StalkingBlue
First Post
Last session in my Midnight game, a bunch of NPC bad guys captured two PC freedom fighters and an NPC after a fight that went badly for the PCs. (Two other PCs fled but are currently still behind enemy lines.)
Through smart roleplay and a combination of brashness, wild and partly-lucky guesses and eager-minion-play, one of the PC prisoners managed to seed doubt in the enemy commander's mind on whether his prisoners are in fact resistance fighters as he believed, or in fact allies of his side working on some undercover mission - and on whether there might be other dangerous resistance forces in the immediate area.
Both PCs are badly wounded, one at one third of her hp total and the other at 1hp after two Cure Minor Wounds from the enemy commander Legate (cleric equivalent in the Midnight setting).
We'll be playing the resolution in ten days.
One of the players of the captured PCs remarked after the session how difficult it had been for him to surrender his PC - how in fact it seemed more difficult from a Gamist (challenge-oriented) point of view than a PC death. That comment, and thinking about how I want to run the upcoming session, made me remember how similar I've felt about surrendering PCs. I've done it, but it was never easy. For me it depends largely on how far I trust the GM - it's sorta uncomfortable to surrender much of the control over a PC I'm still playing, and especially to roleplay a scene with the PC captured.
Generally speaking I'm confident that the players whose PCs are prisoners trust me to run a fair game. They know I sorta root for the PCs, but run a difficult game and will pull no punches. They also know that I'm thinking that their PCs will have some sort of chance to get away, although they shouldn't expect escape/rescue to be automatic or independent of their choices and actions next game.
I have my NPCs' plans detailed - as always subject to what the PCs do to them of course. What I'm trying to figure out is how to _run_ the session - how much roleplay opportunities to offer, what to skip over, fast-forward, or obscure under a Veil.
I should stress one thing that keeps popping up in 'PC prisoners' threads on these boards. There's no way I'm using Intimidate on PCs. PCs can Intimidate my NPCs as much as they like, and there has already been a lot of Intimidating going on immediately after the capture.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
But short of magic coercion, if any PC chooses to cooperate / yield information / whatever, it's going to be by the player's free choice. (Could be not-so-free of course from an in-game point of view, if PC faced with difficult choice.)
Here's my question: As GMs and players, how have you dealt with captured PC situations? Were you comfortable running/playing them? Have you found trust (or lack of same) came into it? What was the best/worst/coolest way you've seen it dealt with?
(Edit: bolded text.)
Through smart roleplay and a combination of brashness, wild and partly-lucky guesses and eager-minion-play, one of the PC prisoners managed to seed doubt in the enemy commander's mind on whether his prisoners are in fact resistance fighters as he believed, or in fact allies of his side working on some undercover mission - and on whether there might be other dangerous resistance forces in the immediate area.
Both PCs are badly wounded, one at one third of her hp total and the other at 1hp after two Cure Minor Wounds from the enemy commander Legate (cleric equivalent in the Midnight setting).
We'll be playing the resolution in ten days.
One of the players of the captured PCs remarked after the session how difficult it had been for him to surrender his PC - how in fact it seemed more difficult from a Gamist (challenge-oriented) point of view than a PC death. That comment, and thinking about how I want to run the upcoming session, made me remember how similar I've felt about surrendering PCs. I've done it, but it was never easy. For me it depends largely on how far I trust the GM - it's sorta uncomfortable to surrender much of the control over a PC I'm still playing, and especially to roleplay a scene with the PC captured.
Generally speaking I'm confident that the players whose PCs are prisoners trust me to run a fair game. They know I sorta root for the PCs, but run a difficult game and will pull no punches. They also know that I'm thinking that their PCs will have some sort of chance to get away, although they shouldn't expect escape/rescue to be automatic or independent of their choices and actions next game.
I have my NPCs' plans detailed - as always subject to what the PCs do to them of course. What I'm trying to figure out is how to _run_ the session - how much roleplay opportunities to offer, what to skip over, fast-forward, or obscure under a Veil.
I should stress one thing that keeps popping up in 'PC prisoners' threads on these boards. There's no way I'm using Intimidate on PCs. PCs can Intimidate my NPCs as much as they like, and there has already been a lot of Intimidating going on immediately after the capture.
But short of magic coercion, if any PC chooses to cooperate / yield information / whatever, it's going to be by the player's free choice. (Could be not-so-free of course from an in-game point of view, if PC faced with difficult choice.) Here's my question: As GMs and players, how have you dealt with captured PC situations? Were you comfortable running/playing them? Have you found trust (or lack of same) came into it? What was the best/worst/coolest way you've seen it dealt with?
(Edit: bolded text.)
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