Your favourite variation on "Rocks fall, everyone dies"

[Dr Bwaa]

DM-inflicted TPK:

"We're going to be playing the Tomb of Horrors today."

This player (gnome artificer) rarely showed up anymore, and approached me the day before saying he didn't have time to continue playing.
DM: In your path stands a short, charred, grotesque figure. In a horrible, gurgling voice, he shrieks, "Give me the gnome!"
PCs: we charge him!
DM: a Wall of Fire 20 feet high separates you from view of the disfigured burn victim, and Melkor (the aforementioned gnome artificer) develops a mysterious bubble around him.
Melkor: I attack the bubble!
DM: Nothing happens, but the bubble starts floating into the air, with you inside.
PCs: we hold it down!
DM: No, you don't.
Melkor: I fire my crossbow at the bubble.
DM: Your bolt shatters. You take one damage as the splinters shoot into your eyes. The bubble continues to rise; you're sixty feet up. You see the burned gnome (for it was, in fact, an old "friend" of Melkor's, come back from the dead as a Blood Magus after Melkor blew up half the Academy) flying a bit in front of you now.
Melkor: I have a brass key in my inventory. I use that!
DM: Not so much luck as failure. You continue to rise, and are eventually carried off into the distance over the mountains, as the other gnome flies high above you, watching your progress.
Druid: I wildsh--
DM: You don't like him, remember?
Druid: Oh, right. He did flamethrower my animal companion.
DM: Yes. Yes, he did.
PCs: We keep walking.

Player-inflicted TPK (or at least largely):

"I jump into the demon's mouth."

Player 1: I Mind Blast the wizard (a PC), steal his spellbook, and ask the townspeople to haul me out of the chasm, acting as an innocent woman.
*successful climb checks*
DM: You are now on a rope 75 feet up, twenty-five feet from the top, and safety. Player 2, you wake up (at 0 HP).
Player 2: What do I see?
DM: You're missing your spellbook, there's a rope nearby with a woman near the top, and your staff is on the bonfire (used to be a tavern).
*spot check*
DM: and you see the woman up the rope holding a familiar large tome that looks very out-of-place.
Player 2: I Magic Missile the rope.
DM: Player 1, a bolt of energy hits the rope above you, severing it. You fall 75 feet, and take [roll] damage.
Player 1: That knocks me out, at -2.
Player 2: I go over to him.
DM: It's your spellbook, all right.
Player 2: I slit his throat. *max damage with the dagger*
Player 1: Weak.

EDIT: Please define "Epic."

"You're caught in a four-way battle between a titanic robot, a super-powered magical girl, a cosmic horror, and a sentient planet. There are no survivors."

[The_Werebear]

One that a DM I had used when one player got unruly:

"You explode. The rest continue on their way."

[spamoo]

Not necessarily. Its wings could still be open, which might increase its relative surface enough to make it fall more slowly than you.

That is what happened.

[chiasaur11]

All right, this is a good opportunity to test my new character. His name is Carlos Ray Norris.

You just rewrote your old "Bill Brasky" character sheet, didn't you?

[sleepy]

pertinant information

[turkishproverb]

"You're caught in a four-way battle between a titanic robot, a super-powered magical girl, a cosmic horror, and a sentient planet. There are no survivors."

This...this has happened to me. (Never play BESM with the teenage version of myself. It ends very badly)

[Feralgeist]

"Table flips, DM gets tackled."

DM-fiat deaths with no rules or chance involves are BS, especially just cause a player isn't doing as expected. If a DM pulled that on me, i'd go ape.

That being said, i don't care if it's odds that are HIGHLY stacked against you, with a very low survivability chance, but if its just a "you die", SOMEbody's getting a mountain dew bottle transplanted right next to their kidney.

[Drascin]

My standard method is death by Mon Calamari cruiser bombing run. It is generally warned by it looming overhead.

"But... aren't we in Eberron?"
"Yup! ^^"
"But that was... I mean... A ****ING STARWARS CRUISER?!"
"Yup again! Now, please, are you going to stop being such jackasses or shall I order it to fire?"

[Knaight]

"Your magic alerts the really powerful spirit you summoned earlier who broke out after you blessed them to load them up with physical power. This time the spirit has a shell of iron with veins of magma, and is moving really fast. You die"

This normally doesn't work, but since my interesting player is back(he was in Mali for a year, and came back today) there is a really powerful pissed of spirit with additional blessings out to get them. My players created a recurring enemy for me.

[Rei_Jin]

Geez, how many times have I used those words?

