This week, I have some sad news about my campaign. For several personal reasons as well as time scheduling issues, I have decided to stop DMing. Not just this campaign, but for the forseeable future. I will still complete this pursuit by writing about D&D, but it brings me to a not oft discussed topic of the game, and life in general... failure and giving up. This applies to DMing, yes, as you can see with my campaign, but also many other aspects of the game. If you're clearly outmatched, do you try to take on the combat encounter and hope for the dice to be in your favor? Or do you run away with the whole party, so you can live another day? Do you risk a Total Party Kill just for the Dungeon Master to feel like you got through what they'd prepared? Personally, as either a player or DM, I would be extremely disheartened by a TPK, and I actually have experienced one once... as a player. To talk about it a little, my character died first because the Dungeon Master didn't balance the encounter correctly. Another two characters died, and the last 2 escaped. It was the end of the campaign. Everyone was extremely disheartened, but I think in the end it was a good lesson and we've learned from it.  We all still play together, and that dungeon master is trying again now. So I think the most important thing is to learn from failure, like I've learned that DMing isn't for me.