Capture those PCs

[Raven Crowking]

If I was going to outright capture them and railroad the whole thing, I'd agree. But I'm not. I'm going to put them in a situation where they will probably piss off the local lord. Him being a jerk will probably yell for the town gaurd to capture them. Considering most miltia is a 2nd level fighter, and 4 1st level warriors. They'll wipe the floor with em. And leave. OK. That's fine. But really its pretty damn boring. Considering how often the town gaurd must run afoul of adventurers, I was thinking they'd have some kind of plan as to how to handle them. I mean really. Adventurers are powerful. Any 6th level group will take out most 'towns' of size "Small town" or smaller. So I'm looking for some suggestions about law and order. I'd like to capture the group. But in no way shape or form does my plot hinge on it. They can escape that's fine. I'd just like to make a challenge.
-cpd

That's what I get for not reading the whole thread through.....

So, is your scenario that the local lord is sitting in the tavern, without any retainers or guardsmen of his own?

Easiest way to deal with that is to give your local lord the legs required to be a local lord. Even if he is a lowly Aristocrat, to be lording over a town he probably requires the Leadership feat to expand and develop his personal retinue. Does he have a wizard in his employ? I know I would. To deal with local trouble, a few potions of Bull's Strength would be ideal, and I would try to have them made for my personal guards...relatively cheap, but they increase damage potential for both lethal and non-lethal situations. Also, they make my guards look impressive. I would also do my best to have protective items, including some form of non-detection item, to protect me from my enemies.

Now, if I know I enjoy causing trouble, and I know that these characters look excessively deadly, then I would probably want the advantage to be in my court prior to starting a fight, right? If I simply have no self control, I deserve what I get, and the town will probably be happy to see me gone. Otherwise the evil you know is often preferable to the evil you don't.

So, again, if you run into a Watch patrol around town, yeah, just the five guys. Me, because I like to cause trouble, I go around with a full score. That's 20 well-trained guardsmen...say 2nd or 3rd lvl warriors. Normally, they fight in six groups of three, and the other two remain near me to protect me from any threat.

I hire my personal guards on the basis of their speed, so all of them have an above-average Dexterity and the Improved Initiative feat. I have a pre-arranged signal, so that they know when I am going to cause trouble, and they can down the bull's strength potions prior to the first round of combat.

Here are some tactics I have taught them:

1. Each round, one guardsman attacks while two do nothing other than defend themselves (full defense). Each round, the attacker switches. For those opponents who "attack the guy who just attacked me" the results are that, at least 50% of the time, that guy is going to be fighting defensively. By holding their action, guardsmen can change their initiative order, to take best advantage of this tactic.

2. Two men grapple, one man moves in with his sword to deal with the helpless defender. Cheating, I know, but there you have it.

3. Begining with wizards, 20 archers all target the same target and fire at the same time. At least a few of those arrows are going to hit.....! And, since the bows are masterwork, those potions are going to affect the damage.

Of course, when I go drinking, I usually take a pair of my prized hounds. You would not believe how much trouble they can cause my foes, biting and tripping them as they are attempting to deal with the guards.



RC

 

[S'mon]

Re railroading - I use the Fate Points system from Ian Sturrock's Conan RPG (hi Ian!), with an idea taken from the Buffy's RPG system, which is that every time I screw over the PCs by having them shipwrecked (sans gear) or otherwise deus-ex-machina'd at the start of a session, they get a free 'screwed over by fate' FP. FPs are pretty powerful, eg they let your PC be 'left for dead' and survive a normally lethal event like when the Ogre crits you. This worked really well in my Conan game. I agree with Ian that loss-of-stuff is a major concern in higher-level D&D especially, I agree that establishing a social/game contract as to what's acceptable is a good idea.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Re railroading - I use the Fate Points system from Ian Sturrock's Conan RPG (hi Ian!), with an idea taken from the Buffy's RPG system, which is that every time I screw over the PCs by having them shipwrecked (sans gear) or otherwise deus-ex-machina'd at the start of a session, they get a free 'screwed over by fate' FP. FPs are pretty powerful, eg they let your PC be 'left for dead' and survive a normally lethal event like when the Ogre crits you. This worked really well in my Conan game. I agree with Ian that loss-of-stuff is a major concern in higher-level D&D especially, I agree that establishing a social/game contract as to what's acceptable is a good idea.

