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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 4986288" data-attributes="member: 54710">The real answer is going to be "it depends" because it depends on a lot of things.  If your group just wants to play out a good story, they will be much more forgiving of a "You've been thrown in prison, now go!" device.  But if your group has a strong "We control our characters!  Don't just narrate our defeat!" attitude, it will be a lot harder.  Similarly, it matters how powerful your PCs are.  Having the evil Duke's guards arrest your low heroic characters seems quite natural.  If they are arresting paragon PCs, then the players will feel like they should have had a chance to resist.I've run some pretty succesful prison break games.  In one, the PCs went through a gate (the type you can't see through) knowing that the previous explorers hadn't returned only to discover that the other side was at the top of a 60 foot cliff.  After the fall, they woke up to discovery that they had been chained up and put to work.  In the other, I used a prison as an alternative to a TPK.  After having defeated the PCs, the bad guys locked up the survivors and the remaining PCs got to play out escaping (and the subsequent revenge!).  But either way, I'll echo the advice to avoid playing out a guaranteed defeat railroad battle.  If you think you can trick/convince your PCs to make a decision to justify the capture (like taking a huge risk or putting their safety in the hands of someone who betrays them), then I'd do it.  That way the capture becomes a consequence of their own decision.  But if you're set on running a prison break, don't give the PCs a choice if you're not sure they'll take it.  The last thing you want to do is to give the PCs a choice and then negate the consequence of their choice because you didn't like their decision.-KS</blockquote>

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