Hey guys, I know that there are several versions of these already in existence but I want to try something new.
I have a party of 6 brand new adventurers who have been going around causing havoc in the local town. In order to give them a lesson in being good I got the troublemakers arrested for crimes they've committed.
They have an unlikely ally in a character called "Reginar" I've created who is part of a shady society and also the guildmaster to the local hunter's guild. He bailed them out the first time, but he's sick of the costs they're amounting and he wont help them out this time. They've lost their local business they were running and now the 2 have been arrested again, this time for capital punishment.
I want to move them to a higher security prison, but they're only level 2 so I want to stage an escape that involves the party of 4 outside choosing whether to break them out or not, and the party of 2 inside deciding what they want to do. I fully expect them to all decide to do the breakout, but I have no idea how to plan it.
Any ideas on how to make this challenging, yet possible? I don't mind if one of the 2 troublemakers are killed as they've all agreed that if one of their characters die we will deal with it in the correct way, but if both die then that gives me the impression of being a tough GM, even though I'm not.
At level 2, as I've mentioned before, the spellcasters aren't particularly tough but we have a rogue on each side of the fort.
Any ideas would be greatly welcome!
I dunno. Personally feel that if you did something so bad to get you locked up, you deserve what's coming. And breaking people out is a crime. You're fugitives for life, which makes for bad adventuring. Most of my characters would not even attempt the rescue as it is their 2nd offence.
If I were breaking people out, I'd hide in the bushes getting a sleep spell on those on watch when they stop for the night. Then start setting eveyone free.
Or obscuring mist as the convoy passes the hiding place and get the rogue to pick the lock, hopefully he doesn't screw up.
Well, as I said, they already work for a secret society by proxy so it's alright if my "heroes" are less heroic than in standard pathfinder campaigns. They're primarily in it for the money so they're not so much a group of heroic adventurers as a large party of mercenaries for hire. I have no issue with running a morally questionable party as it lets me develop my abilities to adapt to the parties actions.
I understand it's a crime, but so is murder which they've already committed and successfully covered up. I'm just looking for inspiration and ideas for when the inevitable happens.
Then those 2 idiots should have learnt how to do evil discretely, and not get arrested, after the first time they were caught.
I actually feel sorry for the guards. They were just doing their job.
The guards are nameless. I spent hours building interesting NPCs and then they tortured and murdered them, they're the ones who I feel sorry for. Egarthis... Roeanna... I'm sorry...
Well if you're going to do this you have to make it fun. They've already decided to be renegades so they need to use deception and stealth and get used to encounters from both monsters and posses.
They need moments of opportunity to exploit and the atmosphere of ultimate failure should they be caught again.
Escaping from incarceration by the skin of their teeth and hiding out somewhere as the clamour of a search part rides past. Bluffing hunters that track them down. Disguising themselves when terrible art of them is displayed in General Stores and Taverns. Bounty Hunters turning up and testing them in taverns Link to Young Guns.
They still need to feel success amid the possibility of failure although word is going to travel slowly. But still, you've got your work cut out for you!
Young Guns is a great movie... And that's actually given me an idea for how to play it out in the future! What sort of monsters would even be in a prison though? I don't want them to always be killing core races, so any suggestions on that front would be great! I've got plans for their next target to be a shadow fey and some undead, but beyond that I have no idea what to do...
Thoron Entheart wrote: The guards are nameless. I spent hours building interesting NPCs and then they tortured and murdered them, they're the ones who I feel sorry for. Egarthis... Roeanna... I'm sorry...
That's great by the way. Keep a list of NPCS with basic traits and build up their personalities so the PCs feel the full weight of what they are doing. They're not anonymous guards, they're characters with families, feelings, hopes.
_ _
The older guard passes a tin tray of food under the bars. He winces with pain as he stands up and limps off. He drops the keys on the table in front of a younger guard wittling a stick. He mutters that he needs another toilet break and the younger one snorts in derision. "Of course you do".
