Ways to get a PC kidnapped.

[corwyn77]

He's on board, though I'm not sure I like the idea of having his character just wake up kidnapped, that seems to much like railroading to me.

Once again, it's not railroading if the player is in on it and cooperating. Seriously, have you never hatched a plot, as a gm or a player, where something happens that you both want, without rolling some dice"?

Some years ago, one of my players, a very tactically minded, great roleplayer, went kind of crazy. He had this great plan to bait a monster, and then follow it to it's lair to easily kill it and rid the kingdom of it's terror. In fact, he went to great lengths to get a promise from the loose cannon of the group to follow his lead. Then, in a momentary lapse, just as it was about to leave, he attacked it. Hilarity ensued.

Afterwords, he had no explanation for me and seemed as surprised as I was. He concocted a scenario where he was replaced by a doppelganger some weeks before and the next few sessions were about the 'real' him finding the group and outing the imposter.

The point is, the whole replacement thing could have been seen as railroady, had it been done without his cooperation (though I have done that as well). With his cooperation, however, it just becomes part of the weaved narrative between the player and gm. And that's...a good thing.

 

[Lilitu]

Once again, it's not railroading if the player is in on it and cooperating. Seriously, have you never hatched a plot, as a gm or a player, where something happens that you both want, without rolling some dice"?

Well no I haven't. I haven't been playing for very long. This is actually my first time DMing a campaign and all my past experience with D&D has been in D&D encounters.

Some years ago, one of my players, a very tactically minded, great roleplayer, went kind of crazy. He had this great plan to bait a monster, and then follow it to it's lair to easily kill it and rid the kingdom of it's terror. In fact, he went to great lengths to get a promise from the loose cannon of the group to follow his lead. Then, in a momentary lapse, just as it was about to leave, he attacked it. Hilarity ensued.

Afterwords, he had no explanation for me and seemed as surprised as I was. He concocted a scenario where he was replaced by a doppelganger some weeks before and the next few sessions were about the 'real' him finding the group and outing the imposter.

The point is, the whole replacement thing could have been seen as railroady, had it been done without his cooperation (though I have done that as well). With his cooperation, however, it just becomes part of the weaved narrative between the player and gm. And that's...a good thing.

yeas so I can see in that sense it would not be. The problem is I really can't give him details like that because he doesn't want me to. The thing is he wants his character to go through a dramatic life changing experience that alters his personality and everything. He has said that he trusts me and is on board for whatever I feel is best to implement for the story but he wants as much as possible for what happens to be a surprise. So I could still use this as a last resort but because of this I'm thinking it would be better for him to be kidnapped without him knowing about it ahead of time.

 

[the Jester]

I don't know why kidnapping PC threads even appear anymore.

Ask your player if kidnapping their PC is acceptable to them. If not, drop the idea.

Bah.

I find the idea that some people have that the player must consent to have any misfortune happen to his character to be laughable. "Nobody dies/gets kidnapped/loses an item/has their backstory come up in play/etc unless they want to" is the mark of a playstyle that, while fine for those that enjoy it, strikes me as "nerf D&D." And frankly, if I wanted to play nerf D&D, I'd go get me a copy of Toon instead.

If the bad guys have a good reason to kidnap a pc, by all means, have them make the attempt. If the good guys don't stop them, they might just succeed! If they do, the player in question better roll with it- by "it" I mean either "the kidnapping" or "4d6 drop one to make a new character"- or else leave the table. I want everyone to have fun, but that doesn't mean that the players never suffer misfortune for their characters. If a pc is out cold and misses a round- so be it. If a pc is killed and the player misses an hour making his new character- so be it.

Again, this is all a matter of playstyle, but take the "NEVAR KIDNAPP YUOR PCS!!1!eleventyone!!" comments you'll hear with a giant shaker full of salt. That's great advice for some groups, but for others- e.g. mine- it is so far beyond silly that I can't even laugh at it anymore.

 

[mneme]

Eh. If you want something to happen, and the player wants something to happen--just let it happen.

You don't dice out history that you're bringing into the game, right? You just make it up. The same should be true for consensus reality; if your'e already planning on weighting things such that things are far more likely to end up going one way, you're often better off just fiatting the stuff (particularly if none of the players in question want anything else; obviously if they -want- a chance to fight fate and you're willing to let to the dice fall how they may, you might as well).

