Help needed with my campaign story

[Dughy]

So I've started this campaign recently with about 8 friends, and I thought an interesting way to play out a good portion of the campaign would be to have their characters kidnapped and placed in this pocket dimension. It's this vast island where the kidnappers place people to do bounties of sorts and fight and stuff for the entertainment of others.

But the problem I'm having now is that I'm worrying this will feel a bit repetitive/restrictive If they stay there for long, but I don't know how to make escape an option without it seeming like they just got there to then leave quite soon after.

Any advice on the situation would be extremely useful, thanks.

PS: This idea was introduced at the very start of the campaign, there have been 6 sessions so far and they currently just reached lvl 3 last session.

[Unoriginal]

So I've started this campaign recently with about 8 friends, and I thought an interesting way to play out a good portion of the campaign would be to have their characters kidnapped and placed in this pocket dimension. It's this vast island where the kidnappers place people to do bounties of sorts and fight and stuff for the entertainment of others.

But the problem I'm having now is that I'm worrying this will feel a bit repetitive/restrictive If they stay there for long, but I don't know how to make escape an option without it seeming like they just got there to then leave quite soon after.

Any advice on the situation would be extremely useful, thanks.

Have them have a couple of really difficult time, with some off-time between them, and just before the 3rd (which promises to be lethal), an escape opportunity happens?

[BBQ Pork]

They have to make a choice. Escape solo? Escape, rescuing others although that complicates the escape?


Destroy the portal so no one else can ever be enslaved, although it almost (!) guarantees that they will be caught on the wrong side?

Try to kill the slavers? Might have to stay a long time to get the power and opportunity. Try to convince or manipulate them?

[Chugger]

I personally hate it when a DM says "okay you're all kidnapped without a chance to resist - you black out and wake up in a ..." - even worse is if the DM makes you try to escape being captured when he/she is giving you no chance at all - and so you waste a fight in futility. I really hate that. And I'm not the only one who hates this.

Why not let the party choose to go to this dimension to do stuff - or not? Instead of being captured, what if they find a very well hidden portal that few know of - or that is on top of a very high volcano - or w/e - and they go and leave as they want?

Why railroad them?

[Dughy]

I personally hate it when a DM says "okay you're all kidnapped without a chance to resist - you black out and wake up in a ..." - even worse is if the DM makes you try to escape being captured when he/she is giving you no chance at all - and so you waste a fight in futility. I really hate that. And I'm not the only one who hates this.

Why not let the party choose to go to this dimension to do stuff - or not? Instead of being captured, what if they find a very well hidden portal that few know of - or that is on top of a very high volcano - or w/e - and they go and leave as they want?

Why railroad them?

Well I mean it's not railroading them if the first arc revolves around being in this area, plus I actually gave them multiple chances to avoid the kidnapping quite fairly actually. They ended up there because of their own actions at the start of the campaign. Also the idea of this dimension is to be this hunger games type, large scale arena just more complicated rather than fight to the death; it wouldn't make sense if they just found it. This isn't really answering the question I asked either.

[TheYell]

I personally hate it when a DM says "okay you're all kidnapped without a chance to resist - you black out and wake up in a ..." - even worse is if the DM makes you try to escape being captured when he/she is giving you no chance at all - and so you waste a fight in futility. I really hate that. And I'm not the only one who hates this.

Why not let the party choose to go to this dimension to do stuff - or not? Instead of being captured, what if they find a very well hidden portal that few know of - or that is on top of a very high volcano - or w/e - and they go and leave as they want?

Why railroad them?

Interesting points.

Okay so they do some gladiator fights to get to Level 4, and after their level 4 big fight, a wizard hops out of the stands and runs across the sand to the party. "Take it!" he shouts, and throws them a gold ring.

"Wait! You must come back for me! I'll reward you with more if you free me!" shouts the wizard, before two devils apport next to him. "Come along, conjurer," says a devil. "You still owe us some fun!" They drag him back to the central pavilion.

The gold ring controls access to the pocket dimension. The bearer can teleport himself and a dozen people within 30 feet of him, and all their gear, to and from the pocket dimension at will.

That gives the party the chance to return home and adventure, and dip back into the pocket dimension for the side quest of freeing the wizard from the devils for some powerful loot. You can make it clear that tackling a pack of devils is nothing they're currently ready for, by having the devils fight them one at a time while they laugh and make bets until the party votes to leave the fight.

You might even have the devils play host to the party, a dangerous long game. The party is laughingly welcome to stay on the island for a day, before they have to fight for the devils amusement. They are given a villa and servants and luxurious food, and then, on the 24th hour of their arrival, if they haven't left the pocket dimension, their opponent comes to seek them out with a crowd of jeering devils watching the fight, wizard in tow. If it gets that far, the ring doesn't work until after the fight is finished. Make it a tough encounter.

[fatbaby]

So do the captors live in this pocket dimension as well? How do the spectators watch the party's escapades? If there are NPCs in this pocket dimension/on the island, then allow the party as some point to be brought into the town. Perhaps after succeeding in a particularly difficult encounter, they are welcomed into the lavish city for a feast in their honor. This opens up the chance to give the party some information and frame out the world around them. They can learn why they are imprisoned, or who their captors are. They can talk to spectators and perhaps take side bets, or try to establish a friendship with someone with the power to help them out of the pocket dimension. Or maybe an NPC wants one of the PCs to do a specific thing or betray the party in the next battle, so they can win a bet.

Basically it gives you a chance to introduce more to the game that just murderhobo-ing or hack-n-slash. It will also set you up with a path for them to follow to get out of this "pocket dimension". Perhaps after so much success they win their freedom, or they convince a wealthy spectator that they would be better suited in doing their bidding on the prime material plane, or they swindle someone out of their "key" out of the plane.

