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View Full Version : DM Help Ways to escape a prison/jail



Wuzza
2019-04-02, 08:27 AM
Hey all, I'm thinking of imprisoning my group at the start of the next session. The last session had no combat, so I want to get straight into an escape/combat scenario for some action. (Sorc/Pally/Barb) They will be de-equiped, there wont be any immediate guards in the area once I've got a bit of exposition off about them needing to be kept alive, and a set of keys will be visible on a table out of reach.

However, I need to come up with a few "blatantly obvious" ways to escape. So far I have:

1) Barb will be able to Speak with Animals to get a nearby rat to grab the keys for them.
2) Could make the door/hinges a bit weak and allow them to force it off
3) Grab a guard and steal his keys when he brings them food.

Can anyone think of anything else I could setup for them to give a few options? Or, do you think it is a bad idea to take away their agency at the start of the session?

Thanks

J-H
2019-04-02, 08:48 AM
System-dependent, but maybe the Sorc can just use Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, etc.? Some cantrip effects can handle keys.

Loose bars on a window.
A set of loose bricks concealed under bed gives access to the next cell over, which is currently empty. It can either be unlocked, or it can be used for them to hide from the guard to make it look like they are already gone.

Zakhara
2019-04-02, 06:53 PM
This is tricky, because any tool of escape risks contrivance.

If you're desperate, consider a backup plan where trouble comes to the prison--are they in prison because of trouble with the law, or is it a crime they didn't commit? Is their enemy a faceless set of laws, or someone with a vendetta? Because if it's a personal affair, I'd advocate sending assassins to the prison. A crowded fight, behind bars, without weapons, would be memorable if nothing else.

Cygnia
2019-04-02, 06:56 PM
Diplomacy/Bluff of a newbie guard is always a potential option for non-combat types.

denthor
2019-04-02, 07:11 PM
Earthquake pops the cell they get out in confusion.

If on the coast tidal wave. Trust the gaurds do not care about prisoners when families are in dangerous.

If you want a truly D&D answer. They are summoned by a powerful wizard or cleric. Spell went wrong. They arrive in a circle with the person dying the apprentice is freaking out and breaks the circle to let them out to help. This gives them a NPC to interact with and they are in a new place where no one knows them. Fresh start

Vizzerdrix
2019-04-02, 07:22 PM
When the guards bring them evening gruel, they accidentally give one of the prisoners an adamantine spoon from the kings collection that got mixed into the tin spoons on wash day.

Kyrell1978
2019-04-02, 09:24 PM
Desperate Weapon is a 1st level Sorc. spell that allows for one of them to have an imp. weapon. If they have access to Refine Imp. Weapon they could break apart furniture and end up with masterwork weapons. Mage armor for sorc. should allow for the squishy to not die.

Opportunities for a "prison break":

1) Prisoner Transfer-these are always less secure than the prison itself (I was a correction officer for 10 years). They do their best but it's just not feasible to secure a moving object in the same manner that you can secure a fortress.

2) Rec. period.

3) Faking Illness (Depending on bad guys can lead to #1)

4) Riot (PCs can instigate or can get caught up in one)

That's all I can think of right off the top of my head, hope it helps.

Lunali
2019-04-02, 11:23 PM
I can see three basic ways with a lot of variations on each:

1. get released - This can be legitimately released or released via forged papers, bribes, promises made, etc. The key points here are that the guards know you're leaving and no one is going to stop you or hunt you down for it.

2. sneak out - Get out without being noticed on the way out, could be disguise, forged papers, (though not as good as the ones in #1) a blind spot in security, tunneling, etc. No one knows you're leaving, you may be hunted if they notice afterwards.

3. break out - Get out despite being noticed on the way out, riots, destruction of walls, pure martial superiority, etc. They know you're leaving and will try to stop you, if you do escape, you will probably be hunted unless you broke out in a way that makes them scared of you.

