. Or: there are NPC allies of the party hanging back, who participate more or less depending on how things are going. Or: the boss turns out to have a limited number of times per day they can do their legendary actions.
(Do this stuff cautiously - if the players notice, it's bad for the game.)
Reinforcements are a great way to adjust encounter difficulty on the fly. How are the players to know exactly who or what might join the battle, and when?
Bjørn Røyrvik |
Generally I'm in the camp of number 3. If s$%+ happens, it happens. The notable exception is if a TPK occurs because I as the GM have messed up somewhere, like given faulty information that causes bad choices, if I've misread an ability the enemies have, if I've made bad calls during the fight, etc. TPKs that are on the players or the dice are fine, those that are on the GM are not.
Never 2 do unless this is plainly stated to be how things work when you start the game. Then find out why it only works for the PCs and no one else.
There is also option 6:
6. Fudging.
Sometimes a quiet fudge here and there can be the difference between a hard fight and a TPK. The boss has fewer hp than the notes say, he rolled a bit worse on a ST, he made a poor tactical choice for whatever reason, etc.
One thing I did when faced with a TPK was bring in backstory. One of the PCs was a princess and her great-uncle was a powerful sorcerer who was grooming her to be a potential heir (mostly just a convenient guinea pig), and though the PC had run away, the great-uncle kept a magical eye on her adventures and exploits and when he discovered she was dead and her friends weren't in any condition to bring her back, he intervened and killed the baddies, left the other PCs to live or die as their stabilization rolls dictated and spirited his great-niece away (the less said about his experiments on her the better).
Then the remaining PCs had to get themselves back to full strength and quest to save their friend from the unpleasant great-uncle. Technically an arse-pull solution to a TPK, but one which had background character justification and, most importantly, lead to more story down the road.
Meirril |
You could build a 'safety' into the campaign. Have the players meet a very powerful being that asks them for some favors. Mostly small stuff, and a lot of it makes no sense to the party. He never talks about why he wants stuff done, just that if they do it he'll pay them back 'later'.
If they come up and ask for stuff, he just shrugs and says he doesn't have it or the time to get it. He also says they should be less materialistic. If they ask for him to do stuff, he either can do it himself, or knows someone that 'owes' him and a NPC shows up to perform the deed.
And the first time the party wipes, the NPC comes through for them...sort of. He doesn't recover their bodies or gear. But they all get brought back to life. And now all of them owe the NPC a big favor.
Detect spells don't register the NPC, though he looks absolutely mundane to True Sight. As in he isn't magical at all. Everybody has seen him do magic tricks. The guy disappears way too fast for it to be skill. Everyone is convinced he uses magic items. It is just impossible to get a read on him. Even Legend Lore fails to return any answers. And if anyone tries to kill him...he goes down like a 2 bit chump. And the guy that killed him never sees him again.
Everybody else sees him. Just people that try to kill him don't. And nothing they do seems to affect him. Like he isn't real.
Trevor86 |
For the first wipe, I'd prep an adventure where some entity of great power reaches out to the recently deceased group, posisbly directly talking to their souls and hijacking them before Pharasma can pass them onto the afterlife. They are high-ish level adventurers after all and have proven their resourcefulness and power/skill, which death would waste.
This entity isn't selfless or omnipotent though, and requires a task in return. If they succeed, he/she promises to retun them to life permanently, possibly keeping part of their souls hostage until their task is completed. Perhaps this entity conviently wants the BBEG that killed the PC's to fail, since the BBEG is also an enemy of this entity. Have their first dealing end seemingly well for the PC'S provided they don't betray the entity, and the entity says it will look forward to further dealings. However, after the first wipe, every consecutive death requires a further sacrifice (preferably a heavy personal cost rather than losing statistics) for the entity to keep helping, such as a more difficult task or something else that somehow benefits the entity. Maybe the entity can actually present itself as a benevolent figure, whose demands seem reasonable but which also have hidden repercussions. And when the PC's finally defeat the original BBEG, the patron entity becomes the new BBEG, who uses everything the PC'S lost or unknowingly did to futher entity's goals during their forced dealings with him/her/it.
