[RPG] PC in chains, planned theself into a corner

gm-techniquespacingstory

In a game I'm hosted, the PC (there's only one) has just gotten captured by the enemy. This was part of a plan to give his NPC buddy some major characterization by the way she rescues him, but I've run into a snag.

What's the PC going to do while he's locked up? The NPC is going to have a series of verbal encounters (specifically, she's trying to get the bad guy to shoot missiles at her, then use the strength of the signals between the missile's guidance computers, the off-site telemetry stations, and the hidden base where the PC is being held to triangulate where the hidden location is) with the Big Bad, and for them to be very effective story-wise they'd have to be spaced out. I can't really think of a way to let the PC actually do anything during these spaces.

He can't escape, 'cos that'd break everything. I'd rather not let him try to escape, since I don't trust this player not to succeed, and I'd hate to have to pull a Deus Ex Machina just to keep him there. I've kind of run out of ideas with the bad guy interrogating him. What should I do?

Best Answer

There is no reason to have the PC do anything interesting while captured. He may look at the walls or if he's lucky they give him a ball like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape. There is also no reason why the PC should know anything about the NPC staging his escape.

But there is no reason to have you player being bored 3 days just because his character is bored 3 days. If nothing happens for days on end, tell him so and move on. Pick up where the action starts and the NPC frees him. If the player is interested in the story, he will ask how that was possible. If not... then not.

If you want to let your player participate, maybe you could let him escape from his cell (not the building) and rig something to send a signal. Or lower some defense so that the NPC may find him. Maybe your NPC can slip in a message that she needs the baddie to shoot missiles at her, so your PC might "give up" the information about her "missile-weakness" during the next round of torture.