So I just had Lonestar show up as my players tried to sell off some milspec tech they got their hands on. The kind lieutenant had a very interesting offer for them: If the party would allow themselves to be arrested, Lonestar would be disinclined to pursue them when they broke out of the Knights Errant prison.

My game is incredibly pink mohawk, with a body-snatching pixie, an AI hacker/rigger with Yakuza ties, a centaur... I don't really know what he does, a Dread Pirate Roberts wannabe stealth human, and a glass cannon gunbunny elf.

The pixie and the AI were not arrested, and the party is getting a chance to make arrangements for extra outside help before they get shipped off, but they'll largely be on their own once there.

What I need from DS is a prison. Pink Mohawk variant. I need ideas for the matrix set-up, the magic defenses, and the mundane murderfest that I can put my players through. I want to scare them, and make them work their asses off for their "pardons," but I don't want them to be completely helpless.

Any thoughts? Aside, of course, from the inherent "you're a d*** GM for railroading them like that" comments?

roll the very underestimated Escape Artist skill ?!

Have them be the essential "Last Piece" needed for an already-planned escape plan for an group of prisoners already.

Either that, or a Pixie with some Bangalores.

They should construct a Mad Max style deathmobile out of spare scrap metal from the license plate factory. Then they can use prison toilet hooch to power it and also to make molotov cocktails.

That sounds more like an episode of The A-Team.

Like there's anything wrong with that.

Any "real" Shadowrun prison would have to either remove or disable all that expensive cyberware.

I'm a child of the '80s. Nothing wrong with that at all.

As much as the ideas for the PC tactics are amusing...

I was actually hoping for ideas for the other side of the steel bars. Design the prison, not how to break it. Thanks for the cunning plans, though!

Mage prison would most likely be underground with heavily warded chokepoints to contain Astrally projecting mages. I can see a big use of Personofix's to keep the inmates docile. I actually think I have a prison layout that might work somewhere in my old files.

when you are working out the prison, dont forget about the "society" that is set up inside of it, different "gangs", people looking to just get by, snitchs, guards on the take, prison work groups, people in solitarty, the prison church, med ward, cell mates, bubba the love troll...

Each inmate gets a proximity detecting collar, you leave the prison your head explodes.
Several inmates "volunteered" for medical testing. This has made them powerful but unstable.
The jailers run a nice little side brothel business using the inmates and allot of gentech.
Need a new organ in a hurry, don't have time to wait for a wimp? Well do we have a deal for you.
The prisoners run the prison, the jailers just shoot anyone that tries to leave.
This Sunday Sunday Sunday, in the Steal Cage of Black Death Death Death, see Spine Ripper battle Death Rattle.
Wait your supposed to break out too? Join every other inmate in here!
Deliver the package/complete the run, we turn off the cortex bomb and you get to leave
Prisoners do hard labor as ghoul patrol.
Fear makes the meat taste sooooo good and the frugal Ghoulmet has a large appetite.
Prison Rock
The warden needs you to make some people disappear
The guards need you to make the warden disappear
It's a riot, so now everyone wants everyone dead.
We need some "volunteers" for a desert wars "rebel" village.
My name is Mr. J and I need you to extract someone for me.
Oh whops we screwed up your paper work, you were supposed to go to the male zone.
Very very cheap porn
Snuff
So we have this ritual we want to perform...
It's a very rare awakened gene. And it only shows up after exposure to the virus. But hey if you survive you walk free, we promise.
Yes indeed I have dedicated this entire wing to Orcs. Would you like a pamphlet on the Orkish uprising?
Were the Universal... Brotherhood of the Universe and we would like you to help us help you start a new life.
UCAS is now recruiting

Bubba the Love Troll

I think you should switch to a Pink-Mohawk setting prison: the inmates are just thrown somewhere where they can't reach the civilization (thanks to mines, drones and spirits) and left to themselves.
Think "Escape From N.Y" or "Escape From L.A"

Death Race 200(
The Running Men

I think bluedao just about has it right.

For full-on pink mohawk, the prisoners are basically running the prison. The wings are run by different gangs, in competition. There's still a schedule, but people can get around that pretty easily. Only weapons are those that can be crafted from stuff around the prison, so mostly shivs, chains, pipes and so on. Magicians wear mage collars that explode if something even LIKE a spell is detected (don't get nervous or aroused... you never know.) Snitches, snipers and heavy, electrified gates keep the prison from erupting into total chaos. The outside perimeter is guarded by a kill zone and some pretty heavy hardware. The only people with enough resources TO leave are precisely those who don't want to (why be a little fish in a big pond when you're king right here?)

As runners, the characters immediately fall into the 'either we get them or we kill them to keep anyone else from having them' category.

No Escape, that was a good one. The prisoners there are all basically given carte blanche to run things how they see fit because there are no guards, just an island under sat surveillance with a fast attack team ready to spool up within about 20 minutes to ensure the prisoners don't leave. Weapons are primitive at best.

