Enslaved PCs?

[Ettina]

How would you handle a campaign where the PCs spend a significant chunk of the campaign enslaved? (There will be a slave rebellion as a major plot point, with the main villain undermining/manipulating the rebellion.)

[Xervous]

A heavy amount of transparency in preplanning and expectation setting since the concept typically rides on neon rails.

[JoeJ]

I'd start by telling prospective players the general outline of what I'm planning, to make sure they're on board with it. Otherwise, they're likely to think they can just kill a few guards and escape right away.

[Anymage]

I get that you have a high concept in mind. But what sort of adventures do you expect enslaved PCs to engage on if they spend a significant chunk of the campaign in metaphorical or literal chains? Slaveowners tend not to send slaves off to do missions on their own, since that's just asking for the slaves to run away. And if overseers are sent along with the slaves, you get the constabulary problem only much stronger; if the overseers are strong enough to keep the PCs in line while they go off and do something impressive, the overseers could just be sent off to handily solve the problem by themselves. If the overseers are not strong enough, expect the PCs to kill them and then go right back to the "runaway slave" issue.

[Mastikator]

Agreed with what's already said. RPing a slave may trigger or really upset some people.

Also: don't make them personal slaves, they won't have any chance to interact with each other, make them iron miners or something.

You can make them feel like slaves by making sure they feel like they aren't able to own anything, if they start with any equipment it should be confiscated in the first 10 minutes. Any player acting in an uppity manner should have their PC flogged, severely and immediately. If nobody is uppity do it anyway, good behavior won't save you from brutality. The slavers are NOT sympathetic. Later you can relax with the oppression, allow them to steal items from their masters and hide it.

[Ettina]

I know my own players really well, and honestly the only one in our playing group who might be triggered by playing a slave PC is me. (I got a little triggered in a previous campaign with a different DM where we had session 0s of getting captured and enslaved, everyone else was fine.) So I don't think I have to worry about that. But I'll absolutely let everyone know the premise involves their characters spending a large chunk of the campaign enslaved.

For context: There's an empire of sentient oozes who enslave humanoids. They also practice necromancy quite readily, so the slaves know that death won't bring an end to their servitude. Not all the oozes are bad - I'm planning on having a naive but well-intentioned abolitionist ooze as an NPC they encounter. They probably will start out as part of a large workforce with a fairly impersonal foreman type as their first main "slave master" type character, but some may get the opportunity to be selected for more one-on-one roles as part of infiltration-type quests for the slave rebellion.

I'm thinking of having a fairly brutal tone, especially later on. I want the whole region to basically erupt into violence. Think Haitian revolution kind of situation.

[denthor]

Have the slave revolt session. Have them in a an arena have earthquake hit with good people attacking gaurds.

This gives thems weapons to start with.

Go from there with an escape.

[Batcathat]

One way to avoid the potential issue of the party just trying to escape right away (in a less meta way than just saying "Please stay slaves for a while") might be to get them invested in freeing the other slaves as well. Maybe members of their families or other loved ones are slaves as well and will suffer if the PCs escape, maybe just underscore how horrible the lives of the other slaves are, maybe try to rope them into a brewing revolt right away ("You can't leave now! You're our only hope!").

If you want the party to have some adventure before leaving slavery, maybe you could have them as miners in a mine that dug too deep, Moria style. The lower levels of the mine is infested by monsters and rather than risking their own lives, the guards give some crappy weapons to a couple of slaves and send them down to deal with it.

[Democratus]

This was how the initial Dark Sun campaign was structured. The PCs were all slaves in a city state and had to work over time to help foment an uprising that overthrows the God King.

One of the best D&D campaigns I've ever participated in. :smallsmile:

[MoiMagnus]

Peoples have already said that you should ensure that the players are OK with the theme of the campaign.

Another point is to make sure everyone is on the same page on the level of railroading of the campaign. Campaigns where the PCs pass a significant amount of their time manipulated/controlled/owned by NPCs will always have some sort of railroading involved (the fact that the railroading is justified in-universe doesn't make it not railroading).

