Had a situation with our monthly Road to Legend game yesterday that I wasn't able to find a solution on here for. Our band of heroes was on the way to the gold legendary dungeon, making camp near Red Echo River, when Krieg showed up thanks to a transport gem and attacked. The heroes found themselves ambushed in the Box Canyon and were unable to survive the gauntlet, the final hero dying just feet away from escape. Back in Tamalir, there was discussion over the result of the TPK. According to the rules, normal TPK means the week is over. However, with the Lt causing the encounter, the heroes feel it should be their turn. Has anyone run into this before, and how did you resolve it?

Per the normal rules, a TPK ends your current turn. The PCs haven't started a turn yet, so there's nothing to end.

Here's the text for TPKs, from RtL:

"Total Party Kill
If all heroes are killed during an encounter, the encounter ends
and the hero party marker is moved to Tamalir on the Terrinoth
map board. The party’s game week action is over, and the
overlord has scored a resounding blow!"

The last line is obviously the one pertinent to this discussion. Personally, I could see arguements for either interpretation. On the one had the party's "game week action" hasn't begun yet, so can it really end? On the other hand saying that the "game week action is over" could be interpreted as their action (which hasn't begun yet) gets canceled for this game week. The Overlord did use his own resources to get the LT to their position and he did risk that LT in a battle that might have gone the other way. If a TPK is supposed to be a "resounding blow" then I think it could be fair to say the heroes lose their turn this week.

I'm on the fence myself about which way I would play this situation. Since I'm usually the OL I'm naturally inclined to say they should lose their turn, but that's a bit biased. I can also see James's point holding true. Is there any FAQ support on this? Did the wording change in SoB (I didn't check that pdf), which might imply some revised or clarified ruling?

One thing I think should be true in any campaign game is that when the heroes are in proximity of an LT, the stakes should be raised and the tensions high.

Steve-O said:

It's even clearer than James indicated. You can't 'over' something that is not yet begun.

From a balance perspective it is utterly straightforward. If you 'prevent' the party from having a game week action then the game breaks down as soon as you have a week party vs a powerful Lt at Tamalir. Every week the Lt TPKs the party and they don't ever get a turn. There is never an opportunity for the party to improve and 'come back' at the Lt. They can't train, can't shop, can't move to another dungeon and get more resources, the game just stalls.

8-16 CT to nil, and usually more critically, sending the party back to Tamalir is a resounding blow already.

Once again, we have an issue with the placement of a statement within the rules. Because the LT Encoutner rules follow the normal encounter rules they are written with a "Party Action" slant- the Party just took a move week action and ran into an encounter. The explanation of TPK that we are given is based on an encounter that the Party initiated. I strongly agree that to say otherwise destroys the concept entirely. The SoB explanation doesn't make it any clearer and only substitues "ends immediately" for "is over".

"The party’s game week action ends immediately, and the overlord has scored a resounding blow!"

If a LT takes a move action to encounter the Party and has a TPK, once the OL is finished with his turn, the Heroes get to take their turn as their game week action hadn't started yet.

Corbon said:

That's a good point. Okay then, I agree with you and James. =)