Saturday we managed to resume HackMaster after a prolonged Spring Break + V-Day hiatus and we jumped back into the Smackdown the Slavers module. Hackmaster shone some of its virtue, in that we managed to fight 3 battles, one of suitably great epicness, and another of fair size, in the span of a session. I can't say the same for many other RPG systems, though this may be a matter of myself becoming more proficient as a GM, among other things.
The third battle was a set-piece designed to get the party captured, which if written by the book would have 30+ enemies boarding the party's ship at once to capture them. I curtailed things by about 33% from the module, as the conscious members of the party were levels 5, 3, 5, and 1, and I felt that keeping the combat moving at a fast pace was a priority over attacking with truly overwhelming force.
The one Elf party member was the achilles' heel of the boarders' plan, and although he was on his last leg when I challenged him to an honor duel with a monk, he managed to Muster Resolve and pull things out at the last minute. The combination of pre-battle poisoning, Ghouls, and Spite Sprite sleep arrows was quite nearly enough. But the elf's immunity to the latter two proved the undoing of my plans, made his save to the only paralyzation spell I had on hand, got the drop on a fighter with a net of entanglement, and managed to rip through the last wave of enemies that I could credibly throw in, after having held back portions of the first wave.
Well, after looking at it that way, its reasonable to say that the affair might have been pulled off 'against all odds.'
Which brings me to the time-honored and oft-revisited topic of today's post: the common attempts to capture adventuring parties. It's a sore subject, to say the least, as a DM has to balance the problems of party resentment at being steamrolled with an eye toward applying enough force to capture ALL of the party members.
First, let me visit the why of this matter: why does the plot call for a capture of the party? The first and best reason is to provide a new canvas for an adventure, where the party is on the ultimate defensive and yet highly proactive--the adventurers, stripped of all their equipment and relying only on their wits, must fight their way to safety. This is a good change from the stale and overly rehashed 'so and so gives you a mission' templates that predominate not only the pen and paper world of adventures, but are seemingly the only color on the palette of Mummorperger quest designers. Another reason might be to press the 'reset' button on party wealth, if things have hit a Monty Haul point...but this would be an inelegant and indignified fix to a mistake that is ultimately the DM's fault.
Next, how does one create the conditions for party capture? One doesn't simply want to gloss over so intense of a moment as this. For the proper emotional climate of desperation to arise we need to be sure that the party has the feeling of the jaws closing around them. This could be through ambush, with the party being mugged/surrounded, assaulted at inn, but this is so recycled of an anthem that we probably shoud try innovating. In Smackdown the Slavers the party is ambushed/betrayed by their charter ship, and the PCs did in fact complain Saturday that the battle rang a little too close to another DM's stale formula of 'Muggers, Again.' So let us think upon what other methods we could visit...
Perhaps the party could overextend itself, falling deeper into a pursuit until theiy're simply surrounded, thinking they're simply chasing down henchmen until they learn otherwise. Or we could take this opportunity for a double-cross/true ambush, with the party going to a designated spot to recconoiter or rendezvous, only to find themselves surrounded in an 'alamo' scenario. If my experience as a DM has taught me anything, PCs love holding the walls of Helm's Deep against the Horde in a static defense. It allows you as the DM to hold them tight to the action, while you can be prepared enough (knowing that you'll lose no prep as the PCs go/do things instead of what you prepared for) to give them some good, textured fun. Nobody likes fighting millions of the same orc, but who doesn't love being ranseur-hooked off the battlement to be grappled by dozens and pinned for capture?
Care can and must be taken to keep all party members that aren't yet captured engaged. Due to the way it played out on Saturday, Anthony's characters were both out of the entire capture fight from poison...without actually adding to the drama of the capture. At least give the PC the anxiety of wondering if he's going to the slave galleys; I've learned many a time that separating the party and hitting 'pause' on whole people at the gaming table is less than optimal.
So how would I have done this, instead? Well, honestly, if I could have playtested it I would have simply tweaked the numbers and brought in the second Sahuagin cleric with rigor mortis, and thrown in all three of the tough boarders at once, and gone ahead and fired all the faeries, every turn, and worried about the consequnces later. This still might not have done it, but at least I would have had those few more means to try finishing off the lone elf PC that kept things going...
As it was, I think it turned out to be a good game experience, though the fact that many players had to be unconscious for large parts--even all-- of the battle, makes it not count as 'time well spent' for everyone. This should be the goal, even if the story politely requests that the party be captured.
