[Possible spoilers for a 14 year old module]Red Hand of Doom - suicidal PCs

[claypigeons]

I'm DMing the Red Hand of Doom module online for a few friends.

They have destroyed the bridge and cleared out Vraath keep. Along the way, they had a character death and used the Staff of Life to resurrect them.

They've returned to Drellin's Ferry to report everything. They have decided to stand and fight, and want the militia and city guards to help. I've done all I can to relay the desperate need to evacuate, but they are refusing, perhaps because even with the death, they had a relatively easy time in Vraath.

They did let Ozyrrendion escape, so he'll be at the Drellin's Ferry battle.

How can I get my players and their characters to take the army seriously enough to run? I'm inclined to just let the dice decide and pack it up if it's a TPK, but I'd also like to finish the module.

[Asmotherion]

I'm DMing the Red Hand of Doom module online for a few friends.

They have destroyed the bridge and cleared out Vraath keep. Along the way, they had a character death and used the Staff of Life to resurrect them.

They've returned to Drellin's Ferry to report everything. They have decided to stand and fight, and want the militia and city guards to help. I've done all I can to relay the desperate need to evacuate, but they are refusing, perhaps because even with the death, they had a relatively easy time in Vraath.

They did let Ozyrrendion escape, so he'll be at the Drellin's Ferry battle.

How can I get my players and their characters to take the army seriously enough to run? I'm inclined to just let the dice decide and pack it up if it's a TPK, but I'd also like to finish the module.

Spoiler this please. Not everyone has played the module.

[claypigeons]

"First published
2006"

It's been 14 years. If it's still a surprise, don't click the thread.

[tyckspoon]

Let them see the full army crashing against the town, let them gauge their odds of killing a dragon plus thousands of hobgoblins in direct combat with the aid of a few dozen poorly equipped townspeople. Maybe roll out a few turns if they want to take a stab at field-assassinating some commanders or get Ozzy's attention and try to take him down in the open fight. If they don't run at that point, have them roll new characters and pick up a few days later in Brindol, where a couple of survivors of the failed defense of Drellin's Ferry have just arrived in town, ready to drop dead of exhaustion on top of equally exhausted horses..

Edit: If you don't want to kill everybody in Drellin's Ferry, you could have one of the local townspeople of influence decide to evacuate anyways and take with them anybody that the players can't convince to stand and fight. It won't be as complete or as smooth as if the PCs put their influence behind organizing an evacuation, but that just means you can have Drellin's Ferry NPCs show up in Brindol later who are glad to be alive, but bitter that they lost everything else because some idiots thought they could stand off the entire Red Hand in open battle..

[ChudoJogurt]

There is a "Captured by the Horde" option in the book for precisely this occasion.

Alternatively -let them make their final stand. If they do well enough they can try to escape at last moment (between the waves of attackers) or, they die, covering the escape of the villagers
Read an epilogue, and continue the he, as, for example, a party of Lions of Brindol sent against the dragon-breeding facility.

[thorr-kan]

I've asked several times, but nobody's 'fessed up to try to stand at the Fall of Drellin's Ferry.

Have a few more survivors, including the NPC ranger and maybe the forest giants, flee across the river with stories of a rampaging horde, flying monsters, and a dragon.

Have the civilians be panicked.

Roll play the players attempts to get the town to stand. Keep it honest. If the PCs are persuasive, stand. If they aren't, have the civilians flee.

If the PCs decide to stand, run the Fall. Run it honest. Keep the waves coming. Let the dice fall as they may. If it results in a TPK or capture, c'est la vie; that's just the way it goes.

Proceed from there.

Please let us know what happens.

[ngilop]

I've asked several times, but nobody's 'fessed up to try to stand at the Fall of Drellin's Ferry.

Have a few more survivors, including the NPC ranger and maybe the forest giants, flee across the river with stories of a rampaging horde, flying monsters, and a dragon.

Have the civilians be panicked.

Roll play the players attempts to get the town to stand. Keep it honest. If the PCs are persuasive, stand. If they aren't, have the civilians flee.

If the PCs decide to stand, run the Fall. Run it honest. Keep the waves coming. Let the dice fall as they may. If it results in a TPK or capture, c'est la vie; that's just the way it goes.

Proceed from there.

Please let us know what happens.

Honestly.. if they have gotten to where they are and actually think they have a fighting chance (irony may or may not be intended) there is NOTHING further you can do to show/prove to them how idiotic of an idea it is to fight the whole horde at drellin's ferry.

let the dive fall. If charactes die to a lucky orc babrian's #21 full damage raging two handed axe critical that is one thing. But, the players having full knowledge of the situation and deciding to go forward is a completely different thing.

