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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 3904464" data-attributes="member: 13892">First, have your PCs get "caught up" in the battle. That is, don't make them part of the castle's designated defense forces. Don't have them present to plan for a known forthcoming attack. Don't relegate them to some kind of support capacity. Don't tell them what to do and when to do it. What I would recommend is have the PCs present at the castle in question on unrelated business of their choosing (perhaps petitioning before the local lord for thier own families or guilds, visiting a retired adventuring friend, etc). Then attack the castle while they just happen to be there -- this allows them to make their own choices. They can stand and protect the lord, flee for their lives, or join forces with the attackers. This opens the door to far more possibilities than simply telling the players that they must be guards and that they must fight to defend the castle. In the scenario that I have proposed above, PCs get to make individual choices about how they deal with the action, unrestrained by some kind of narrow pre-constructed premise provided by the DM. Ideally, they would choose to defend the castle, though if the castle's Lord is a cruel or unpopular individual, joining with the invaders may well be an option. At any rate, the point is, with this kind of setup, the players (and you, as the DM) will have options. That said, I'm with Primitive Screwhead on the second piece of advice. Kind of. Plan ahead for the attackers. Not for reasons that PS mentions but merely because it makes sense to do so and, ultimately, will alleviate much confusion when trying to run the actual seige scenario. Running a full-on assault on a fortress without any advance planning is hard and often prone to bring the game to a grinding halt.</blockquote>

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