Balkoth |
Your players are entering the level range where a true tpk should be extremely difficult if they've done a little bit of prep. A contingency teleport spell to a friendly temple, triggered on character death, and you're covered.
How does that help non-arcane casters? Personal only. Plus Teleport won't work until level 15 if I'm reading that correctly.
You can leave your plans with a friendly druid with directions to follow you, sneak out with some material, and reincarnate you if you go missing for more than three days.
That's assuming this druid can sneak into a castle full of demons and that there's anything left for the body to find. As a player said to me:
"Whoever can be saved great but in this situation that seems like the best we can get away with, demons aren't stupid they're not gonna leave strong peoples bodies to be brought back to fight against them again."
So I prefer losing the occasional campaign to a TPK over losing the tension of playing the game.
For what it's worth...
Me: also, from what I've heard the default of the game is "TPK, campaign's over, start at level 1 on new story/party" FWIW
Player: Never seen that happen, that would not fly with everyone I know who plays DnD.
Caveat time: if you wipe, or nearly wipe, the party because you're homebrewing battle mechanics based on wow raids... mea culpa that.
Oh absolutely. But I don't think that happened here.
It is a high-level party. If at least one person can escape with the bodies they should have resources to raise dead or reincarnate.
That's the catch...looking best case scenario is probably 2 manage to escape alive and with 1 body. Leaving 1 body behind and 2 people MCed.
VoodistMonk |
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If the BBEG is trying to stop the party, the best way to do it is kill them.
If the BBEG is trying to kill the party, the best way to do it is kill them.
I see no reason to hold back in either endeavor for the BBEG.
If you feel the need to nerf the ability of the BBEG to complete his mission, in favor of the party completing their mission, then don't kill them...
The BBEG leaves in the middle of the battle for inexplicable reasons.
Have the hokus pokus Divine Intervention BS, which only works if at least one person in the party is directly tied to a deity that cares about the affairs of mortals, or for whatever reason hates their particular BBEG. Otherwise, there are deities that will take notice of the reversal of death no matter your reason.
Kill the party.
If it kills the campaign, that is how the campaign ends. As we all know, all campaigns have an end.
Reroll new high level characters, continue the quest against the BBEG.
Or don't, it's your choice.
VoodistMonk |
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After a TPK, a god or goddess interested in the demise of the BBEG meets the party before they pass to the afterlife and offers them a second chance at life, with certain provisos and quid pro quos.
And literally every other deity concerned with the afterlife takes notice...
One random BBEG gets special attention from a random specific deity that SOMEHOW avoids the attention of every REAL deity that focuses on death/undeath? Lol.
Go for it. It's your game. Save your stupid party if you must, but it actually making sense is a joke, right?
Either favor the party or the BBEG, it's your choice... probably should have been made at the beginning, not the end...
Ryze Kuja |
Ryze Kuja wrote:After a TPK, a god or goddess interested in the demise of the BBEG meets the party before they pass to the afterlife and offers them a second chance at life, with certain provisos and quid pro quos.And literally every other deity concerned with the afterlife takes notice...
One random BBEG gets special attention from a random specific deity that SOMEHOW avoids the attention of every REAL deity that focuses on death/undeath? Lol.
Go for it. It's your game. Save your stupid party if you must, but it actually making sense is a joke, right?
Either favor the party or the BBEG, it's your choice... probably should have been made at the beginning, not the end...
It doesn't have to be a deity, it can be any high-level entity who is interested in the BBEG's demise who thinks it may be worth it to save the party.
High level parties typically have answers to TPKs though. You really only need to save the low/mid lvl parties.
VoodistMonk |
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And, if "SAVING" anyone was ever in the cards, that decision should have been made at the beginning... not the end.
