Dungeon Building-Prision

[Madmal]

I've had for quite some time an idea for a campaign starting on a desert prision that has suddenly beenn attacked and invaded, but i have gotten stuck on designing the map....stuff, like if there should be cells, how would they be arranged, wards, special treatments for spellcasters and Psions, that kind of stuff...

any recomendation, advice or reference is welcome. Thank you in advance.

[DaMullet]

You should go for the generic prison cellblock- Cellblock A has x cells in a line on both walls, maybe two or three stories, for housing standard prisoners.
Cellblock B is similar, but smaller, and is an "antimagic cellblock" for housing casters.
Cellblock C is for important prisoners and solitary confinement, and is smaller still. The jail should be about 7-10 stories tall, with the more dangerous prisoners the highest up.

Also, a dessert prison doesn't seem to be particularly threatening. Either lose the 's' or make it poisoned.

[Attilargh]

A few ideas:

Unless you want a prison on a platter, you might want to correct "dessert" to "desert".

Antimagic Fields. Antipsionic Fields, if your psionics are unaffected by magic. Backups for both, you don't want a prison full of mages getting free at once. For the same reason, have many separate sections for anyone that powerful. Alternatively, magic- or psionic-nullifying shackles.

Alarm systems. Very hard to disable, preferably.

Barracks for the guards. At least a couple, and should be positioned so that they can be defended indefinitely in the case of a major breakout. Reinforcements and supplies should be able to get in easily.

Separate sections from each other. A breakout of Fighters is bad enough, you don't want them freeing the Wizards too. Portals and other magic might help.

Why are the prisoners there? Remember, it's easier and cheaper to chop a criminal's head off than send him to rot in a cell somewhere. If a government wants to keep prisoners, they'll probably want them doing something, too.

[Tellah]

Mmm... dessert prison. So delicious, it's a crime.

Well, your request is kind of vague, but on all dungeons I advise that you try to determine what your players are capable of, then make a dungeon that requires them to use the skills they've put points in. If you have someone with a high strength score, make sure that the doors in the dungeon are just strong enough that he can break them with a good roll. Use traps at the CR of your party if you have a rogue/ninja/artificer/beguiler--if you have no trap-finders, use traps that are at a lower CR. If the casters in your party have access to Dispel Magic (or Dispel Psionics), put up a few magical wards that let them use it. If your party's healer is a cleric, or if there's a paladin in the party, consider using undead creatures if it fits the flavor.

When I design a dungeon, I take a look at the players' character sheets first. I pick one skill from each sheet that the player has put a lot of ranks into, and I find a way to work that into the dungeon. Next, I pick a couple of skills that they may not have a lot of ranks in. I put in a challenge that can either be done untrained with a lucky roll or bypassed with clever lateral thinking.

[Sampi]

Layout depends on how overboard you want to go with magic. Yes, make one standard cellblock of locked cubicles in a row. Then add the weird stuff: extraplanar confinement cells deep in the Astral, oubliettes which are meant as final repositories of people you don't want to see anymore but don't want to kill either, Soultrap-prisons for physically powerful prisoners, anti-magic cells for casters and so forth.

Oh, and don't forget to add the other places you need: storerooms for the prisoner's effects, quarters for the guards (whatever species they might be), mess hall for those prisoners ruly enough to eat at a table, a kitchen, some storage spaces, some sort of logistics system for the prison et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

[Matthew]

Sounds like a fun adventure. How big is the prison population and what kind of guards does it have? Also, who is attacking and why?

[silentknight]

Check the D&D website for free downloadable maps of cities, buildings, and dungeons you can use for ideas of layouts.

[Emperor Tippy]

This depends on books allowed and how much magic is allowed.

I mean Complete Mage has the perfect prison spell. Look at Smokey Confinement. If the target fails a will save he is put in a crystal vial worth 100 GP and he has no way to escape until the end is uncorked or the vial is broken.

So for 100 GP per prisoner you don't need to feed them or pay guards, they can't escape no matter their power level, you can fit thousands of prisoners inside the broom closet, and the prisoners never age at all so if you ever need to release one for some reason he will be alive even 10,000 years in the future.

[NecroPaladin]

Either a secret hidey-hole or a torture chamber. Probably with an escape route attached. Both of them last-ditch refuge places in the event of something real big, real bad, and probably scary getting in. Of course, not to say you'd be any safer in those places. Then again, I'm predominantly a horror DM, so I like situations like that. They might not be appropriate in your game.