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[Shadowscynthe]

What we could use in adventure mode (and probably dwarf mode) would be hostage taking. I don't mean just grabbing someone and staying in one place, crossbow ready. I mean actually being able to pull a hostage and possibly hold a weapon at the throat/etc. and to threaten others. Also with the dragging, we could be able to pull an unconscious enemy (maybe harder to use as a meatshield?) or companion (probably really useful, in some cases) somewhere they can be hidden or trapped into. It could be interesting to toss that unconscious human into a river to drown them, or to take the lord hostage and threaten to slit his throat if you don't get immediate control of the site and actually cause FEAR to the guards in that way. Currently, grabbing a ruler and, "taking them hostage," if you will won't really cause ANY fear to an armored guard even with a longsword read to kill off the said ruler. You'd probably feel a little afraid, even if you're well trained, if the ruler you're protecting suddenly gets taken hostage with a medieval weapon. Instead, you yell out to the guard that he must yield, his voice doesn't even falter. "You must yield!" "Sorry, you're, like, holding the ruler hostage, so I'm not even fazed " (EDIT: I know dragging was already proposed, I mean like actually getting some fear in the people who care rather than them trying to stab you with their loved one in a position where you can easily off them.)

[CaptainLambcake]

would be great to see, but i'm sure it's planned.  i'd love to at least be able to drag unconscious people and throw them into a river/off a cliff/ drag them to safety, then later we can use it to threaten or whatever.

[StagnantSoul]

It'd be useful. Drag a bandit leader back to a village and make him pay for his crimes.

[Urist Tilaturist]

The guards would not be afraid of being attacked, unless they could see accomplices, since the adventurer's hands are already full of the ruler. How they would react depends on how much they liked the ruler, what the demands were, and if they would suffer consequences from letting the ruler be killed or accepting the demands.

If the ruler is an unpopular tyrant with little support, you may receive only approval. If they do not care enough about the ruler, they may flee and seek help rather than accepting the demands and allow the ruler to be killed. If the ruler's family was threatened, however, they would likely accept the demands, though their troops might not.

All these options would have to be added to make this worthwhile, and I expect Toady has something similar planned.

[CaptainLambcake]

this would also TIE into TYING someone's hands together, having them wake while being dragged is bad

[dudlol]

Something which may tie into this: certain attacks (slashes with small weapons, or stabs/thrusts with more weapons) should have greatly increased accuracy against certain body parts, and be counted as very square hits, based on the distance from a part of the opponent you are currently holding (wrestling grapples, possibly use ubstep distance to determine accuracy benefit).

Just seems like it'd work. I mean, if you've got someone around the chest with one arm, it's not going to be difficult to slash their throat (or any other part close to the part of them that you can stabilize). Similarly, if you can grab someones forearm, it's going to be easier to slice a good chunk off of their lower arm or upper torso, or even remove the upper/lower arm entirely, since they loose the ability to really avoid attacks with those parts.

Iono. Thoughts that came up while I was reading the OP.

Oh, and more related, if this is implemented, the thing you are wielding and how well you are currently grappling the hostage should be considerations. If you've just barely snagged my kings shirt and are brandishing a bo staff I'm not going to be surrendering to you, no matter how little I like my king. If the weapon you wield is unlikely to do more than knock him unconscious, or if your attempt to harm the hostage is as likely or less to succeed than to free them entirely those factors need to be accounted for.

[Urist Tilaturist]

Abstractly yelling at guards to yield is not how to negotiate demands. Some of you really need to learn the ways of extortion. While the family of a captured king would be very happy to hand over wealth to get the king back, conquering a settlement on the basis of capturing the king is unfeasible without an occupying army to help - while the king may agree under duress to let the adventurer take his place, his nobles will not be so obliging to the new pretender and on arrival the adventurer will soon find himself arrested or worse.

The problem with a lot of attitudes here is assuming a "heroic" view of things where big numbers of ordinary folk cannot defeat one adventurer. This is not the case. If the adventurer has only a sword, there is no way he can defeat 300 troops of the city garrison attacking him - they would swarm all over him (see multiple prison guards wrestling down prisoners for this in action). He can escape and survive, but conquering a city single-handed is out of the question without weapons or magic far more advanced than anything in DF.

