Shalaban's thread on "To mitigate or not to mitigate" got me thinking of cases where the dice, bad player decisions, or both resulted in memorable TPK's / character deaths. For some odd reason, my local groups remember more about them in many cases than the successful adventures. In that spirit, I offer up the best three TPK's my local groups experienced: Case (1) - The Sneeze of Death - circa 1986 / Arcanum rules + house rules / 7 PC party, all high level (13th lvl+), equipped with artifacts after years of play - High level party journeys to dungeon in steaming southern jungles, seeking an artifact that will stop the world from being overrun by undead armies. Players have gotten first 3 of 4 artifacts, the last one being in a ruined temple guarded by intelligent spellcasting apes. Party fights its way in and epic battle with the high priest apes ensues. Lead ape begins a summoning spell, which I in a flash of insight interrupt with a sneeze cantrip. Using our house rules, the DM rolls and the summoning goes awry; instead of whatever it was trying for, Death appears. Really, capital D Death. Death proceeds to slay the party one by one, destroying the three artifacts we had already acquired. A 6 year campaign ends due to the now legendary "Sneeze of Death". Case (2) - What are the chances?.. - circa mid 80's / AD&D 1e rules / 5 PC party, mid levels (4th-8th) - Party explores the ruined mansion of a long deceased magic user of fearsome reputation. Several floors up in the mansion, they come upon the inevitable trophy room, with assorted display cases, stuff mountd on walls, etc. In one corner sits a pedestal with something covered by a white sheet. As the players describe what they look at, one player suddenly blurts out "hey, I'm going to check out what's under the sheet." The other players decide its a bad idea and tell him so. He does it anyway, quipping "C'mon what are the chances its a medusa's head?" At this point, all players are looking at that player and the DM rules the same goes for the characters. And yes, it was a medusa's head. Disbelief turns to horror as every single PC fails their save and are turned to stone - TPK. To this day, whenever someone is about to do something dangerously stupid someone in the group cheerfully pipes up "C'mon guys, what are the chances it's a medusa's head?" Case (3) - The Suicide Gnome - late 80's / AD&D 1e rules / 5 PC party, all high level (15th lvl+) - Party has been fighting an arch villain on and off since they were mid level, over several years of game time. Finally, while resting in a tavern after an adventure a gnome appears, claiming to know a secret entrance to the villain's dungeon. The gnome is lawful evil and decided to turn on his employer after being badly treated. The story is plausible, and the party warily decides to check the story out - taking the gnome along as a guide / hostage. After several days' journey through the wilderness, the gnome leads the party to a clearing with a huge old tree surrounded by knotted roots. A shadowy hole in the roots apparently leads underground. The gnome says the hole is the entrance, at which point the party orders him to go first. The gnome jumps in the hole and disappears. One by one, the party members follow the gnome. Editorial note - the DM was not only both cunning and evil, but had a real good poker face. As the last character jumps in the hole, the DM looks both amused and embarassed, informing the party they have been completely wiped out. Turns out this was supposed to be a red herring encounter, where the villain tried to trap the party by planting a sphere of annihilation in a random spot and then using a disposeable minion to led the party there. The party was normally pretty suspicious, but this one time everyone fell for it hook, line and sinker. After much gnashing of teeth, everyone broke out note paper and dice to roll up new characters.. Those are some of the best TPK's I've run across (they were a bit long so I'll save my character death stories for another time). How about you - what are your best TPK / character death stories? Andy
Andy I read about the suicide gnome and must say that one made me cringe in horror. I've met DM's who are like that and it drives me crazy. I mean, come on, if you fall for it then it becomes a no-win scenario right away. Honestly, that DM would have got a good butt whooping from some of the people I've played with....of course, I now have this idea in my head and my use it in some manner when I get back to running a game so I guess it's not all bad. :twisted:
Twisted, indeed. The funny part is in the DM's mind it was all so obvious, based on the players' normally borderline-psychotic level of paranoia. You could certainly use a less lethal variant (as the Dm back then should have) - have the gnome leap into a dark hole which is actually: - a deep pit with the mandatory poisoned spikes), or - a trapdoor spider's den, or - the open maw of a purple worm placed in stasis by a wizard (stasis is broken when either the first or a fixed number of PC's breaks the plane of the hole above the maw) Speaking of twisted, I did have a thief character once who used a Bag of Devouring as an assassination tool. "I was given a ring to give to you - it's right here in this bag. I am forbidden to touch it and it is warded against anyone but you, so just reach on in.." >; ) Andy
Some of my favorite PC deaths involved cursed items. One of my players had been looking for a flying carpet for a long time. His character had just defeated the monster guardian, and he proceeded to search the area. He found a rolled up oriental-style carpet. Without pausing, he unrolled it in the middle of the floor, sat in the middle of it, and ordered it to fly. Of course it was a rug of smothering that promptly smothered him. On another occasion, during a heated battle against a large humanoid tribe, one PC, a magic-user, decided to retreat. The party had in their possession a pair of magical boots. Nobody was wearing them at the time since they hadn’t split up the treasure yet since finding them. I rolled to see whose backpack the boots were in, and they were in the possession of a character that had already went down, so the magic-user rummages through the character’s pack, puts the boots on, hoping they were speed, or maybe striding and springing, and runs for it. Or at least that was his declared action. Instead he started tapping and shuffling uncontrollably. The other party members made it out, but the m-u was cut down in the middle of a shuffle ball change. And finally… A party had just entered the Temple of Elemental Evil. They discovered a well. After some debate, it was decided that the half-elf thief character would fly down and scout, since his infravision would allow him to see without needing a light source that might alert the current residents. So he quaffs his potion of flying and starts cautiously descending the well, and then SPLAT. He hits the ground at terminal velocity, a victim of a potion of delusion.
Back in the full flush of youth, TPKs were the only way to go when running standard TSR modules. I ran G1-3 back then, and somehow had everyone survive G1 with the pre-generated characters. They survived the first level of G2, but the dragons on the second level soon finished them off ~ the male used it's breath weapon twice, and , just when they were celebrating victory and an enormous pile of treasure, the female swooped and breathed on them, too. A nice result, but horrid when one looks back on it now. The F14 was the only one who would have had a chance of surviving, and I think his saving throws for the male were 1,2! Incidentally, I'm not sure how a F/MU of levels 5/8 and with a mere 29hp is ever meant to survive that series of modules.
I recently had a real goof moment. My gaming group has finally settled in with our 3rd party... The previous two being wittled down rather quickly in the Moathouse of Village of Hommlet. We had just fought the giant crayfish, dealing enough damage to make it retreat. I was playing the main fighter of the party and decided to strip down to skivvies, grab a spear and dive in after it. The DM looked at me with a befuddled stare and said "if you says so..." He made some dice rolls behind the screen, chuckled a bit, and then told everyone else that all they see is a steady flow of blood rising to the surface...