Saving someone outside of Dice/Level/Build is a joke.
You either are built for it and survive, or you die...
Be it BBEG or the party, live and die by the campaign.
If the party is better, they win.
If not, suck it, die... BBEG wins.
Otherwise, what is the freaking point of any of this?
VoodistMonk |
I have a Kingmaker campaign going, right meow...
I fully expect the party to survive the majority of what these books have to offer...
I have invented my own terror to compete this saga...
The party has conquered the overall idea of Kingmaker, half way through, I added more to specifically make it more difficult.
I made the decision that the party wins only IF they actually win.
I made it so that the BBEG is larger, smarter, more deadly than the party can actually meet in the given time.
They actually have to play smart, and beat near insurmountable odds to win in an otherwise preestablished campaign.
I did this, on purpose, at "Step One".
Everyone with knowledge of the Kingmaker campaign is still at a loss in my campaign, because I hold a stalwart F-U to the party when they think they have it right.
EAT IT!
Or don't, die, get out of my way, I have a story to tell...
Ryze Kuja |
And, if "SAVING" anyone was ever in the cards, that decision should have been made at the beginning... not the end.
Saving someone outside of Dice/Level/Build is a joke.
You either are built for it and survive, or you die...
Be it BBEG or the party, live and die by the campaign.
If the party is better, they win.
If not, suck it, die... BBEG wins.
Otherwise, what is the freaking point of any of this?
Well, it sounds like the DM is having regrets because he made his monster too strong with homebrew abilities. I almost exclusively make homebrew monsters, so I know how this goes. I've made a few encounters that were way, WAAY too hard. Anywho, I have no problem killing the PC's or even doing a TPK especially at the mid-high levels. Once the party has access to Lichdom, Time Stop, Contingency, Wish, Greater Teleport, etc., if they TPK that's the party's fault hands down, regardless of how hard the encounter is. But at the low-mid levels before you have access to stuff like that, it's perfectly fine to have a DM intervention. In fact, it can be kinda cool to. Now the party is beholden to some powerful entity.
The threat of death must always be present, otherwise the battles have no purpose/meaning. But, if the party dies because of something the DM did and the DM does nothing to fix it, that can lead to general distrust in the DM from the players. The 2nd or 3rd time the party dies due to another fault of the DM, you can bet the farm that players will either leave your table or become so salty that future games aren't fun anymore.
It's a delicate balance to have when homebrewing. If it's established material or the PC's die because of their own fault, that's a whole different situation. Because if the PC's die from their own fault and the DM saves them, the players will make "leap first without looking" decisions expecting the DM to save them, and then be frustrated when they aren't saved.
TPK's truly are case-by-case scenarios. So do what you feel is fair and right.
Ryze Kuja |
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Honestly, to all that may be listening...
Shouldn't EVERY single BBEG literally be designed for a TPK?
If not, what is the point?
Oh, cool, you made a casual bad guy that you knew the party will beat all along... Lame!
Super F!CK!NG lame.
Glad I just spent 18 months of my life beating a b!tch.
My players are about to face a TPK in the next session (next Saturday) :)
The party found a strange coin and a marble about 3-4 months ago; the coin causes the marble to smoke whenever it is flipped on the tail side facing up, and the coin and the marble cannot be carried within 60ft. of each other-- it repels the carriers of the two items like opposing magnets. They couldn't make heads or tails of it, but they did figure out that the coin holds a demon and the marble holds a lich, and they both used to be best friends.
Anywho, in this last session, the party was sent to take down a Dwarven Necromancer named Thum'dak deep in the mountain halls. But once they arrived, they saw Thum'dak nailed to the wall with pitons and his flesh had been feasted upon by zombies and ghouls.
