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<blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 4811926" data-attributes="member: 3448">I agree with this.&nbsp; Your initial question runs the risk of degenerating into &quot;how do I railroad my players without railroading them?&quot;If you think that your players will end up being happy with the capture plot, I would either:&nbsp; A) set up a fight (using the knockout rules others have suggested) where the PCs can accomplish something; B) set up the capture such that the PCs clearly can't fight their way out of it (such as having the entire area they're in surrounded by an army, so the capture is not so much a single fight as a part of the overall story); or C) set up a tough but winnable fight, and then let the dice fall where they may.&nbsp; C is my preference, since it avoids the railroad altogether, but A can work.&nbsp; B is difficult to pull off well.For A, you might have things like how many of the enemy do they kill before they fall if the players are likely to care, can they help some NPCs (perhaps vulnerable characters or characters that the PCs care about) escape at the cost of their own capture, or can they accomplish some goal (stop/perform the big ritual, prevent a disaster, etc.) during the combat which makes them okay with the fact that they &quot;lost&quot; the fight.&nbsp; The feeling you want there is &quot;we didn't lose-- we won, but at the cost of getting captured.&quot;&nbsp; The problem is that you need player buy-in or this goes back to the worst &quot;and now I pound on you using my GM powers until you climb on the railroad and go to the next station.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cerebral Paladin, post: 4811926, member: 3448"] I agree with this. Your initial question runs the risk of degenerating into "how do I railroad my players without railroading them?" If you think that your players will end up being happy with the capture plot, I would either: A) set up a fight (using the knockout rules others have suggested) where the PCs can accomplish something; B) set up the capture such that the PCs clearly can't fight their way out of it (such as having the entire area they're in surrounded by an army, so the capture is not so much a single fight as a part of the overall story); or C) set up a tough but winnable fight, and then let the dice fall where they may. C is my preference, since it avoids the railroad altogether, but A can work. B is difficult to pull off well. For A, you might have things like how many of the enemy do they kill before they fall if the players are likely to care, can they help some NPCs (perhaps vulnerable characters or characters that the PCs care about) escape at the cost of their own capture, or can they accomplish some goal (stop/perform the big ritual, prevent a disaster, etc.) during the combat which makes them okay with the fact that they "lost" the fight. The feeling you want there is "we didn't lose-- we won, but at the cost of getting captured." The problem is that you need player buy-in or this goes back to the worst "and now I pound on you using my GM powers until you climb on the railroad and go to the next station." [/QUOTE]

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