Glossary of Terms: Difference between revisions
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=== Total Party Kill === | === Total Party Kill === | ||
:* '''AKA:''' TPK, Wipe | :* '''AKA:''' TPK, Wipe | ||
This is an encounter which Goes Bad. Needless to say, this is a difficult situation for most GM's, but it is a scenario which can often arise. After all, being an Adventurer is a risky lifestyle, to put it mildly. | |||
Most TPK's are accidental. The GM sets up a situation, and through some combination of bad luck, bad decisions, and bad circumstances, things get WAY out of hand. Many difficult encounters are designed 'as close to the edge' as possible, because the existence of risk is a powerful way to make gameplay more exciting. Unfortunately, if the GM is pushing their table using this mechanic, every now and then, things go badly. | |||
TPK's often develop with shocking speed, as a single key player drops unexpectedly, or an action has consequences WAY worse than anticipated. Spellcasters accidentally hitting their own party with a heavy-damage spell attack is a common and terrible way for TPK's to develop, or a key melee player positioning themselves in an unexpected way, allowing dangerous monsters access to less durable characters. | |||
The first thing to do when you are faced with a TPK is to try and catch it before it gets too bad. If the GM sees a wipe developing, this is the time to 'put your thumb on the scale'. Have the ceiling suddenly collapse on the bad guys, a flash flood burst through the wall and sweep everyone away, a monster burrows up through the floor and falls upon the bad guys from behind, anything, to deflect the momentum of the combat and preserve at least a few survivors. Player characters are famously tricky and resourceful, if you can get the combat over with some survivors, they will generally patch themselves up. | |||
That said, wipes can occur with STUNNING quickness. (Boy, do we know about that....) Watching five players all fail a saving throw at once and drop unconscious or dead in the space of ten seconds is when you earn your chops as a GM. | |||
First, break character and talk to your table. The odds are, they are as surprised as you are. Call a bathroom break, give yourself a moment to think. | |||
Now, you can simply have everyone make new characters and start again. There's nothing wrong with that if it's a pickup game. But if the characters are well-established and you're two-thirds of the way through an elaborate campaign, this is less than good. | |||
Ask your table if they want to continue. If so, make them all ghosts. Or have them wake up in chains, on the way to the slave market. Or have them wake up in a temple, five years later, after their bodies were recovered by questing knights. Just because you've killed the party doesn't mean that the story ends, after all. Give them amnesia, toss in some kick-ass scars, let them know that they owe a 'favor' to an unsavory sort, etc. There are many ways to recover from a TPK that doesn't mean rolling up a new set of characters and allows your campaign, the shared story you are telling with your table, continue. A few dents and scars build character, after all. | |||
Above all, don't let it shake you! Trust us, killing your whole table by mistake is no fun, but it happens to everybody, sooner or later. The key isn't that there was a wipe, the key is how the GM and their players recover from it. | |||
=== Turn === | === Turn === | ||