Suddenly, a Rakshasa Necromancer comes crawling up on the wall and she's dressed like a dark ranger of sorts, with an Ebony Longbow around her chest. She monologues for a second, gleefully thanking them for delivering the coin and marble to her, which she then summons to her hand and squashes them both into dust, summoning a very powerful lich and a scorpion-like demon with a ram's head, and then the Rakshasa's minions start waddling in the mountain hall....
...but the best part, is there's no legitimate escape. It would take me a while to explain this part, but there's literally no escape.
Before they left, I told them they're now leveled up, and this is going to be a challenge encounter. Expect a "knock-down, drag 'em out fight".
I'll let you know how it goes :)
Meirril |
Ryze Kuja wrote:After a TPK, a god or goddess interested in the demise of the BBEG meets the party before they pass to the afterlife and offers them a second chance at life, with certain provisos and quid pro quos.And literally every other deity concerned with the afterlife takes notice...
One random BBEG gets special attention from a random specific deity that SOMEHOW avoids the attention of every REAL deity that focuses on death/undeath? Lol.
Go for it. It's your game. Save your stupid party if you must, but it actually making sense is a joke, right?
Either favor the party or the BBEG, it's your choice... probably should have been made at the beginning, not the end...
Welcome to Galorian, a land with hundreds of gods with overlapping concerns. As in when you say the Sun God the knowledgeable will ask 'which sun god?' And none of those gods are all knowing, or all powerful. If they were, there wouldn't be any need for adventuring, would there?
And lets talk about life and death. Any mid level divine caster can bring back the dead. High level casters can bring back people they have herd are dead. There is an entire section of the Boneyard populated by souls that are expected to be resurrected. Spells to bring people back from the dead are that 'common'. Slightly less common than spells to cure disease. The main difference being that resurrection spells come at significant financial cost.
Is this your pathfinder campaign? By the way you talk, obviously not. But this is the *standard* pathfinder campaign. Try not to push weird ideas like they are natural and expected.
Matthew Downie |
That's assuming this druid can sneak into a castle full of demons
Druids drink potions of invisibility, can turn into elementals and burrow or fly to where they need to be.
and that there's anything left for the body to find. As a player said to me:
"Whoever can be saved great but in this situation that seems like the best we can get away with, demons aren't stupid they're not gonna leave strong peoples bodies to be brought back to fight against them again."
Druids are wise; demons are crazy. Their main goal is causing pain. And annihilating a body beyond the possibility of resurrection is hard. Even a pinch of ash from a disintegrated PC is sufficient material.
Instead of asking, "What would this character do?" in RPGs, I ask, "What could this character do?"
For example, demons could be trying to:
Kill the PCs, plane shift their bodies into hell.
Capture the PCs to torture and mutilate them.
Capture the PCs to turn them to evil.
Incapacitate the PCs and trap their souls.
Mind-control the PCs, force them to fight their enemies.
Turn the PCs into undead.
Turn the PCs into flesh golems.
Have the PCs sacrificed in elaborate rituals to please their demon overlords.
Use the PCs' body parts to decorate their sanctum.
Cook and eat the PCs.
Use the PCs' bodies as bait to capture their allies.
Kill the PCs, loot their magic items, fight one another over who gets to keep the magic items.
Having come up with my list of possibilities, I then pick one that seems:
(a) Plausible (if I work to make it plausible).
(b) Makes continuing the campaign possible if things go bad.
(c) Is interesting and memorable.
Then I work at establishing my concept in advance. The demon lair is guarded by weird flesh golems with extra legs, made from multiple bodies stitched together. Or: the demons have a fancy dining room and a demon butler and a demon chef with a human children in a cage in the kitchen.
They usually won't need rescuing, but even if they don't, I've still given my dungeon some flavor.
Matthew Downie |
If you aren't trying for a TPK, you aren't doing your BBEG any justice...
You SHOULD always be tailoring the BBEG to TPK your party, literally their only reason for existing.
If I tailored a BBEG to TPK the party, I'd TPK the party. It's not hard. Just give the bad guy ten mythic ranks or something like that.
