Hi All,

New to this site. In real need of advice.  I have been DMing for several years, but this is a first for me. My PC'S have left me in a bind. I  just did not prepare for this scenario. 

The consequences of last night's session have left me with only 3 possible outcomes that I can see.  1) TPK. 2) A high body count of innocent civilian NPC'S  or 3) I pull a cheater with some seriously epic NPC intervention. 

I was running a Steampunk adventure with 3.5 base. One of my PC'S decided that absolutely everyone was the enemy and threw the campaign (literally) off the rails.  They are now trapped on a disabled train. Far closer to enemies than allies, and with no way to contact backup regardless. 

One PC is squaring off against 12 enemies of his CR and a boss.  I threw him 2 NPC'S whom were already on scene as backup.

The other 2 PC'S are in a fight with the NPC'S  on THEIR side. 

I was just not prepared for all 3 of my players to make presumptions,  disregard the NPC'S completely,  and launch an attack with little to no information. 

This is due to my ill preparation I suppose. I have never had an entire group unwilling to do some legwork before engaging the (enemy?)

The fact remains that either they lose to overwhelming odds,  they get lucky and win (thus killing at least a dozen NPC'S who are guilty of nothing) 

Or I bring in NPC miracle workers to try and defuse everything.  

Please advise? I don't see myself rewarding them for a victory. "Yay you slaughtered your allies and several innocent bystanders."?  

What would you do? Or is there an option I'm not seeing?

So if I understand the situation, 1 PC is about to be killed by a dozen bad guys, and 2 PCs are about to kill a number of good guys?

Yes, you understand perfectly. 

Have the good NPCs said or done anything to try to end the battle?

The solo PC is probably going to lose if he doesn't retreat. The evil NPCs can capture the PC(s) if they win instead of killing them. Depends on your narrative.

The good NPC's only fought back when attacked and I made it clear that their damage is meant only to incapacitate the PC'S. 

Thank you for the advice.  A capture will certainly solve the immediate problem.  At which point I can further my attempts to make the PC'S interact with one another and the NPC'S . 

I am glad that I posted here. 

I also think an out of game discussion with your players is in order, perhaps after current battle.  It sounds like you aren’t all on the same page in terms of expectations for the game.  

I think part of being a DM is allowing consequences for your player's choices. Good choices have good outcomes, dire choices have dire ones. Don't take the TPK off the table if they've been way too reckless, let events play out.

If they do survive, you still don't necessarily need to reward them for murdering a ton of good npc's. Maybe now they'll get to live through some miracle of luck, but are on the run from their former allies, having to be hunted wherever they go. Maybe even have the ally leaders assume the pc's sudden attack was them declaring their loyalties to the main bad guy, so the players are tarred by the same brush and maybe have to work to clear their names and build trust back.

You can also have information interventions if you think that's part of the problem.

For example (because I don't know the exact details), as the 2 PCs are about to square off against the good NPCs because they think the good NPCs killed Fred, suddenly Fred, bound and gagged but alive, tumbles out of a closet and onto the floor. Holy crap, Fred's not dead! Even if you'd originally planned for Fred to be kidnapped by the actual badguys, it likely stops the fight, and you just retcon with no one knowing that the bad guys left Fred behind. Or someone else bursts into the room suddenly, announcing he saw Fred being hauled away on the back of a horse, etc. 

The deus ex machina doesn't have to be in the form of combat, it can be an info reveal.

If the players have an idea of the factions that are involved but just don't know who is in which group, then having the good NPCs that have been engaged make comments in battle suggesting their faction might de-escalate that battle. And in both battles the NPCs could win and take the PCs hostage to interrogate, use as bargaining chips, or otherwise exploit. This will give opportunities for the PCs in battle with good NPCs to figure out they are with the good guys then hopefully start trying to build some sort of cooperative arrangement and buys some time to regroup and launch an attack to save the PC who is taken hostage by the bad guys. But the PC captured by the bad guys will need something to do while the others are figuring out alliances.

ArwensDaughters suggestion of an out of game discussion sounds good too, they may well be looking for a simple hack through the bad guys rampage rather than a more nuanced plotline and a mixture of combat with stealth, role play, and other gameplay.

