Imprisoning the PCs

[Quickleaf]

I am about to tread into the murky DM territory of orchestrating, almost rail-roading even, the PCs' (temporary) imprisonment. My own experience, and countless of DMs' nightmare stories, tells how PCs fight capture tooth and nail.

So why would I think of doing this? It will provide the PCs with critical information (and they know it), it fits the story, and it should make for an exciting encounter with PCs being taken aside by various visitors in private and all of them working together to get free of the dungeon. The specifics are below.

I'm curious about your experiences with the right and wrong ways to go about imprisoning the PCs? What are signs to watch for that what I'm aiming for isn't working for the players? How do I know I'm getting it right?


Ok, specifics for our campaign:
[sblock] The PCs are about to begin their investigation of who cursed the princess, and in so doing will gather enough evidence to accuse someone. In essence, they gather (through skill challenge & role-playing) facts about the curse and each suspect and must solve a logic puzzle. It's a hard puzzle and they may not accuse the right suspect as there are plenty of red herrings.

There are forces at work to implicate the PCs' guilt in the process; how this pans out exactly depends on who they accuse...

The deceased Queen Inghean: If the PCs accuse the King's mother, the King flies into a rage and orders them imprisoned to "think over" what they've said.

The witches Morae & Celonwy: ???

Chancellor Caddock: If the PCs accuse the Chancellor, the evil Chamberlain “reveals” the PCs were agents of Caddock’s all along, and the whole investigation has been staged. He produces 2 false witnesses: The jailer Thibalt's wife & Judge Greyvald himself (the witnesses families have been bribed/threatened). The PCs are imprisoned alongside the Chancellor.

Prelate Nemais: If the PCs accuse the Prelate, he haughtily denies and claims one of the PCs is pursuing a personal grudge. He goes on to cite the PCs’ crimes– assaulting officials, intercepting documents, killing nobility, aiding and abetting radicals, violating the armistice zone, negotiating with the enemy, and reckless endangerment. His accusation is confirmed by Sir Tobias, and the PCs are imprisoned alongside the Prelate.

Note that the 4th level PCs will have the option of fighting their way through a 9th level encounter rather than being imprisoned.
[/sblock]

Also I'm a bit stuck on ideas for how accusing witches could end up the PCs themselves being accused and imprisoned. I'll keep thinking on it.

 

[EP]

Hmm, uhhh, grrr... yeah.

Well, in most cases, depending on how long you've been playing with them, they can be pretty understanding about it. I kidnapped one player but he was willing to go along with it and trusted me not to screw him over. But this can't always happen.

What if the PCs were given the mission to infiltrate their "prison?" It gives them the choice to be apprehended and allows them to stay in control while playing the helpless inmates. I'm not sure how much you've already conceived or put in motion but this would be my first try.

 

[Quickleaf]

What if the PCs were given the mission to infiltrate their "prison?" It gives them the choice to be apprehended and allows them to stay in control while playing the helpless inmates. I'm not sure how much you've already conceived or put in motion but this would be my first try.

I was thinking that same thing. That's something I think I can start setting up soon. One of the PCs' relatives in the dungeon and has evidence they could really use, and a note they uncovered hints that one of the prison guards isn't OK with what's been happening with the regime change and might be amenable to helping the PCs.

Thanks EP.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

One way of doing it is to assume that they are going to resist arrest... and succeed. Make this first arrest tough enough that it looks like a real effort but at the same time, plan that they get away (try your hardest though not to have them kill any of the would-be-capturers unless you want them in real hot water).

Then, have someone they trust (or someone who they thought they could trust) take them to a safehouse, or organise to protect them while the "accusations are sorted out" or who will help them escape the town for a while. However, this character instead turns traitor on them leading the "real"-imprisoners to this safehouse and overpowering the PCs. This gives your players a target then for their anger and fear at being imprisoned (rather than just you the DM). Now remember that from experience the only thing player's hate worse than having their character's killed is having their stuff taken too. Guess who get's their equipment? Of course the traitor.

Now you have turned the imprisoning element around, given them the information that they need AND you have given them a new enemy that they will want to destroy as quickly as possible! Just tie this in to your pre-existing threads and pick the right traitor. That's how I'd do it anyway.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Joseph Rossow]

First of all, I'm giving fair warning that my view might be... controversial, so be warned.

Anyways, when you want to imprison your player's characters, here's what you say:

"The King calls his guards and they throw you the dungeon."

That's all you do. You don't make it a choice. Now, here's how you get away with it.

First, by not giving the player characters any choices, you're implying that it is the only possible outcome of the situation, which this is. If I'm in a King's castle, and he calls his guards and tells them to throw me into prison, and I'm level 4, I'm getting tossed in prison.

(It should be noted that the guards of a King would include wizards and clerics, some of whom are high level. Furthermore, a castle might house permanent enchantments to deter aggression or combat means of escape, except for those who know the secrets of doing so.)

Now, second, when you refuse to offer a choice, you have to make up for it with a pay-off in the plot. Once they're in the dungeon, immediately start to provide them with choices. You could do so like this:

"As you sit in the dark cell, wondering how long you'll be there, you hear a large brick slide out of place in the back wall. A grizzled, bearded man pokes his face through the opening and says 'Well? Are you coming?'"

Make sense? Let me restate the procedure.

You cut the players off by saying:

"Okay, what I'm about to describe happens, your characters can't really do anything about it."

