Prison campaign 3.5

[HeroZ]

Hey guys I'm having trouble setting up the scene for a campaign. I want it to be set in the prison and the party is trying to escape, within the prison they can align with gangs or convince the guards or prisoners to start a rebellion. They can make ally's along the way and enmities who will try to face off with them in the court yard. Along their journey they will find out the warden is testing on prisoners and trying to build an army to take over the world. I'm not sure how to start them off either in the prison or being arrested, I also don't know how I'm gonna give them weapons or if they need to take them from the prison I need some ideas to help get this thing started. I also don't know how to map the prison out btw this is my first campaign that I will be DMing for.

[Red Fel]

Hey guys I'm having trouble setting up the scene for a campaign. I want it to be set in the prison and the party is trying to escape, within the prison they can align with gangs or convince the guards or prisoners to start a rebellion. They can make ally's along the way and enmities who will try to face off with them in the court yard. Along their journey they will find out the warden is testing on prisoners and trying to build an army to take over the world. I'm not sure how to start them off either in the prison or being arrested, I also don't know how I'm gonna give them weapons or if they need to take them from the prison I need some ideas to help get this thing started. I also don't know how to map the prison out btw this is my first campaign that I will be DMing for.

I'll be honest... This doesn't sound like a great idea for a first-time DM's campaign. I'm not saying the prison thing can't be done, but it's definitely not easy, and anything that isn't easy is even harder for a first-time DM.

If you really wanted to do it, you could use the prison as an alternative to "You all meet in a tavern," give the first 5-15 minutes of gameplay to "life in the prison, get to know each other," then stage a breakout. That's one way to handle it. But trying to start a major arc of the campaign requires running encounters in the prison, which is difficult for several reasons: Unavailability of gear. Anybody with a gear-dependent build will be crippled by this. Note that this includes any material components for spells. Unavailability of loot. Getting the shinies is one of the great pleasures of D&D. Your players will not have shinies, for there are no shinies to be had. One-sided combat. In line with the first part, the guards and warden will be armed and prepared. Your party will be in rags. You will have no defense, and if combat breaks out everyone will pretty much be hosed except for the spontaneous caster who doesn't need material components. (The Monk will be hosed as well.) But this isn't much of a problem because... Infrequent combat. Despite D&D being a primarily combat-based system, there are things to do outside of combat. Which is good, because, absent some sort of arena, combat in a prison is likely to be exceedingly rare and short-lived, for the reasons stated above.
So, basically, your players won't be able to enjoy most of their class abilities, won't get to fight, won't get loot, won't really be able to do anything but run some social encounters and do what you tell them. It's possible they'll like this. It's also quite possible they'll get incredibly bored within several minutes.

As a new DM, you want to be able to engage your players, to let them thrive and have fun doing what they do. An extended prison scenario tends to force players to do what you tell them to do, because the PCs are basically under someone else's control (the Warden's). For an experienced DM, it can be a challenge to keep the players engaged in such a situation. For a new DM, it can be a nightmare.

Have you considered some dungeons or caves instead? I hear they're all the rage with adventurers.

[The Insanity]

Prison Break was a cool series. It could give you some ideas.

[Thiyr]

Have you considered some dungeons or caves instead? I hear they're all the rage with adventurers.

...why not both?

While I never quite finished it, did a game once in a blatant rip-off of the Exile/Avernum setting. Basically a massive cave system that the totalitarian surface empire uses as a prison. One way portal down there, no escape to the surface. People thrown in manage to eke out a living, creating their own society in the massive caves, farming cave lichen and shrooms, cave lizards and cows, etc. Could do something like that, so its a bit more traditional but keeps the "evil prison" vibe. Work with the underground civilization? Work with their bandits? Try to reach the surface and strike against the empire? Rejoin the empire and betray the subterranean world the empire doesn't know of?

Plus, explains why they have weapons/magic/gear (home-made, old dead empire scouts, lost civilizations), and gives places to go if the players don't want to focus on the old empire and would rather make their little corner of the world safe.

[dascarletm]

I agree with Red Fel, but allow me to play Asmodeous' advocate for a second.

You can get around most of these problems.

1. Getting the Shiny things.
Allow them to have a hidden stash in their cell, and come up with some commodities that they can trade. (Like cigarettes like in rl prison) They can use these things to procure items or what have you for their eventual break-out.

2. Lack of gear.
For the final breakout, hopefully they've used there contacts and procured level appropriate gear (fairly unbelievable but hey maybe Shady Slim is just that good at getting stuff.) For combats that may happen without gear, like gang fights or such, this will be the hard part. As a new DM adjusting encounters will be a large challenge. If you've been a player, and have played a lot of classes this will help. Just take care to make the fights balanced across the party.

3. One Sided Combat
Take stock of the PCs. Which are the most powerful? What classes will do well in such an environment? This is what the guards will be prepared for. This can help you balance encounters. For example. Fighter vs Psion. The guards will most likely be less prepared for a fighter than a psion. They probably pack anti-psionic items.


To do this successfully I suggest running a few mock encounters before you send them to the party, and plan ahead well.

Good Luck though!