In honour of the players in my weekly campaign, whose PCs were all killed last week. Think of it as thirteen things to do with a campaign once a TPK has taken place.
I
The new PCs appear on the scene afresh
They have no relationship to what came before
II
The new PCs are the friends, relatives or former comrades of the old ones
Their first task is to recover bodies for burial, or exact revenge
III
The new PCs are the descendants of the old ones
Generations have now passed
And they come chasing after legends
Or to recover heirlooms
IV
The PCs' ghosts attempt to return to the world of the living from the halls of the dead
V
The PCs' ghosts find new life
In heaven or hell
VI
Reincarnation is real
The PCs' souls are reunited once more after many rebirths
Their home is now the stars - or the aftermath of the apocalypse
VII
Reincarnation is real
The PCs were sinful, and return as beasts
VIII
A god spares the PCs' souls from oblivion
In return, they must serve him
IX
A change
The players now take on as their PCs the enemies that killed the original ones
Until they too are killed in turn
X
The campaign ends and a new one begins, different in every way
XI
Generations later, the PCs are resurrected
They are now a necromancer's slaves
XII
The coward's way out
Not death but capture
XIII
A butterfly flaps its wings in Peking
The PCs actions all had their consequences
The next campaign begins in the world extrapolated from what they created
only the 12th is something I would do. Otherwise, is make new characters, same campaign
ReplyDeleteNice! Wallace Stevens.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to have a go at IV, but the circumstances need to be right. Whenever I've DM'd a TPK in the past, there's always been a drive to continue the campaign, dungeon, whatever, rather than go on the world's longest post mortem side-quest (and if it's not long, what's the point).
ReplyDeleteAlthough this might be infuriating for the players, I'd be tempted to run it like a roguelike (e.g. Hades), where the dead players can't die, they just respawn, without whatever ghostly gear their shade had acquired, until they find a way back to the living world. Would this be fun? Not sure. Does this exist? A halls of the dead megadungeon?
Also, more modernist posts, please.
A lot of this is good but depends on reading the mood of the players.
ReplyDeleteIf the GM has a fully fleshed out world that exists independently of the players, their deaths should not render the world unviable.
How did the TPK happen, and how does it affect the statistics of your "causes of PC death" post from a few months ago?
ReplyDeletePossible double post: first may not have taken.
ReplyDeletePCs wiped out fifteen minutes into a session Referee plays "Another one bites the dust" whilst group are required to roleplay decomposing for two hours. Characters urinated on by a squirrel, and then eaten by hogs. A valuable reminder that Augury and Find Traps are useful spells, and you might use a scout.
XIV
ReplyDeleteAlso, can be seen as "The coward's way out".
Time resets to that morning and they go through it again. Win or lose, it resets again at midnight, 22:14, etc., but now they have to deal with the major fight and figure out what's causing the loop (creatively integrated into the current story of course :)
Not to be used more than once per group of players.