The younger guard is bored. He obviously wanted more from a career than this. After a pause he looks over to you with dead eyes. He lazily grabs the keys, sauntering over to you. You can see his own failure reflected in his twisted sneer. "Looks like you and me are keeping each other company tonight. How do you like the sound of your future?", he jangles the keys, tantalisingly close to the bars...
Thoron Entheart wrote: Young Guns is a great movie... And that's actually given me an idea for how to play it out in the future! What sort of monsters would even be in a prison though? I don't want them to always be killing core races, so any suggestions on that front would be great! I've got plans for their next target to be a shadow fey and some undead, but beyond that I have no idea what to do... I was thinking let them escape, go on the run. Since they've decided to engage the town itself they should understand the repercussions, that the villages and towns are their only respite from the untamed wilderness.
If they want to take on the world so be it. And then if they look like having second thoughts grant them a chance to redeem themselves. If that doesn't work, take off and nuke the site from orbit:)
Sorry. To me I would rather have the trouble making pair hanged, ask them to roll new characters who have more sense not to bring trouble onto themselves. Tell the players out of game this is going to happen each time they do THAT.
Your players really seem like a bunch of selfish and stupid evil hotheads. I'd rather the rescue attempt fails and they die for it and get to roll new characters, until players learn better. I don't think they care much of backstory of NPCs either.
I have no issues with evil, as long as you do it in a smart way, lawful evil style.
That being said - couple of things they might try to do:
1) Attack the convoy, guns blazing
2) Wizard casts vanish on himself, passes the imnates lockpicks and weapons (vanish lasts only 2 rounds, he'd better be quick about it)
3) Alchemical thingies being thrown - fungal stun vials, tanglefoot bags, flash powder. Then massacre everyone on the convoy to rescue those 2.
4) Wizard on vanish pours poison into their stew, while whispering via message spell to tell the pair not to eat the food. After all the guards are dead, the party gleefully loots the bodies.
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If the players are smart about this, the best thing that they can do is sleep and nonlethal damage (or otherwise subdue) the guards while wearing disguises to bust out their buddies. Hopefully they've been smart enough to nab enough horses to outrun anyone they don't take down.
However, make the caravan tough in numbers. If they don't coordinate well, they'll get killed and/or captured themselves. A dozen or so guards with a couple of relatively dangerous sorts.
If the other 4 characters drag their feet, they'll have to bust their buddies out of a higher-security prison. Or an asylum, depending on the evaluation. You can use Ravengro from Chapter 1 of Carrion Crown or the asylum from Carrion Hill for the destination prison. In these cases, you'll have to retrofit them as active facilities, but it'd sure be unpleasant for them to make that infiltration successful.
It's all down to personal preference, but I like to let my characters take the lead. I don't care so much for how they play, as long as they have fun doing it. I am not a very rules-based GM, and all my players have rarely needed to look at the rulebook beyond making their characters. I like to drive the story through their actions, and if they prefer the Chaotic Evil way then that's their choice. Lawful Evil is fun and all, but my bad guys are primarily LE. I like the challenge of a group of Chaotic characters (We have a mix of CG, CN and CE in our group, nobody is not chaotic) and they roleplay really well taking on their roles and what their characters would do instead of what they would do. I only have one player who ever metagames and it's easy to keep him in line.
When I introduced these guys to Pathfinder I had only met 2 of the players beforehand, and I didn't know anybody at the table well and it's really driving home the reality that Good tends to stick together while Evil does it's own thing. Good guys tend to band together to fight Evil whilst Evil does what they want, and everyone else is the enemy.
I don't want to outright kill their characters because it's a fun and challenging experience, that's why I want this to be a learning curve, so they can learn that YES it's their world that I'm guiding them through, but I'm in charge of it, and the world reacts in a rational way to what they do. In order to cover their tracks they have to be intelligent and when they slipped up I hit them hard.
Let me explain a bit of one of the characters backstories.
Arrain O'Frogs is a Moist-von-Lipwig'esk character who started the game owning a corrupt casino in town which is where he drew the other players into an efficient money making scheme. He has repeatedly screwed the other characters over with charm and slyness. I applaud this, it's a great backstory. After he "accidentally" pushed his manager down the stairs he forced a nearby worker to hide the evidence then promoted him to manager's position.
