Imprisoning the PCs

[Dausuul]

Count me in the "railroading the PCs into prison is a horrible plan" camp. It's like the "everybody starts the campaign with amnesia" routine - something that always seems like a brilliant idea in the DM's head, and (almost) always turns out to be a horribly bad idea in play.

Players hate having their characters imprisoned and hate losing agency. You're proposing to hit them with both at the same time. At the very least, you need to give them the chance to do something clever.

If you really want to imprison them, you can have the guards surround them, then say, "Okay, the guards are about to arrest you and haul you off to prison. They have you heavily outnumbered and will almost certainly beat you in a straight-up fight. Do you have anything you want to try, or shall we skip ahead to the dungeon?"

Then if they have any tricky ploys they want to attempt, or if they decide they want to play out the battle despite knowing defeat is almost certain, they can do that.

However, odds are that it will still feel like a railroad - because, well, it is a railroad. I would strongly encourage you to look into the "intentional imprisonment" angle where the players get themselves captured on purpose. In general, I feel involuntary imprisonment should only be used as a punishment for losing a battle, failing a noncombat challenge, or doing something dumb.

 

[spuppett]

I think that if you can get your players to buy in, go for it. Playing through a senerio where there is only one outcome and that outcome is player defeat is dreadful. As a player I would be much happier to go along with the 'Okay guys, here's what's going to happen'. Since you're asking here, I assume it's not something you do all the time, so once in a great while doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

And if your players don't dig it when you ask them if it's cool to do it, don't do it. Let them brainstorm a way to get into the jail. Cooperative storytelling at its best, I say.

 

[Mallus]

In general, I feel involuntary imprisonment should only be used as a punishment for losing a battle, failing a noncombat challenge, or doing something dumb.

See that's just it... involuntary imprisonment shouldn't be thought of as punishment (or failure). It's merely the opportunity to participate in another kind of adventure story.

A classic one, I might add.

 

[Filcher]

Do they have NPCs they care about? "Surrender yourselves, or we make all your mothers a foot shorter, the hard way" ?

Gives you the chance to make them really hate the bad guys that are orchestrating the plot.

 

[Joseph Rossow]

That simply isn't true. Better to say 'some players never enjoy them (prison scenarios)'.

lol! Why am I suddenly thinking "D&D, the Prison Movie..."

See that's just it... involuntary imprisonment shouldn't be thought of as punishment (or failure). It's merely the opportunity to participate in another kind of adventure story.

A classic one, I might add.

Exactly. In my experience, when a DM forces their group into this kind of situation (or if the situation arises through play) players will tolerate it - even enjoy it - so long as it furthers the adventure and remains entertaining.

And, as Mallus said, getting thrown in prison and subsequently escaping, is the basis for a lot of classic adventures (like, the Count of Monte Cristo).

I could, however, see a DM get into trouble when he takes all the player character's stuff away. As long as there's an unspoken guarantee that the items will be returned (like the DM telling them not to erase the information off of their character sheets), which is later carried out, the situation should end up fine.

 

[weem]

See that's just it... involuntary imprisonment shouldn't be thought of as punishment (or failure). It's merely the opportunity to participate in another kind of adventure story.

A classic one, I might add.

Yes, this.

My players would love the challenge.

With that said, if they were imprisoned by me (for whatever reason) I would use the opportunity to turn that stereotypical encounter on its head and do something completely different with it - something I don't think they would expect.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like the idea of not really giving a choice, but i won´t be so railroady

I would say:

"The king makes a sign with his hand and the guards draw their weapon in an instant. 'Throw them into the Dungeons' he shouts to his guards and then turns to you and says in a serious voice: 'don´t even think about resisting'"

 

[kilpatds]

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

QFT.

I tend to call this the "Cut Scene", and have blatantly told players when they are in one.

PC: I charge the cleric...
Me: Eh ... this is more of a cut-scene. The adventure starts again from Prison...

As a player, the part I hate most about being railroaded is my wasted time. If you know the answer, why did you bother asking for my input? Am I a player here, or not? By using the cut-scene, you eliminate that confusion.

 

[Dausuul]

See that's just it... involuntary imprisonment shouldn't be thought of as punishment (or failure). It's merely the opportunity to participate in another kind of adventure story.

*shrug* This is where you and I differ. I don't come to the gaming table to "participate in a story." I can get professionally written stories at the bookstore and read them on my own time, and quite frankly, most DMs are crap storytellers.

One could argue that D&D is different because everyone is participating in creating the story... but if the DM is shoving my character into prison and I get no say in the matter, that's not me participating. That's me listening to the DM tell a story about my character. No thanks.

I come to the gaming table to a) hang out with friends and b) play a game. And a core requirement of any game is the ability to make significant and interesting decisions. The more railroad the DM puts into the plot, the smaller and less interesting the decisions available to the players become.

The DM gets control of the entire game world. The players get control of their characters and that's it. Imprisonment is technically part of the game world and therefore within the DM's purview, but it has a massive impact on player territory - the PC's freedom of action is severely restricted, and his or her possessions are (usually) taken away. In my experience, most players really really hate that.

It's tolerable from a player perspective if it results from your own actions. You picked a fight with the royal guard and lost, okay; them's the breaks. But when the DM crams it down your throat and there's nothing you can do about it, it's intensely frustrating. This is why I prefer to apply imprisonment as a "punishment" for player mistakes; it goes down better if the players feel like they could have avoided it and just didn't.

 

[Obryn]

IME, the following goes over very poorly:

(PCs roleplay for a while in a normal session, maybe have some fights they win.)
"OK, after mouthing off to the king, armed guards surround you and throw you into the dungeon."

That's railroad. Players have had agency in their actions up until this point, and taking away an option which should be open (that is, resisting arrest) is blocked to them without reason. Cutscenes in the middle of a session don't flow so well.

On the other hand, even though it's very close, this goes over fairly well:

(PCs just finished one adventure, and this session marks the new adventure.)
"You all wake up in this prison cell where you've spent the past three days, and start to wonder where it all went wrong..."


The difference, for my groups at least, is that the time spent between adventures isn't fully detailed; pretty much anything could have happened. My players are open to a narrative back-story. The above is just a little different from, "You've come to the Village of Hommelet in search of adventure..." When we start like this, I haven't shifted gears so dramatically - to the players, it never feels like a situation they should have been in control of; it's rightly regarded as a setup for a new - and hopefully fun - adventure.

-O