D&D 5E What attitude should Next encourage DMs to have to TPKs?

[Dice4Hire]

I would go with indifferent.

Sometimes the dice conspire to kill a party, but most of the time the party should have realized they were overmatched and tried something else. Also, adventuring is dangerous, it should not be a 100% success endeavor.

But if the group likes it that way, go for it.

 

[billd91]

I voted gloating because I like to dance my Jig of Triumph on the game table.

Actually, I don't think it should promote any particular attitude in response to a TPK. That should depend on the gaming group's response to the TPK. The less the rules tell the DM how they should feel about it the better. The game should mention and support a range of results.

 

[was]

Disappointed. IME TPKs usually arise from either an unbalanced encounter or the pcs doing something they really know they shouldn't have. (like researching and hunting down dragons at 3rd - 4th level).

 

[Dausuul]

All/none of the above. Each attitude is right for a different style of play.

"Apologetic" is appropriate to a heavily story-focused game where combat is secondary and character development (in a roleplaying sense) is the main goal. In such a game, an unintentional TPK is a major faux pas; stage-managing events to prevent such a thing is part of the DM's job.

"Disappointed" is the attitude for a game where the focus is on overcoming challenges. The DM's job in such a game is to test the mettle of players and characters alike, and it's not a test if you can't fail. However, the DM's goal is not to make the players fail but to elicit their best, their cleverest tactics, their most inspired roleplaying.

"Gloating" is the attitude for an adversarial game, where the DM's job is to come up with creatively sadistic things to do to the PCs, the PCs' job is to survive by any means necessary (including abuse of the rules), and body counts are through the roof. Gloating when the PCs don't make it is part of the "creatively sadistic" role.

D&DN should enable and support all three approaches, as well as the fourth "indifferent" given above (best suited to a sandboxy, "What do you want to do today?" approach) without pushing any particular one.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

None of the above. Sometimes a TPK happens. It may mean the end of A game, but it's not the end of THE game. You know all those stories where the last group never returned? That was because of a tpk. Without tpks, there would be no adventure to go on.

 

[Janaxstrus]

Same attitude as in any other edition.

It sucks, but sometimes it happens.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Shouldn't this poll be in the Humor forum? It's not serious, is it?

 

[grimslade]

Die! Die! Die!

I picked gloating because there was no real choice. TPKs happen. They should be rare, but they are a hazard. A poorly balanced encounter or Tomb of Horrors style death trap is DM error, and a little DM ex machina can fix it. Party hubris gets them killed. Sad, yes, but adventuring is a tough gig. Hot dice or player cold dice happen too.
JonSnow had the best idea so far. A DMG sidebar, "So, you killed the whole party. What now?"

 

[am181d]

I picked gloating because there was no real choice. TPKs happen. They should be rare, but they are a hazard. A poorly balanced encounter or Tomb of Horrors style death trap is DM error, and a little DM ex machina can fix it. Party hubris gets them killed. Sad, yes, but adventuring is a tough gig. Hot dice or player cold dice happen too.
JonSnow had the best idea so far. A DMG sidebar, "So, you killed the whole party. What now?"

I'm confused. Has the internet reached a consensus on something?

 

[Lanefan]

[MENTION=32164]JohnSnow[/MENTION] has the right of it: use the TPK to build from if you can.

That said, it's not always possible. The only TPK I've ever had, for example, happened while the party was on a tiny demi-plane with no way home; and the victor was undead...

I think my first question to the players after the last PC went down went something like "OK. That party's done. Now what?", getting a response amounting to "We've got some other characters booting around, we'll build a party around those", and so we did.

Lanefan