This manager is now the reason that he is in jail, and he is also a character that I've been able to develop into an actual NPC, with a full backstory. After he successfully gained control of the casino the group made a plan to burn the place to the ground, but came up against the hired thugs and paid off city guard who were protecting the place. He befriended one of the PCs and that PC then fought against his party members in order to protect his new friend. This is why there are only 2 players in jail, the rest banded together to protect the poor manager.
The party then agreed that, as long as the manager is left alone, they will help the 2 get free. I haven't yet told them the repurcusions of this because that's fun for the future. It's their fault for not thinking about it beforehand.
I'm just trying to set up a scenario for their daring escape. I'm not going to kill their characters without allowing them to at least try to escape, but if they're caught they will all be hung and the campaign will be over. I am not a big fan of TPKs, but when the situation calls for it I have no remorse for their lost characters.
I am not going to do anything deliberate to make them win or lose. I'm just going to set up a situation where they have a chance, no matter how small, to use their own ingenuity to successfully escape, then they'll have to live with the consequences. If they succeed I WILL be allowing them to do heroic deeds to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public and be allowed back in cities, until then they'll have to struggle to sell and buy items due to them being recognised.
Turin the Mad said wrote: However, make the caravan tough in numbers. If they don't coordinate well, they'll get killed and/or captured themselves. A dozen or so guards with a couple of relatively dangerous sorts.
If the other 4 characters drag their feet, they'll have to bust their buddies out of a higher-security prison. Or an asylum, depending on the evaluation. You can use Ravengro from Chapter 1 of Carrion Crown or the asylum from Carrion Hill for the destination prison. In these cases, you'll have to retrofit them as active facilities, but it'd sure be unpleasant for them to make that infiltration successful.
Thank you, I might just do that. I'm hoping to add a couple of useful NPCs to the prison caravan to see if I can set up new situations for gaining quests if I decide that Reginar has had enough of them. I don't want the campaign to end just because they're bastards.
It's not YOUR job to plan how they should get broken out by the others, that's THEIR job.
It's your job to design the transport, and allow the players to plan how to handle it.
If these are mere level 2 convicts, why do they need to be moved to a higher security prison? What's behind that move? Is it political? Is there someone else who might want to use them for something criminal, besides "Reginar"? Could they be taken as part of some other plot - i.e., a rival faction strikes the transport, freeing all the prisoners, hoping to cause chaos and unrest in the region?
You just need to set up a reasonable transport caravan: maybe 6-8 guards, low-level, no spell-caster support. These are low-profile convicts, so who'd want to attack the caravan and free them? No need to expend too much security on them unless there is a reason.
Make the route known to the others. There's probably a standard road that leads from prison X to high security prison Y, so that's not terribly difficult to ferret out. (Knowledge:Local).
The rest - all of the HOW - is up to your players.
They need to be moved because the town they're in is a small town and they were threatened with capital punishment if they were caught again... which they were. They're being moved because the guards know there is a full party and they're more than happy to break the law to get what they want, so they're getting them off their own hands.
I know that it's not my job to think of the how, that's what I've been trying to say. All I was wanting was ideas on how to flesh out the scenario so that it wasn't a case of "We hit the caravan. We kill everyone. We win"
I pride myself on my ability to create interesting NPCs that they want to interact with, even random people they stop in the street get their own story as I go along. I want this to feel as real as possible, so some pre-planning is necessary. I'd rather that they got to the actual jail first because that's more of a fleshy campaign instead of a single fight and win.
Ah - thanks for the clarification. From your first post, it wasn't clear.
Great that you have a good rp group! Makes things more fun, and able to adapt on the fly more easily.
Since they're only level 2, you have to be careful of their hp's. Again, having low-level guards who are not highly motivated to fight to the death will help. (Too many GM's and players approach combat like it always has to be "fight until one side or the other is dead!") Low morale; low incentive to provide high security escort service; perhaps some who might be on the take. Plenty of ways to make this do-able and survivable. A few well-placed bribes, bluffs, and diplomacy. Some good opportunities for Skill usage!
