Run 'em through to the hilt or save 'em for the plank?

[alsih2o]

Aye, mates. When running the game o' games has ye ever taken the swabs and pukes you game with as your self-bound hostages and such rather than just run 'em through just fer the sake of a second chance as it were?

Kin it be best fer the game.., er, life at sea, to not TPK and keep a hostage or two fer a chance at savin der game?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Arr, it be dependin' on who them swabs be a fightin'. Civilized folk might be takin' captives, but them evil dark elf or barbaric types jus' run 'em thru -- or sells 'em off at the slave market in Tortuga.

We'd a game where it looked t' have a TPK, and now the swabs be a findin' tha' their previous incarnations were a doomed t' dark elven servitude. Revenge will be served cold, but sweet.

 

[The Grackle]

Arrr, I heartily recommend, endorse, and encourage it me buckos.

Yeah, it's good to take prisoners. It means the PCs won't always fight to the bitter end even if they're obviously losing, and contrawise, they'll take hostages instead of just murdering everyone. I always state to players that there is a basic level of mercy one can expect from civilized people, esp. in warfare.

...of course that doesn't really hold for monsters.

And also it's a fun plot device.

 

[Theron]

Captives are extra mouths to feed, but they can be a source of ransom. 'Course, if they squawk too much, send 'em to Davy Jones.

 

[Wombat]

If they all be dead, then there's no tellin' o' th' tale of your most insidious cal'c'lated cruelties. As is well know to those as travel the vast whale's road, dead men tell no tales. So if it be a reputation ye be a-looking fer, best to keep a one or a two of 'em alive, yet p'r'aps just maybe-like alive, hangin' on by the breadth o' a cat's whisker, an ye take my meanin'.

Gotta spread word of yer depridations!

 

[Xaov]

when I play most of my NPCs wouldn't think of taking hostages until the person was unconscious. Then what I would most likely do is take hostages, cause then you don't have to go through character Gen again.

 

[Shining Dragon]

Arrr. Keelhaul them immediately and send 'em to Davy Jone's Locker. We be not in a camp batman television series that requires the land lubbers to be left dangling over shark-infested waters so theys can escape when we turn our backs...

 

[Gnarlo]

Arrrrr, run 'em through and salt 'em down. Ye can make enuff jerky out o' ye typical merchant to fill the Guv'nor's Daughter's bustle. Saves on havin' to put a'shore fer rations, and keeps ye from havin' thoughts about how tasty the cabin boy be a'lookin when ye have been becalmed for weeks and a thinkin' o' havin' to draw straws.