So I'm going to assume you really mean something like, "Tailor a BBEG so it looks like they could kill the party; my players tend to surprise me with their ingenuity so it usually doesn't happen."
Anguish |
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Kill them.
Have them build characters with that battle in mind.
Rebuild your bosses to kill them in new and terrifying ways.
Worst advice ever. GMs complain already that players aren't invested in their characters enough and don't roleplay enough and treat characters as statblocks to be munchkinned into statistical oblivion.
This is how it happens.
Volkard Abendroth |
Volkard Abendroth wrote:It is a high-level party. If at least one person can escape with the bodies they should have resources to raise dead or reincarnate.That's the catch...looking best case scenario is probably 2 manage to escape alive and with 1 body. Leaving 1 body behind and 2 people MCed.
It's an 11th level party. Short range transportation magic capable of moving the whole party has been available since 7th level. Long range transportation and even planar travel for the entire party starts coming online at 9th level. Barring that, shove bodies in a bag of holding.
They should have Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D for when they encounter something they cannot beat with a simple bum rush. Recovery and Retreat should be covered by at least two of those plans.
Shouldn't EVERY single BBEG literally be designed for a TPK?
If not, what is the point?
A BBEG should be both thematically appropriate and challenging.
Challenging does not mean designed to TPK, though it does not preclude the possibility of the BBEB being stronger than the party anticipates. Depending on circumstances, the BBEG may be substantially weaker than the party, but require the party to expend significant resources prior to reaching him.
Kayerloth |
Aye, but we're talking about situations in which the PCs lose and either all die or retreat while leaving many bodies behind.
That's the catch...looking best case scenario is probably 2 manage to escape alive and with 1 body. Leaving 1 body behind and 2 people MCed.
One caveat to everything is it depends on actual levels and resources of the party. But the party should know those factors ahead of time.
As Volkard said above the party needs to plan ahead. They need to plan for plans to go sideways or worse. You don't need a complete or intact corpse for something like Resurrect. It only requires a piece from the corpse ... even the dust left from being Disitegrated is enough (per the spell text). That's a level 13 caster. True Resurrection doesn't even require that much. Obviously what's available is something the PC's should be learning about before they step into the deep end.
Refuge (Clr 7, Sor/Wiz 9th) will teleport the user to the casters 'abode' That means any and all members of the party can potentially be the one survivor to collect a few fingers/small remains, etc. and get home for a "reboot". All that's really needed is a friend able to provide the Refuge and for one to escape with a pouch of parts. That's merely one way a higher level party might prep for things going badly awry.
By the time the party nears 20th it should be extremely difficult to permanently eliminate them, particularly each and everyone of them.
Gargs454 |
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First off: There are many, many ways to play the game. So long as you and your group are having fun, you've chosen the right way.
Now, for me:
1. Characters can, and sometimes do, die. Yes, this is inconvenient in storytelling terms. However, the threat of actual death does make the successes more memorable. Otherwise, lets just play group story time.
2. If the party can recover the dead character's body, I usually make it so that they can find a way to revive said character should the player actually wish it (newsflash, sometimes they don't). I even do this at low levels by allowing a friendly NPC to use a scroll, spell, etc. Of course, the party may not have the funds on hand for said service, in which case they now have a debt.
3. Sometimes, I screw up. When this happens, I own it (and even the OP admits this). If that happens, then there's some form of a reboot. I try to tell a story with it if I can, but sometimes you have to resort to the really bad dream. By the way, the really bad dream cliche is great for GM screw up. Not so great for "Well that just didn't go the way we expected, stupid dice."
4. Sometimes the players screw up. The death of their character gives them a good incentive to learn. A lot of players believe that brute force is always the best strategy. Its not. Again, hopefully your group learns from the experience and more to the point, hopefully some of them made it out.