Wards are good in general, not just for the mages. Within there might be an Awakened wing of the prison, which you could then ward even moreso (individual cells in additional to the whole place.) Spirits could be used to whoop ass and report incidents as needed, and even Watchers can, well, watch.

I guess for TM threats you could do faraday cages or the inhibiting paint scheme for some cells. Probably to play off weaknesses spirits could better monitor TM's, where as electronic surveillance such as drones and such would be less mucked about with by the Awakened.

For tech stuff, depending on the prison and inmates, you could outfit neck bands with RFID tagging that administers electric jolts if it is found outside a certain perimeter. The same neck band could be outfitted with a biomonitor so it doesn't continue to zap the inamte, and cook their neck.

For the Matrix, I would have some sort of office that would have wifi access (possibly the warden's phone and something like a front desk), but for the rest it should be hardlined. Any monkeying around would require you to get up close and personal. An amount of IC to make Vanilla jealous should reside therein that offline system.

For more hands-on matters, gun turrets outfitted with the safety chip feature, and all major personel equipped with said safety chip. Guns should be biomonitor linked to their guard, and that guard only, in the event of a semi-successful riot. Nothing so bad as rigged with explosives, but more shocking and such would be fine.

Outside, lets bring in some of that barbed wire that was talked so much about a while back. Hell, electrify it, too. Maybe a seperate security system that monitors the ins and outs of the place. In the event that something does compromise the prison itself, this outer wall may be able to stop a prison break, or at least call it in and request aid/back up.

I have to admit I usually forget about paracritters being used, so I can't really say anything there.

Vanilla IC? BOO HISS!

Pink Mohawk, not pussy white rapper!

Heheh... Well Said...

Fortress




-k

Alright, stop.

Collaborate.

And listen.

You. Should. Be. Tortured. Mercilessly.

Ice is back with my brand new invention.

Something's.

Grabbed a hold of me tightly, flow like a hawk, daily and nightly.


IS IT IN YOUR HEAD YET?

Jon "Money" Johnson still has his Elephant Rifle. Don't make me pull him out.

And here i thought the Money Shot would have been Bubbas trademark *snickers*

Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know.

Turn off the lights, and I glow.

Money's shot is .600 Nitro Express. Bubba wishes he had that kind of caliber.

It is a dark, dystopic world. This should play in all the cells, too. Possibly even karaoke renditions of it. That way when the inmates are talking about So-And-So being volunteered to Tamanous or some such it's said with envy, not hate and fear.

Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha... Ahhh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Alright I spent about 7 years working in a high security County Jail in RL so I can give a some advise on what they're like inside.

Structural security and layout

First of all think of buildings within buildings. Most jail are broken down into the overall facility and numerous modules or dorms within. There will be a medical unit, a kitchen to prepare food and likely some sort of work unit. Print shop, sewing shop to make jail uniforms, and other stuff. There will be an intake section for buses to facilitate the transfer of inmates and a discipline unit for problem children who refuse to get a long. Likely Inmates won't have any access to any exterior gates or fenses. Yards will be concrete reinforce walls covered by a heavy duty gorilla wire or transparent reinforced material.

Access and keys
each dorm or module will have it's own codes for opening and closing doors. The guards will likely have mag strips to open those doors in their module only. They will not be able to open any door outside their module of assignment. Each module will likly have a main control room where all doors can be overiden and shut incase the key cards are compromised. The main facility will also have control over each dorm and all doors in the facility as a backup in case of major riots or emergency.

This being Shadowrun the main facility will likely have magic wards to prevent astral projecting highest possible rating. Each module will have it's own node and the facility will have a main node to control all the othes. Signal rating will be kept minimal with repeaters withing the facility to create a very specific wireless range and foot print, to prevent external hacking. There will likely be a spider or two covering the nodes and numerous watcher agenst and ice protecting each node from intrusion.

Guards will likely have less lethal weaponry. Tasers, Stun batons and impact vests with non conductivity. There will be a response team with rifles with stick n shock, gel rounds or other less lethat stuff. They will likely be wearing full armor with better impact protection and non conductivity. They will also be carrying tear gas and flash bang.

Inmates
Will for the most part be housed in large 100 man units. Discipline, keepaways, and super high security will be in 1 or 2 man rooms. They will get some yard time a couple hours a day or every few days. Cyberware will all be turned off or disconnected as applicable. Mages will likely be kept in high security and magic dead zones. Movement oustise of the doorms will be kept to a minimum unless going to yard. Most jail now even feed inside the dorm to prevent problems.

That should give some good ideas to start with for designing the facility.

"Did you hear about Fritz?" "Nah. He just vanished one day." "Yeah, well, my Chummer Bob at the Clinic found out about him from the Docs. Turns out he had a Type-O anatomy. Was worth more as spare parts as a warm bed here." "Lucky fragger. The fast way out, and probably painless, too." "Chip truth."