Total Party Kill: Difference between revisions

Not the same as [[Rocks Fall Everyone Dies]]: in that trope, the [[Game Master]] [[Killer Game Master|deliberately kills everyone]]. Here, players die due to getting in over their heads. If the [[Game Master]] values the current plot or characters, he may save the group, but otherwise, it's time to roll up another party. Also differs from a game going [[Off the Rails]] (even if it causes the destruction of the party, or the whole world for that matter) in that the GM never actually loses control of the situation; rather, the players get hosed through either incompetence or bad luck, or most often, both.

 

 

== Comics ==

* The nicer ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' and ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' games end like this. The bad ones don't bear thinking about.

** That's a bit of an exaggeration; unlike in Call of Cthulhu, the player characters have Fate Points that allow them to escape death (until they run out, that is).

* So much expected in ''[[Dark Sun]]'' that players are advised to have '''three''' backup characters handy at any given time.

* A TPK is more than common in the Indie Game ''The Mountain Witch''. One notable session ended with one character committing seppuku, one character being killed by another character (who was in turn killed by an enemy), and one character giving up and going back home.

 

== Video Games ==

* In the [[Nintendo Hard|early]] ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]]'' computer games, the death of all party members was not uncommon. The developers set things up such that backup characters would have to go on a corpse-retrieval mission before the party could be resurrected. However, if the backup characters were no stronger than the main party, the retrieval mission might be suicidal.

** Not just in the early ones... Of course there is the option of load and save in the newer ones.

** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' also makes its raid bosses examples of this in that many of them utilize area-of-effect attacks that can obliterate entire raid groups if not dealt with or otherwise physically avoided. Many of them are particularly forgiving in regards to performing the action necessary in time, others not. In addition, many bosses are actually ''timed'' in that they either possess a "hard enrage" (typically giving the boss a multiplier to damage dealt that means a [[One Hit KO]] for anyone involved, even tanks, if not dealt with within X minutes), or a "soft enrage" (aka [[Boss Arena Urgency]]).

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtvIYRrgZ04 THAT'S A FUCKING 50 DKP MINUS! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SHIT?!]

*** His Defile ability plays this trope straight. He targets a random player and makes a dark puddle appear under his feet. Every tick of damage made against any player makes it grow a yard larger. It only takes one inattentive player or two players who keep trying to hang around the edge too close (and "leapfrog" the puddle growth, so to speak) and the raid wipe is guaranteed. This single ability has caused more Lich King wipes than any other.

* Happened in the lore for the dungeon Frore in ''[[Asherons Call]]''.

## Someone loses track of how many demopacks they have. (The game automatically switches to your detonator, activated by the same key for dropping packs.)

* Interesting variation in in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'': Many, many, many bosses have abilities that can wipe out the entire party in one go if you don't know what you're doing. Unlike most games, however, FFXII expects you to put on your big girl panties and deal with it by calling in the reserves (if they get wiped out before the main party is rezzed, well...I hope you enjoy the gentle ambiance of the Game Over screen). Unfortunately, not everyone remembers to train the reserves, since [[Leaked Experience]] in the game doesn't work that way.

*** [[Guide Dang It|Or pull two people back into the reserves before it goes off, and Shell the leader to at least halve the ID chance.]]

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', there's a surprisingly low number of storyline bosses that have a one-shot party kill move. The [[Training From Hell|Monster Arena, on the other hand...]] In there it's actually easier to list which ones ''don't'' have a one-hit party kill move. Thank God for Auto-Life.

* In ''[[X-COM]]'' and similar strategic/tactical games, a single berserked or mind-controlled agent with explosive weaponry can easily result in this, whether because everyone got blown up, or because of the [[Disaster Dominoes|spiral of panicking and berserking that results.]] Also, [[Demonic Spiders|Chryssalids]] (and Tentaculats in sequel ''Terror From the Deep'') transform your teammates into zombies with just a single bite, and when the zombies are killed their infested corpses hatch another Chryssalid! In this way your whole team can be wiped out as an effective fighting force in just one or two turns.

** There's also the much-dreaded 'grenade thrown into the Skyranger on first turn'.

** Or [[It Got Worse|even worse.]] This trope is taken [[Up to Eleven]] by Samsara and [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Die For Me!,]] which are Mahamaon and Mamudoon with ''80%'' of party-wide instant-death. But even these two don't compare much to the next example (as they are usually traditionally in possession of certain boss or secret demons), [[Beyond the Impossible|as is, the even more extreme,]] Megidoladyne, unique to {{spoiler|Lucifer}}, as [[Bonus Boss]] of [[Devil Survivor (Video Game)|Devil Survivor]]; it deals ridiculously high unblockable Almighty damage to '''every single member of ALL of your parties'''. And every time he uses it? [[Oh Crap|It gets a 50% power boost.]] Nevermind the fact that you'd need to be in the high 90s in level and have a maxed or nearly maxed magic stat to even ''survive'' one hit and not be put near death by it, this spell eventually becomes powerful enough to induce a guaranteed [[Total Party Kill]] if you can't kill him fast enough... {{spoiler|or figure out a way to get him to get the least possible amount of turns he can.}} Only a fool would attempt to take this boss on without preparing specially for Megidoladyne.

* Star Ocean: Till the end of time has this in spades if you get struck by an Ether Strike fighting the final bonus boss Freya, who makes a parody appearance from a sister game called Valkyrie profiles. Despite being a huge bitch in that game she manages to make it entirely worse in this one, there is no way to survive a direct ether strike on the "easiest" difficulty without actively trying to make your defense broken to anything but a Freya fight, and even then you're still likely to die unless you learn her pattern and bring lot's of bombs.