Bohandas
2019-04-03, 12:47 AM
An ultraloth (or other fiend) merchant mysteriously appears in their cell one night after dark and offers to sell them weapons on credit

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-03, 02:29 AM
To my mind, most situations should be theoretically solveable by any character. So a warrior should be able to fight his way out of prison, a rogue should be able to sneak out, a bard should be able to charm his way out ... and so on.

But examples of how you do it in practice? I dunno. It's tricky, especially if it's a solo character. Because you want it to be a struggle. So, if it's a warrior, you want him wobbling at the edge of consciousness for the duration of the encounter, beating guards into pulp with a table leg until he can liberate something better. If it's a mage, you want to build some sort of escape based on the three uncast spells he still has in memory, for instance. Or cantrips.

If it's a bard, it might be interesting to have him find a way to talk himself past a golem, for instance.

King of Nowhere
2019-04-03, 03:00 AM
Hard to say anything specific witouth knowing what level they are, the party composition, and the prison security.

I can however guarantee one thing. If you have a mundane prison with regular guards and the party is even halfway competent, you do not need to look for ways to let them escape. It would be more secure to not lock them up and just asking nicely to stay in jail.

Wuzza
2019-04-03, 09:20 AM
Thanks for the replies, definitely some food for thought a couple of ideas I can optionise (Yes I made it up, I know what I mean) :smalltongue:


Hard to say anything specific witouth knowing what level they are, the party composition, and the prison security.

I was deliberately vague on this, as I'm trying to think of non-class specific ways.


It would be more secure to not lock them up and just asking nicely to stay in jail.
TBH, I really cant see this happening... :smallbiggrin:

Malphegor
2019-04-03, 10:19 AM
There is another option... It involves... murder... <dramatic music!>

Seriously though thin hand bones from existing prisoners could be used for makeshift lockpicks maybe? Bones are vastly underutilised in prison escapes for some reason. Everyone's carrying a lot of weight in small, hard, sharpeneable objects, and nobody thinks to use them!

SirGraystone
2019-04-03, 02:28 PM
Or you can have someone from the outside pay a guard to "forgot" to look the cell. Of course he would ask to be repay by the adventures for helping them

Man_Over_Game
2019-04-03, 04:10 PM
Plot Twist: The OP isn't doing this for a campaign, he actually is expecting to go to jail and needs ideas on how to break out.

Wuzza
2019-04-03, 04:56 PM
There is another option... It involves... murder... <dramatic music!>

I only want to imprison them, not kill them! :P


Plot Twist: The OP isn't doing this for a campaign, he actually is expecting to go to jail and needs ideas on how to break out.
Shhhh…. They haven't caught me yet... :smallbiggrin:

jjordan
2019-04-03, 05:01 PM
You don't have to give them options. Figure out how the system works on a daily basis, let the party examine it and come up with their own ideas, and then play it out.

Early prisons could be a fairly grim place to be. Single cells were for special (political) prisoners and most common offenders would be placed in wards, large rooms, where multiple prisoners resided (easily 20, the Bagnos of Algiers held hundreds). Food was scarce or non-existent and prisoners would supplement/obtain by bribing guards. Bribing the guards was so accepted that prisoners could even move to different accommodations if they had enough money. In addition to food and better living conditions guards could be bribed to bring in goods, take messages out, bring visitors in (above and beyond the stream of priests, lawyers, family members, charity workers, and law enforcement personnel that would be in and out each day), and do just about anything else. In such conditions the players ought to be able to find a lot of opportunities to escape.

The article "Coping in Medieval Prisons" is a good overview.

Man_Over_Game
2019-04-03, 05:42 PM
When I was DMing for my players' prison break, I had someone in the same cell bust them out with a magical time-bomb.

One of the players was a spy for this rebel army (that all of the players were accused of being). The rebels needed to bust out their friend, so they paid some guy to eat some special fruit, get arrested, and stand by the window to get busted out. Then they make sure that all of their operatives are aware of their usual prison-break solution (including the player) and to not stand near the windows if they ever get arrested.

