Dealing With Prisoners

[Hussar]

This has come up recently in games that I've been playing. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm playing 4e and taking prisoners is pretty easy - just turn your last hit into non-lethal and you got yourself a prisoner.

As a player - do you take prisoners? What do you expect to get from taking them? What do you do with them afterwards?

As a DM - how do you react to the player's taking prisoners? Is this something you encourage or discourage? Is it a great role playing opportunity or huge time sink?

Just wondering how it goes around other tables.

 

[weem]

As a DM, I don't mind my players taking prisoners, but that's probably because they only do it when they are sure the one they are fighting has information that will help them with something. They don't take everyone prisoner, etc.

With that said, we have been playing it almost like being called in UNO for having not called out "UNO" when you have one card. If a player lands a killing blow, they usually say right away, "Oh that's it, well I wanted to just put him down, not kill him" in which case, sure. But, if we get to someone else's turn, or a few turns later, they will usually say, "oh crap... we should have captured him... oh well, we're past that now". It's not a rule I force them to go by - and they know they are not limited in that way, it's just a limitation they put on themselves - that they need to call it right then.

After they have what they need, they usually let the person/creature go - and in one game, someone they let go ended up letting THEM go a few sessions later when the tables were turned. It was a way for me to give them a nod for well-played tactics.

 

[Hand of Evil]

As a player: Never leave an enemy behind you. If not killed outright, into the bag of holding they go, or use of some form of knock out poison. Will leave them to take care of themselves for the most part.

As a DM: Never leave an enemy behind you. It comes down to the NPC in question and the players, some will try and run away, some will try and kill the players, some will join the party, some just like to mess with the party. If the players decide to take a prisoner, that elevates them to NPC status and I will work out there personality and goals at that time.

 

[IronWolf]

As a player - do you take prisoners? What do you expect to get from taking them? What do you do with them afterwards?

I am sure we've taken a prisoner at some point, but we typically try to get information first before we kill them and take their stuff. We don't go for the underlings that often in regards to taking them prisoner and questioning them.

As a DM - how do you react to the player's taking prisoners? Is this something you encourage or discourage? Is it a great role playing opportunity or huge time sink?

My experience with it in a recent play-by-post game was that it was nearly a disastrous experience for the game - in fact I am still not sure the game has recovered completely because it seems one of the player's involved was holding a grudge over the situation.

Pretty much they were fighting some slavers, had pretty much taken it down to the last two guys. The elven paladin called for them to surrender. Well the guys that were left were more well-paid associates, the real leader had already fallen in battle so as DM I didn't see these two willing to die for the cause if they were being offered a chance to surrender.

The two slavers laid down their weapons and the party questioned them and they cooperated for the most part. Once questioning was over the elven paladin wanted to exact his justice and kill them both. The party was about a day from the nearest city and several of the others thought they should just restrain the prisoners or lock them to a wagon that was available and send them off with a note on them. This ended up spiraling downward in a long, drawn out debate as the party decided what to do causing tempers to flare a bit.

So in this case trying to determine what to do with the prisoners caused some significant party conflict, though it had gone well up to that point.

 

[ExploderWizard]

In my current campaign, the party has taken a captive on three occasions. All the individuals were mercenaries working for the real bad guys.
The first one wasn't even connected with the evil cultists in the area. She was the leader of a group of bandits that had a no kill policy. After a brief questioning and confiscation of armor & weapons, the PC's let her go.

The second one was a brigand lieutenant who was returned to keep and turned over to the authorities. In exchange for valuable information about the cult, the hanging sentence was reduced to life in a labor camp. The intel was very reliable and proved to be useful to the PC's.

The third was an elite mercenary guard hired by the cultists. The captive was turned in to authorities at the keep. The trial has not yet taken place.

When the party finally did encounter the leaders of the cult, there was no quarter asked or given. The cultists were all fanatical death priests and would never surrender.

So far it has worked out great. There is a possibility of encountering the first two NPC's again at a later date. The mercy of the PC's will certainly influence any later interactions. Its too early to tell about the third one yet. It all depends on the outcome of the trial.

 

[White Wizard]

I'm hoping the paladin didn't kill the surrendered prisoners, as that would be very un-paladin like.

My group rarely takes prisoners but when we do they never know what to do with them when they are done. There is debate over tying them up and leaving them or letting them go. If your in a dungeon crawl it is not convenient to take them back to the proper authorities. The concern is that letting them go will come back to haunt you later.

 

[Klaus]

I'm hoping the paladin didn't kill the surrendered prisoners, as that would be very un-paladin like.

My group rarely takes prisoners but when we do they never know what to do with them when they are done. There is debate over tying them up and leaving them or letting them go. If your in a dungeon crawl it is not convenient to take them back to the proper authorities. The concern is that letting them go will come back to haunt you later.

A paladin wouldn't kill a prisoner? What's this, a Superman comic*?

Even an old-school, LG Paladin should be able to kill a prisoner. He'd do so formally, as a representative of his deity/king/order. He'd present the charges and execute the prisoner in the most efficient, painless way.


* - I say this a huge Superman fan. He's my favorite character, alongside Nightwing.

 

[IronWolf]

Even an old-school, LG Paladin should be able to kill a prisoner. He'd do so formally, as a representative of his deity/king/order. He'd present the charges and execute the prisoner in the most efficient, painless way.

Yep - this decision is what was causing a fair amount of strife among the party which unfortunately drifted into the meta part of the game. Pretty much the paladin felt just as Klaus has described and was going to more or less execute the prisoner after questioning, justified as a representative of his deity to exact order and justice.

The party members thought they were close enough to the city to warrant getting the prisoners back to the city for justice by the city council as they saw fit. The paladin didn't agree.

However, with all that said, the paladin in order to help avoid total party conflict did say if someone else wanted to take responsibility for the prisoners that he would step aside from being responsible for the prisoners.

 

[ExploderWizard]

A paladin wouldn't kill a prisoner? What's this, a Superman comic*?

Even an old-school, LG Paladin should be able to kill a prisoner. He'd do so formally, as a representative of his deity/king/order. He'd present the charges and execute the prisoner in the most efficient, painless way.

Wouldn't that depend on the laws of the land? If the paladin was given the legal right to act as judge, jury, and executioner then this would be acceptable. What if the law states that suspected crimminals who surrender are to be brought before another authority for trial? How would the paladin remain lawful good then?

This isn't even considering the evil involved in killing a captive if promises were made to spare their life in exchange for cooperation.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Oh no, it's turned into a paladin thread!