What to do when you TPK?

Subtitle: Every one of my players died. What do I do now? Saving your Dungeons and Dragons game from behind the DM screen.

TLDR
A TPK doesn’t have to end your campaign. You can continue the story by introducing new characters connected to the old party, sending the players into an afterlife quest, using a massive time skip, or even transitioning into a completely new RPG system. TPKs can raise stakes, spark creativity, and create unforgettable story arcs.

People Also Ask
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If you’ve never heard the term TPK it stands for ‘Total Party Kill’ which means every one of the players at your Dungeons and Dragons game dies.

It may be tempting, particularly if you are a new DM, to think this is the worst case scenario. But one of the things that makes RPGs probably the best game one can play with friends at the table is a TPK doesn’t necessarily mean the game is over. It could be the best thing that’s ever happened to your party.

Here are 4 ways that you as a DM can handle TPK and turn it into a campaign your players will never forget.

Avenge Their Deaths

One of the most straightforward ways to continue your campaign after a TPK is to have your players roll up new characters in the same world. In most cases, your party will already have NPCs, enemies, squires, siblings, lovers or goblinoids who know who they are. These are ideal characters to turn into playable characters. What could be more dramatically fulfilling than an old enemy breaking free from prison to hunt down the remains of their old enemy and reclaim their stolen magic item?

This is a great solution if you can tell that most of your players are ready for something new. Maybe they have been playing the same characters for a long time or just want a new flavor. As a dungeon master I find that in long campaigns with multiple sessions and chapters some players get a little worn out playing the same class, so this can be a fun way to roll up a brand new character based off a tavern master you met months ago.

If you’re new to DMing this is going to require a little homebrew, but it will be worth the extra effort. The players will love getting to try on a new character and you won’t have to completely start over from session 1. If you’re using a campaign organizer like WorldSmith it also does not have to be that tricky. WorldSmith keeps track of your NPCs and monsters with detailed descriptions, items, and motivations, so you could easily pitch your players on some options for them to assume the form of and even suggest gear loadouts if you like.

Death is Just the Beginning

Dungeons and Dragons gives you a pretty followable format for TPK by handing you a whole cosmos of afterworlds you can explore. There are myriads of heavens, hells, and areas in between that could fit your party whether they were Lawful Good, Lawful Evil or somewhere in between.

Without rolling up new characters you can toss your players straight into a new quest where they have to pay off a debt to a demon, become foot soldiers for a power hungry lawful god, or get lost in a forest of wailing souls. The options are endless.

If you’re like me, you may get a bit overwhelmed by the lore of Dungeons and Dragons expansive worlds. The Dungeon Master Guide has helpful resources, but it can still feel restrictive when there are only a handful of official demons and angels in the books.

I recently ran a session in the Elemental Plane of Air and used WorldSmith to help me whip up a variety of creatures that were lore accurate but a better fit for my party’s CR and the quest I had in mind. Before WorldSmith, running a session in one of the Nine Hells with zero prep would have terrified me. Now I can quickly generate interesting monsters, NPCs, magic items, and treasure to homebrew great sessions on the fly.

Rip Van Winkle Those Fools

Fortunately, thanks to Gary Gygax, resurrection is a thing in Dungeons and Dragons. One of my favorite things to do as a GM is have my players experience a massive time jump. So what if a powerful cleric came along and resurrected them five hundred years later?

Like many Zelda games have shown, it's very fun to see familiar terrain, cities, and landmarks after a massive jump in time. Things that were once familiar could have crumbled. New things could have appeared. Small decisions the players made could have had lasting impacts for hundreds of years. It’s a delight to explore.

This option also doesn’t feel like you’re cheating or railroading as a GM, but you also don’t have to throw out your campaign plans. It’s easy to imagine that the mind flayer or dragon they were hunting rose to power, found an amulet that allowed them to live forever, and is still carrying out their plans hundreds of years later. The beautiful dungeon and boss fight you had planned can still happen and may be even more dramatic now that the players are returning from the dead.

WorldSmith even lets you upload existing monster or NPC statblocks and ask it to adjust them, so in minutes you can create future variants of old enemies without starting from scratch.

Exit the Matrix

I was once running a multi-year game of Pathfinder that ended in a fight with a demi-god. Eld Fen, the great wyrm and destroyer of worlds, was released from inside the body of a farmboy who had traveled with the party for most of the game, rendering the poor boy a husk and essentially signaling the end of the mortal world.

It was a dramatic ending to a wonderful campaign, but I could tell my players wanted to continue with something. So I had them open their eyes, look around them, and find themselves in the world of Blades in the Dark.

By tying the two campaigns together, it created a fun Matrix effect where the Pathfinder game became a shared dream or illusion, and the players rolled up new characters in a new system while still carrying some scars and grudges from the old one.

There are dozens of incredible RPGs out there. If you’ve only played Dungeons and Dragons, I highly suggest trying another one. Many are incredibly designed and published by small studios who would love your support. Special shoutout to The Alien RPG, Tales from the Loop, Lancer, Blades in the Dark, BABEL, Good Soup, Blackflies, and Worlds of Darkness.

WorldSmith is best equipped for D&D 5e but will be launching additional systems soon.

Why TPK Makes the Game Better

Though it might feel scary as a dungeon master to have a player die, I can assure you it’s one of the most satisfying moments in the game. Not only does it open your campaign for fun narrative options, it instills the fear of death in your players. If one encounter can end in TPK, then any encounter can. It raises the stakes and makes for unforgettable gameplay.

As a final note, if your players are being cheeky and looking up stats for monsters you are throwing at them, try making a custom monster on WorldSmith. Nothing will get them to respect your ability to end their lives more than a CR20 goblin.

Recommended Tools for DMs

• WorldSmith Monster Generator: https://www.worldsmith.io/generator/content/monster
• WorldSmith NPC Generator: https://www.worldsmith.io/generator/content/npc
• WorldSmith Encounter Generator: https://www.worldsmith.io/generator/content/encounter
• WorldSmith World Generator: https://www.worldsmith.io/generator/content/world
• WorldSmith AIMAP Generator: https://www.worldsmith.io/generator/content/aimap
• DnDBeyond Encounter Builder
• Kobold Fight Club
• The D&D 5e SRD

FAQ

Why do TPKs happen in D&D?
Often because of misjudged encounter balance, unlucky rolls, split parties, or players making risky choices.

Does a TPK mean the campaign is over?
Not at all. You can revive it using time jumps, afterlife quests, new characters, or transitions to new systems.

How do I restart a campaign after a party wipe?
Create a narrative bridge. New characters, resurrection, or alternate planes are great ways to continue without losing momentum.

Is it okay to let a TPK stand?
Yes. Sometimes letting the consequences play out creates the most memorable stories.

Final Thoughts

A TPK is not the end. It’s a spark. Use it to build something epic, surprising, and unforgettable. And if you need help generating monsters, NPCs, encounters, or worlds after the chaos, give WorldSmith a try.