So the party got captured by slavers.

[GameTurtle]

My current party of players, despite the warnings they received from their respective leaders ventured into the desert and got captured by slavers.

Now to my delight I am looking for a way to price the adventurers as slaves but don't have a whole lot to go off in terms of starting prices and whatnot. In addition to this I was curious if anyone had a creative way to make saves for "breaking" someone under the whip.

This is all in good fun and had warned them of areas that they may not have been ready for so no need to worry about negative party feedback. They are good sports on the matter.

[Jack_Simth]

Now to my delight I am looking for a way to price the adventurers as slaves but don't have a whole lot to go off in terms of starting prices and whatnot.
Lords of Madness, page 101, start at the first full paragraph.

[Dusk Eclipse]

To save you some work, the Formula is (CR^2)x100 GP with the addendum that "Unusual or marketable qualities in a slave, such as great strength, great beauty, valuable skill, or exotic origin, can multiply the price by two, three, or four"

[GameTurtle]

Lords of Madness, page 101, start at the first full paragraph.

Thank you that info will be quite helpful


To save you some work, the Formula is (CR^2)x100 GP with the addendum that "Unusual or marketable qualities in a slave, such as great strength, great beauty, valuable skill, or exotic origin, can multiply the price by two, three, or four"

And thank you for grabbing that and saving me the time.

Now my next order of business is the idea of breaking in a slave. It may not even be necessary. The party is pretty bull-headed and will probably immediately escape or die trying.

[atemu1234]

Thank you that info will be quite helpful



And thank you for grabbing that and saving me the time.

Now my next order of business is the idea of breaking in a slave. It may not even be necessary. The party is pretty bull-headed and will probably immediately escape or die trying.

Breaking in a slave? Well, separate them from one another. Torture, probably sensory deprivation for 23 hours, whipping for one, then repeat. Keep a cleric on hand.

[MyrPsychologist]

Breaking in a slave? Well, separate them from one another. Torture, probably sensory deprivation for 23 hours, whipping for one, then repeat. Keep a cleric on hand.

You can go beyond this if you really want.

Sensory deprivation should be replaced with disorientation. Blinding light and pitch black rotating to ensure that they are confused and don't get much sleep is a powerful tactic. I'd also say starve and deprive them of water. Loud noise is another method to disrupt thinking and make people more compliant. If you're breaking someone on a mental level you don't want them to have the strength to really resist so you want them very weak mentally and physically.

In the real world we also try to tell people that someone they trust has betrayed them. You could do that in this as well or even go a step farther and orchestrate the use of illusions to make people think that their friends are betraying them. If you don't want to use the party you can use individuals that the party trust. Ultimately, you want them to feel alone and hopeless and like resistance is futile.

And of course, there is always the use of magical items that force compliance.

[Shining Wrath]

This is pretty nasty stuff, of course.

The extent to which the slavers will go to "break" the PCs depends upon their level and therefore their price.

If you've got 10th level characters, the listed price of 10,000 GP makes it worth considerable effort. I would think slavers might even have a vampire "on staff" to come in and Dominate valuable captives; they'd pay a vampire in slaves they don't consider valuable - perhaps they were badly injured when captured, or have gotten old, or are young children that aren't worth the trouble to raise to salable age.

[GameTurtle]

My apologies for the late reply. Thank you all for the help. I have some great ideas that I can implement.

[General Sajaru]

I do think it's worth noting that that pricing formula only applies if the slavers know what level/CR their merchandise is; for instance, if they used a clever trap to acquire the PCs without fighting them, they might not have a good idea just how valuable the party is. And to go along with that, they wouldn't necessarily treat the players the same way they might slaves they knew were high level.

[Beowulf DW]

Word of Warning, Gameturtle: Be careful, be tasteful, talk to your players.

Yes, they're being good sports now, but this whole "breaking" thing? Never in all my experience has any player enjoyed having agency taken from them. That's a good way to split up groups.