The wall gets blown, the guy who got paid is now dust, and there's a nice hole in the wall for the players to escape through. It's setting specific, but it's a lot of fun.

Pauly
2019-04-04, 07:47 AM
Get a copy of The Colditz Story which has some of the stories of the best escape artists from WWII. The book has more stories than the movie. There are so many mundane means of escaping a prison that if your PCs can’t figure out a plan themselves out they deserve a TPK from old age. You shouldn’t have to spoon feed them this. Hell about 1/4 of The Hobbit IsBilbo organizing a prison break for Thorin and Co.

Just remember that real prisons don’t have prisoners sitting in their cells all day. There will be recreation facilities, working parties and so forth.

Some classic escape methods. Often a successful escape will combine several of these methods.
- Tunneling under the walls
- climbing over the walls.
- Lock picking/copying keys
- forged identities.
- making copies of prison guard uniforms
- walking out confidently.(this works far more often than you would believe)
- doing a runner while on an outside work party.
- bribing guards with contraband
- doing a runner from hospital
- overpowering the guards in a mass breakout.
- creating riots as a distraction.
- hiding in transports leaving the prison.

And this is before you get to outside parties breaking you out.

In fact the bigger problem isn’t how to escape, but how to avoid recapture. This is the big reason why secrecy is so important, because the longer it takes for the guards to realize you’re gone the better your chance of a home run.

Bohandas
2019-04-04, 09:30 AM
Tunnel out. Especially if the party includes a dwarf or gnome or some other creature where tunneling is their schtick

King of Nowhere
2019-04-04, 12:03 PM
There is another option... It involves... murder... <dramatic music!>

Seriously though thin hand bones from existing prisoners could be used for makeshift lockpicks maybe? Bones are vastly underutilised in prison escapes for some reason. Everyone's carrying a lot of weight in small, hard, sharpeneable objects, and nobody thinks to use them!

there is a book, "beat the reaper" by josh bazell, where the protagonist removes one of his own leg bones to get an improvised weapon. pretty nice book overall

Kami2awa
2019-04-07, 09:34 AM
You could throw in an NPC prisoner who can be helpful (think about Elan tricking Thog into smashing his way out the prison). This could also give an opportunity to learn new information from the prisoner or gain an ally, and lets the PCs roleplay their way out.

Of course, people in prison can't necessarily be trusted - the NPC could be lying, could be cowardly or unreliable, could be double agent left the guards, or even could be totally mad (and the "escape tunnel they've been working on for years" is in fact only four inches long).

Then there's this approach:

- OK, we lever one of the blocks out of the wall, weave some ropes from this blanket, use the ropes and block to make a deadfall, when the guard comes in we knock him out with it, then we put you in the guard's uniform, steal some swords, and fight our way out!
- Or we could use the teleporter, sir.

Wuzza
2019-04-16, 11:59 AM
Thanks again for all the replies, we played this out last weekend.


You could throw in an NPC prisoner who can be helpful .

I had the dwarf they were searching for as a "get out of jail" card (pun intended), having him stolen a key, but so near death that he didn't have the strength or opportunity to utilise it.

Turns out I needn't have worried. I went through all the permutations that may happen in my head, and would have allowed pretty much anything they came up with to work.

Literally after describing the situation the Barb said "Ok, I rage out and kick the door down." Natural 20, giving him a DC 30 check (Str 20)

I couldn't argue with that. Best laid plans and all....

Gotta love those PC's :D

That House
2019-04-16, 03:57 PM
Easy. Here are a bunch of foolproof ways to escape a prison.
Dig out with a spoon.
Dig out with a fork
Dig out with a toothbrush
Dig out over a period of several years with your fingernails and toenails
Dig out with a plate
Dig out with the bones of a cellmate