So I had my first Total Player Wipe

peverbian

*pulls out smoke*
Last night I had my first full player wipe. :twisted:
*takes a drag*
Well, technically not true, the one dwarf stabilized at -8HP in the middle of a dungeon, but close enough, something would eventually eat him.:twisted:

It wasn't even supposed to happen, it just sorta did. Had 2 NPCs with 1 level on a group of 6 players. The NPCs had been tracking the players and were really only interested in acquiring one item they had that they barely used. Even gave them many opportunities to surrender the item.
*takes another drag*
The PCs were supposed to be put to sleep from a Symbol of Sleep tossed into their camp but those damned elves saved. The vast majority, like more than 2/3s, of the damage dealt to the group was from the 1 sorcerer casting fireball repeatedly.o_O

Elves suck, and not in the good way.

It was good for me though. 8-)
*takes a long drag*

Lets hear about your player wipes.

Steelhawk

The only one I've ever had was in Undermountain playing under 3.5 rules.

Most of the players had died once or so in various sessions. All quickly replaced by new adventurers seeking fame, glory and mad lootz in Undermountain. This time however it kinda went like this....

DM(me): OK, that was a tough scrap, but you beat the Grells and the Duregar and cleared this area. The shaft leading down to the next level of the dungeon is next. Did you guys want to head back to that Deep Gnome encampment to recover first?

Wizard & Only original party member: "Nah. Onwards."

Me: "Are you sure? Do you want to rest then, regain some spells? The cleric is out of healing."

Wizard: "We'll be fine, lets get moving."

The bottom of the shaft contained an open portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire, some Salamanders and Fire Elementals. And a lava pit since the heat of the portal was so great it had melted the stone around it.

Idiots.

Forar

The only D&D TPK I can recall was during a low level (1 or 2, I think?) introductory module for 3rd edition. I think it was either a prelude to or an early part of the Sunless Citadel, but it was a fight in a plant filled chamber with a bunch of ghouls.

I think we even had 5 player characters (maybe 6? I can't quite recall, but I'm pretty sure it was over the suggested 4 players), and a few unlucky paralyzing attacks managed to whittle the party down to nothing in short order.

My Rifts group had a close call where a wipe was inevitable, but some quick thinking by one of the group members ended up with time travel fuckmuppetry that surprisingly worked. Though the character lost their legs in the process. The details are fuzzy, but it was a fairly high powered campaign and a hell of a lot of fun.

I like my campaigns to have combat with some risk. Not every encounter needs to be a "by the skin of our teeth" style fight, but a good "we're almost out of ammo and the situation is dire" kind of moment really draws me into things.

peverbian

Yeah, this was an encounter they should have been able to survive, even without handing anything over. Had they handed it over, that would have been the end of it from the NPCs view. They even announced their intentions before any damage was done. The vast majority of damage to players came from the players themselves.

Garret Dorigan

I've killed an entire party on accident before. They were pretty high level, 15 to 16 I think, and I put the five of them up against a dragon that they should have killed quite easily with the gear they had. The Fighter, Ranger, and Cleric all got in melee range, and the Warlock and Wizard were just out.

I rolled a triple crit on a crush attack, killing the three in range, and then proceeded to kill the other two in three rounds. I then turned to the player of the Wizard and said "That, that right there? That is the scenario you see in your head that's going to happen if you fight this. You are now scared out of your wits and running for the hills. Roll a save next round." He had just beaten the save against fear so I chose to up it by one to save the group.

fadingathedges

Last one was in 3.5. A troll with invisibility cast on it hitting with 2 claws + rend over and over can do a ton of damage to a party really quickly.

Hermenegilde

I remember killing all the PCs...
The party was merrily exploring a temple, stumbling upon a stairwell leading downwards below the temple. And so they went. Downwards. Where they see an immobile zombie minotaur.

Me : "You can see an irregular room, with an uneven floor, inside it there's a large marble table that would be a lot of trouble bringing up the stairwell, but technically possible. In front of it there's a rotting minotaur, standing upright, holding a big two-handed axe. You're well into his field of vision, yet it's not moving. What do you wish to do ?"
Player A : "Attack"
Me : "You sure ? It's difficulty rating is pretty high for you guys."
All the players : "So what ? Attack. Attack."

Then the minotaur killed them. With an axe.
Fun times.

Moridin889

I had a humorous TPK before. It was a fey adventure out of Dragon Magazine, and all of the players were low-level (excted to get lvl 2 spells). Heading out, they came upon a wagon. The fighter was shot at by something in the wagon, so of course...they light it on fire.

The wood sprites or whatever they were (thorn flinging fey creatures of some sort) ran into the woods and started firing into the party. The wizard cast sleep at the creatures. He failed his concentration check with a 1 as he was struck by a thorn. Miscast it and knocked out everyone but himself and the cleric. The cleric cast darkness on them so they couldn't be shot anymore.

They forgot one minor detail. The flaming wagon, which lit the woods around it o fire, and they burned to death in a fiery darkness with unconscious party members. The cleric almost made it out, but the creatures swooped around and finished him off as he was at 2 hp.

The players were not happy at all.

Classwise, there was a wizard, cleric, rogue, monk and fighter. Nice and balanced, but nobody got a chance to live.