Pcs Escaping..

[garhkal]

Seems a 'staple' of SW, is the party gets captured, then escapes. After thinking about it for a long time, i can see a baddie capturing them, and leaving them in an area they can escape from, once. BUT after that, i cannot see the same baddie (or even any he is associated with) leaving them in a cell they could escape from....

Anyone else thought of this, or does it 'smack in the face of pc heroism'>>??
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Gry Sarth]

I agree. Players shouldn't get the chance to escape twice. When they break out of prison for the first time, they won't get locked up again, they will be gunned down (unless, of course, we're not talking about a "bad guy" here, and the players were imprisoned by the New Republic or one such benign government).
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

At the very least I don't see them being able to escape the same way twice, unless one of those times includes a facility on a complete backwater world. The Empire is capable of learning, as well as any other NPCs we encounter. They won't fall for the same tricks; you'll either need to be UBER creative (provided you don't get gunned down, as Gry said,) or you'll need to have outside (or inside) help.

[Ray]

The A-Team and MacGyver DVDs are out now. They'll give *LOTS* of ideas for escaping.

[Jedi Skyler]

I PITY THE FOOL TRYIN' TO LOCK ME UP IN A CAGE, SUCKA!
8)

[scott2978]

I personally think planning to lock up the PCs is a bad idea. Any encounter that you plan as a scripted event to get the PCs into a cage is bound to cause the players to be disgruntled, as the "railroaded" feeling sets in. Of course this is just for "planned" capture, not those cases where the PCs just bungle themselves into a prison cell completely on their own.

As for what happens after they are captured, I think that the PCs should only in extreme circumstances have any oportunity to escape at all, unless there is a good reason (such as letting them escape on purpose). When the PCs are captured by the Empire, it should mean the beginning of some very bad things. Torture, pain, suffering, more torture, beatings, mutilation, more torture, sleep deprivation, starvation and did I mention torture?

I may have some friendly NPC's working to liberate the PCs from capture, but only after they have suffered enough to never want to be captured again. I may allow the PCs to get out of prison in a prisoner exchange, or even throw them a bone and offer a slim, ever so slim, chance of escape, but never until they fully realize just how bad it is to be captured by the Empire.

Of course, even if it's the Alliance or the Republic that does the capturing, the actual prison that the PCs end up in isn't likely to be a happy place. Not a happy place at all.

But I digress... As for escaping from captivity, I'm not only against letting them do it twice, I'm against letting them do it once. Let them know that being captured is only SLIGHTLY better than being killed, and maybe even worse. Never allow them the chance to easily escape. That way, when they do finally make it, IF they make it, they will really have something to talk about. Being capture should never turn into "Oh geez, are we captured AGAIN? Well how do we break out this time boss?"

[Gry Sarth]

Fully agree with you scott. I believe my group kinda fell into the routine you mentioned. We would be captured for whatever reason and then we were all sorta thinking "So, GM, where's our cue to break out?". It should have been grimmer and more desperate and hopeless. I remember being locked up a few times, but I don't remember ever sweating about it....
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

Yup. Heck, the only reason the gang was able to bust Leia out of the detention block on the Death Star was because they had a Jedi Master working with them, not to mention keeping Darth Vader occupied... if OB1 hadn't gotten the tractor beam deactivated, they'd have been sunk, the Empire would've been ultimately triumphant, and the Rebellion crushed. Plus, if Vader hadn't been preoccupied with OB1, he'd have sensed Luke, and it would have been a whole new Empire...

[scott2978]

I like to think that Vader would still have allowed the rebels to escape, so the homing device planted on the Falcon would lead them to the rebel base. But, Leia's reaction to their "easy" escape "that was too easy, they let us go" is dead on. Being captured by the Empire means they want you for something. Whatever that is, you're not likely to see daylight again once they have you. Hope of escape should be the last thing the PCs bank on (but the players might be expecting it since the game doesn't immediately end with their characters being executed).

[garhkal]

[Robert]

I also think capturing pcs to often leads to routine - especially when they have a quick hint how to esacpe. I once had my players play themselves into the dungeoons of the imperial customs - they didn´t want to bribe someone hungering for a bribe and after that i played operation starfall. Worked out quite well. They still tried to escape earlier but had no chance to do so - also i let them roll.

I think about Steve McQueens "The great escape" There we have a malign government - although it accepted them as POWs with special rights. Stevie tried to esacpe several times and although it was risky because he could have been shot (there were no stun guns back in these days), he onlywas put in the bunker. More malign governments might punish harder, but why kill? If the character is so useless he would have been killed the first time.

Another example is from a different RPG system (medieval fantasy) The characters work as slaves in a slave camp on a backwater island. They have a chance to escape, as ever month a ship visits the nearby village wher their master lives. But to succeed they have to cooperate with many npcs (also slaves). IIRC the GM played over three sessions only to give the players enough information about the slave camps routine to allow them find a weak spot.

[scott2978]

[Ejacobs]

Malign governments have frequently taken captives, only to execute them at a leter date, regardless of their worth. Sorry state of things. The PC's have to be careful when going against powerful organizations, government or private, for they may likely end up dead if they are too much of a nuisance to the organization.

E

[Tahlorn]

As the GM, I always believe to give the PCs some sort of chance.

If they espcape from the initial capture, and then are recaptured by the same group (person, police, corporation, government, or whetever, as long as they are aware of the prior arrest and escape), they still should have a chance of escape, but MUCH more difficult. How ever they escaped last time will be removed, be it incompitent gaurds, faulty locks, etcetera. And the difficulty should also be based on how they escaped. If they just slipped out, then they will be thrown back in with another lock or the like. If they wrestled away a gun and killed every gaurd in sight, then they might not make it to being recaptured (read: killed on site), or placed in a near-impossible situation to escape from.

[garhkal]

Going back through my memories on escapes i have had...

Oen group (5 pcs and 2 npc medics), got captured by Moff Regula, on the planet of Holps. He imprisoned them, and placed a quartet of his elite guards... One of the party (a jedi) used affect mind, to -coerce- to guard into shooting his comrades and let them out. Well, when he made that AM roll, he set off a force 'wave'..

NOTE: Force waves are something i made up back in 93, to show things, like how vader sensed obiwan and such. Rolling over a certain number, makes all the other force users (if any) on a planet aware of your presence. Getting over a higher number makes those in that Star system/sector/quadrant/galaxy know of you.

So when he was sensed, the Moff was alerted to the fact that one of the party was a jedi. Several missions later, they get captured again, but to 'forestall' any minds being messed with, the Moff placed only Droid guards, with strict instructions to not go near the party. If any tried the 'ill person' trick, they were to use their sensors to scan the person, sending the data to the local doctors office, for analyis.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!