5. I also do not like to set up encounters that don't have an "out". In other words, I like to make retreat a valid option most of the time. Sure, there will be occasions when that just doesn't make sense, but those should be fairly rare. Now if nobody chooses to retreat . . . see #4.
6. GM screens are great for when things are truly going haywire. That 19 on the die? Ooops I only saw the 1. Or maybe the BBEG had a few less HPs than the notes say. Or perhaps one of those higher level spells was already use on something else.
7. BBEG's can be pretty petty, cruel, crazy, etc. So, as hinted by an above poster, when the BBEG kills a couple of PCs but a few other PCs escape, the BBEG sees the dead PCs for what they really are, an opportunity. Maybe they bring back the PC so they can interrogate them to learn more about the surviving PCs. Maybe they want to have a lot of fun torturing said PC. Maybe they want to make the PC fight her comrades when the party comes back, leaving the party with another moral dilemma. Maybe they just want to put the PC's head on a stake outside the gate as a warning. Naturally, this doesn't help with a full on TPK, but you get the idea.
8. TPKs can and occasionally do happen. For me, a lot depends on the group here. Some groups prefer to have the "entity" pull their hides out of the fire and thus, have the debt, etc. and carry on with the story. Others, "Well, that sucks, but it was a cool fight at least. What characters do you guys want to play next?" For that latter group, you can even start off at about the same level if you want.
Got a really cool campaign story going that you didn't get to finish? No sweat, start the next campaign in the same setting, but maybe fast forward X years. Now the players get to see what has happened as a result of their failure. BBEG has taken over the land, everyone is in service, etc. But there are a few beacons of hope, small pockets of resistance, etc., etc. Your story goes on, it just takes a different, unexpected twist. Best of all, you can pepper the new campaign with occasional tales of the heroes of yesteryear.
Finally, I have a table full of really long time players, some with some serious RPG cred. When they reach the level where things like Res are available, I fully expect them to do things like, give fingernail clippings, or hair clippings, to everyone in the party. Just in case. There's even some semi-historical sway in this. Japanese pilots in WWII cut their fingernails and put them in a box before going on kamikaze runs so that their families would have something to bury.
Kitty Catoblepas |
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1, "IT WAS ALL A DREAM!" I don't really like this option, I think it cheapens death and makes failing meaningless.
I've promised myself that one day I will have a TPK and take the "IT WAS ALL A DREAM!" out. This will eventually fade into an "I don't think we survived that fight..." moment followed by an official, "Welcome to Hell. You're dead." speech. The major conflict/goals will shift to escaping the plane where they don't belong, finding a way to keep from losing themselves to the plane as Petitioners, finishing that last thing that they needed to do in life, and eventually retiring themselves to their proper places in the afterlife.
Maybe one day.
I am Nemesis |
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HOW HARD IS IT TO PLAY A BBEG WITH A BRAIN? I've been in a few games where the BBEG was played so poorly, like a ignoramus, the tactics so poorly written or thought out, or an otherwise experienced DM totally botched the fight that it's soured me on Pathfinder/D&D. And I love this game. It's harder than it looks, I've botched combats as a DM or didn't plan on player ingenuity. I've even TPK'd accidentally without it being the BBEG fight.
All we've (as characters) been doing led up to this moment. I mean this is the no-holds-barred takes-everything-you-got fight and the Big Bad Evil Guy lived to be the fiend he is for several reasons.
1. he's not an idiot
2. he's meticulous
3. he's ruthless
4. he takes hostages (PC's build an attachment to certain NPC's)
5. he doesn't care about the hostages
6. he has resources/minions
7. he uses good tactics & strategy
8. he is not squeamish
9. He has 1 goal; survive
10. He can run & has his escape planned out
I WANT the final encounter to be memorable!! And IF the DM has it all planned out, let there be a SEQUEL. The big bad ran away but he's back in an even badder way; he'd never been beaten before and this is a desperate grab to regain his power or whatever the narrative, I want it to be memorable, even if it ends in character death. Memorable. That's what as a Player, I care about.
