Looking for a little advice on how to handle a situation my group has gotten into. I'll kick it off by saying that I'm by no means a veteran GM. In fact, this current EotE campaign is the first thing I've ever done (if you don't count 2 sessions of D20 Modern I did a LONG time ago that were horrible...). I think I've come up with some good stuff (I'm REALLY proud of my Halloween adventures especially...), but my group really makes me work for it, because they NEVER do things "the way they are supposed to". I LOVE that, it's the whole reason anyone RPs, right? It does make my life harder though... Anyway, on to the issue.

I'm currently running them through the Mask of the Pirate Queen. We're on Part 2, and they're currently doing their best to ensure Flutterplume loses her fight. They did some digging and found out where she lived, seems intelligent enough. Then it fell apart... our face and our bounty hunter entered the apartment to try and gather some information about her. Talk to neighbors, that sort of thing. Fair enough. Well the murderbot and melee-Jedi-wannabe just went up to her door and "pretended to be maintenance". They aren't good at pretending... so she doesn't let them in and calls security. Long story short, 5 security guards get brutally murdered in the hallway and one of my characters ends up unconscious in Flutterplume's apartment while everyone else runs.

We ended the session there, and here we currently sit. I can't make this too easy on them, I don't want to set the precedent that they can always just kill their way out of a problem. I'm thinking about setting a very high bail and just taking a good chunk of money from them (never hurts to keep 'em hungry), but that's not very "fun", is it? Should I come up with a full on jail break scenario? I think that would be fun, except the captured player will have practically nothing to do the whole session...

I'd appreciate any advice or thoughts, not sure how I'm going to handle this yet... thanks!

My go to, especially if it's a dodgy world (don't know scenario, so don't know), is corruption.

So maybe jailer drops hints about some jobs his boss wants doing. They are dangerous, and aren't well paid, but might come with losing the paperwork for some one stuck with dead security guards and a poor alibi.

Or maybe it isn't the jailer, maybe their lawyer (who really works for some Hutts or gang), turns up in a sharp outfit to talk to their 'client'. Offers a job in exchange for some cast iron alibis the PC was elsewhere at the time.

There are three things that are important (in Edge), Obligation, Obligation and Obligation.

Assuming you want it to be a speedbump with a penalty/getting back to the main adventure is your first priority, I'd simply have Vandin pull some strings to get the PC out of jail (since I'm sure he'd be monitoring things) and slap them with a Favor obligation from Vandin. Extra Credit: Vandin says they botched the job and now they need to deliver that package rather than fix the fight (this has the extra chance of triggering the inter-plot bit about flutterplume's parents, which I imagine most groups don't get).

I'm not familiar with the adventure itself, but for a general option what about a jail break that the captured PC gets caught up in? As in there's someone else from another crew/gang/syndicate/etc in the same prison, their people show up and blast open the jail, and now the 'escaped' PC (and the rest of the party, who hear about it on the news or see the explosion) are sucked into trying to reunite themselves while not getting too tangled up in the other group's escape attempts/crimes/etc? Bonus points if the other prisoner was the PC's cell partner. This keeps the imprisoned PC in play the whole time, saves at-the-table time because the players end up having to wing things instead of planning down to the last detail, and could cause more problems/Obligation down the line.

3 hours ago, IronNerd said:

I think that would be fun, except the captured player will have practically nothing to do the whole session...

Great ideas so far. Just to address this bit, it's not that difficult, especially with this game, to work with a split party. You have to be flexible with "time", e.g.: if the party is casing the jail looking for a weakness, the incarcerated PC gets their turns to do similar things, discovering that the door has a weak hinge, the locks can be picked, the guard is bribable, etc. If there is action, the jailed PC can still try to break the hinge, fiddle with the locks, strangle the guard, etc. Basically you still give everyone a turn, and ideally whatever successes (or failures) the jailed PC has can help with the narration of their reunion. If the PC got out of the cell on their own, it makes it easier for the rest; if not, maybe they overheard something critical about where some roadblocks are, or someone else of interest who is also in jail. Sky's the limit.

Before playing this game I never split the party, but I've done it several times now and it's worked out really well. You just have to make sure everybody has something to contribute, regardless of their location.

awesome ideas! The PC who is in jail probably isnt in solitary confinement. At some point during the day they might be working the Laundry area or have physical exercise time in the yard etc. During these excursions they meet other inmates, guards and possibly are able to spot patrol routes or other important info to help them escape or to use during a rescue.

But whatever you do, bring Obligation in. They have a criminal record now. They have garnered new enemies or persons that they owe. Use it.

I would go with corruption, maybe the jailer is actually working for the crime dude that hired them to stop flutterplume from fighting. He is happy to help them to get thier friend out of jail but now they really do have to complete that second job for him.

On 7/7/2017 at 10:03 AM, whafrog said:

Before playing this game I never split the party, but I've done it several times now and it's worked out really well. You just have to make sure everybody has something to contribute, regardless of their location.

Every game I run, I don't mind having the group split. But almost uniformly, they start to avoid splitting apart because somebody always does something idiotic on their own, and can't get out of trouble by themselves. Most groups I have seen don't want to split the party, unless a plan absolutely requires it, and even then, they stay in comm contact, and within a distance they can rush to assist, or cause a distraction at least. And I don't feel bad when a party member intentionally is separated and his job prevents him from doing much else. Right now, I run a game where a sniper is constantly providing overwatch. But other than informing people of movement near their position, there is nothing for him to do until combat starts - at least if he wants to do his job.