Blackstone Prison and Background count? Options

[Denicalis]

I'm working on a game that is going to involve some prison time for one of my players, who happens to be a mage. I'm going to put him up in Blackstone (SOTA 64, pg 93). The book says that Blackstone exists on a manawarp, and I quote:

[The Jopp]

Concidering the population I would imagine that the value has increased due to the emotional emanations from the inmates, increasing the background count a little. Most regular mages in SR4 have 1-3 in magic, the corp trained and above average runners have around 4-5.

Then we have the hardcases with magic of 6+.

I would imagine that the prison itself have a fluctuating background count (with the manawarp included) depending on where you are.

Isolation cells: 6+
High Sec: 6
Showers: 5+ (Someone dropped the soap?)
Recreational areas: 4+
Cells: 3+
Guard areas and office area: 2+

I would also imagine that certain areas most likely have some protection against the emotional effects from the manawarp. This could be for taking care of prisoners who behave in a good manner. Solutions could be shielded rooms with strong defenses from adept powers and spellcasting but allowing the prisoner a little calm through simsense to remove the constant depression, fear, angst and other emotions flooding the place.

I would imagine that the guards themselves would protect themselves with simsense to counter the effect of the manawarp so that you don’t have suicidal and extremely violent guards that the prison cannot actually trust (you DON’T want to have a loose cannon with a gun inside a prison).

I know it’s a rather dystopian and dark future in SR4 and the prison system is probably harsh, but I cannot truly envision it as a dead end as it is a prison, people will be released one day which means that they should still be a functional human, and too much time in that place without any relief from it’s effects.

[ThreeGee]

First, I'd advise carefully reading the Background Count rules in SM p117-118.

The effects of background count have changed since earlier editions and seem far more dangerous. A background count of 6 is enough to make most adepts and mages into basically mundanes unable to perform any magic at all.

I recently ran an adventure in the East Anglia Stinkfens. Background count 2 rising to 3 and 4 in the final scene. My party mages almost refused to take part when they found out the effect of even this level had on their casting.

[The Jopp]

[ThreeGee]

Under the new rules there are three effects for PC's to consider.

Firstly the awakened individuals magic rating is reduced by the background count. This effects all force limits, dice pools and reduces adepts powers. If this reduces the magic attribute to 0 then they lose access to magic for the duration.

Secondly, the background count is added to the base force for all magical drain tests.

Additionally all non-aspected spirits, foci, wards etc. have their force reduced by the background count.

It's scarily dangerous, particularly for mages who are relying on foci. They're own Magic is reduced and that of the foci they're using.

[knasser]

I had an idea for a "Prison Run" a while ago, though the players are in no way ready for it. I may write it up depending on both time and the feedback I get on my last adventure. But basically, yes - background count makes a big difference. But bear in mind that in the prison environment, samurai will also be deprived of many of their better toys. Cyberware inhibitors, wired reflexes set to "off." In a lot of ways, there's a power reduction across the whole team. Adepts are possibly the hardest hit as background count affects their abilities, also.

And as to Ally Spirits...

[hyzmarca]

7-10 is good. It'll allow them to reliably neutralize initiates up to grade 4. Mana warp begins at 7, so that's the prison's bare minimum

[nathanross]

From how it sounded in SOTA: 2064, Blackstone is the magical prison. Dont play it easy on them.

Also remember that the bad part isnt that you cant use magic, it's that they brainwash you with BTLs 24/7. If you really want to be cruel, implant a datajack and hook them up to hot sim. Maybe even throw in a cranial bomb. I know that if I had a dangerous mage under my watch, I'd make him as harmless as possible, and would not take any chances. Magic is a scary thing, afterall.

[Backgammon]

The OP states that that going to Blackstone is part of the campaign - i.e. not just a consequence of getting caught. The GM will have to provide a way for the runner to get out - job offer from a corp after a few days ("Now that you,ve had a taste of life here, let me ask you this: are you willing to take a dangerouns job from us, or spend the rest of your life here. The choice is yours") or some plot hook like that. Rescue from teamates is possible too, assuming thats part of the plot... Im saying, nothing but what the GM has planned will get a PC out of Blackstone.

