Blackstone Prison and Background count? Options

[fistandantilus4....]

mfb, no on the first one, yes on the second. You are the only one. :D

Even if a lot of his movies could tie in, I just can't fit ... Christopher... Lambert in ... tooo..... ugh, nope, can't even say it.

I think hyzmarca got it.

[KarmaInferno]

There were two different versions of the movie Deadlock made. One is entitled "Deadlock 2" but is really a remake, as none of the original stars reprise their roles and it basically retells the same story, with different details.

The first starred Rutger Hauer and Mimi Rogers.

The second starred Nia Peeples and Esai Morales

I remember one of the movies (don't remember which) where one of the paired escaped prisoners gets trapped in an elevator going down, with her partner outside the elevator. There was a wild scramble as the outside partner ran, fell, and tumbled down stairs, out a window onto a window washer's rig, down ropes, etc to try and stay within "safe" range of the partner inside the elevator.

Fortress had a similar concept, except it was an implant instead of a collar, and it was tuned to proximity of areas rather than another inmate. Walk anywhere you're not supposed to and you get hit with excruciating pain. Walk further, or refuse to come back to the safe areas, it kills you.

You know what this thread made me think of immediately when I started reading it? The Shalebridge Cradle level of the game Thief Deadly Shadows. About the creepiest damn sequence in a video game I've ever seen. I can easily see Astral space in the prison being like Shalebridge.


-karma

[Ravor]

Care to go into detail about the level?

[KarmaInferno]

The game is otherwise a fantasy setting with elements of steam-tech, about a master thief (the player) caught up in evil plots by multiple factions each seeking domination over The City.

In short, the Shalebridge Cradle was a prison. And an insane asylum. And an orphanage. And for a while, it was all of these things at the same time. The level of horror and misery of the inhabitants over the decades warped and twisted the very essence of the prison into a malevolent entity. A long ago fire caused the place to be closed down, but nobody over the years has been willing to take over the property. Nobody really even wants to go near it.

And as it would happen, take a guess where the game's plotline takes you into the heart of?.

There's an article originally printed in PC Gamer magazine that does a really good breakdown and analysis of the level. The author has a PDF of the article available here:

http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=618


-karma

[ThreeGee]

[2bit]

oh god, and I didn't get that far in the game... now I have to dig it up. god, i love Thief.

[KarmaInferno]

I sound like a damn advertisement for the game, but if you want a copy it's available via direct download through Steam:

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?ar...ppId=6980&cc=US

It's that good.

I really have to go put together a nice gaming scenario where the PC have to go into a haunted asylum. <rubs hands wickedly>


-karma

[Therumancer]

Shades of John Saul anyone?

That said I would point out that in SR they have more or less been snuffing prisoners on live TV since 2050 at least, so the idea of "humane treatment of prisoners" is pretty much dead. When it comes to the Sinless, there is no reason to even put them into prison unless you intend to be a sadist, it's easier to just shoot them and forget about it, especially if they are dangerous. The Sinless are non-entities and not having a SIN is basically a death penelty crime if you become inconveinent.

At any rate, the only problem with "Blackstone Prison" and sending a SR PC there is justifying why anyone would bother assuming the PC is a Shadowrunner. If they are going to bother destroying him is pretty much the point.

-

Honestly though, going by what I've read in things like the old "Shadowbeat" supplement, if the Corps don't snuff him they are more likely to want to profit off his demise. It's likely he'll wind up the "star" on the latest broadcast from Aztlan (even if another corp is sponsoring it) with the draw that they are going to kill a "real" Shadowrunner. In the process outing his identity so even if he does somehow survive, his enemies (like say if he did something like cast an "Orgasm" spell on someone important's daugher and the guy took it that seriously) will make short work of him.

If the guy is a mage there are other ways to lock out his magical abillity. Books like "Lone Star" (which I have mixed opinions of) introduced hoods and stuff to prevent people from casting spells.

Or more to the point, they can just do some illicit cyber-surgery on him. I mean the guy has probably spent most of his Karma and stuff on his magic. If they say implant him with bone lacing, muscle replacement, and a datajack and drop his essence down below 1... well, magic just became a lot more difficult for this guy (impossible if he's not an initiate). You don't even have to use good grade stuff, rusty junk bought for 10% of the regular value from a bunch of ghoul Cybersnatchers (installed with the teethmarks still present) will do for this, if it malfunctions 50% of the time, so much the better! :)

At any rate, being caught as a Shadowrunner is never pleasant, and this is why I imagine most of them never surrender if they are sane. Here are some suggestions for the fate of captured Shadowrunners that aren't just tortured and shot in the back of the head:

LIVE ON DEATHSAT 4!!! Fresh from Aztlan! For your Viewing Pleasure!