My main DM did run on another table a significant chunk of the campaign where the PCs were enslaved, though that was not "planed", that was the consequences of a TP"K" were the players chose to keep their characters rather than re-rolling. However, the table did not went for a slave rebellion, the PCs instead used their above-average skills to become "favourite" of some of the kinder owners and eventually win back their freedom against some quests. Leaving behind the other slaves, I guess. I did not get the full details of the campaign but it seems that the players enjoyed it.

[jjordan]

How would you handle a campaign where the PCs spend a significant chunk of the campaign enslaved? (There will be a slave rebellion as a major plot point, with the main villain undermining/manipulating the rebellion.)
I would not. Slavery is ugly and very few people are prepared for exactly how ugly it is, even when they think they are. Too many triggers and issues for most groups out there. It will also severely limit player options unless you're prepared to be completely unrealistic about conditions and responses. But I'm not you. Good luck with this.

[Batcathat]

I would not. Slavery is ugly and very few people are prepared for exactly how ugly it is, even when they think they are.

Going somewhere in order to kill everything (whether sentient or not) living there and looting their bodies would probably be pretty traumatic for a lot of people in real life too, but adventurers does that all the time. A realistic portrayal of slavery could indeed get very ugly (and quite possibly rather boring) but I don't think most GMs would use a very realistic portrayal of it, just like they wouldn't use a very realistic portrayal of war for a war focused campaign.

[Liquor Box]

I get that you have a high concept in mind. But what sort of adventures do you expect enslaved PCs to engage on if they spend a significant chunk of the campaign in metaphorical or literal chains? Slaveowners tend not to send slaves off to do missions on their own, since that's just asking for the slaves to run away. And if overseers are sent along with the slaves, you get the constabulary problem only much stronger; if the overseers are strong enough to keep the PCs in line while they go off and do something impressive, the overseers could just be sent off to handily solve the problem by themselves. If the overseers are not strong enough, expect the PCs to kill them and then go right back to the "runaway slave" issue.

I don't think that this is right. Slaves can certainly go and operate independently. Slaves have acted as bodyguards or occupied positions of authority (while still slaves). In most cases they wont need direct supervision to prevent them running. Usually slaves outnumbered the overseers and could easily have fought them off (slaves wouldn't be economical if you always needed more overseers present than the number of slaves). Slaves did not usually seek to escape (or overthrow the masters) because of reprisals from the law or from soldiers, because they had nowhere else to go, and I expect because servitude has been ingrained in them

The following show might provide some inspiration for a slave game. A lot of the fighting is of course gladiatorial, but they do do other things which are kind of quest like (bodyguard missions, the occasional murder).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_(TV_series)

[icefractal]

The answer is simple, but doesn't guarantee the game happening - ask for full buy-in, and be prepared to take no for an answer.

That means, tell people the premise, tell them how long the enslavement will last (sounds like a big chunk of the campaign), and ask if they're interested in playing that. And I do mean actively interested, not just "um, ok, sure I guess". Don't phrase it in an approval-implying way like "I'm running a slave campaign next, everyone ok with that?"

This is also a campaign that should for sure have a session 0, even if people are down with the premise. For example, if I was playing an enslaved character, probably my first thought would be to try to escape ASAP, not wait for a slave rebellion that I don't IC know is coming.

If the players aren't fully into this, don't run it with them, it's not a concept that will work well without that. Better to run it for a different group, or put it on the back burner.

Edit: Didn't see the update. Well, I'll leave this as it is, still holds in general.

[Dravda]

I played in a campaign years ago that ran into an issue you may encounter, so I'll put this out there: don't give the players an opportunity to speak if there are no actions they can take. If you're not providing a decision point or a moment to do something interesting, don't pause your narration. Just keep on rolling.

