Your Campaign Isn’t Broken: Recovering From a TPK

So you killed the party? Or you overpowered the party? Or they killed something they shouldn’t have? Or they ruined your story? Campaigns broke, and it’s time to restart! … But is it?

Too often, DMs act like a random event ruins their campaigns and they have to chuck it and start over. But here’s the truth: Your campaign is never ruined. Life in the world goes on, you just need to exert a little creativity to think through how things play out.

In this series, we’ll look at different ways to save campaigns you might think are broken, and we’re starting off with the first campaign killer new DMs run into: The Total Party Kill (TPK).

Here are three ways to save a campaign after the dreaded TPK and have fun doing it.

Failure Is Always an Option

One of the most common things that kill campaigns is when the whole party dies. But depending on what happened and what happens next, that’s no reason to cut bait and roll up new characters. If you do end it, what are you really saying then? That failure is not an option? That your party is too fragile to live through the consequences of their actions? Get over it.

I’m a big Mythbusters fan. Failure is always an option!

There is a time and place for death to “stick.” Frankly, it’s not the first time they failed. If the party is reckless (or you are) and they keep getting killed, then maybe let it stick. But the first time it happens, I think it’s OK to let them off the hook. Show the party that your game world, like the real one, goes on after a failure.

And you know what, the extra weight of that failure can make for a deeper, more interesting campaign. Why not explore it?

Think of the scenarios you can play out: If the party failed, what happened because of it?

1. If they were trying to clean out a goblin warren, do the goblins slaughter the village that hired them?
2. If they were trying to slay a dragon, does the dragon go pillaging?
3. If the evil vizier succeeded in overthrowing the king, what does his reign look like? How can the players undo the damage?

The good guys don’t always win, and sometimes the most interesting campaigns are when they have to clean up after a failure. Play it out and see where the new story takes you and the PCs.

Can the Players Escape Certain Death and/or Damnation?

So there are good reasons to continue a game after failure, but what about the elephant in the room: How do we undo the TPK itself? There are a few good options.

1. The Great Escape

In 5th Edition, most TPKs mean the party is knocked out, not technically dead. This opens up opportunities for the bad guys to capture them, either as a snack for later (like the trolls did with the dwarves in The Hobbit) or to further some other part of their plan (evil cults need ritual sacrifices, right?).

This can lead to awesome escape scenes. In our most recent episode, we talked about how the party in my game (Woodstock Wanderers) was beaten down by redcaps in a hopeless TPK (in my defense, it was like my 3rd time DMing 5e). They were taken as sacrifices to be fed to an elder thing by their nemesis, an anti-paladin named Brother Maynard.

This lead to a climactic showdown on the edge of a cliff. The party’s paladin was able to freeze Brother Maynard with his Oath of Vengeance while the party escaped and fled for their lives down a mountainside. Not only did they find a way out, it fed organically into the game’s themes of faith vs. the temptations of power.

Now The Redcap Incident is party legend, and it directly led to one of our most epic sessions.

2. The Party Is Rescued

There’s no better way to introduce a new NPC or faction, and bond the party to them, than having someone sweep in and save the players.

This isn’t my favorite tactic for a couple of reasons.

1. It’s less epic.
2. It can feel a bit too much like deus ex machina, and I generally want the recovery from a TPK to feel more organic.

Having said that, if you feel like the party is over-confident, this can be a good way to show them that there are more powerful people in the world.

3. Meeting Their Makers

But what if the PCs really did all die? What happens then?

Have you considered the afterlife?

If you don’t like Beetlejuice, what about when Goku meets King Kai in the afterlife to train in Dragon Ball Z? Or when Gandalf returns after dying with the Balrog?

So long as you don’t use them too often, afterlife adventures can be some of the most fun and memorable sessions in your campaign. Maybe the Powers That Be return the heroes to life for a time? Or for permanent? Maybe, like Goku, they get training and come back stronger?

I had one DM who gave you a level the first time you died and came back to reflect the mind-expanding experience of meeting your maker. It’s a different take, but we all thought that was pretty cool.

Either way, it’s fun to have your players talk to the spirits beyond, whether those are incarnations of their actual gods or just spirits/angels trying to undo something that went wrong.

Or, to go down a much darker path, maybe the PCs are trapped in hell and have to fight their way back? Or Maybe they don’t even have a way to get back, and they just have to fight? Descent Into Avernus, anyone?

This sort of adventure should be important to the PCs. They have gone where no mortals may go and returned to fight again. Why? Are they bonded more tightly with their deities? Do they owe otherworldly favors? Are they returned possessed and evil?

Don’t Let Lack-of-Imagination Ruin the Fun

It is entirely justifiable to end a campaign after a TPK. But if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. There are a thousand examples of heroes escaping death one way or another – it’s practically part of the definition of the word With a little creativity, you can turn the end of your heroes’ journey into their most epic, and most fun, chapter yet.

How have you undone TPKs in your games? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll talk about your solutions in an upcoming episode!