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Take no prisoners!


Epiphanis

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I'm thinking about recent PC captures we've played out (all in Champions)...

 

PCs split the party, half of them infiltrating a bad guy base while the other half provides overwatch/reinforcements. The second group got sloppy and gave away their position, the entire enemy horde descended on them and they were captured. Capture lasted maybe an hour game-time before the rest of the party could rescue them. Worked well, and the captured brick managed to get in a few good shots against her captors despite the power nullifier. OK, so the bad guys executed one of the captured PCs...but he got better! (PC had Resurrection and had been itching for an opportunity to use it.) Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

 

Another time several PCs let themselves get captured to infiltrate a ring of underground cage fights, relying on the other PCs to eventually break them out. We had fun playing out a series of arena fights. (Players who's PCs were on the outside got to run NPC prisoners.) Once the outside team figured out a way to disable the power nullifiers, everyone got to fight their way out. Everyone enjoyed the hell out of that, mainly because the "captured" PCs had done so voluntarily and got some great roleplaying opportunities.

 

Then there was the time in a previous campaign when they were all captured by Foxbat and put into a Silver Age death trap, from which they easily escaped. That one was played totally for laughs, so everyone took it for what it was and had fun with it.

 

I'll offer one last anecdote, as an example of what NOT to do. The heroes had tracked a new villain to her base when they set off a trap that KO'd them all - they didn't really have a chance to dodge or otherwise evade being captured. They woke up as prisoners with power nullification collars on and their equipment removed, so the villain could question them. Some decent roleplaying, but the PCs weren't given an opportunity to escape on their own before a team of NPC heroes arrived to break them out. You can guess how much the players loved that! Then the PC team fought alongside the NPC heroes to defeat the villain and her army of minions, however the Focus-based PCs still didn't have their gear, so were at a disadvantage. Yes, "you took the Limitation, so you knew this would happen at some point." But I think having it happen on the heels of having been captured and depowered was at least one straw too many. Most of the players took it in stride tho it didn't make anyone's Favorite Episode list; but there was at least one player who hatedhatedHATED it! We talked and agreed that mine had been played out, and we didn't go back there again. Didn't ruin the campaign by any means, but it sure didn't make anyone's Favorite Episode list either.

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I think one thing to keep in mind is that, like any scenario, a capture one still needs to be fun and interesting.

 

As for the railroad thing, railroading can go both ways. Players can and do railroad, often to the chagrin of the GM and other players.
 

This is why I see a capture scenario as best used more often a result of former actions than as a result of an idea the GM had.

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