It’s pretty normal for aDungeons & Dragonsparty to find themselves on the wrong side of the law at some point during the campaign, but running these encounters doesn’t have to be a source of frustration. Sure, a lot of players don’t want to deal with consequences, but you just have to make things interesting.
No matter what comes next, arresting players shouldn’t bring your campaign to a grinding halt. The most important thing to remember is that you should integrate your players' mistakes and actions into the greater plot. If you need a few tips on how to make that happen, you’ve come to the right place.
8Know Your Players' Boundaries
Decide How Far You Want (Or Need) To Go
Issues surrounding law enforcement, the law, and other related topics aren’t something that most D&D players considerduring session zero, but they might be worth discussing. Police brutality and corrupt legal systems areveryinteresting in fiction but, depending on the circumstances, might be a sore spot in players' everyday lives.
Another thing that’s necessary to discuss with your players is the possibility of torture. Some players are okay with gory details, others don’t want their characters tortured at all, and others still just want a hand-wave and some Constitution checks. Checking in with your players before the session begins helps keep the game fun.
7Figure Out The CR Of Law Enforcement
Guards Are Honestly Kind Of Pathetic
Decide early how much you want to let your players get away with. It’s not unheard of for parties' fight-or-flight instincts to kick in as soon as they’re being arrested, resulting in a horrific spiral of murder and carnage just because someone stole a loaf of bread. You need to prepare for the worst, especially when players forget bribery or social skill checks are an option.
This advice assumes your players are at least somewhat engaged with the story. If they simply murder their way through every NPC without care, you need to have a serious talk with your players. Even evil campaigns have more nuance when played in good faith.
The desire to avoid any sort of negative consequence is strong, but you can temper it by choosing NPCs that are appropriate for the level of your party. Consider using the Veteran stat block in place of the typical Guard for lower-level parties. Mid-level groups and above could probably benefit from a more customized set of NPCs.
6Decide If Jailbreaks Are On The Table
Hint: They’re Usually A Good Idea
If you send the PCs to jail, don’t expect them to stay there, especially if only part of the group has been imprisoned. While you can’t stop players from trying to escape, you can design the prison to be more or less escapable depending on the plot’s demands. Once the PCs are free, you should also decide how long the authorities will look for them before giving up.
Being on the run after escaping from prison is a tale as old as time, but it’s not the only option. you’re able to also have one of the guards or cellmates introduce new plot hooks. Perhaps a dying prisoner was jailed for reasons related to some sort of secret the king wants to hide away, or idle chatter between two guards reveals a plot twist the group never even considered.
5Keep Alternate Punishments Handy
Preserving Player Agency Keeps The Game Fun
Punishments that give your players something to do are going to go over much better than ones that remove a player from the game entirely. Executing a character is fine if it’s a narratively satisfying conclusion to their arc, but throwing them in jail without a jailbreak or some sort of story progression is just plain boring.
Depending on where your players are in the campaign’s story, you could also simply time-skip to after the PCs are released from prison.
In general, the punishment should fit the crime while also serving the story. Perhaps your PCs are ordered to pay a hefty sum to the NPC they wronged and need to go on a new quest to cover their debt. You could also exile the party from the jurisdiction they were arrested in, forcing them to continue the campaign in another part of the map.
4Consider Making Handouts
There’s Always An Excuse For Handouts
Waterdeep Dragon Heist is an interesting module in several respects, but one of the most useful things it does is provide players with a handout describing several laws relevant to their interests. You might want to consider the same if your setting has any laws beyond the “standard” stuff like theft and murder.
Without tools like this, it’s easy for players to assume what is and isn’t legal based on their own biases. you may also do a lot of world-buildingwhen making these handouts. Perhaps necromancy is legal in your world as long as there’s written consent from the deceased, but mind-altering spells such as Charm Person are a no-no.
3Know The Law
…And The Legal System
Handouts and explainers are great for your players, but you should also be mindful of any unusual laws your setting has and incorporate them into your world-building. For instance, if there are options for legal necromancy, your PCs have the option of obtaining (or forging) consent letters, and you’ll remember to have your guards ask for these permission slips.
What’s perhaps more important, however, is deciding on the basics of your setting’s legal system. Are your PCsentitled to a trial, or is the arresting authority judge, jury and executioner? You should also decide if PCs in holding are entitled to speak with a lawyer, or if the concept of a lawyer even exists in your universe.
2Question PCs Separately
For Both Realism And Drama
Questioning PCs separately keeps them from corroborating their accounts of what happened. Even if you know what really went down as the DM, your NPCs shouldn’t, and this is an easy way to add realism to your game. Sometimes,splitting the partycreates more drama and narrative opportunities.
If your players are on board with the idea, you can record interrogations to reference later.
This can take a few forms. In real-life groups, you can pull each player aside for a few minutes while the rest of the group takes a short break, and online games can use private chats. For both types of game, consider ending the session before questioning starts and texting your players in between sessions.
1Flesh Out That Prison
And Provide A Memorable Experience
Once your PCs are properly jailed, you should get to work fleshing out the prison. Don’t feel like you have to be constrained by the bounds of what’s “normal”. The jail can be the literal dungeon of a castle, but it can also be a dungeon in the traditional D&D sense, the body of a massive tarrasque, a penal colony on another island, or whatever else you desire.
You’ll also want to flesh out any NPCs who might show up, from cellmates for your PCs to befriend to guards for your PCs to dunk on. Creating cellmates mostly helps complicate matters by preventing PCs from being locked in the same cells, but you can also have their sentences end whenever the plot demands if you want them to show up later.