[Sith_Happens]

To save you some work, the Formula is (CR^2)x100 GP with the addendum that "Unusual or marketable qualities in a slave, such as great strength, great beauty, valuable skill, or exotic origin, can multiply the price by two, three, or four"

Note that this formula is widely considered to lead to hilarious underpricing. I can't think of a single Evil character that wouldn't pay 40000 gp for a CR 20 slave given the opportunity, to skip straight to an upper-end example. Personally I'd raise the exponent to at least 4.

[Crake]

Note that this formula is widely considered to lead to hilarious underpricing. I can't think of a single Evil character that wouldn't pay 40000 gp for a CR 20 slave given the opportunity, to skip straight to an upper-end example. Personally I'd raise the exponent to at least 4.

Make it CR^2^CR, that'll get you some good prices right?! :smalltongue:

[Platymus Pus]

Word of Warning, Gameturtle: Be careful, be tasteful, talk to your players.

Yes, they're being good sports now, but this whole "breaking" thing? Never in all my experience has any player enjoyed having agency taken from them. That's a good way to split up groups.
Even better, they become sold as sex slaves.
(http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/media_gallery_image/public/6-10CrimeJabba.jpg?itok=LY6x1_Qs)
Then.... (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7FAsUT6FePU/TLQPrweZUhI/AAAAAAAABWc/WirwMsp6qRQ/s1600/jabba.jpg)
Nice way to scare people.

[Sith_Happens]

Make it CR^2^CR, that'll get you some good prices right?! :smalltongue:

Derped up my math, I'd actually say 100*CR^3 looks like the sweet spot.

[Beowulf DW]

Even better, they become sold as sex slaves.
(http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/media_gallery_image/public/6-10CrimeJabba.jpg?itok=LY6x1_Qs)
Then.... (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7FAsUT6FePU/TLQPrweZUhI/AAAAAAAABWc/WirwMsp6qRQ/s1600/jabba.jpg)
Nice way to scare people.

Yeah...Let's try to avoid taking it that far, lest the players take it the wrong way and OP becomes known as that GM.

[whisperwind1]

Yeah...Let's try to avoid taking it that far, lest the players take it the wrong way and OP becomes known as that GM.

I concur, usually that sort of thing is reserved for one's private time, and rarely works in an RPG (because let's face it, there's no way to handle it in a mature fashion in the escapist power fantasy world of D&D). Although if you and your party WANT to take it into magical realm territory, then by all means, proceed.

[GameTurtle]

Word of Warning, Gameturtle: Be careful, be tasteful, talk to your players.

Yes, they're being good sports now, but this whole "breaking" thing? Never in all my experience has any player enjoyed having agency taken from them. That's a good way to split up groups.

I truly appreciate the concern but they went headlong into it with full knowledge. If they were going to offended they would have heeded my warning. Plus we have all been friends for almost our whole high school and college careers so I can promise there will be no hard feelings.

[TrollCapAmerica]

How did you manage to capture PCs? PCs are notoriously unruly and most slavers are used to nabbing weak prey that cant do things like say hack up owlbears

[daryen]

And how powerful are the slavers? Depending on the magic users in the party, even naked PCs can be quite powerful. Sure, the wizards are probably screwed, but sorcerers, clerics, Druids, and their ilk can cause a lot of damage. Bards, too.

[Yogibear41]

I can't think of a single Evil character that wouldn't pay 40000 gp for a CR 20 slave given the opportunity.

If they are powerful enough to keep a CR 20 character in line, I doubt they need to pay for one, if they aren't powerful enough, they would be pretty stupid to buy a slave significantly more powerful than they are, unless they had some sort of way around that.

[icefractal]

If they are powerful enough to keep a CR 20 character in line, I doubt they need to pay for one, if they aren't powerful enough, they would be pretty stupid to buy a slave significantly more powerful than they are, unless they had some sort of way around that.Heh ...
"The slave will be 40,000 gold pieces."
"Sold!"
"Oh, and the mind-control spells that are keeping him from killing all of us will be an extra 200,000 gold."
:smallmad:
"Hey, it's an optional feature; we'd be glad to remove it if you don't want it ... from a distance. And payment in advance."