I rather like that idea. YOINK!


RC

 

[Ian Sturrock]

Me, too -- might borrow it for the live game I'm running this Spring. I intend most of the adventures to start out with the PCs "screwed over by fate" one way or another.

Now to work on a 20-metre, 10-person, "Chinese Dragon style" Son of Set costume...

Hyborian Tales: Pulp Fantasy Live Roleplaying in the Hyborian Age
First Event: About His Iron-Clad Feet Grew A Ring Of Mangled Corpses​

 

[schporto]

So I was going to go with the suggestions and not try to capture them at all. Then they went and did something dumb. They tried to sell a necromancy spell book on the blackmarket. They failed a gather information check badly enough that I figured the local authorities were tipped off. So I set up a quick sting in a bar. A fighter 1, A rouge 2, a fighter 2, two warrior 1. All were to use their tanglefoot bags immediately. The party missed a couple of spot checks as they were sized up. The local swat team was called and were positioned outside. The party was told to surrender. The party instead cast obscuring mist/darkness to try to bolt. They then ran into the swat team (all 5th levels Fighter, Cleric, Sorcerer, Rogue, Monk). Rolling terribly as DM two to the constables got themselves with the tanglefoot bags, and the other 3 never got them off. The swat team outside is not gonna fair much better. At this point the swat team's rogue is dead. Despite me being clear that the all the contables were using subdual damage, only one PC used subdual. They will be escaping.
So any suggestions as to how much of a price would be on their heads? Or who would be sent after them?
Oh and two things, 1. The players had fun. 2. The town was run by bandits so the good players didn't feel much need to follow the not so good town's laws. Or at least that's how they justified it.

 

[Rel]

So any suggestions as to how much of a price would be on their heads? Or who would be sent after them?

Enought to tempt assassin(s) or bounty hunter(s) of a level commensurate with the challenge you wish to present the party with.

Kudos to you for not forcing the issue and letting them make their own fate.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Nets, bolas, grappling rules and aid another, and the PC's being outnumbered by at least 5 to 1.

That's the best I can give ya.

 

[the Jester]

Hey, I'm glad it worked out! Too bad the pcs got away. It happens to the best of us.

One thing to remember about the price put on their head: it has to be big enough to be tempting, but small enough that it is worth it for the town in question to pay it. They probably have pretty limited resources, after all- though some bandit loot prolly helps up the ante a little.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Not really relevant to the particular example - but there is one effective way to capture a band of heroes that hasn't really been mentioned yet - get them drunk.

If your local lord is sensible enough he'll post a spy in the band's 'standard' tavern - probably one of the bar maids or a regular who isn't going to raise any attention. Then on the night they all come back from their latest plundering of some innocent monster's lair and start drinking he raises the alarm (but subtley). The alarm results in various other locals/spys/off-duty guards/etc enjoying themselves with the heroes - buying them drinks, encouraging them to tell all the stories one more time. It may take a while and lots of similarly drunk guards to get the dwarf inebriated, but some of them should fall. And any that do are escorted to their room by a friendly guard, and then picked up later by the sober ones. Any that out drink everyone else wake up on their own with a stinking hangover surrounded by well rested guards holding all the equipment and the news that their comrades are recovering at his lordship's hospitality. OK it'll cost the lord some coin in getting the heroes drunk but with a gallon of ale for 2 silver it shouldn't take more than a handful of gold and the morning off for half your guards to bring down even the toughest of parties.

And if done carefully enough you can start the whole evening with a casual 'oh you're having a drink - how drunk are you getting tonight?'.... depending on the answer they may just walk into the dungeon all on their own.

Hmmmm... is it worrying that it takes a brit to raise this idea... maybe we do drink too much over here!

 

[Xath]

My first character ( a cleric) was captured by the BBEG at one point. He seperated her from the rest of the party by a few well placed Walls of Force, and incapacitated her. She woke up later bound and with her tongue cut out.

But, a really good tactic is seperating the party. It severely weakens any group, and if you have 1 member under control, you can subdue the others with threats.