Just spitballing.  Maybe you have to weave this into your story.  Let the one person in over their head get captured, and then let the other player vs good npc battle play out.  Should they survive, have the good NPCs have some information on their bodies that absolutely clears them of any suspicion whatsoever.  The players can then decide if they are willing to do something to atone or not.  Hell, have their god/desses appear before them in their individual dreams and demand a price be paid or they will be abandoned and lose any divine/supernatural/magical abilities.  Maybe have them all be captured without resolution, then have them all roll a new party, maybe even with a designated background that puts them on the good guys side.  Then use the characters they made before as villains, and have your players hunt them down because they turned evil, made pacts with evil gods/goddesses, etc etc and have become a menace.  Better yet, weave them into the story of HOW the big bad organization recruits members, and show the dangers of crossing them.

I had something roughly similar happen with a Party, once. The Party decided to get into a lethal fight, in a crowded tavern, with the local thieves guild, in the middle of the day, a few blocks from a guard outpost.

I didn't want there to be no consequences, but I didn't want the Party actually dead. 

So 5 rounds of combat in, the place was swarmed by the guard, and everyone taken into custody. A trial ensued ( in which the Party actually was able to try and mount a defense, and actually did manage to argue their sentence down  ), gear was impounded ( including some nice items ), fines were levied, jail time was served.

In your situation, TPK'ing the  Party with the last damage being "non lethal" and the Party taken into custody by the "bad guys", would do something similar. If they actually "kill"/capture the one hopelessly mismatched Character, have the bad guys use their unconscious form as a hostage "lay down your weapons and surrender or you fried dies". I wouldn't make that an idle threat, either. If they try and dick around, or defy the "bad guys", I'd kill the unconscious Character.  I wouldn't intervene to save the innocent NPCs, either. That's an action that should stay with the Party a long time.

I would have there be long term consequences - to start, they're all prisoners. Loss of gear, loss of freedom - and an escape adventure where they end up free, but basically broke, alone, and with no equipment or funds. I would hold the consequences of slaughtering innocent NPCs until a later period, but definitely have that come back to haunt them.

Quote from Vedexent >>

 

 I would hold the consequences of slaughtering innocent NPCs until a later period, but definitely have that come back to haunt them.

That's how super villains get created, right? "The heroes killed my father, so I made dark pacts to gain my revenge..."

To me, the most compelling choice of the three you gave is that they survive, but kill dozens of civilians. This would certainly open up all sorts of dramatic avenues you can go down. Would they have to serve time for their choice? Would they be ostracized by their community for letting so many people die? Would their credibility take a massive hit and they won't be sought after as adventurers? Would there be interparty conflict for making such rash choices? Would the NPCs blame them and turn their backs on the party?

So. Many. Possibilities.

Quote from BigHeathen11 >>

To me, the most compelling choice of the three you gave is that they survive, but kill dozens of civilians. This would certainly open up all sorts of dramatic avenues you can go down. Would they have to serve time for their choice? Would they be ostracized by their community for letting so many people die? Would their credibility take a massive hit and they won't be sought after as adventurers? Would there be interparty conflict for making such rash choices? Would the NPCs blame them and turn their backs on the party?

So. Many. Possibilities.

Are any of them Life clerics of a LG deity? Uh oh.... :)

Oh goodness, this would be so fun. I'm a huge fan of player agency so I'd let them proceed to ignore all your signals. Allowing character death, and a huge amount of infamy as they need to atone for so many murders. 

If it's a total TPK you can use the story as a prelude to their new characters going on adventure. They can hear from a third party about how poorly it all went and how it was really a matter of confusion and poor decisions that the new characters need to correct, etc. 

Quote from Agile_DM >>

 

If it's a total TPK you can use the story as a prelude to their new characters going on adventure. They can hear from a third party about how poorly it all went and how it was really a matter of confusion and poor decisions that the new characters need to correct, etc. 

This is a good idea!

It also reminds me of a Matt Colville suggestion on how to deal with a TPK: stop the action for the doomed characters; don't play out the TPK; Have the Players roll up new Characters, and run them through a separate adventure which is destined to end up ... in the same battle that the FIRST characters. Now time restarts. Now the Players have two Characters in the battle. Now you don't have to feel as bad about killing off a Character, because the Player has a spare. Now you get to see the two Parties interacting. Eventually, you'll probably end up with a new Party, with the survivors, and some Characters wandering back off again ( for Players who didn't have their extra Character killed off ).

You still have a complete Party, you can kill off Characters, and hopefully the Players learned something.