Life After Death: What Do You Do After a Total Party Kill?
TPK (Total Party Kill)
Let me set the scene for you. Your players are having a great time exploring the creepy abandoned cabin hidden in the wilderness. They come across a magical orb and one of your players picks it up and it starts glowing. The players have no idea how the object works or what it does, only that it is magic and powerful. So they hold it aloft and the rest of the party joins in and touches the orb too. Then the orb detonates in a giant magical explosion vaporizing the whole party. . . Now what do you do? If this situation sounds oddly specific, it is because it happened to me in one of my sessions last weekend and it was surprising to say the least. Fortunately, the module I was running provides you with a good “out” to allow the players the chance to both solve the puzzle and return to the mortal plane. However it literally involves Deus ex Machina in the form of a god bringing the players back to life and frankly felt a little ham-fisted. This scenario inspired me to write this article to provide Game Masters with a few options when a party has a run of bad luck, bites off more they can chew and. . .well. . .bites it.
Give Me a Break!
When the entire party is defeated, it can be a very frustrating experience. Emotions are running high, and players will likely be frustrated at the loss of their favorite characters. The Game Master will also need time to plan their next move. I would suggest taking a short break so the players can cool off and grieve for the loss of their characters. Any loss, even a fictional one, can hit hard, and the Game Master needs to be mindful of this. The Game Master also needs time to weigh the options of how best to proceed. Sometimes it can be best to just end the session early to give yourself more time to come up with the best way of continuing the story.
Captured Not Killed
This is a classic substitution for player death. Instead of being killed, the characters are kept alive by their captors. This could be for a variety of reasons, perhaps the villains want to interrogate them, hold them hostage, or even just keep them under close surveillance while they work on their nefarious plots. The players can face interrogation by the villains, allowing for some fantastic role-playing scenes. They can also stage a jailbreak which is one of my favorite sessions to run because it forces the players to think outside of the box and work with limited resources. It also allows the players the chance to investigate the villain’s lair to find additional clues that they would not have otherwise found.
Divine Intervention
Sometimes capturing the characters will not make sense. For example, a hungry Basilisk takes no prisoners and is satisfied only when its meal is complete. For a case like this, if you don't want the party to die and have to reroll characters you may want to have an external force intervene. This does not always have to take the form of a deity’s intervention, it could be a traveling monk who happens by and saves the party, a hidden ally who was shadowing the party, or even the will of fate itself. A word of caution, using this kind of intervention should only be used sparingly if at all and only when it makes sense for the story. Used too often, this plot device will cheapen the sacrifices of the heroes and make their deaths seem negligible.
A Second Chance… But at What Cost?
This option works if the players were killed outright in combat or left to die and is a variant of the previous idea. The characters are brought back to life by some infernal or necromantic power and are expected to fulfill some sort of bargain in order to repay such a generous act. As we all know, necromancers have little trouble “making friends.” (Get it?) This “generous” benefactor can act as the group’s new patron and lead them to a new questline. A side note, this needn't be an evil power at work; it could just as easily be a “good” deity who also requires service or payment and acts as the group’s new patron.
New Characters Tied to the Previous Ones
This is an option if you want to continue the tale but there is not a good way to bring the characters back to life that makes sense within the story. This is a way for the new party to quite literally take up the banner from the previous party and move forward in their memory. Perhaps the characters are friends or blood relatives of the previous characters who carry on the quest in the name of their fallen friends. This is especially fun if the new characters have ties to other characters besides the one they were initially playing. For example, if one player had a dwarven fighter who perished, another player may decide to play a dwarven cleric whose brother fell in battle.
Something in Between
Sometimes you may have to mix a few different ideas to make it work for everyone. Perhaps someone wants to play a new character and they don't want their characters to come back. You may have to say that not all of the characters could be saved in this instance or give some other equally feasible reason.
Don’t be Afraid to Kill Your Darlings
Sometimes death comes for characters no matter what they do and you should never be afraid to give your characters an end worthy of remembrance. One of my favorite campaigns ended with all of the players dying heroically to buy time for one of their dear friends to escape. Letting the characters come back from a heroic sacrifice cheapens a dramatic moment which can be so rare. Sometimes you have to let your characters, even your favorite ones, go. In all honesty, I have had a few times over my many years where I have had a character in my campaign die and I have shed a tear for them. The party had a few kind words to say and even had a “funeral” where the player’s character sheet was set aflame. Don't be callus; let your players have their moment before moving on with the story.
Take care and be sure to check for traps! And the next time you see a glowing orb of unknown magical origin, maybe leave it on the ground. . .
Take Heart!
Karington Hess
Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games
