How do you deal with captured PCs?

[shilsen]

I'll just chalk it up to play styles. I prefer to play a PC as a real person and see what life has in store for him rather than just a character with stats who needs to hit level 20 ASAP.

Man, that was one quick jump from different "play styles" to wrongbadfun!

 

[Marshal Lucky]

I remember having our characters get railroaded/captured during the abysmally weak FR module trilogy about the Time of Troubles (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep). At the end of the first module you help Elminster fight Bane (the entire series consisted of standing around watching the "main characters" do stuff), and then Elminster seems to get killed, and all the Harpers blame the PCs (which makes no sense whatsoever, but don't get me started).

My buddy was all bent out of shape because they took our stuff and threw us in a cell. I turned to him and said, "Don't worry. The module will protect us." I've never seen my GM (still one of my oldest and dearest friends) get so pissed during a game. He called the session right there, and we basically all agreed to "annul" our experiences with the module. Turns out he was angry because I was absolutely right!

Another reason every self-respecting PC should kill Elminster at every opportunity. I saw his stats in Dragon a long time ago and clearly he was a munchkin PC and just as clearly an easy mark. If PCs made a point of attacking these Mary Sues, DMs would quit clutting the game with them.

One time the DM told me ahead of time that he was going to try and capture the party.

Being a veteran player, I went along with it when the time came. I helped convince the rest of the party that they should not fight to the death.

Other than that one time, players will always run and/or fight to the death. I know plenty of players would rather just fight to the death and roll up something new.

You should follow their example. They are superior players. It is a GAME after all, and those who don't give up tend to do better, just as in sports.

 

[Oryan77]

Man, that was one quick jump from different "play styles" to wrongbadfun!

Yeah I know, I'll do anything to give posters the chance to use the latest overused & unfunny internet lingo

 

[haakon1]

Here's some rules of thumb that I try to go by:
Use a capture if it will avoid killing PCs (or prevent a TPK)
Always allow for escape (expect that escape is the NORMAL outcome)
Never strip a PC naked (especially with women gamers, it's a socially polite thing)
Unless time has passed, the PCs' useful gear is nearby (being used by the leader, or stored/carried in a sack)
If the PCs' search, they find a lock pick or weakness in the cell
If the PCs' talk to other inmates, they find a plot to escape
If the PCs actions warrant execution, it will be scheduled for "later" (allowing time to escape)
The PCs are never too exhausted from working in the mine, to prepate for an escape
Make escape "easy" if the capture was just to prevent a TPK
Make escape complex if it will expand the adventure

Excellent advice.

The other advice I'd give, when deciding what action YOU the DM should take is to step back and role play it. Why should the rat queen kill one and let the others go? Perhaps she kills one at a time for ritual reasons or for food, or wants to sell them to slavers but has to wait to make a deal, giving them time to escape or another captor to use diplomacy on/escape from. A role-played villain is more fun for everyone than a villain who dangles on the strings of the DM's screenwriter's ideas. In playing the villain, be a pampered actor and always asks "what's my motivation" and only does things that make sense for the character himself, not in service of mood or plotting that don't ring true.

If you want to turn it into an adventure, the classic Greyhawk adventure A4 in the Slavers series had a great scenario for this -- PC's wake up in the dark with no equipment in a dungeon that's meant as an execution. Oh, and the dungeon is in a volcano that's about to blow up.

 

[haakon1]

Characters who escaped capture went back, gathered re-inforcements and staged a heroic rescue. The BBG escaped the wrath of the larger force and became a re-curring nemisis.

Good way to play it, if there are escapees. I've also seen players negotiate a prisoner exchange type deal.

Even if all are captured, it's still a viable option:

DM: OK. Roll up new characters.

Players: We're dead?

DM: No way to know for sure. It's time to roll up the Search & Rescue team!

 

[hamishspence]

Prison is a trope of the genre. Do something different with it.

Baldur's Gate II is an obvious example of D&D prison break.

Ways to make it more interesting:

Prison uniforms that are VERY difficult to remove (Arcane Mark maybe) After the escape the gameplay may enter a Fugitive/Great Escape theme.

Transformations. Your heroes have been transformed into monsters. see what it's like to be on other end of monster chases. Jackson & Livingstone's Creature of Havoc fighting fantasy book springs to mind.

Imprisoned in your Mind: break out all the weird stuff. This escape is about breaking free of the spell the hard way: by facing your nightmares.

What other slants on the traditional prison break could be used?

 

[Numion]

I'll just chalk it up to play styles. I prefer to play a PC as a real person and see what life has in store for him rather than just a character with stats who needs to hit level 20 ASAP.

On weekend I was at friends parents summer cottage, drinking beer with my friend. This old geezer comes to visit from the next house over, and as the evening progresses, the old man starts talking war stories (served '39-45) (he claimed those stories were the only thing his memory was good for, having born in 1920). He told this one episode where they had a russian officer surrender after some heavy fighting. He was the only one who surrendered, and they hadn't recovered his sidearm. When it was time to move after a while, the officer drew his sidearm and shot himself in the head.

Now, was the officer for real, or couldn't the player just wait to roll up a new one to get to level 20 ASAP?

 

[Eric Tolle]

Pretty much, given the huge expense of copying spells again into the book.

At 200GP per spell level, plus the cost to buy the spells, spellbook creation pretty rapidly becomes one of the main expenses for a mage, so I've never seen a character have more than one set of spellbooks in recent years.

Boccob's Blessed Book and it's more economical cousin, Aureon's Spellshard, sometimes fill the role. Still, they typically become the main spellbook because it completely gets around the "scribe spells" cost (and wizards don't pay to scribe a spell into their regular book when it's free to put it in one of the above items).

Those two items themselves are pretty damn expensive, though they reduce the per-level costs of spells to 25 GP/level, plus the cost to acquire the spells in the first place. Mages tend not to be able to replace those easily, even without the GMs reluctance to replace spells.

One nice thing about True20 is its far less gear dependant than D&D is, and Adepts are far less tied to the whole spellbook thing. In fact, except for special circumstances, losing gear when captured isn't much of a problem with True20. Having to trust that the GM won't spend the next three game sessions lovingly describing how the characters are gang raped until his GMPC rescues them...that's another issue entirely.