How do you construct a good Rescue Adventure, and in particular how would you get your players to care strongly about rescuing a person they've never met? Is there something that screams "rescue me"?
>>46274744
Some GMs try what they think is the easy route by making the captive the subject of rapes and extreme torture. However it just makes players uncomfortable and some of them will suspect magical realm. Don't do this.
Having the captive introduced earlier in the campaign and actually be a major help to the players can be useful, especially if they conspired with the players in some way.
It's also good if they're not just a passive victim. If they can get regular messages out, perhaps increasingly urgent ones, and coordinate with the players to some limited degree, it makes them a lot more than just a living McGuffin.
A large sum of money and priceless magical family heirlooms for the return of loving daughter from (insert plot device here)
Most players would literally rescue anything if you let them.
Princess? Sure. Peasant girl? Okie doke. Old man no one likes? Well, someone has to rescue him. A scarecrow stuffed with wasp nests? Sorry, didn't hear you, already strappin' on my rescuin' boots. The villain they captured and locked up themselves? Well, he sent out a "please rescue me" note on very nice piece of parchment, it would be rude to not at least break him out of Hell Jail.
Don't start it as a rescue adventure and have the victim be an NPC they've actually gotten to know.
>>46275017
>by making the captive the subject of rapes and extreme torture
But what if the PCs are into that? What if they join the BBEG and become his torture masters because they think that's totally rad?
>>46275482
Then your erp, and your players are on the other side of all computer screen.
>>46275416
Lawful good paladin.
Rescue first, debate morality later.
>>46275569
>Paladins: No sense of wrong or wrong
The best.
>>46276683
Four chucklefucks at a gaming table aren't going to care about her though. Half of them will probably want to kill her for the extra 10XP.
>>46276712
I don't think XP works like that.She'd be at least worth 500. Easy.
>>46274744
I'm currently playing as a LE wizard that is trying to fight off the gods because divine magic offends him, and he doesn't really give a shit about anyone that can't cast spells.
If it wasn't a member of his guild, an important person he'd like to put in his debt, or someone related to the last two as a favor, he wouldn't do it.
There have been times when he's accidentally rescued people after stumbling upon them amidst the post-combat looting when his enemies have also been evil. He lets them live when he isn't being sneaky about it, to make people believe he isn't that bad of a guy.
This is how we decide what happens.
Roll 1d20 when looting evil lairs, 8 or less, there are prisoners, on a 2 they are related to very wealthy merchants or lower nobility, on a 1 higher nobility or royalty, depending on the difficulty of the fight.
For good enemies that have a prison, the same table applies, but everyone there is evil, merchants have access to the black market, and no royalty option. The people will check the area after we leave, and any criminals unaccounted for, living or corpses, get bounties. Then, my DM rolls a d6, to see how many criminals are captured after a month if we don't hire them. On a 1, one of the captured criminals takes a lesser punishment for telling the authorities who set him free, and we get bounties for a shitload of murders and other crimes. On a 6, the same criminal lies to the authorities and another man is blamed for our crimes.
>>46276997
>Roll 1d20 when looting evil lairs, 8 or less, there are prisoners, on a 2 they are related to very wealthy merchants or lower nobility, on a 1 higher nobility or royalty, depending on the difficulty of the fight.
>For good enemies that have a prison, the same table applies, but everyone there is evil, merchants have access to the black market, and no royalty option. The people will check the area after we leave, and any criminals unaccounted for, living or corpses, get bounties. Then, my DM rolls a d6, to see how many criminals are captured after a month if we don't hire them. On a 1, one of the captured criminals takes a lesser punishment for telling the authorities who set him free, and we get bounties for a shitload of murders and other crimes. On a 6, the same criminal lies to the authorities and another man is blamed for our crimes.
This all sounds like stuff that the DM is better off not revealing to the players, since it sort of takes away from the illusion of a world beyond the dice.
>>46274744
The one who painted that OP-picture did fucking great, except for the face, I'm not a fan of the face.
>>46274744
>how would you get your players to care strongly about rescuing a person they've never met?
Someone's paying them to do it.
>>46277970
I asked him about it, and he rolls the dice out of sight, and I killed most witnesses anyway before I knew.
Also, measures such as burning the place down delay or avoid bounties. I've once replaced a prisoner I hired with another person's body.
Alternatively, depending on how large the neearest city or town is, and if they have enough enchanted shit or spell casters, if it is realistically possible that a Truth spell is cast on the criminal, both 1 and 6 count as 1. Couldn't put it earlier because I ran out of room.
I've basically had a kingdom's Wizard FBI after me twice over this, which is why I asked. They are under the court mage, and deal with magical crimes in the country because no one else can.
They nearly caught me once, but I am the ruler of an independent city state with more firepower than they're willing to fuck with over a single knight and his shitty little village. They didn't question me with magic in case they were wrong and offended me, so I played stupid, and payed someone to give them a tip in the wrong direction, then had the scapegoat assassinated before they found him so that they couldn't find out he was innocent.
The second time, I was magically disguised as someone who was also planning on killing my target, then raised some dead so that they'd be looking for necromancers, which I was not known for being.
The first one made me sweat, though. I wasn't ready for war with them.
>>46276997
>>46278728
I basically try to run games exactly opposite to all this.
Evil characters are discouraged, power and influence levels are kept low, charts and tables are nonexistent, and the plots are typically rather straight-forward and simple. Every aspect is a conscious decision, and is backed by a well seasoned argument as to why these make for the best games.
But, when faced with this, with ideas like having a modified addendum roll under the circumstances of a truth spell when releasing prisoners, I get the feeling that a lot of my justifications are less about what make for the best games, and more of me just trying to justify being lazy.
Step 1 make them useful.
Step 2 make them memorable.
>>46285240
That sounds like hard work. Can't I just railroad them into escorting a loli with my super cool DMPC?
Ample bosom usually does the trick
>>46275416
actually, the idea of having to rescue someone who used to be your enemy is quite interesting
>>46276997
>loss edit
Subtle.
>>46274744
Introduce your "must be rescued" early, make an effort to make them as humanly like-able as possible.
Little girls are usually the easy-mode.
Else, add a reward, gold and items are always nice.
I like well-reasoned political kidnappers who have at least some sympathetic elements because it lets you get into that whole political drama and intrigue after you beat up everything in their dungeon.
