I've heard a few people comment in the past that this always annoys players because they are usually forced into it and end up losing their gear. I'm hoping to make it a fun experience and would greatly appreciate any advice from people with experience with this, DM or player. Thanks in advance!
Hi Selc, you're right. You have to be careful with this technique because a lot of players will typically refuse to surrender under any circumstances. Here's how I handled two situations where the PC's were captured.
1. At the beginning of the campaign. Before the players started the campaign, the text box read that they were in prison already sentenced to death; however, the duchess comes back in town and needs prisoners to undertake very dangerous quests to explore a ruined city filled with demons and undead. Their choice was to either go to the ruins or take their chances against a canyon where no one comes out. Since I started the campaign this way, the players can't complain to me nor argue with me of how they would have fought their way out with the guards, etc.
If you run an episodic campaign where there is no continuous flow in the story line, then starting out the adventure with the characters in the cells or in a prison wagon, captured, etc. is a way to get the adventure rolling.
2. Send an overwhelming opponent who sees the party as something to be subdued and taken prisoner. Players will typically fight to the death against impossible odds. If you throw a red dragon in the hope that the players will run away in order to get to another point of the story, oftentimes, you just ran a TPK, because once one players stays and fight, they all do and then it's crunch, crunch, crunch, end of campaign. Knowing that my players are like this too, I designed an dual trap and combat encounter so that failure is completely in the players' hands.
My players were supposed to eventually get help from a gnomish city, but in order to do that, they needed to be captured by a large patrol of ice trolls. I purposely set the stats of one ice troll to be a tough opponent for the group, so then I set up a party of 10 against the entire group. The PC's would come through a narrow pass where they would set off a net trap that required a high Reflex save to avoid, something that the tough fighters in the group doesn't have. When the trap went off, I only got one of the players, but he was the heavy hitter and two ice trolls went up to him and pummeled him like a pinata until he went unconscious. The ice trolls quickly maneuvered on the rest of the group and were striking to subdue. Even with the -4 penalty, they were not having any trouble hitting and the escape was cut off.
The players realized that the fight was lost and that the ice trolls were intending to capture them so they surrendered. Should they decided to fight to the last, they all would have been knocked unconscious.
I did plan for a contingency of the mage or rogue who if the dice were with them, they would escape. Then that player can make the choice of trying to rescue their comrades (I would then allow that to happen easily) or they run away and find another way to the gnomish city.
So in the end, if you construct an encounter where it looks like a no-win situation for the players, then surrendering will seem like the better alternative. However, you'll need to construct an encounter that will make sense. Ice trolls that want to capture slaves makes sense while a rampaging red dragon wouldn't. If you use bandits or thieves, give them something that will give them a very strong advantage at the beginning of any encounter (such as poisoned sleep arrows, etc.). Combine this with a trap designed to immobilize any other characters and you got the party pretty much cornered.