I mention this because I played a Star Wars campaign years ago where we were all stormtroopers. Pretty cool concept, but the DM ran it a bit TOO realistic: we had no agency or opportunity to take any actions at all. Anything we did, from taking cover, to checking on an injured teammate, to investigating a wall panel, all resulted in NPC stormtroopers yelling at us to get back in formation. Eventually, all anyone ever announced for their in-character actions was "I do exactly what you just said, not deviating at all." The campaign died shortly thereafter (ironically enough, because the DM got bored; the other players and I all wanted to see what was in store), but it was an interesting cautionary tale.

So just remember, if you're describing some scene of misery that the PCs are expected to just suffer through, keep talking. If you pause to let them speak, they won't describe their character going along quietly; they'll try to fight back right then and there.

Perhaps take inspiration from Ancient Roman slavery, where slaves were effectively second-class citizens whose children are born free and who could reasonably expect to earn freedom within their lifetime. It certainly opens up the kinds of stories you can tell!

[Faily]

What type of slavery it is might be relevant. Through history, some regions of the world have given slaves more freedom than others.


Anyway, I would say that you need to be VERY prepared for this idea to go off the rails. As in, the players will not want to spend a great deal of time as slaves and will try to break free if they see good opportunities for it. And that whatever planned event you have for them to become free might not happen at all.

I played in a Dragonlance campaign where all the PCs began the game as captured prisoners used for slave labor. We found a secret passageway in our cell, and long story short the GM wanted us to engage in a very complicated and convoluted escape plan featuring some forged documents with the final escape hinging on one character (me the rogue) succeeding at Disguise, Forgery, and Bluff.
We decided to just dig our way out instead by summoning creatures with burrowing speed.

If you want them to spend a long time of the campaign in the slave-conditions, then you need to make it change enough/make it worthwhile enough for the PCs to stay. Maybe good service gets rewarded and they have social mobility, giving them opportunities to work from the inside to undermine the slavemasters.

[GloatingSwine]

How would you handle a campaign where the PCs spend a significant chunk of the campaign enslaved? (There will be a slave rebellion as a major plot point, with the main villain undermining/manipulating the rebellion.)

Get them to plan it as a deliberate infiltration, give them a goal they have to stay undercover for for a certain period of time, and get them to plan a number of escape routes before they go in.

That will help to get buy-in and reduce bad blood for any captive PC scenario, really.

[The Glyphstone]

The 'invisible leash' can sometimes be used to give slave PCs autonomy without letting them escape. I.e , a curse or magical poison that will kill them in X days without the antidote/countercurse. Or just hostages, family members or some such who they care about and would be punished in their place. Still railroady as all get out, but it sidesteps the problem of needing an overseer as early posts mentioned.

[Gallowglass]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?244374-The-CalimShaw-Shank-Redemption-Campaign-Log

Here's a campaign thread from a Gladiatorial slave campaign that I think encapsulates a very good experience for a "you're slaves!" campaign. Recommend read.

[King of Nowhere]

Slavery is ugly and very few people are prepared for exactly how ugly it is, even when they think they are.

this depends, because "slavery" has had as many possible variations as "wage worker", and there is plenty of overlapping on which is the worse.
sure, there is the chattel slavery that's very bad. you are bought and sold like an animal, no concern whatsoever for family ties or anything. some of the ugliest variations, often reserved for war prisoners, are those where they systematically mutilate slaves to prevent revolts, like chopping off the thumbs so one cannot hold a sword but can still hold a plough, chopping off the toes so you cannot run, chopping off the tongue so you cannot communicate with the other prisoners and stage a rebellion, and working you so hard that you'll die in a few years anyway. ewww.

but on the other hand of the spectrum, there are the kinds of intellectual slavery when a slave is used as tutor for the children of aristocracy, and is generally gifted freedom after a while. some forms of debt slavery where you have a realistic chance of actually buying your freedom.
some forms of government actually gave such slaves positions of actual power. the forum rules forbid from mentioning real world history, though i could point out several ancient empires doing so. in fantasy, i can point out seanchan so'jihin, high slaves to high nobles; being one is a position of utmost prestige in seanchan society, to the point that even high nobles have strived to gain the onor of being made slave to the empress (may she live forever) and so'jihin offered freedom and wealth have turned those down to stay slaves.

a middle way is serfdom, where one is basically a slave, no right to travel, no right to change job - except perhaps to get conscripted in the army - but as long as one works the land and pays the taxes, one is not bothered. serfdom is slavery, but it's not better or worse than being a wage worker in that kind of society; it's probably a tad deal better, in that you have more social security in that at least you had a stable job and access to food.

slavery comes in many forms and many shapes. you can make it as brutal as you need for your campaign

[DwarfFighter]

I've been through this sort of story arc a number of times, each time it ends with the PCs rebelling and winning their freedom.

