Avert a TPK at the Last Moment

 

Typically, I don't try to avoid a TPK ("total party kill").  I don't intentionally try to kill the party, but adventuring is risky business, and sometimes bad things happen.  However, other times, for whatever reason, you might think, "I really don't want a TPK right now."  In these moments, it's useful to have a list of ways to Avert a TPK at the Last Moment (from a reddit thread to which I contributed).

https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1akjv5z/comment/kp9qigp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

• The vain villain begins to monologue, giving the PCs time to escape

• The bad guy spares the PCs' lives if they become its minions

• The bad guy spares the PCs' lives because "death is too quick" or "too good for them," and instead takes their gear and leaves them to die, gives them permanent scars/injuries, gives them permanent fear or old age or insanity or madness of some sort, takes away their vision or speech or hearing or etc., permanently degrades an ability score or scores, puts them in a torturous environment and leaves them to die, leaves them to (bumbling) minions to "torture and finish off", etc.

• The bad guys take the PCs prisoner (as slaves, to sell later, to use in a later prisoner exchange, to sacrifice to their gods, to roast alive and eat, etc.)

• Some previously-hidden restraint prevents the bad guy from chasing the PCs as the retreat--a magical chain on the dragon's leg keeps it in its lair, the owlbear has cubs hidden nearby that it won't leave, the demon cannot venture more than 100 feet from its summoning location, etc.

• A previously-hidden escape route is suddenly discovered, but using it has a cost--a narrow tunnel that the PCs can squeeze through, if they leave their gear behind; a sewer grate they can use to escape through the sewer, but they get a horrible disease; a fire/magical portal or trapped exit that allows escape, but they get permanent scarring, lose a limb, lose their vision, voice, gain "permanent" fear, etc.

• It was all really a dream / illusion / etc.

• An ally has been following/shadowing them, and shows up just in time

• A bad guy betrays another bad guy, and they backstab each other / fight among themselves

• A natural event (rockslide, earthquake rift, stampeding herd, etc.) puts a barrier between bad guys and good guys

• Something occurs to distract the bad guys--natural event (sudden storm), comet in the sky, messenger arrives, etc.

• Some other threat to the bad guys appears--an even bigger bad guy arrives to chase/eat the bad guy, some other tribe/faction/3rd party attacks the bad guys from the side/rear

• The bad guys suddenly run out of some key resource--ammo, energy, water, food, etc., so they must retreat

• The bad guys' boss suddenly calls them away because they are needed elsewhere

• The PCs have a "break glass in case if emergency" magic item, or they spot one in the bad guy's lair that they manage to obtain/activate at the last moment

• The PCs' gods miraculously intervene to save them

• Time stops, the Grim Reaper (or some other demon-type thing) arrives and offers to save the PCs in exchange for their souls, or completion of an evil quest, or etc.

• Time stops, an angel/saint/etc. arrives and offers to save the PCs if they swear to undertake a noble quest

• The PCs die, but they become ghosts, zombies, etc., that continue playing and encounter some opportunity later in the game to "come back to life"

• The PCs die, but they are reincarnated instantly into some other type of creature that escapes; the PCs have an opportunity layer to transform back into their original form

• The PCs die, but their "essence" enters the magic of the Weave and they pop out again somewhere else, shot out of a wand, emerging from a magic mirror, spilling out of a crystal ball, etc.