Then you imprison them, set up the situation, etc. Then you announce:

"Okay, I return control to your characters. What are they doing in response to this new situation?"

The truncation really helps players swallow this. But I strongly, urge you to try this. It's a really helpful tool and it's easier than it seems.

(edit)CAVEAT: Again, this assumes that there is no, reasonable way to escape the situation. If one of the characters had Boots of Teleportation, and you'd already established that the area was not under the effects of a Dimensional Lock, then the characters should be able to use them to escape (assuming they could speak the command word).

However, if you don't have anything that might contradict the presence of said Dimensional Lock, once it's introduced in that area, it cannot be removed from the game. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that it's okay to do something like this, so long as you don't contradict yourself in the process. Contradicting yourself is what really pisses players off..

 

[Starfox]

I find In Medias Res works good for PC captures. The PCs start in prison by DM fiat, the adventure is to get out and explore the why's of the situation. Memory loss is cheesy, but memories clouded by darkness and confusion work too.

A certain type of simulationist player can revolt at this but most narrative players like it.

 

[LostSoul]

Also I'm a bit stuck on ideas for how accusing witches could end up the PCs themselves being accused and imprisoned. I'll keep thinking on it.

They have leverage on another NPC who will stick up for them.

 

[delericho]

I am about to tread into the murky DM territory of orchestrating, almost rail-roading even, the PCs' (temporary) imprisonment. My own experience, and countless of DMs' nightmare stories, tells how PCs fight capture tooth and nail.

Yep.

I'm curious about your experiences with the right and wrong ways to go about imprisoning the PCs? What are signs to watch for that what I'm aiming for isn't working for the players? How do I know I'm getting it right?

Ideally, get the players to buy-in. Perhaps the best way is to have them choose to "go undercover" in the prison, or to deliberately get themselves caught in order to break out a friend or relative.

Failing that, you might want to just level with the players - "I was thinking that the best thing for the story would be for you to be imprisoned at this point. Are you okay with that?"

If you don't want to present the players with it (because it does kinda break the illusion of storytelling), then there are two ways to handle the matter: an 'off-camera' solution and an 'on-camera' one.

In the 'off-camera' solution, you end one session with the PCs free, and start the next with them imprisoned. You could do this by ending one session with the PCs celebrating their most recent successes. They're deep in their cups, they're enjoying themselves, they're off their guard, but all is well with the world. Of course, they'll regret it in the morning... Then start the next session in "the morning", with the PCs waking up in chains, and with a fierce hangover. It seems their drinks were drugged.

Or, you could instead start the session with the PCs in jail, run them through the adventure a bit, then flashback to their arrest and show-trial.

(Truth is, your players may well baulk at this. Basically, your players must trust you before you can pull this.)

The 'on-camera' solution has the PCs faced with impossible odds, and thus forced to surrender (or beaten unconscious). This risks the possibility that the PCs will escape, or win, or choose to fight to the death.

(And, oddly, my experience is that players will accept the 'off-camera' railroading rather more readily than they will the 'on-camera' version. Probably because the 'on-camera' version features the DM overtly demonstrating that he holds all the cards, and that their PCs are mere bugs. The same is actually true of the 'off-camera' version as well, but at least that is over very quickly.)

Also I'm a bit stuck on ideas for how accusing witches could end up the PCs themselves being accused and imprisoned. I'll keep thinking on it.

Oh, that one's easy. In the course of their investigations, the PCs are inevitably going to have to handle and/or become knowledgeable about things man is not meant to know. All you need is a whispering campaign against them, followed by whatever church/patron they have removing their support (for whatever reason - could be entirely political), followed by charges of corruption, and you have the making of a show trial and whatever outcome you want.

Note that the players really won't like it, especially when every defense they put forward gets turned around and used against them. Be sure to give them an opportunity to get even with the prosecutor who did the hatchet job on them later in the campaign.

"The King calls his guards and they throw you the dungeon."

That's all you do. You don't make it a choice. Now, here's how you get away with it.

First, by not giving the player characters any choices, you're implying that it is the only possible outcome of the situation, which this is. If I'm in a King's castle, and he calls his guards and tells them to throw me into prison, and I'm level 4, I'm getting tossed in prison.

This combines the worst aspects of the 'off-camera' and 'on-camera' solutions above. You're overtly railroading, you're overtly displaying DM power over the PCs, and you're robbing them of any measure of control.

You cut the players off by saying:

"Okay, what I'm about to describe happens, your characters can't really do anything about it."

Then you imprison them, set up the situation, etc. Then you announce:

"Okay, I return control to your characters. What are they doing in response to this new situation?"

I would respond to this by walking out.

The only thing in the game world that the player has absolute control over is his character. The DM gets to control the world, the NPCs, a veritable host of gods, demons and monsters, the overall plot, and many other things, but he does not get to control my character.

Usurp that power at your peril.

 

[Kraydak]

Beyond the other things mentioned so far, if I am reading the description right, in at least 2 cases the PCs accuse someone of what amounts to treason, people buy their accusation enough to toss the (powerful) accusee in prison... but the accusee bad-mouths the PCs and gets them tossed into prison as well.

That strikes me as more than a little odd.

 

[ExploderWizard]

whole post

Best advice ever. It is best not to use resolution mechanics if the situation is a foregone conclusion. Fighting a must-lose battle is worse than not getting to fight at all.