If they whine and cry about dieing, tell them " you don't stick you hand in the over then cry about why i let you do that, same applies here. You knew.. you did it anyways"

[False God]

Let the dice land where they will, and may god have mercy on their soul.









Huh....I swear I just heard someone shout "It's not god they'll be asking for mercy!"

[vasilidor]

if they are in the upper teens in level, they may have a chance of actually surviving, and winning, if the horde is a group of 1 hit die warriors. the dragon changes things a bit. but the fact of the matter is, in 3.5 an intelligently played character can solo 100 1/3 cr monsters by 6th or 7th level, even if you have been stingy with the magic items.
now if these guys have levels in pc classes, or even just extra levels of warrior, that changes things even more. a large group (10+) of 7th or 8th level warriors could press a fighter of 17th level pretty hard. so survivability is a matter of context.

[Zombimode]

Be glad you can actualy use the gorgeous illustration on page 40

[Faily]

I'm DMing the Red Hand of Doom module online for a few friends.

They have destroyed the bridge and cleared out Vraath keep. Along the way, they had a character death and used the Staff of Life to resurrect them.

They've returned to Drellin's Ferry to report everything. They have decided to stand and fight, and want the militia and city guards to help. I've done all I can to relay the desperate need to evacuate, but they are refusing, perhaps because even with the death, they had a relatively easy time in Vraath.

They did let Ozyrrendion escape, so he'll be at the Drellin's Ferry battle.

How can I get my players and their characters to take the army seriously enough to run? I'm inclined to just let the dice decide and pack it up if it's a TPK, but I'd also like to finish the module.

Having been through RHoD three times with different groups (once as a player, twice as a player), and there's always been one casualty in the first part (once in Vraath Keep, twice vs Ozzy). Nice to see the trend continuing other places too.

Anyway, I support what the others are saying. Let the PCs stand and fight if they absolutely want to, let them face the full might of the Horde's vanguard. And when they die, have them roll up Brindol-PCs who will be sent on missions by Jarmaath to handle the other parts.

They might try to convince the NPCs to stay, but honestly, the NPCs aren't suicidal. They'll want to evacuate, even if the PCs say that they can take it head on. Most likely they'll trust the word of the local Ranger NPC over the word of these strangers when it comes to the impending danger, and Townspeaker and Guard Captain are both NPCs concerned with the wellbeing of the people. They will leave the town behind in order to save the townspeople.

[Asmotherion]

"First published
2006"

It's been 14 years. If it's still a surprise, don't click the thread.

Just because something is old, doesn't mean everyone has played it. I have new players, who might frequent this forum, and I don't want to ruin this for them in case we play the module. I will insist on at least a spoiler tag to the title.

[Tvtyrant]

It is a lot more effective to ask your players not to look RHD spoilers up then try to police the internet.

@OP I would pull then aside and tell them flat out they are going to die, they can't beat the entire horde with all of its lords, dragons and giants by themselves.

[Asmotherion]

It is a lot more effective to ask your players not to look RHD spoilers up then try to police the internet.

@OP I would pull then aside and tell them flat out they are going to die, they can't beat the entire horde with all of its lords, dragons and giants by themselves.

A player may see the title, and expect to engage in a discussion free of spoilers.

It's unformal polite etiquette across the internet to include a spoiler alert; I am not asking for something absurd here, nor am I policing anything. I simply ask politely that Op comforms politely to the general notion of a "spoiler alert".

[Elkad]

If your table hasn't learned to run away from some fights, it's probably time they did.

Let them try. Let them fail. Then do as suggested upthread and have them roll new characters.

You might even be surprised at what happens during that failure.

Will they break and run? Will they do something heroic? Will they do something evil (betray the other defenders and try to join the Red Hand)? Will one member flee on his own?

[Quertus]

It is a lot more effective to ask your players not to look RHD spoilers up then try to police the internet.

It might be a lot more effective to protect yourself from germs to wear a hazmat suit than to try to convince people not to cough on you, but that doesn't change the fact that coughing on people's faces is rude.

Same thing here. Granted, *knowing* that RHoD is a published module, *I* knew to expect potential spoilers before clicking… but not everyone in the whole world is savvy to the names of all modules ever printed - especially ones that don't (right?) exist in "modern" RPGs.

So, if someone new to RPGs had been told to get a feel for 3e in preparation for a 3e game, and warned to avoid SPOILER content, they might not recognize that this thread qualifies until it was too late.

(Not that I have a player in exactly that situation or anything…)

[claypigeons]

The characters (and thus players) are getting a real sense of how ill-prepared Drellin's Ferry is to defend against an invasion.

I think I've chipped away at their imagined indestructibility, and a couple have started asking some questions related to evacuation ("where can they go?" "Can the militia protect them?")