D&D 5E Running an escape adventure

[jeckyllgeek]

I am starting a new campaign in about a week. For the first couple of adventures I plan on having the players escape from an invading army, one that is run by green dragons. How should I do this?

 

[Al2O3]

Probably try to find information about Out of the Abyss. I think the adventure starts with the PCs running from Drow.

 

[thalmin]

Have a reason the "heroes" are running away, such as being charged with getting someone or something to safety, or getting the warning to the king. The heroes of the story don't feel too heroic just fleeing for their lives when they are abandoning others to die (unless the guilt and shame are important for the story). You will need to do something to tell the players they must run away, otherwise it could be a very short campaign, as players tend to expect the DM to not present the characters with impossible odds.

 

[Oofta]

Make it clear that this is a "tactical retreat" even if you have to have someone hit them over the head with it. Make it obvious that they cannot possibly make a dent in the enemy forces.

From there let them know that they must flee so that some day they can get their revenge. This can be done in several ways
- Have the old mentor/sage/wise woman tell them that their fate is to fight another day.
- They get a dream/vision from a mysterious figure (some future ally) that is contacting them.
- They need to escort other people/persons out of danger
- Just set it up as background for the story, take care of it in boxed text. (not my favorite option).
- Set up the situation, give them character knowledge that others are fleeing to regroup later and see what they do. Make it clear that it would be suicidal to stay, and if they decide to stay have them write up a new character.

 

[iserith]

I am starting a new campaign in about a week. For the first couple of adventures I plan on having the players escape from an invading army, one that is run by green dragons. How should I do this?

First, tell the players your idea and ask for their buy-in. If they aren't into starting the campaign on the run, then you're going to run into issues. But once they agree this is something cool they want to be a part of, you're good to go.

Next, consider the stakes, that is, what happens when the PCs win and lose. Success is pretty simple to imagine - they escape the invading army. What happens if they fail? Perhaps they are overrun and captured. Or maybe failure just means they escape at some great cost or with an ongoing complication.

Finally, set up the adventure by placing obstacles in between the PCs and their goal. Their goal is ostensibly to escape, so put appropriately difficult challenges in the way. If they overcome most or all of these challenges, then they succeed. If they do not, then they fail.

You may want to consider thinking about making the rules for travel pace, activities while traveling, and forced march important. I recommend presenting every choice as a trade-off. The optional chase rules in the DMG may also provide you with some inspiration, though I would only use these for individual scenes that involve a chase (e.g. the army's outriders catch up to you!) rather than the high-level goal of escaping the army as a whole.

 

[Al2O3]

For framing the events in a slightly heroic manner I would look to The Empire Strikes Back (rebel escape), Dunkerque and similar events about running away to fight another day.

I think there was a Spanish Knight with a Paladin style story about him named Roland. If I recall correctly his story ended with heroic rear guard action. Maybe something similar to that or the 300 Spartans, except the heroes run away before they die could be good inspiration.

Dragon Age: Origins could be good for why it makes sense to run (you are only survivors, now go forge an army and fight back).

Edit: I checked about Roland, and what I was thinking of was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Roland

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Open a la Saving Private Ryan - ie huge battle, the town is in flames, people dying, weeping, screaming, the PCs are all in town for various reasons - and come from different start points - but meet up and leg it when the cause is lost. Perhaps start with one of them waking up from a drinking stupid, describe the madness (series 1, ep1 TWD), they pen the window, all hell breaks loose. They see a person (pc2) helping an injured townsman only to have the townsman crushed by falling masonry from the building pc1 is in. Pc1 gets out of crumbling building, helps pc2 up from the dust. Intro intro how do you do whoops massive rock catapulted in, let's move. Pc3 might be on the walls being an archer type and sees her battlement smashed by a massive claw, sending her tumbling into the street below. There she lands on top of an invading footsoldier who was in battle with pc4. Let's go! They round the corner bump into pcs1&2.
But if a fight with one or two vanguard invaders, aided maybe by pc5 who has just finished putting out a house fire; they team up to help a screaming mother get her kid out of some wreckage, there's more battle, it's all getting bit hairy, the order comes to abandon the town which is ablaze and choked with poison gas...
They're not running away for being cowardly but rather they're part of a stream of refugees slipping away into the night, possibly having been entrusted a macguffin by the dying city watch captain or whoever.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Definitely. I find it very unpredictable whether the players will run or take a stand in any given situation. Any time an adventure is predicated on the players doing a single thing, you need to either make sure that thing happens, or have a back-up plan in case it doesn’t.

First, tell the players your idea and ask for their buy-in. If they aren't into starting the campaign on the run, then you're going to run into issues. But once they agree this is something cool they want to be a part of, you're good to go.