Question Advice on PLOT


Advice


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I am a new (6 months) GM but have been playing various role playing games since the 80's (wow .. I just showed my age !) I am wanting to set up a scenario where my group who THINKS they are sailing to Jamelray are in some way put to sleep, etc...or incapacitated in some manner tied up and taken to the Isle of Shackles to become slaves.. only to escape from their slavers. SOOO My question is .. HOW do I ensure that the PC's are captured?

Are there any modules that involve the PC's being taken to become slaves for a short period of time?

All ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

Scarab Sages

Be honest with your group, tell them that the first adventure involves them being captured and the story builds from there. That way, when you do pull off the twist, it doesn't antagonise anyone nor rely on any specific rules.

If you do want to give them a slim chance to avoid capture, use poison in their food or inhaled that causes unconsciouness, if they pass the save a group of level appropriate thugs with saps attack qnd try to knock them out.


Poetry wrote:

I am a new (6 months) GM but have been playing various role playing games since the 80's (wow .. I just showed my age !) I am wanting to set up a scenario where my group who THINKS they are sailing to Jamelray are in some way put to sleep, etc...or incapacitated in some manner tied up and taken to the Isle of Shackles to become slaves.. only to escape from their slavers. SOOO My question is .. HOW do I ensure that the PC's are captured?

Are there any modules that involve the PC's being taken to become slaves for a short period of time?

All ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

Why have them "put" to sleep? If they're on a ship with a regular night crew, you're not going to have any of them standing watch, right? Just have them tied up while they sleep naturally.

That might feel "cheap" to many players. So, before the campaign even starts, I'd talk to them in vague terms about how they'd feel about their characters being captured, caught unaware, etc.

The challenge is being able to talk to your players about your plans, without "spoiling" it for them by giving them too much detail.

Sovereign Court

Be careful how you proceed with this. Many players hate this kind of start. I'd probably just tell the players they were heading to Jamelray when they were posioned during chow time. Woke up and found themseleves to be slaves. I'd either start with them escaping or go even further and say they escaped and now are on the run. My two CP have fun.


You definitely need to talk to them first. And be prepared in case they don't want to do this.

In any case, I would look at races like the drow, who have special poisons for this, for ideas on how to handle the capture.

Scarab Sages

Is this the opening gambit for a campaign? Start off with the PCs already slaves. That will guide them in their character creation and they'll be invested in the idea.

If this is a new scenario in an already established game - you'll probably have to talk to them about it to get them to go along.

HOWEVER - you could also try designing a secondary approach to the adventure that involves the PCs defeating an attempt to enslave them. Maybe a comrade of theirs gets taken off, something like that. Then make your play to capture them and let the chips fall where they may.

Hmm - another idea, but depends on what level your party is. If they're 5th or lower and none of them are sailors, then this should work:

The boat simply goes to its new destination - if the PCs don't know how to navigate, they won't know until they're getting off the boat and surrounded by 50-60 slavers with weapons out. If they won't surrender and decide to fight, go ahead and TPK them, then have them wake up as slaves.

But ALWAYS have a backup plan in case all or some of them get away. :)

Grand Lodge

This is not what I expected to find in this thread.


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Well, I don't agree with a majority of this thread. I feel strongly that is acceptable to do this sort of thing if it works for the story, particularly because in the real world low-level characters aren't complete autonomous entities. This isn't rocks fall, you die, rather it's a realistic depiction of a world where those with money and power can still control low-level characters. As a suggestion, I would a slave mage of some sort who's specifically built to capture slaves at a CR much higher than the party. First, slaver mages strike me as a compelling plotline, and it teaches your players that sometimes you need to fight and grow to change the world.


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Honestly, I think you'd have a lot more fun if you dispensed with the concept of plots altogether. Instead of strong arming the party into your noose, you should leave a piece of rope around and entice them to play with it. Then when they hang themselves it's that much funnier for you and they only have themselves to blame.

I would either go with Lucios idea and simply start the campaign as slaves or create a situation in which they might decide to jeopardize their own freedom. You could, for example, let them hear about a fabulous treasure accumulated by the crew of a pirate ship. Make available all the important bits of information like when and where it will be passing through town, what kind of fighters are on board, how it will be armed, and all of that.

If presented the right way, the party will be enticed to create their own adventure. They might decide to drug the pirates' beer as they stop to celebrate, they might try to bluff their way onto the boat as new recruits, or any number of things. If they fail, you get your slavery but if they succeed, they've pulled off an amazing heist, had a great time, and potentially made a life-long enemy you can use in future adventures.

When I stopped trying to plan games as a series of events, and instead created settings and characters that worked in a logical manner, I started having much, much more fun. Not only was I excited to see what happened next but my friends were actually seriously engaged as they made their own decisions and decided their own fate rather than simply having to guess what specific action I envisioned them taking next.

Sczarni

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How many players? It could be fun to actually play it out. Have the slavers make their play when they have the players isolated and alone.

If they've been sailing with the party for a few days or weeks the Slavers will have a good idea at the PC's strengths and weaknesses; use magic on the fighter, brute force against the mage etc. etc.

