D&D 5E Becoming prisoners without removing player agency (OotA)

[akr71]

I have had Out of the Abyss sitting on my shelf, unused and gathering dust. I'd like to get some value out of it, so after the party finishes the next couple of tasks, they be sent to the underdark. I have some hooks worked out and I'm pretty sure they'll bite - the ranger has underdark as a favored terrain, another player wants to switch characters to a drow & another is a big fan of the Drizzt books.

I will mostly be using Oota as an underdark source book with a few options for side quests, but I'd really like to keep first chapter where the party are taken prisoner by drow. However the party will likely be level 8/9 when they start this and just saying "You're captured by drow slavers!" will seem lame, steal agency from them and possibly be unfun, even though escaping will happen rather quickly. I have a few ideas on how to get there but wanted to see what the fine folks here thought.

1. The drow slavers ambush the party with overwhelming force and take them prisoner. This might work, but to bring 6 characters of level 8 & 9 to heel, I need a mighty big stick. I highly doubt they'll surrender just because they're outnumbered.
2. The drow have a number of traps and roadblocks on the route and the party gets caught. This will either work on the first try or become tedious rather quickly.
3. I can give the drow character joining the party a scroll of Teleportation Circle, perhaps given to her by the patron sending them on this quest. It links to a Teleportation Circle in Velkynvelve where the book starts. Unbeknownst to the character and the patron, Velkynvelve is no longer an abandoned outpost and they teleport right into the middle of a heavily guarded drow outpost.

 

[iserith]

I would just ask for the players to buy in on the premise that they were captured for reasons they are free to help me flesh out. I bet they have some great ideas that will make sense to them and to the scenario. Then play begins from that point forward. Anything is possible with player buy-in and this will save you time and effort.

 

[GSHamster]

Perhaps have becoming prisoner be part of the plan. The party needs to get to the prison, but they don't know where it is. So they get choose to get taken prisoner. See if they can to figure out a way to make their equipment accessible while being a prisoner.

 

[Umbran]

Or... give them a lead-in in which they have to get captured in order to reach some goal.

 

[jgsugden]

Honestly, I am not a fan of the "you're all prisoners" as a planned event unless it starts the campaign and is known to the players going into it. If you want to use OotA, I'd suggest just waiting to use it the next time you run a new campaign.

 

[akr71]

Damn! See, this is why I made the post. I had never thought of the "get captured" angle. Perhaps the garrison at Velkynvelve has a person or object key to the mission.

BTW, they are being sent to the underdark by a drow dissident and outcast who wants to create a sanctuary for drow who want to freely worship how they like. That is, not Lolth.

 

[MarkB]

Don't make them prisoners at all. Have them being tasked with carrying out a jail-break to free the NPC prisoners.

 

[ph0rk]

I think having characters start as prisoners is fine - it gives them a common enemy which makes for a more organic development of a team. You don't have to meta-game character knowledge of each other, and are faced with a good team-based problem to solve early on.

It beats the heck out of random "adventurers" running into each other an a tavern mere seconds before a questgiver stumbles in.

Sometimes it isn't necessary to play out a combat event; but you've created something of a problem for yourself by wanting to capture Tier 2 characters.

A powerful caster upcasting Sleep one by one might get it done; for those PCs not immune, anyway.

Throwing a high-level raiding party at them is just removing agency by other means, though.

 

[Quartz]

However the party will likely be level 8/9 when they start this and just saying "You're captured by drow slavers!" will seem lame, steal agency from them and possibly be unfun, even though escaping will happen rather quickly. I have a few ideas on how to get there but wanted to see what the fine folks here thought.

If you want them to start as prisoners then game it out as a flashback. Start the session with something along the lines of, "You're now prisoners of the drow; we're going to backtrack to your capture to play out how it happened..." This way the players know their PCs can surrender. Don't allow time for selection of spells and whatnot; do all that for them beforehand and start in media res.

 

[iserith]

Damn! See, this is why I made the post. I had never thought of the "get captured" angle. Perhaps the garrison at Velkynvelve has a person or object key to the mission.

BTW, they are being sent to the underdark by a drow dissident and outcast who wants to create a sanctuary for drow who want to freely worship how they like. That is, not Lolth.

The issue with "get captured" as a goal is that if you are putting this at risk with decisions and dice rolls, you leave open the possibility that they don't get captured in which case you're back to the drawing board.

Therefore, if you're going to do it, you have to make failure something other than "doesn't get captured" if you're rolling for it. This is another reason why I suggest you just get buy-in from the players, advance the plot to when they are prisoners, then play on from there.