Rocks fall, you all die


The only thing that's more fun than that, is to tell them

The ground opens up beneath you all, and you fall to your deaths. Rocks fall on top of you, crushing your corpses, before the hole closes up again, sealing your destroyed bodies for all time.

They tend to stop for a few seconds, and look at me like I just kicked a puppy. Then we start up again, sans the hole in the ground.

Of course, the second one is more simply...

You fall, you die. Rocks fall on top of you, and you die again.

[kjones]

Player 2: I Magic Missile the rope.
DM: Player 1, a bolt of energy hits the rope above you, severing it. You fall 75 feet, and take [roll] damage.

Clever play, but unfortunately, Magic Missile can't be used on inanimate objects. Presumedly for this reason.

[Jayabalard]

"Table flips, DM gets tackled."

I'm only saying this because I care - there are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market today that are just as tasty as the real thing.

DM-inflicted TPK:
Player-inflicted TPK (or at least largely):

Neither of these are TPK's

[Dausuul]

The last session I ran included a battle with a black dragon that took place in an ancient dwarven ruin. The stonework had been badly damaged over time by the dragon's acids, and the pillars holding up the roof were just about ready to collapse. When the dragon belched acid over two PCs and four pillars, and the PCs saw the acid eating into the pillars, they realized they were in danger of a very literal "rocks fall, everyone dies" moment...

(The roof did not in fact collapse - the PCs immediately ran for the stairs in order to engage the dragon on less dangerous ground, and the ongoing acid damage wore off before it could destroy the pillars. But watching them realize the danger was quite gratifying.)

[AKA_Bait]

Clever play, but unfortunately, Magic Missile can't be used on inanimate objects. Presumedly for this reason.

I'd have let that slide anyway, even though technically you are correct. Mostly because Animate Rope would do the job just as well, is the same level, and the other PC tried to kill him.

Sadly (or not so sadly), I have never had a really TPK either as player or DM so I don't have a ton to contribute here.

[Dr Bwaa]

my stuff

Neither of these are TPK's

Good point, though, there being two examples in each category, and one of each being a real TPK, I feel slightly validated :)

I'd have let that slide anyway, even though technically you are correct. Mostly because Animate Rope would do the job just as well, is the same level, and the other PC tried to kill him.

That was the decision of our DM, too. We all tend to play things pretty loosely, anyway, with regards to the rules :)

[DareTheRogue]

In only the most messed up players mind did i ever see this happen.

Pixie(with gun and gunpowder): well we are besieging the orc fortress in the morning right?
GM: Yes you will be.
Pixie: can i talk to you on the side...
GM: Yes you may.

20 minutes later

GM: Morning comes, your Pixie friend looks a bit tired but all of you got some good rest.
Me: Well lets go then.
GM: you approach the fortress. No one seems t be awake yet.
Pixie: awesome we can sneak in and kill them all while they sleep.
GM: umm ok. is that what you all do?
Me: sure it makes things easier, we just need to be quite.
GM: you all get inside after a bit of trouble at the gate. Everyone still seems to be sleeping, in the center of the courtyard you see a few orcs sleeping together on the ground.
Gnome(throws small explosives): I throw a bomb at them.
GM: your serious aren't you?
Gnome: yeah.
GM: Roll to hit.
Gnome: natural 1
GM: you miss roll direction and range for where it goes.

2 minutes later as they refigure out how this works.

GM: the bomb rolls by the wall.
Pixie: Wait, what? NO I DIDN'T.
GM: the bomb rolled by the wall.
Pixie: give me a new character sheet.
Me: Why?
Pixie: I spent all night lining the walls of the fortress and filling barrels full of gunpowder from my bags of holding. Two Type 4s worth.
GM: let me see how much damage happens...
Me: will it kill me? and everyone else?
GM: no orcs are going to survive, and the party is probably dead to, why?
Me: forget it new characters, AND NO EXPLOSIVES!!!





on a side note, we actually have a book with a living Gazebo in it... it ate someone.

[Thorosofmyr]

My personal favorite was "Tarrasque-chan". We were playing a fairly high powered pretty modded BESM d20 game, and "Tarrasque-chan" was a running gag.

The BESM d20 series does have a MM, and its own version of the Tarrasque. Its stats are pretty beefy, but we decided we needed a little more flair to really make it a problem. So we decided to slap 20 levels of magical girl on im.

It spawned several jokes of being consumed with the power of love. He never really killed any PCs, but it's definitely my favorite variation.

[Tadanori Oyama]

As a DM I had two I liked.