Just my two cents, I find that a hack-n-slash game gets boring after 4 or 5 sessions, and roleplaying is a nice break.

[Cespenar]

To spice things up without busting them out too soon:

-If they are being exceptionally good at fighting, the captors might "promote" some of them to probational muscle and take them along slave drives.
-Similarly, they might be promoted to "celebrity" status around the island, leading up to some interesting hooks.
-There might be some internal power plays at work that could be abused.

[Dughy]

So do the captors live in this pocket dimension as well? How do the spectators watch the party's escapades? If there are NPCs in this pocket dimension/on the island, then allow the party as some point to be brought into the town. Perhaps after succeeding in a particularly difficult encounter, they are welcomed into the lavish city for a feast in their honor. This opens up the chance to give the party some information and frame out the world around them. They can learn why they are imprisoned, or who their captors are. They can talk to spectators and perhaps take side bets, or try to establish a friendship with someone with the power to help them out of the pocket dimension. Or maybe an NPC wants one of the PCs to do a specific thing or betray the party in the next battle, so they can win a bet.

Basically it gives you a chance to introduce more to the game that just murderhobo-ing or hack-n-slash. It will also set you up with a path for them to follow to get out of this "pocket dimension". Perhaps after so much success they win their freedom, or they convince a wealthy spectator that they would be better suited in doing their bidding on the prime material plane, or they swindle someone out of their "key" out of the plane.

Just my two cents, I find that a hack-n-slash game gets boring after 4 or 5 sessions, and roleplaying is a nice break.

I made a massive reply to this about how the place works but it glitched and just didnt send and erased it all... I think I'm just gonna go cry now.

But all I'll say (since I can't bare to type all that agin) is that it isn't just hack and slash, a simplified version of how it works is that they get bounties to complete that are very varied depending on what area they're in and where they are in comparison to other contestants. Most of the time these bounties aren't to just go kill something, as often combat will happen alongside these bounties due to distrust between contestants or contestants stepping into the territory of (or being hunted by) native creatures.

[Dughy]

To spice things up without busting them out too soon:

-If they are being exceptionally good at fighting, the captors might "promote" some of them to probational muscle and take them along slave drives.
-Similarly, they might be promoted to "celebrity" status around the island, leading up to some interesting hooks.
-There might be some internal power plays at work that could be abused.

There are these things given to them on the island called king bounties, these are particularly difficult bounties that are far and few between. They're considering trying one of these out after completing their current normal bounty and if they do that I'm thinking of having the person that runs this game to taking somewhat of a liking to the group as they'd be the first to have completed a King bounty within such a short amount of time after coming to this place, so he/she may request their temporary audience in his domain. he/she'll probably try to remain mysterious and might not attend their audience in person but this could be an equivalent to that celebrity idea. And it might shift things a little, as they may get more of an idea about their situation and their "big bad" and it may lead to an eventual deal for their freedom or the ability to trick this person so they can make an escape attempt next time they are sent his/her way.

[Dughy]

Interesting points.

Okay so they do some gladiator fights to get to Level 4, and after their level 4 big fight, a wizard hops out of the stands and runs across the sand to the party. "Take it!" he shouts, and throws them a gold ring.

"Wait! You must come back for me! I'll reward you with more if you free me!" shouts the wizard, before two devils apport next to him. "Come along, conjurer," says a devil. "You still owe us some fun!" They drag him back to the central pavilion.

The gold ring controls access to the pocket dimension. The bearer can teleport himself and a dozen people within 30 feet of him, and all their gear, to and from the pocket dimension at will.

That gives the party the chance to return home and adventure, and dip back into the pocket dimension for the side quest of freeing the wizard from the devils for some powerful loot. You can make it clear that tackling a pack of devils is nothing they're currently ready for, by having the devils fight them one at a time while they laugh and make bets until the party votes to leave the fight.

You might even have the devils play host to the party, a dangerous long game. The party is laughingly welcome to stay on the island for a day, before they have to fight for the devils amusement. They are given a villa and servants and luxurious food, and then, on the 24th hour of their arrival, if they haven't left the pocket dimension, their opponent comes to seek them out with a crowd of jeering devils watching the fight, wizard in tow. If it gets that far, the ring doesn't work until after the fight is finished. Make it a tough encounter.

I really like this idea but sadly with where the campaign is currently, it's too late to change the story to fit that. But I'm possibly thinking of them being able to get access to a magic item that would let them leave and come back to the place sort of when they want (sort of because I don't want them coming back and forth constantly, more they leave for a good amount of time and come back every now and again and see how the place has changed since last time while doing some more stuff on the island, maybe the more times they go back and forth, the more likely it is for this to be noticed by the captors and for bad **** to go down).

[TheYell]

But I'm possibly thinking of them being able to get access to a magic item that would let them leave and come back to the place sort of when they want (sort of because I don't want them coming back and forth constantly, more they leave for a good amount of time and come back every now and again and see how the place has changed since last time while doing some more stuff on the island, maybe the more times they go back and forth, the more likely it is for this to be noticed by the captors and for bad **** to go down).

A golden crown with a phosphorescent moonstone on the front that shows the current phase of the moon.

You wear it during the new moon, you get a negative (1) to CON. You wear it during the full moon, you get detect thoughts at will, telepathy 60 feet, and you can open a portal to and from the island.

Unfortunately it's a Minor Crown of Luna, what they make for tourists.

There's a Major Crown of Luna held by the captors...and they're linked...