I feel so silly...what's a TPK? Yeah I know I'm not the greatest D&D player. I don't know all the jargon. Sorry about that.
TPK stands for something along the lines of Total Party Kill.
More like TheDmIsBeingA PerfectlyGoodJerk. I Know, Right?
A TPK =/= the DM being a jerk.
Yes, the DM being a jerk can cause a TPK, but a TPK does not have to be caused by the DM being a jerk.
Frankly, I get sick (as a player) when I see other players complaining that their character died. Get over it. It's a game. Death happens. You may have had bad die rolls. You may have just been stupid. In the end, your character died. It sucks, yes. But it's not the end of the world and it certainly doesn't mean the DM has it out for you.
I feel so silly...what's a TPK? Yeah I know I'm not the greatest D&D player. I don't know all the jargon. Sorry about that.
TPK stands for something along the lines of Total Party Kill.
More like TheDmIsBeingA PerfectlyGoodJerk. I Know, Right?
A TPK =/= the DM being a jerk.
Yes, the DM being a jerk can cause a TPK, but a TPK does not have to be caused by the DM being a jerk.
Frankly, I get sick (as a player) when I see other players complaining that their character died. Get over it. It's a game. Death happens. You may have had bad die rolls. You may have just been stupid. In the end, your character died. It sucks, yes. But it's not the end of the world and it certainly doesn't mean the DM has it out for you.
TPK could easily also mean
The Players KickedDownTheDoor
My comment was not meant to be taken so darned seriously. It was a joke.
I feel so silly...what's a TPK? Yeah I know I'm not the greatest D&D player. I don't know all the jargon. Sorry about that.
TPK stands for something along the lines of Total Party Kill.
More like TheDmIsBeingA PerfectlyGoodJerk. I Know, Right?
A TPK =/= the DM being a jerk.
Yes, the DM being a jerk can cause a TPK, but a TPK does not have to be caused by the DM being a jerk.
Frankly, I get sick (as a player) when I see other players complaining that their character died. Get over it. It's a game. Death happens. You may have had bad die rolls. You may have just been stupid. In the end, your character died. It sucks, yes. But it's not the end of the world and it certainly doesn't mean the DM has it out for you.
Don't expect to write something in text format and then have other people see through the "joke", guys. It's impossible to tell if you don't now each other's style.
Anyway, my character died just two days ago against two swarms of animated Quills(they were bloodthirsty) because our party couldn't handle them too well, and the Psion friendly fired with a wall of cold(which they, as constructs, were immune to) while I forgot I had an item that could be activated to gain cold resistance. The rest of the party ran, leaving me and the psion(he had also caught himself) to die, but only after the kobold tried to mount a heroic rescue(he healed me by 10, I got up, but was down to -13 again by the time it was my turn -> dead). They mourned IC, I lol'd at the Psion player's bad choices (we don't tell each other "Euh, don't do that" out of character, so I had to let him cast the wall even though I knew they'd be immune. My character had no reason to tell him "not to do it" when she couldn't see what he was doing) and then I cursed loudly as I realised I had the cold/fire resistance on.
Much lols were had, and I know the knowledge that kills can happen will make the following combats more exciting.
And yeah, it wasn't a TPK, but it would have been if the rest of the party didn't run, and the OP specifically said that that is what he refused to do. My character was just like "Go! Leave me, someone has to carry on our quest!" towards the Petal(it's kinda like a Pixie, but more flowery, and she was her best friend) who then flew away with tears in her eyes. Pretty good RP if you ask me, and I was just as locked down as the people described above.
So I experienced my first TPK as a player tonight which led to an argument at the table about the GMs style. I've been playing about 2 years and never have been TPKed though I've had some really close calls that you pull off by the skin of your teeth. When I GM I try to avoid them for the party unless they do something incredibly dumb, if not I'll pull a few punches in the end. Here's the basic story, I'd like to know if this is just one of those things or was the GM a little heavy handed?