It was also, each time, "un-fun". Playing through the drudgery of being a slave just to build up to the inevitable rebellion is always boring! So insufferably BORING! When this sort of story-line start off again, I roll my eyes and plan to be BUSY the next few sessions until it's over.

So do me a favor. If you want to put my character into a slave rebellion, just write up it up as a cut scene where whatever is going to happen just happens. My character is a slave: He's gonna be uppity with the task masters and get beaten up and forced to break rocks against his will, he's gonna be cool with befriending the old wrongfully dishonored war veteran and enable his rise as the leader of the slave rebellion. I don't need to play that out in excruciating detail, because it is ALWAYS THE SAME: The whole point of the exercise is "Your choice has been taken away from you, what do you do? Yeah, but instead you have to do this."

Just finish up the story and cue me back in when my decisions matter.

-DF

[Anymage]

Re: less brutal forms of slavery. Yes, there are societies where slavery is more a form of probationary citizenship, ones where there's little difference between the quality of life for a slave vs. a freedman, and even hypothetically some where only major political/religious organizations get to keep slaves and the vast bulk of those slaves get cushy, deskjoblike positions. Those settings do not, as a rule, have either the numbers nor the widespread resentment that tends to trigger large scale slave revolutions.

I'll also note that even in societies with especially brutal forms of slavery, you could easily have freedmen who sympathized with the slaves and/or had some ties to them. Especially if the enslaved tended to come overwhelmingly from one minority religious/ethnic group. So if the goal is to have a slave revolt topple a particularly brutal and oppressive regime, there are options that don't involve playing through the drudgework of being slaves for an extended period of time.

[False God]

I've been through this sort of story arc a number of times, each time it ends with the PCs rebelling and winning their freedom.

It was also, each time, "un-fun". Playing through the drudgery of being a slave just to build up to the inevitable rebellion is always boring! So insufferably BORING! When this sort of story-line start off again, I roll my eyes and plan to be BUSY the next few sessions until it's over.

So do me a favor. If you want to put my character into a slave rebellion, just write up it up as a cut scene where whatever is going to happen just happens. My character is a slave: He's gonna be uppity with the task masters and get beaten up and forced to break rocks against his will, he's gonna be cool with befriending the old wrongfully dishonored war veteran and enable his rise as the leader of the slave rebellion. I don't need to play that out in excruciating detail, because it is ALWAYS THE SAME: The whole point of the exercise is "Your choice has been taken away from you, what do you do? Yeah, but instead you have to do this."

Just finish up the story and cue me back in when my decisions matter.

-DF

This is my experience and opinion on it as well.

If a slave rebellion is going to happen, regardless, then the game should start there. The players can be filled in on the "lead in" to the rebellion without having them have to actually play through them. Or heck, they can be "new slaves" just in time for the rebellion to begin! It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to demonstrate why the way this society goes about slavery is terribly horrible and in need of a rebellion. The chaos of a society undergoing a revolution, having to navigate who to side with, who to backstab, when to commit violence, when to barter for peace will be much more engaging than the drudgery of slave labor to demonstrate just how bad everything is.

Rejoice Comrades, the Glorious Revolution is upon us!
...and let the games begin.

IF, and that's a big IF the players actions via slave drudgery will determine if a rebellion happens at all, sure, that might be interesting, but it's a "by day you are but a slave doing mundane slavery, but at night you become Batman!" then play through the character's being Batman and either secret-policing the rebels, or undermining the administration.