Prison Colony Dilemma

M

MasterGwydion

Emperor Mongoose
So, I had a character concept and realized that it can't be made in Traveller. Perhaps some of you know of a way.

Born and raised on a prison planet. Child of prisoners. Can't take Prisoner as the first career though. Ideas?
 
MasterGwydion said:
So, I had a character concept and realized that it can't be made in Traveller. Perhaps some of you know of a way.

Born and raised on a prison planet. Child of prisoners. Can't take Prisoner as the first career though. Ideas?
Click to expand...
Can't be made in Traveller? Sure it can: Rule Zero.
Bend the rules and start as a Prisoner. Even more fun (?): start at age 14 (or 10?)
If someone really wanted to be a street thug (Rouge Rogue... [always spell that wrong and it comes out as eye-liner...]) or barbarian, I'd let them start as 14, but penalize them a point or three of SOC.
For a born prisoner, let them start early, but roll SOC on 1D3.
 
One can try to fit the School of Hard Knocks pre-career into this concept and then "roll" pre-career event 4:
A supposedly harmless prank goes wrong and someone gets hurt, physically or emotionally. Roll SOC 8+.
If you succeed, gain a Rival. If you fail, gain an Enemy. If you roll 2, you fail to graduate and must take the
Prisoner career in your next term
 
I would say that a child raised in a prison colony probably isn't exactly a prisoner, since a prison colony that has children is some other kind of sick place -- thus Rogue or Drifter -- assuming that the prisoner got out. Otherwise you simply accept you have chosen an edge case and allow it as a first career.
 
tzunder said:
I would say that a child raised in a prison colony probably isn't exactly a prisoner, since a prison colony that has children is some other kind of sick place -- thus Rogue or Drifter -- assuming that the prisoner got out. Otherwise you simply accept you have chosen an edge case and allow it as a first career.
Click to expand...
Weren't children born in the Prison Colony of Australia prisoners? What is the definition of "prisoner"? I would say that it is one who lives in a prison. Or do you just think that people in prison colonies do not have sex and get pregnant?
 
I would define a prisoner by the 4 year term. The prisoners term is very specific in what skills and events are available, and they imply a classic Hollywood prison, not a prison colony. In today's terms, I would fully expect a prison colony to figure out computers and basic currency, and so a rogue or Drifter to me is far more appropriate than a prisoner for those.
 
Nelphine said:
I would define a prisoner by the 4 year term. The prisoners term is very specific in what skills and events are available, and they imply a classic Hollywood prison, not a prison colony. In today's terms, I would fully expect a prison colony to figure out computers and basic currency, and so a rogue or Drifter to me is far more appropriate than a prisoner for those.
Click to expand...
Why build the Prisoner career like that and then have like 20 different published prison planets and no examples of published Earth-like prisons? Including an Adventure named, ironically enough, Prison Planet. Semms like saying here is the Prisoner Career, but it doesn't work in any of the Prisons that We have published. Sorry, not sorry. :confused:
 
Because the English language is soooo wonderful! Lol

Another contradiction that isn't apparent until you spend a lot of time thinking about it
 
MasterGwydion said:
So, I had a character concept and realized that it can't be made in Traveller. Perhaps some of you know of a way.

Born and raised on a prison planet. Child of prisoners. Can't take Prisoner as the first career though. Ideas?
Click to expand...

What are the conditions on the prison planet? Is the prison planet a planet where prisoners are dumped and released, or is it a planet with a prison on it? Is the prison a controlled facility with guards and so on? Would prison authorities imprison a child that has committed no crime and hasn't been convicted at the facility?
 
Nelphine said:
I would define a prisoner by the 4 year term. The prisoners term is very specific in what skills and events are available, and they imply a classic Hollywood prison, not a prison colony. In today's terms, I would fully expect a prison colony to figure out computers and basic currency, and so a rogue or Drifter to me is far more appropriate than a prisoner for those.
Click to expand...

Exactly, a prison colony is very different from a prison. Maybe Barbarian would be a good career. If the character isn't actually a convict but is the offspring of convicts, he'd sign up for the draft and get the hell off that rock as soon as he turned 18. The authorities would have no legitimate reason to keep him on the world, much less keep him in a prison.
 
actionman said:
Exactly, a prison colony is very different from a prison. Maybe Barbarian would be a good career. If the character isn't actually a convict but is the offspring of convicts, he'd sign up for the draft and get the hell off that rock as soon as he turned 18. The authorities would have no legitimate reason to keep him on the world, much less keep him in a prison.
Click to expand...
Legitimate reason? Really? Didn't We just have a thread about how many examples of horrible things that the people in power do to those without power in the Dark Imperium thread? Do you think the British were checking on their prisoners in Australia to make sure that they were all supposed to be there? 31 Prison Worlds are listed in the Traveller wiki, most of them in or formerly in Solomani space. If all that was required was having a prison on the planet to make it a Prison World, I am pretty sure that every world would be considered a Prison World.

Barbarian would work with some skill modification, but I'd have to use the Prisoner mishaps and events tables and most of those don't apply if you have no parole threshold since you were born there. Maybe Citizen if they are used a "slave labor", or one of the slave careers in the Glorious Empire book.
 
Depends on the prison planet. One type of prison planet is 'we dump you, and never come back for you' so the child CAN'T join the draft because there is no official way off world for the child.
 
MasterGwydion said:
So, I had a character concept and realized that it can't be made in Traveller. Perhaps some of you know of a way.

Born and raised on a prison planet. Child of prisoners. Can't take Prisoner as the first career though. Ideas?
Click to expand...
Battlestar Galactica (original) The Long Patrol (Season 1 Episode 5). Forger 7 or (my favourite) Adulteress 58.
 
It really depends.

It's not by chance I mentioned North Korea and Australia.

In Australia, you can work your sentence off, and kids might get educated, if only by a charity organization, if not the state, to be productive citizens.

Whereas North Korea, three generations can be incarcerated, if you screw up, or someone in authority doesn't like you.
 
MasterGwydion said:
Legitimate reason? Really? Didn't We just have a thread about how many examples of horrible things that the people in power do to those without power in the Dark Imperium thread? Do you think the British were checking on their prisoners in Australia to make sure that they were all supposed to be there? 31 Prison Worlds are listed in the Traveller wiki, most of them in or formerly in Solomani space. If all that was required was having a prison on the planet to make it a Prison World, I am pretty sure that every world would be considered a Prison World.
Click to expand...

The point I was trying to discern was whether or not your character was incarcerated in a prison facility or not during his childhood.

Just do what you want and take Prisoner as a career for the character's first term.
 
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