Tweaking some numbers for a prison colony

[Novawurmson]

My next campaign is going to be set in a prison colony, and I'm trying to decide on a good number for how many people to put there. I'm going off of information about the First Fleet to Australia, which was a ration of about 700 convicts to 200 soldiers, or around one guard for four prisoners.

Do you think these ratios still work for a fantasy campaign?

[Berenger]

Which kind of convicts? Sick beggars and petty thieves? Murderers? Prisoners of war led by a certain Colonel Hogan?

Where do you intend to keep them? On a rock amidst shark infested waters? In your homeland near a civilian population?

How much resources are available for moats, walls, guard dogs, laz0r fences, magic etc.?

Are the prisoners supposed to work or just to be kept in place?

Can the prisoners expect to be freed when they behave and serve their term or are they to be executed / worked to death in salt mines?

[Mastikator]

Depends on the setting, is it high fantasy or low fantasy or some middleground fantasy? Basically, is magic used in the prison? Is it medieval or bronze age or enlightenment age or modern? (or sci-fi fantasy AKA Star Wars)

[Bulhakov]

Do you have a magical equivalent of an explosive slave/prisoner collar? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ExplosiveLeash

If so, the number of guards can be greatly reduced.

[Novawurmson]

Which kind of convicts?

Excellent question. They run the gamut from petty thieves to serial killers. They are to be kept in a forest well from any population centers; it's feasible that a prisoner could escape and run for around 2 weeks and get to civilization, but considering the danger of the forest...

This takes place in Eberron; not much chance of guards or moats, but magic is definitely on the table. The prisoners are being used to rebuild a ruined city (no one has lived there for ~100 years, but the stone foundations are still solid). The prisoners can expect to be freed if they survive.

Depends on the setting

I probably should have specified Eberron XD. Definitely high-magic setting

Do you have a magical equivalent of an explosive slave/prisoner collar? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ExplosiveLeash

If so, the number of guards can be greatly reduced.

Not quite that extreme, but I do have bracelet/manacles that can easily be tracked with scrying magic.

[SolarEdge]

what country or countries are said convicts from?

[Crazyfailure13]

It'd depend on the prisoner's are they all mundanes? if they are, will any of them be level 10 or higher? what level are the prison guards supposed to be? will the prison guards only be mundanes?

What do you mean the danger of the forest?

[Novawurmson]

what country or countries are said convicts from?

Almost every country but Cyre, mostly from Aundair, Karnath, Breland, and Varisia.

It'd depend on the prisoner's are they all mundanes? if they are, will any of them be level 10 or higher? what level are the prison guards supposed to be? will the prison guards only be mundanes?

What do you mean the danger of the forest?

Prisoners are mixed mudane and magical, mostly 5th level and below. Strong prisoners are recruited to keep others in line. Prisoner guards are mostly Warrior 5ish, but there are many specialized prison guards.

Dangers of the forest: Standard forest dangers (animals, difficulty sending messages), standard magical forest dangers (magical beasts, unfriendly fey [not known yet - they've been laboring under the assumption that the fey in the area are friendly], plant monsters), the undead former inhabitants of the city (suspected, but not known) plus Lovecraftian horrors that serve a demigod of darkness, ice, and corruption [not known].

[Crazyfailure13]

Well I'd say to to go with a guard ratio like this:

2 Mundane prisoner: 1 guard

1 Magical Prisoner: 2 Guards

Any Prisoner over fifth level should have another three guards

Since it seems like there is at least enough dangers that the prison owner should know about it wouldn't be more then that, since even if they escape they wouldn't likely live.

Also you should probably have a Priest (Cleric) To heal anyone who gets wounded and do rites for the dead. Plus a Scholar (Wizard) to study the ruins.

and I don't know much about Eberron, but it's in the time period where they'd probably have a torturer, which could be useful as a higher level guard incase of escapees, have him be like a level 7 Ranger with a hunting dog or wolf to track em' down.

Then maybe a level 7 fighter for the Warden.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: Oh yeah, you should also double the number of guards you'd need for a night shift and day shift.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Any Prisoner over fifth level

Should have a Geas placed on them to make them act like guards.

[Autolykos]

Well I'd say to to go with a guard ratio like this:

2 Mundane prisoner: 1 guard

1 Magical Prisoner: 2 Guards

[...]

EDIT: Oh yeah, you should also double the number of guards you'd need for a night shift and day shift.

At that point, using the prisoners for labor is just not efficient anymore. The magical and high-level ones should be locked up elsewhere with security measures in place that require less guards to watch over them. I'd prefer a real prison in more open terrain (desert or an island) and keeping a well-trained hunting party with flying mounts and magic support on hand. At the very least.
But I assume that's not an option for you since your players are some of these high-level prisoners. In that case I'd suggest a subterranean "prison camp", maybe somewhere in the old city's sewers. That way you can probably cut down on guards a lot as long as you don't have all of them out at the same time - and in case of a revolt, they'd have the last resort option of collapsing the exits.

[Novawurmson]

Should have a Geas placed on them to make them act like guards.

I like this idea for some of the NPC guards, but as Autolykos guessed, the PCs are going to be some of these guard/prisoner combos.

At that point, using the prisoners for labor is just not efficient anymore. The magical and high-level ones should be locked up elsewhere with security measures in place that require less guards to watch over them. I'd prefer a real prison in more open terrain (desert or an island) and keeping a well-trained hunting party with flying mounts and magic support on hand. At the very least.
But I assume that's not an option for you since your players are some of these high-level prisoners. In that case I'd suggest a subterranean "prison camp", maybe somewhere in the old city's sewers. That way you can probably cut down on guards a lot as long as you don't have all of them out at the same time - and in case of a revolt, they'd have the last resort option of collapsing the exits.

Well, this is kind of the "big reveal" of the campaign, but the point of the prison colony

Spoiler

Show

isn't really to found a city. It's an offering of hundreds of living people as a ransom payment to the wicked fey of the forest, who kidnapped all the children of the "real" settlement - a group of Cyran refugees. Notice how I said none of the prisoners are Cyran?

The "sponsor" of the both the prison camp and the Cyran colony is also worried that the fey will try to break the deal (completely astute), so putting some powerful prisoners that might be able to fight back on their own is part of her insurance policy. She hasn't told her contractors about the real reason behind the colony.

Flying mounts will definitely be on hand (House Vadalis would be easy enough to buy from), plus many of the guards are from Droaam, so there's at least one flock of harpy guards. House Tharashk is running most of the operation, so they're extremely effective at tracking down runnaways (what with locate object+the cuffs and locate creature for higher leveled ones).

With regard to the tunnels, that's a great idea. There's actually a mine, so maybe that's where the worst prisoners go, with the collapse as a safeguard.