Taken Prisoner

[NewJeffCT]

What if the PCs decide they want to fight to the death? What if one or two (or more) PCs immediately notice that they're up against overwhelming odds and flee ASAP, leaving the caravan (and the others) to the villains? Sure, it's not heroic, but maybe they think it's for the greater good?

What if they are captured and then get the opportunity to escape later, but decide to attack their captors in the hopes of slaying them and/or freeing others?

As one of my players says, "No plan survives contact with the enemy"

 

[the Jester]

What if the PCs decide they want to fight to the death? What if one or two (or more) PCs immediately notice that they're up against overwhelming odds and flee ASAP, leaving the caravan (and the others) to the villains? Sure, it's not heroic, but maybe they think it's for the greater good?

What if they are captured and then get the opportunity to escape later, but decide to attack their captors in the hopes of slaying them and/or freeing others?

As one of my players says, "No plan survives contact with the enemy"

Yes. Beware the capture scenario- it is hard to pull off without being contrived (which means "a railroad" in this context) and is sometimes a total dealbreaker for the players. You may find your campaign ending abruptly after such an adventure. Be careful and good luck!

 

[The Shaman]

Yep, make the inside man the one to free them. He could also be the guy to provide them with a lot of their stuff back. He could also lead them to a mini-adventure.

This sounds like a lot of adventurers sitting around while the non-player character does stuff.

Rarely a good idea in my estimation.

 

[NewJeffCT]

This sounds like a lot of adventurers sitting around while the non-player character does stuff.

Rarely a good idea in my estimation.

good point as well - I think an NPC rescuing the PCs OR helping them get their gear back is something that could work as part of an intro adventure. However, if the NPC does too much, it will make the players seem to be supporting actors.

 

[amerigoV]

What level are we talking here? Are these new PCs are in an established campaign?

In D&D, as a player I tend to prefer having my PC fight to the death than be captured. A character is almost as identifiable by his gear as by the character itself. Its almost like saying "you are not a fighter anymore." Also, it exposes the trope that PCs all have significantly better gear than the guards, which really makes no sense. Someone aught to be regulating the weapons around here (I mean, the Right to Bear Arms usually does not extend to Tanks, SAMs, and Nukes).

Other genres, I do not have a problem with it (in Pulp for example, its expected - thats when the BBEG gets to monologue).

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

I have run adventures where I captured / purposely kill the PC twice. Each time, it bit me.

The first was when I was running a Ground-Hog day style event. I wanted the first day of the loop to be brutal. I killed a PC and had two others captured by the bad guys. This was a total mistake. The players flipped out. From the point of view of the players, I, the GM, presented a brutal situation that was best avoided. I learned a lesson that day about presenting fights that can't be won without proper warning.

The second time I planned on capturing a single PC. This was a plot point as I wanted that PC to see something the bad guys had captured. The PC didn't flip out, but afterward, told me he felt rail-roaded into the situation.

In both cases, I did a very poor job of managing PC expectations. The second case would have been easy to avoid: tell the PC involved that I was planning on capturing his character as a plot point. At that point, the player probably would have actively participated in his capture instead of feeling rail-roaded into it.

The first case is trickier. If I was going to run that adventure again, I don't think I'd have the brutal fight in the ground hog day adventure. I warned the players before hand that they needed to trust me. Regardless, pulling that kind of stunt (even with the warning) is tough to do.

If you are going to run an escape adventure, I'd start with in medias res to help manage player expectation.

Encounter 1: Jailed
Open with some subset of the PCs already captured and in a cell. These are the ones you know will get caught. It also lets the PCs know that they are going to be captured as part of the plot.

Encounter 2: Hired
Flashback - The PCs are hired to do whatever job that is going to lead to their capture. The players know what is up, so you can play with details of their imprisonment. Perhaps the captured PCs see someone wearing very distinguished armor, now they see that same suit of armor in the mansion of Mr. Moneybags. What's going on here? Are the PCs going to be betrayed from within? Did Mr. Moneybags set them up? This can breed some very fun paranoia

Encounter 3: Captured
Flashback - The PCs are captured. Make sure you hunt down the ones that are present in Encounter 1. The rest could have gotten away, if not, they are being stored in another cell that the first group couldn't see. If you are very clever, you can come up with some reason (or steal some reason from the players) as to why the missing PCs aren't with the main group.

Encounter 4+: Escape and Resolution
Now you can let your PCs come up with a brilliant plan to escape, or allow those that manage to escape to track and rescue those who have been captured.

 

[The Shaman]

*snipped*

I know some gamers enjoy this sort of thing, but if a referee pulled this with me, I'd politely excuse myself from the game.

This is not why I play roleplaying games.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This sounds like a lot of adventurers sitting around while the non-player character does stuff.

Rarely a good idea in my estimation.

Agree but it happens and some times the players do not have the skill sets available for it. Past the first few levels, players are just two powerful to be taken.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

I know some gamers enjoy this sort of thing, but if a referee pulled this with me, I'd politely excuse myself from the game.

This is not why I play roleplaying games.

If they pulled what? The In Medias Res story outline? A ground-hog day massacre? Capturing a single PC as a plot point? Why would you excuse yourself from the game?

I'll assume you are talking about the In Medias Res (as I already stated that I mishandled the two examples I gave). Surely you exaggerate in saying that you'd walk out on any game where the GM presented an unorthodox adventure structure. Non-linear story telling is a common technique used in literature and In Medias Res is older then dirt (see the Illiad).

Plus, only the slightest assumptions made. Namely that the PCs will accept the plot hook (and a skilled GM could work around that one) and, at some point, some subset of the PCs will be captured. Surely it would take more then that to cause you to walk out of a game. The players have been warned in advance that a capture will be coming as part of the plot and an air of mystery is about the PCs not present in the cell in the first encounter.

Now, for those two assumptions, you can set up a pretty grand story. The PCs who have been captured get to see a lot of things while in captivety. The players get a snap-shot of information, not enough to complete the full picture but enough to be intrigued. They get to guess at what each clue means long before the entire picture becomes clear.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I know some gamers enjoy this sort of thing, but if a referee pulled this with me, I'd politely excuse myself from the game.

This is not why I play roleplaying games.

I had considered having one player captured once, but it was a different situation. The guy running the PC was going to be out of town for a couple of sessions, so I was going to end the prior session with that guy's PC being kidnapped (I had set up the kidnapper several sessions before). The sessions he missed would be the rest of the party tracking him down and finding him.

However, the pre-absence session ran a bit off track and they ended in a location that was not conducive to the PC being kidnapped... so, I scrapped the idea entirely. The kidnapper came back 10-12 sessions down the road as a villain, though.