But I agree, if the character spends too much time there, he wont die, no, but he will be wrecked nearly to the point of being unplayable.

[hyzmarca]

You see, that's where I disagree. I think the level of mental disturbance and outright insanity that would be caused by a long stay in Blackstone would make a character ever more playable.

[The Jopp]

One way to actually reduce the (possible risk) of madness amongst inmates would be to induce an amotional track.

Regular simsense could be used on ALL inmates through trodes to keep them docile and keep them (reasonable) sane. The tech is available in SR4 and would be cheap when bought in bulk.

With the tech level in SR4 they might very well have changed their modus operandi on their inmates to keep them docile so drugs might be something they have removed.

[Backgammon]

[Backgammon]

[Shrike30]

I think you'd see guards coming in and out on longer (but more spaced-out) shifts to work here. Think something like 3 12-hour shifts in a week, with a lot of downtime to recharge, and good pay to keep them there.

Or, you could go the other way, and say they pull involuntary overtime all the time, are underpaid, and generally hostile... and that's before the effects of sitting in a giant mana warp catch up to them... :vegm:

[hyzmarca]

There is little profit in employing metahuman guards. It is so much more efficient to just create an unbeatable perimeter of automated guns and airdrop food in every week. You could even have the drone guns programed to perform maintenance on each other so that no human presence is necessary.

[TheRedRightHand]

^Exactly what I was going to say. Why have metahuman guards at all? Do all the "guarding" by drones, Hackers and robots.

Hell most prisons nowdays don't allow guards walking in amongst the cells & cons to carry guns because they would never risk letting a prisoner get a hold of a gun. All the gun carrying guards are behinds fences, walls, etc... so there is no chance of a prisoner getting a hold of a firearm.

In the future they could just use drones to do the rounds. No need for head counts because all the cons have implants that track their movements/locations inside, etc...

No, there is no need for guards inside at all, in fact it is more dangerous to have them in there because it could make for hostage situations. No one will care if the cons take a damn drone hostage.

[2bit]

Do the dementors know about this place?

[fistandantilus4....]

Apparently. The poster in SOTA 64 was ' Sirius'

[Whipstitch]

[Demon_Bob]

Prisons should be nice open areas. No stone walls, no barbed wire. No guards wondering about and around inmates. Drones of all sizes, but not with guns near the inmates, just a few around the perimeter. Nice little lockable rooms for the inmates. Cameras all over the place. Food Drops. Inmates would be required to maintain the compound. Cortex bombs in all the inmates that go off if the perimeter is breached, or rules are broken. Not just one in each but 2 or 3 for warning purposes. Much more cost effective that way.

[Jack Kain]

I actually see the true maximum prisons would be almost total sim sense. When in their cells they'd be locked into the prison program. With out the capacity to run programs they'd have no way to manipulate the environment to their advantage unless they happened to be a technomancer but they can give them more traditional cells.

Machinery can take care of food and waste and you spend 30 years in a virtual prison over the course of 10.
Magic accounts for little when locked in hot sim.

Technomancers could be a problem as they wouldn't require programs and their sprites could reek havoc. But they can use more traditional cells that are blocked from computer access.

[fistandantilus4....]

[TheRedRightHand]

Hmmm... well The Running Man had collars like that at the beginning. And the main guy was wrongfully accused and there was a "hot girl" (by 80's standards) but they wern't linked together.

Not sure if that is the film you mean.

Another good prison movie is "No Escape" for a lord-of-the-flies type maximum sec. prison.

And this new movie out this week looks to be like both movies put together (with a little "Battle Royal" thrown in) it's called The Condemned or something like that. Looks really bad.

[mfb]

you're probably thinking of Fortress. am i alone in thinking that Christopher Lambert is probably the most Shadowrun-y actor ever? pretty much any movie he's in, you can draw some sort of inspiration from or parallel to SR.

[hyzmarca]

Rutgar Hauer, actually. The movie is called Deadlock or Wedlock, depending on where it is playing. Deadlock is far more common.