A bo staff could easily, easily kill a prisoner. Just use it as a bar across the neck for strangulation.

Guards do not just have the choice of "surrender" or "fight". They can also withdraw, come back with 20 others, and crush the hostage taker with force of numbers. If the adventurer is busy fighting or holding onto the king he cannot attack the guards at the same time, so they are not in any personal danger; the only reason they would surrender instead of fleeing the scene is if they think the consequences of surrendering are better than those of leaving the king to his fate.

[Dyret]

there is no way he can defeat 300 troops of the city garrison attacking him - they would swarm all over him (see multiple prison guards wrestling down prisoners for this in action). He can escape and survive, but conquering a city single-handed is out of the question without weapons or magic far more advanced than anything in DF.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Necromancer

[Urist Tilaturist]

I would argue that the necromancer's power comes more from his hordes of undead than his personal strength. He can of course conquer a city, but only with the aid of his minions; the only difference is that he raised them himself.

You may consider an undead-assisted campaign to be single-handed, but being on the receiving end of one in a fortress does not feel like fighting a single enemy, more like more and more as those limbs join the fight...

Fortunately, we have hammerdwarves and macedwarves to deal with this.

[StagnantSoul]

You've never played Dwarf Fortress obviously, if you don't think you can kill a 300 man garrison single handedly. Especially if you're a vampire. A vampire could slaughter their way through the world with little effort. And larger numbers wouldn't change negotiations at all.

[Urist Tilaturist]

I have played Dwarf Fortress, but only in fortress mode.

That is only because dogpiling is not implemented properly. Fighting 300 men is fine if they all stand in line, but they should just swarm the player, wrestle him to the ground, tear off his armour and kill/capture him. Frankly, a huge number of foes should just be able to barge over the adventurer in formation with their combined mass and trample him to death. The Spartan last stand at Thermopylae held off the Persians because they forced them down a narrow valley; when a traitor revealed a back passage, the Persians attacked the Spartans from both sides and killed them. Even then, there were 300 Spartans and some other Greeks, not 1 man with a sword.

Legendary warriors are massively overpowered and make fortress mode, and, from what you have said, adventure mode far too easy when 1 dwarf can effortlessly slaughter an army. If the enemies could have similar legendary powers, this would be somewhat balanced, but they mostly do not.

Having bigger numbers would change negotiations because if the hostage is released or escapes, the bigger numbers can swiftly overwhelm the hostage taker. They can also swiftly betray their word and kill the taker after he has released the captive at little risk of defeat.

[StagnantSoul]

Why in Armok's name would you ever release a hostage? I don't care if they meet my demands, I'm still going to drag him out of the city and kill him.

[Urist Tilaturist]

Then they have no reason to comply with your demands any longer and can freely attack you. You may have obtained the deeds to the city, but you have not convinced the local inhabitants that your rule will be better than the last.

You have extorted de jure control from the king, but for de facto control you need superior force of arms. If you have that, go ahead, just be wary of being killed in your sleep (unless you are a supernatural creature which needs no sleep, of course).

[Helari]

The gameplay mechanics implied by hostage taking are so numerous that there's a lot of groundwork to be laid before getting to the point where that scenario can play out without making it too gamey and formulaic. Overall this suggestion is more like one of Toady's old power goals, it consists of a large number of individual mechanics playing together.

Legendary warriors are massively overpowered and make fortress mode, and, from what you have said, adventure mode far too easy when 1 dwarf can effortlessly slaughter an army. If the enemies could have similar legendary powers, this would be somewhat balanced, but they mostly do not.

I don't think balance is an issue in a singleplayer fantasy game like DF. If one of your dwarves or your adventurer is a superhumanly strong fighter he should be able to perform superhuman feats. Mass combat lacks mechanics like many other parts of DF but if a large host of creatures can use their combined mass to push down a creature might as well have the possibility of the single creature pushing down the large host if it's strong enough. We might be talking about a dwarf or an archangel.

[Adragis]

I'd like to see this, mainly because of my companions drowning in rivers and me being unable to pull them out.
A variant of Dwarf Mode hauling, just with people, I guess?