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Author Topic: How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?  (Read 3415 times)

mAcular Chaotic

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How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?
« Reply #30 on: December 01, 2019, 02:16:48 AM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;1115350
Most of the times that there's a TPK, I would consider it a time to end the campaign, unless there's a very good reason not to, or my players clamour for it to continue.

But if even one of the party members survive, that can be a very different story, particularly if the players are in favor of continuing. In my DCC campaign, the number of times that the entire party except Bill The Elf was wiped out has been so frequent that we invented the term "Total Party Bill".

What do you do after that? Have Bill make a new party? Do they follow the same plotline or do you do a timeskip and start something new?
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.

tenbones

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How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?
« Reply #31 on: December 09, 2019, 11:31:58 AM »
We TPK's last night.

Player's air-speeder, severely damaged, got its controls ionized by a lightning bolt and the PC pilot (a Gank killer i.e. cyborg) suddenly has his limbs and cortical implants fried... pancakes the speeder from 200ft up. Kaboom.

So *technically* one pc survived (Destiny points and successful nearly-impossible rolls ftw). But due to the complexity of the campaign in terms of all the stuff they were doing... carrying one with this one very advanced PC would probably not be optimal.

TPK's are fairly rare for us. But obviously they do happen. So this is literally what we did:

1) Discussed the validity of staying with the campaign and playing the ball where it lands. 1 survivor and a whole new team. Was it possible from my end? Sure, I could make it work. From the Players's - they were not particularly enthused.

a) Then the discussion of a whole new group in the same scenario, just from a different angle. The Players - had promise but it wasn't setting off fireworks.

2) Discussed the possibility of doing an entirely new campaign with the same system (FFG Star Wars) - I pitched the possibility of doing a Sith based campaign starting in the Sith Academy on Korriban (Old Republic). I had most of the campaign ready to roll. Players were *very* enthusiastic. We pinned this idea to dig deeper into any other possibilities.

3) I always offered for anyone else to GM. No one wanted to step up. Moved on.

4) I then toss out games I'm willing to run: right off the top of my head: keeping going with Star Wars or go to our ongoing Marvel campaign which we play episodically (we do a full story-arc as "an issue" - which runs as many sessions as needed until the story is concluded or everyone dies, then we usually do another game and let it rest). I'd always be willing to do some Talislanta, Savage Worlds: Deadlands, Fantasy, Interface Zero. I then trot out new stuff I'm interested in running - Mythras, Runequest, or whatever else.

5) Players then toss out their ideas of what they want to play and hash it out among themselves and I hold back but toss out details if they ask questions about possibilities.

6) We then eliminate the systems that are off the table. Then from what's left, I weigh in on the ones I'm more wanting to do. Then together we hash out the possible campaign themes if any. If we're picking up an established game then it's no big issue.

7) Thus far - it's looking like Marvel or Sith Campaign.

Bedrockbrendan

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How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?
« Reply #32 on: December 11, 2019, 11:02:25 AM »
One thing I have done is a afterlife campaigns in the wake of a TPK

Omega

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How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?
« Reply #33 on: December 11, 2019, 04:49:23 PM »
That is even suggested in AD&D.

HappyDaze

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How do you prefer to move forward/on after a TPK?
« Reply #34 on: December 11, 2019, 04:56:06 PM »
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1116198
One thing I have done is a afterlife campaigns in the wake of a TPK

With the primary exception of D&D, most games I play have "dead is dead" (OK, excepting Eclipse Phase too, where dead is just a setback).