Most players I know would be okay with this if they have the prospect of recovering their gear (or better gear)...

If the party is low level, simply give some of the slaver captains masterwork versions of the PC's favoured equipment.

Yeah it sucks to be poisoned and enslaved, but it's great to eventually kick the slaver's butt and take his valuable sword.


Thank you ALL for the wonderful ideas.

I'm sorry I did not give more insight when I first posted. I appreciate all of the ideas and I am still tossing things around in my head. Some background..
The players just hit level 7. They are mainly stationed in Taldor. The party consists of 2 half orc brothers, a half -elf soc, and a elf cleric.
They have just finished the module Ironwall Gap Must Hold.

I thought this would be an exciting way to introduce them to a new area of the map.

Still not sure if I will be doing this but it sounded fun. BTW .. all players are adults and experience gamers.


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Start the campaign the way my brother did 3 times: "You wake up..."

One time we woke up in the hold of a ship, another time in prison. The best though was the time we woke up in a brothel. All the ladies were gone except the madam who revealed herself as an evil druid, and now we were all diseased. It was gross, but still one of the more memorable.

Anyway listen to other posters. Some players can't abide this kind of start. They might build druids with specific animal companions that just wouldn't work on a ship. Others take a lot of social skills intending to start a business in town during downtime.

Have the conversation, learn what your players want, then give it to them.


Hm. This might be tough at 7th level, but I'd introduce a new NPC, neutral alignment of some sort. Befriends the group, helps them out with something that goes their way, gains their trust. He turns out to be reliable-in the short term. Then, gets them out for a night of hard drinking in the local tavern, and bam! "You wake up..."

The NPC actually works to help press gang for some unscrupulous captains. Then, once the characters gain their freedom and all that, they can come back and pay their "friend" a visit, just as he's pulling the same stunt with another group of adventurers. Let him get what's coming to him.

Edit: I generally have the conversation and provide guidance for the start of the campaign but once we're going, I like providing all sorts of twists and surprises. I'm an old time gamer too; like you, my players are all adults and we've been friends for 30 years. I don't think you need to warn them beforehand, if the trust is there, they'll likely role and roll with it.

Of course, I don't resort to the "you wake up" trick too often. Once in a long while, it's okay.


If this were the start of a level 1 campaign, it would be fine to just start them off as slaves, and when they are creating their characters, and they ask how much gold they are starting with, answer, “0, you start out as slaves, and your first adventure will be to survive your slavery, and your second might be to escape from it." But that’s not the case.

It’s always a good idea to touch base with your players to get a sense from them about what kind of gaming experience they want to have, though you’ve narrated them up to level 7, so you probably have that sense.

When I am the DM, I feel the need to play fair. I wouldn’t railroad the adventure to force them into slavery. I would create a slavery situation, and have people attempt to force them into slavery. I would give the party a chance to fight their way out of the trap.

If they do, the adventure plot might still take most satisfactory turns. Is the party evil or good? Introducing slavery into the campaign, they might take it upon themselves to liberate the countryside, to get the slaves to rise up and strangle the overlords with the chains around their own wrists. Or they might decide to enter the slave trade on their own, accepting payment in concubines, buying porters and trapspringers, guarding slave caravans, investing in plantations and brothels. At level 7, some of the players might be thinking about taking the Leadership Feat, and freed slaves might be an easy roleplay for filling out a retinue of pages, squires, cohorts and followers.

As the DM, I play fair. If they become enslaved, and they escaped, I would give them a fair chance to recover all their items they’d had stolen, perhaps make it the object of several quests (Like in Silverado: I bet you remember Silverado, old man:). By level 7, your player characters have probably outfitted themselves with some very specific, choice treasures that are an integral part of their character concepts. Occasionally taking those treasures away from them is legit as a challenge to throw at the party and less so as direction to push the party.

But playing fair doesn’t mean I won’t play dirty. I might be most subtle in my efforts to bind the party into slavery. They might be in a kingdom where the political environment subtlely shifts against them and their kind (like the transformation of WWI Germany into Nazi Germany, with your elves and orcs becoming your Gypsies and Jews), and before they know it, fantasy versions of the Dredd Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Law might make them instant fugitives in their own homes. They might get betrayed by their own patrons sending them on a mission that they are set up to fail (like in the Charlie’s Angels movies). They might voluntarily enter slavery to infiltrate the enemy camp, and the people who were supposed to rescue them let them down (like in Face Off). Anyway, there are lots of ways to introduce the players to slavery. I'd be flexible in my approach.


Slavery is a good way to present the party with moral dilemmas. How do Lawful Good characters function in a society with slavery? Fighting the Power and overturning the evil practices is not the Lawful thing to do: The Lawful Good character might need to work within the system, maybe buy the occasional slave to free him or her, but then he's feeding the evil system with money. Set up and or invest in some kind of work-to-freedom program, or social support network for the welfare of newly freed slaves? But that might legitimize slavery.

This is fertile ground.

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