But if you're already thinking "if they succeed, here's my backup plan to have what I want happen anyway," it's time to pull out the fiat stick.

OTOH, if you're thinking "if the players don't do what I want, here's how I get what I want anyway" (which you aren't, AFAICT, this is you struggling with yourself, mostly), it's time to sit back and reflect, because player choices should matter. But in this case, there's no reason to give players the choice; the choice has (out of game) been made, and your'e framing the -next- sequence.

 

[Quickleaf]

Focused fire petrification? They hire a NPC cleric to perform the remove affliction ritual (which must be done in private for <insert story reason here>). The cleric turns out to be an Orcus cultist who absconds with the PC with a very different ritual in mind. Welcome to the rat bastard DM club

I'm running an undead heavy campaign where the PC's are fighting against a cult of Vecna. One of the players wants his character to go through a dramatic event to help change his character into something that meshes better with the group(he's a naive goody two shoes while the rest are unaligned) and so I've decided to have him get captured by the cult and be turned undead temporarily(to be resurrected after).

What specifically does the player want rules-wise? Is is this purely an RP thing for him?

However I need some ideas on how I can get him kidnapped by the cult(I already know what I'm going to do after that).

Enlighten me!

I don't want to railroad him into it(there has to be a chance for him to avoid it) so I want a few options to fall back on in case plan A doesn't work and currently I'm stumped.

This is something the player wants, right? And you intend to provide him an "out" from what he wants? That makes no sense.

One option, which depends on your players being prepared to play along, is to have the NPCs ransom some innocent villagers/family members/etc in exchange for the goody-two-shoes PC. Once the exchange has taken place, of course the other PCs try hard to rescue their friend, but tragically they arrive too late!

This. A variation would be the old "infiltrate as a victim" routine, so the PCs have a plan and think they've got it under control. Then Whammo! They're betrayed or the plan otherwise gets shot to high heaven and goody two shoes PC goes undead or whatever on them.

 

[Squire James]

Trying to play out a kidnapping "inside game engine" is an exercise in frustration (and trying to capture whole parties is even worse!). Someone's going to mess everything up... believe it!

If the player consents, just set up a situation where the event is logical and just declare that it happens. You've avoided lots of headache, and can actually move on with the game!

If the player does not consent, then you will need to reconsider your plan entirely. Kidnap scenarios are kind of like the reverse of those old scenarios where a dog-pile of fighters, wizards, and clerics follow the rogue around waiting for him to find and disable all the traps... that one player's going to be bored spitless unless you involve him in the game some other way!

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

One thing to remember is that in fantasy, one doesn't necessarily need a body to have a kidnapping, or be alive to have a life changing event.

And, while kidnapping a character may be very difficult, killing them may not be (especially if she is the only healer in the party). Just team on her with some brutes and "coup-de-gras" her when she's down. And, if there are multiple healers, start the encounter with some trap/event that splits the party - drop a steal wall on the party, or collapse the bridge they are on.

Perhaps try to kill her in a specific plot location - the baddies could have a ritual prepared that snares her soul, or there could be evil spirits that use her's as a plaything. In any case, her soul gets put through a great deal of unpleasantness before her friends can stuff it back into her body.

How much of that she remembers is up to her player, but even with total memory loss concerning the specifics, making the PC have a personality change for the darker certainly seems appropriate, either from the trauma or by the process having tainted her soul.

It also allows great plot hooks for getting revenge on those responsible, or attempting to cleanse the taint (or halt further corruption).


Oh, and as one final note - be sure to write into the adventure some method of returning the cleric to the living... not much point in doing all of this if she stays dead. That, or arrange for some method that leaves her both living and dead - a race swap to Shadow or Vostoika (sp?) could work for that. You could have her bit by a vampire (which wouldn't necessarily need her to be kidnapped), and while she fights it off (perhaps with help/rituals used), she remains tainted enough for her personality to change, and for possibly a race swap as above.


Or, you could have her being attacked in her dreams... with the party needing to learn from someone how to enter her dreams and help her fight off her assaillants. But, by the time they do, while they manage to preserve her sanity, the experience has already changed her.