Noon:

On a gladiatorial deathmatch show, some poor goober Shadowrunner (probably a former mage) is brought out with cheap cyberware and the persona chip of a 'tough guy' permanantly soldered into his new (if a bit rusty) Datajack. He is allowed to talk trash before the new "Jobber" is messily dismembered by an up and coming contender looking to fight the champ.

Wow! If this guy just tore apart the infamous Shadowrunner that easily in a REAL Deathmatch, he must be something! The champ had better watch out!

One O' Clock: The poor shadowrunner is brought out with a bodysculpt, vat grown muscles (preettty) and a chip soldered into his jack that reverses his pain and pleasure centers. He is then tied up in a torture chamber as two leather clad hotties come out and pleasure and torture him with reversed feeds. He expires during the orgasmic finale. Discount simchips (albeit not BTL quality as they are legal) of this televised event are then sold for only $20 nuyen apiece to the sicko snuff crowd.

Two O' Clock: As above, but it's the gay version.

Three O' Clock: Time to reenact the "Running Man" accuratly, including the rigged contest! Well sort of. They solder a chip with an imprint taken from a starved and terrified housecat and turn the poor Shadowrunner/Prisoner loose in the desert/swamp/jungle/urban arena and then send out the team of competing corperate gladiators (each sponsored by a differant corp) to see who can kill him first after a 10 minute lead. Bonus prizes are of course awarded for creative sadism in bringing the prey down, despite it primarly being a race.


Okay, now granted the UCAS might not ever admit to this kind of thing, and transmissions from "Deathsat 4" only come in via pirate broadcasts. But corps are multinational (including Lone Star) and are going to do their profitable prisoner disposal overseas (or so they claim).

Now granted, the corps can just have some sec guy taser a random Sinless dude and drag him back for Cosmetic modification to fill out these shows, but when they have a shadowrunner who failed to break into a compound who is stupid enough to get caught or better yet surrender (heh) it lets them send a message to people who mess with the corp.

>>>----Therumancer--->

[hyzmarca]

Hmm. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of gladitorial pponets that a prisoner will face are puny 2s across the board augmented human wage slaves who want some extra money to pay for their kid's braces. The entire point of the competition is that everyman challengers fight heavily armored prisoners for a chance at cash and prizes.
Its the same with Golden glory. The contestants are wage slave volunteers who are willing to risk life and limb for a chance to win money.
From that perspective, being a prison gladiator is a cushy gig. The entire point is to make sure the contestants never have a chance to win anything so it will be stacked in the prisoners' favor.

[Therumancer]

Actually Hyzmarca, the entire point of gladiatorial bloodsports has been the same throughout history: The joy of watching people die, oftentimes painfully.

That's what the audience wants, and in this case we're dealing with a dangerous Shadowrunner who they have no real reason to want to keep alive. 99.9% of the time their just going to put a bullet in the guy and call it a day. I mean all of the things I've said in other threads about Shadowrunners are why when you've got one, you don't take any chances.

That .1% of the time, usually justified by the GM wanting to give the PC a chance to escape (or more logically, be rescued by the other PCs) the corp is looking to cash in with a public execution, or send a message.

In all my examples it's pretty consistant, the PC dies. He's not given a chance or allowed to 'put up a fight'. He's disposed of, albeit in a creative, yet fairly sadistic, fashion.

Otherwise, I'd tend to agree. In many deathmatches they want to develop "names" that people will bet on. But they usually lead up to these things by "Feeding" people to the victors they want, in order to generate hype. That way there is interest when the two "names" fight. Sending a guy in there to die to the champ is a way of executing someone, and if the dude is a Shadowrunner, well being fed that guy helps pump up the rep.

As I mentioned, with the "Sims" and "personality chips", all they really need is meat. I'd imagine your typical corp doesn't just use prisoners, but also just goes and randomly abducts SINLESS off the street, slots them with whatever personality overwrite they want, and then watches them go "Splat".

For snuffporn, it's relatively cheap and easy to cosmetically modify someone (especially if the person is only seen on camera). If your not doing Simsense tie ins, you might as well cheaply mod some Sinless waif, runaway, or bag lady, and use them for the porn chopping block. In the case above they were being a little elaborate about it... because it's a Shadowrunner. The idea is word will get out in the Shadows (like they want it to) that you don't mess with MCT or Renraku or Aztechnology or whatever or else THIS is what happens. They don't capture Shadowrunners too often (by the nature of the job) so... :)

I figure the expensive/elaborate simsense snuffporn is what they need the "quality" merchandise from the slave traders and such from. Not to mention the normal stuff where noone dies which actually makes up the majority of it (the subject was executions).

>>>----Therumancer--->