As a DM, that's what I want; my player's to talk about and reference the game I ran for year's to come. Who cares if it was a TPK, as long as it was Memorable.
I am Nemesis |
Curbstomping the BBEG can be memorable as well. Sometimes that's luck, sometimes the bad guy is just an idiot.
yeah, once in PFS i had a rogue archer/oracle kill the BBEG at the beginning of a large boss fight with a natural 20 and confirmed crit using a bow at long range. it was awesome. the convention DM even rolled morale for the minions that could see the BBEG go down. encounter lasted 8 minutes real time, 4 rounds game time. . . moral of the story; BBEG shouldn't have monologue'd. ;-)
Gargs454 |
I WANT the final encounter to be memorable!! And IF the DM has it all planned out, let there be a SEQUEL. The big bad ran away but he's back in an even badder way; he'd never been beaten before and this is a desperate grab to regain his power or whatever the narrative, I want it to be memorable, even if it ends in character death. Memorable. That's what as a Player, I care about.As a DM, that's what I want; my player's to talk about and reference the game I ran for year's to come. Who cares if it was a TPK, as long as it was Memorable.
Can't agree with you more. Ironically, I had a player complain once because the boss of the adventure (not even the campaign), "ran away" when it looked like the boss would lose. Of course, said boss was a dragon. I just kind of looked at the player and was like "So if the roles had been reversed, and your character was looking like he was going to die but had a readily available escape route, you'd just stand there and fight in vain to the inevitable death?"
Player: Well no, but that's different.
Me: Eyeroll.
Seriously, though the big bad, mean, intelligent, ruthless, bosses are the best and most memorable. I had one boss in a former campaign that the party never did kill despite fighting 3 or 4 times (sadly the campaign ended before its ultimate conclusion due to real life) but the players were always talking about her. The boss put more than one character into the grave. Taunted the characters. Even thanked them a couple of times (the boss would get stronger when it got sufficiently damaged). Had the PCs in fits, but the players chomping at the bit to kill her.
I am Nemesis |
there was a campaign in Forgotten Realms- Undermountain to be precise. we were playing 2nd edition. I was a half-elf fighting monk (priest)/wizard. let me tell you i was having the time of my life, kicking the ass of these thralls to some Otyugh's and beholders. just finished riding on top of a beholder, ripping out its eye stalks. just as the beholder and i crash into the ground, the main Otyugh comes out and monologues for a minute while i heal myself a little. the ranger in our party rushes up to engage it and i run up to join him. the Otyugh attacks and scores two critical hits, one for each of us, killing us both instantly. i don't remember what happened to everybody in the party but at least one was disintegrated by a beholder and our dwarf dagger throwing badass was turned to stone (years later in the game we (as a new adventuring party) found him decorating a different BBEG's front lawn). but that's another story. we were TPK'd in that beholder/otyugh fight and still talk about that fight some 20 years later.I am Nemesis wrote:As a DM, that's what I want; my player's to talk about and reference the game I ran for year's to come. Who cares if it was a TPK, as long as it was Memorable.Seriously, though the big bad, mean, intelligent, ruthless, bosses are the best and most memorable. I had one boss in a former campaign that the party never did kill despite fighting 3 or 4 times (sadly the campaign ended before its ultimate conclusion due to real life) but the players were always talking about her. The boss put more than one character into the grave. Taunted the characters. Even thanked them a couple of times (the boss would get stronger when it got sufficiently damaged). Had the PCs in fits, but the players chomping at the bit to kill her.
I can't even begin to tell you about how many times I've come up with an awesome villain who becomes curbstomped by the party.
yeah, been-there-done-that. its gotten to the point where we in my gaming group as DM's routinely double the BBEG's hp and buff up his minions. sometimes to the point where we as players say "what do you me he's not dead yet? that's 700 hp in damage?!?
DM says "yep, he's almost half-way down" :D good times