More than you can chew...

[CM]

Anyone have good stories of groups letting pride get in the way and TPKing (or nearly so) themselves despite multiple opportunities for escape?

I'm running heavily modified P2-E3 for my group set in the Forgotten Realms. King Foril of Cormyr summons the party (Level 18) for presentation of a monument and declaration of a national holiday for the group saving the realm from the undead incursion in Demon Queen's Enclave.

In a segue to Nightwyrm fortress (to be set in the Well of Dragons), agents of the Cult of the Dragon infiltrate the ceremony and unleash a swarm of swordwraiths on the assembled crowd. One of the agents is a shapechanged elder red dragon (L22 Solo). These attackers are a decoy however. The intention is for a lone dragonwraith to capture the soul of King Foril for some nefarious purpose.

After the players mop up the swordwraiths the dragonwraith is able to slip away with the king's soul. Realizing now that the other combatants were a decoy, the party starts to take it out on the dragon. Three times it took to the air, intending to escape now that the mission was accomplished (with one or two PCs grabbed with the intention of dropping them), and three times it was successfully knocked prone, causing it to crash (with PCs included). This killed the party's cleric and 80% of their healing in about round 5. Round 6 the drow rogue was killed by bloodied breath after suffering an action point pair of double attacks on the dragon's turn. Round 8 the wizard was killed by ongoing fire damage from the dragon's Immolate Foe ranged attack. The archer ranger spent about 3 rounds chugging potions of vitality but finally was knocked out in round 9. In round 10 the goliath warden finally is out of tripping/slowing attacks and is forced to watch the dragon fly off, below 100 hp, mocking it for fleeing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To quote myself from elsewhen:

I haven't heard such stories since my own munckinny days back in 1978 or so...

And I got ticked at some guys talking about their level 10k Paladins, Wizards and such- that is NOT a typo- that I had to run an adventure for them. Despite knocking off entire pantheons, they had never proofed their PCs against one thing. I mentioned it elsewhere on these boards, but I managed to convince them that a Sphere of Annihilation was a bowling ball- hoping to zap one of them- but they all thought the pile of ash was a nifty teleport side effect, just flavor. Instead of being wary, each ridicuPC stepped up to touch the "ball" to join up with his buddies.

Which they did.

Pure hubris & idiocy got them their richly deserved TPK.

 

[Unwise]

I had interesting experiences with this where it kind of backfired on me as a GM.

1) The idea was that the bad guy would steal away the NPC in front of the PCs. They had no hope of winning, but they all loved the NPC so much they could not bear to see her hurt even if it meant their death. After the TPK they felt they had done the right thing as they could not have lived with themselves if they had let her get taken. I had misjudged their resolve and the amount of tools they had to slow the villian and chase him.

2) I misjudged just how much they hated a particular bad guy. He set off a trap, a classic "this whole place is coming down" as he goes to make his escape. The party all agree tha they will stop him fleeing rather than flee themsleves. To the villians shock and horror this plans unravel as the PCs just throw themselves at him with grab attacks. They do no damage but hold him there until the roof comes down killing them all. In hindsight, they won that campaign. Just 15 levels before I intende them to.

P.S. In my defence as a GM, my players characters are always a bunch of complete pricks. They are rude to everyone, lie, cheat and steal. It is easy to forget that when push comes to shove they are very heroic and self sacrificing.

 

[Unwise]

I'd really like to see some more posts in this thread, as I think it could be really interesting.

To contribute, in a Rolemaster game, there are things called Essence Flows, basically Ley Lines of raw untapped magical power that generally mess stuff up with their untamed chaotic energies. A PC was an arcane scientist of sorts and wanted to tap the power of the flow, despite knowing full well that even archmages flee from these things if not fully prepared (even then they just hope to survive). Basically trying to cast a spell near these things is a surefire way to summon a purple pudding monster, turn inside out, or nuke a county.

So he decided to stick his head into the flow. Not a pinky finger, or a stick, or any of the other things PCs like to try. His head.

After an incredible set of luck rolls, he survived. His eyes had turned into crab eyes on stalks. He had lost his mouth entirely and his head was now purple. The healer performed a traciotomy on him, so he could live.

Then he tried the unwise move of casting magic healing on him (In Rolemaster healers take the injuries onto themselves, then heal them). He got kind of lucky and the result was that his hands started to morph with the other guys head. Deciding that they needed their healer functional, the party warrior simply butchered the mutated party member and cut the healers hands free.

The magician then decides "we need to get out of here" so begins to cast an area effect teleport spell. When he cannot be disuaded, the rogue simply stabs him in the lung so he cannot complete this spell.

/facepalm.