Party was: 1) TWF ranger level 15 2) Prescient Bard - more of an immediate interrupt controller with some wizard stuff than leader 3) another bard that was specced heals 4) a fighter
Basically we had 5 monsters. I was the ranger and came out and obliterated 2 in a couple turns with an AP and some good rolls. The next went down to focus fire. The last two were pretty nasty. One had an at will close blast 5 save ends that says you have one action on your turn and it is to target the closest creature to you with a melee basic. He locked the fighter and healer bard down with that every turn by hitting them with it and then making sure they were closer to each other than to the monster. The other had an at will immobilize. he immobilized my ranger and moved away from me and kept me there mid field and useless for 4-5 rounds with no end in sight. During that time he focus fired me with both monsters with the stated goal of "KOing the ranger until he had no healing surges and the bards had no heals left." I was down 4 surges, the bards were out of healing, I'd been KOed 4 times and the defender and leader had spent most of the fight beating on each other. If we ran we would have to leave half the party behind so not really an option. We finally just said lets call it after 3 hours of running 1 battle, exhausting all dailies, all tricks, etc. It was a published D&D mod so its not like he threw something crazy at us but it just seemed like he used the monsters in a way that would totally screw the party over.
I know from my experience as a DM that you can usually TPK if you want to. I can come in with eveything and focus fire the leader then blitz the strikers or look at the monsters powers and know that I can counter the players easily with a certain combo. I just kinda thought most DMs chose not to do that so it would be a fun adventure.
As a DM and player is sounds to me like the DM locked down the party pretty well.
As a player that can stink. As a DM sometimes that is how it goes.
Its hard to make the perfect team, sometimes you do well and sometimes you don't.
I ran Keep on the Shadowfell and my players ignored several rooms that had hobgoblins in them. Even after getting crept on them once and one of the Hobgoblins retreated they still chose to ignore the danger and move foward. So the goblins attacked them after the party finished with a trapped room.
Luckily the players were captured by the module yet it helped me and my players learn much about the game and character and group construction.
Sorry about your party TPK. It's hard sometimes to lose a character much less a team. I wish you and your DM the best of luck for the road ahead.
I agree with the masses here. Purely situational as to a TPK. If the DM is throwing impossible odds at a party just to kill them off because they have too many magic items, or are too optimized to make his/her scenarios trivial at best...then yeah, the DM is in the wrong.
If the DM is playing smart mobs correctly, you expect the same kind of tactics from the mobs that the party would counter agains the DM. Totally acceptable and stuff happens. I had a player killed by two unlucky crits in a row, couldn't get out of it, no save, nada. What do you do? Take it like a man and re-roll. Now, to counter, if the DM is playing mindless mobs like they're Alexander the Great...we have issues.
The party can be blamed as well. Pushing on when a majority of powers, surges and HP's are exhausted. A DM's dream to punish a party is when the party decides to split up like they're in a "Cabin in the Woods" type of scenario. Seperating from the party NEVER works as to my experiences, if that happens, then the party deserves to be TPK'd.
All this to say, your scenario as unfortunate it was is fine in my eyes. The mechanics can be skewed in favor of certain mobs at times, and yes, I have been a victim to dominate and 3/4 of a scenario stunned. I took my d20 to a recliner in the living room, they would state that my time was up and yep...rolled a fail. Then on the occasion I would save, BAM...stunned again. No fun at all.
The only TPK I've run into in 4th ed was at lvl2. A fight that last 3hours of gameplay? wow, only ever had 1 or 2 of those.
Usually, once beyond lvl5 or so, the only time I came close to dropping a party was with a lvl+5 encounter (yes, I'm that evil, but with the backgrounds, themes, and other benefits that came out since most monsters were built, it does kinda balance). Most of the fights I run start with lvl+2, and get creamed within 5 rounds. (That happens in a party of All-Strikers: short and brutal!!! ) This was a published mod? wow. And mid-paragon? Which one?
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