You could also run the escape as a Chase mechanic. Once they get free from the wagon, there are a variety of obstacles to overcome while being pursued. Acrobatics; Climb; Escape Artist - can all be used to get away without a standing fight.
Check out this excellent thread on burglary and other fine hobbies. Let them plan the bust - like a heist - then use Telecanters rule from the thread above to introduce complications.
Yeah I was looking at that, and it's a pretty interesting concept. I always intended to let them plan the bust and I feel like it'll probably not be as clever as busting them out of the caravan, they'll argue until their friends have been in jail for a few weeks...6
What if the there is a travelling judge that visits smaller towns for the dispensation of justice (much like in the old west)? However, the one coming into the town this week is corrupt and looking for people with certain skill sets that can advance his own agenda. He could use his influence to release the prisoners into his custody (if they have not escaped by this point). The judge (inquisitor?) would have to be advanced enough to enforce his decree and maybe tag the prisoners with a magic ankle bracelet that he/she could keep them "motivated"
This could add some political intrigue, a BBEG that the 2 players need to keep alive for a while, and gives you a way to introduce new hooks.
It should also add plenty of role-playing opportunities for your group.
Maybe the prison transport has other prisoners. A member of the crew that boosted some diamonds(needed for true resses for rich jerks) might offer to take them to his cache, so he can hit the road with them. This is a public forum, so you decide if he's a were rat, were wolf, or just a nutcase.
Maybe another prisoner always insists he was framed. Let them get attached to him. Then as he dies he begs a party member to find the proof of his innocence.
TriShadow wrote: This could add some political intrigue, a BBEG that the 2 players need to keep alive for a while, and gives you a way to introduce new hooks. This is exactly what Reginar was supposed to be, he hired them and has helped them in every way that he can but he's been messed around with to the extreme, we've had 2 six hour long sessions since they were given a quest which, in terms of the story, NEEDS doing... I'm thinking I might get him to say he's given the job to another party whilst I do the prison break session, but when they get back that party is MIA... This is my plan for in case anyone dies, they'll be the survivor of the previous party.
Goth Guru wrote: Maybe another prisoner always insists he was framed. Let them get attached to him. Then as he dies he begs a party member to find the proof of his innocence. This is a really, really good idea. It might help them move towards the less evil side of the spectrum if they start to show compassion towards their fellow prisoners...
So, knowing my party a little by now, I've decided that they probably wont even consider attacking the caravan as they rarely ask for information in the town and rely heavily on the questgiver for information. I've spoken to the 2 captured prisoners and I am getting them to roll new characters in case everything goes pear-shaped, these will then be dropped into the campaign through story-based means without any negatives to the player other than the fact that their first character died unceremoniously.
I intend to have them find an armoury at some point during the escape, but it wont be well stocked and they wont have ANY armour against the better equipped guards using longswords and clubs exclusively. I will completely make up how many guards they cross, if they get too cocky suddenly a half dozen guards turn up and crush them until they run away.
The long term effects of this encounter will essentially be 2 characters completely unequipped with a couple of rusty swords so they'll have to rely on their own skills and whatnot in order to proceed, one mission and they'll be back on track.
IF they succeed in escaping they will be marked fugitives with constant bounty hunter encounters to the point of monotony.
They will have an encounter with one of the NPC Prisoners and be asked to find information to prove his innocence... a heroic act if ever there was one, and I will find a story based way to make this the start of them changing the public's opinion of them.
I will make a caravan scenario in case they do make that decision, but I'm hoping they don't just so that it becomes more fun and challenging for me, but if they do then they will have no weapons except what the guards are wielding.
Thank you for the help guys and if you can think of anything I'm missing please let me know, I've got until Friday to write all this up and decide on a map to base it in.
I would start with giving them limited communication option; bribe-able guards, light signals, notes tied to stray animals (familiars, eidolons, summons, animal companions). Make them work for it enough that they'll plan out how to do it, then sit back and wait for them to come up with a plan and work out what you want to do from there, based on their ideas.
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