The first was in an early campaign and technically had plot backing. Party was supposed to be saving this town, weird things going on, and they were wasting time hunting for gold, extorting people, typical player things. I'd been a DM for all for three sessions so I responded by throwing the plot at them: all at once.

Their in the tavern playing around when a pack of wererats, coupla devils, and evil tiefling cleric all kick in the door and roll initative. Second round of combat the "boss", a Mindflayer, blows out the backdoor and gets hold of the barbarian's head.

Not really a Rocks Fall, but it felt like it at the time.


Second one is in Eberron.

The party is traveling to Sharn but they refuse to make any progress. Finally I tell them about this weird stones they've just discovered. Rogue and Fighter climb onto them and consider which of them should hit them first. I guess they thought the things had gold in them. That's when Lightning Rail came through, along the conductor stones the players where standing on.

[Mr Pants]

Herd of exploding two-headed brahmin?

Nope, what is it?

A moo, heard between midnight and dawn, is an omen of impending death.

heheh
maybe my DMs herd of that

[Tymire]

Actually you are wrong the first one was a DM-inflicted TPK.

You forgot the first line of the sentance:

"We're going to be playing the Tomb of Horrors today."

[Aron Times]

"Everyone gets banished to the Far Realm for an eternity of Warhammer-esque torture."

[tyckspoon]

Nope, what is it?

One of the random map encounters in Fallout 2. You start just a few steps away or even right in the middle of a herd of brahmin (cow-like livestock with two heads). They walk toward you mooing and then.. blow up. 20 exploding cows crowded around 1 character = dead character (the rest of the party tends to be a little farther back, but it's still game over when the main character bites it.)

[thegurullamen]

I forget the exact circumstances, but after a very lengthy discussion about wild magic, my wild mage character and what kind of effects could spring up with twelve different spell effects ending simultaneously at midnight in near proximity to one another in a wild magic zone, our DM got fed up.

"Midnight strikes. You all turn into pumpkins. New game."

To be fair, we hadn't progressed the plot in three sessions.

[Leliel]

First warning-

"You have a strange feeling that you are beginning to annoy the Emperor of Mankind."

Second warning:

"You have a vision of the Emperor of Mankind shaking his fist at you."

Destruction:

"Using his psychic powers, the Emperor teleports you into his inner sanctum, and revives just long enough to fight you.

You are in a mono-a-mono battle with a physical god.

Do I need to explain what happens next?"

And no, this isn't for a Dark Heresy game-just any game where the players start to annoy me.

[Totally Guy]

I'm thinking of doing a variation on the theme. I'm going to have a load-bearing boss which is kept in check be a noble guardian. When the party ask why he doesn't kill the baddie, he'll look up, think of his time in the town above the dungeon and state "If I do... rocks fall, everybody dies" just as hommage to the line.

[Chronos]

SurleySeraph came up with a nice picture for situations like this, in another thread. You round the top of the hill, and see this:

Spoiler

Show

[Behold_the_Void]

If it comes down to it, I just put this on.

[AslanCross]

My personal favorite was "Tarrasque-chan". We were playing a fairly high powered pretty modded BESM d20 game, and "Tarrasque-chan" was a running gag.

The BESM d20 series does have a MM, and its own version of the Tarrasque. Its stats are pretty beefy, but we decided we needed a little more flair to really make it a problem. So we decided to slap 20 levels of magical girl on im.

It spawned several jokes of being consumed with the power of love. He never really killed any PCs, but it's definitely my favorite variation.

I dub this Magical Apocalypse Monster Girl Tarrasque-chan.

...why do I get the strange urge to actually DRAW this?

My version:
Monster Manual V has an entity that is worshipped by an eccentric cult of Mind Flayers. It's called Thoon.

I statted it out as an Uvuudaum Psion 20.

[thegurullamen]

SurleySeraph came up with a nice picture for situations like this, in another thread. You round the top of the hill, and see this:

Spoiler

Show

Okay, one thing I don't get. Is that thing breathing Gargantuan spiked chains or is it being physically fished out of a portal? Either way, it's horribly "not good", but if it's the latter, what the Hell is just off-screen?!

[tyckspoon]

Okay, one thing I don't get. Is that thing breathing Gargantuan spiked chains or is it being physically fished out of a portal? Either way, it's horribly "not good", but if it's the latter, what the Hell is just off-screen?!

Limits of the rudimentary 'shopping and source images used.. it's actually supposed to be *wielding* a Gargantuan spiked chain as a mouth-weapon (Savage Species, probably.) after having used one of the ToB Shadow-teleport maneuvers to pop into the middle of a luckless group. Spiked chains as a breath weapon would be pretty awesome, tho..