Prison Planet

[Stumondo]

I'm about to start running Adventure 2: Prison Planet. I've played through before and ran it briefly years ago.

For the most part, I'm pretty happy that it's free of obvious mistakes and issues. One that does crop up though is the guards weapons. It's clearly meant to be a Shotgun or SMG, with the other not available to them, but jumps back an forth throughout the campaign, including contradicting itself in descriptive text and loadout lists. Does anyone know what it's supposed to be. I could just make a call, but it's a pretty major difference in damage output against unarmored foes, and I could be missing the intent, one way or the other.

If anyone else has run or played it, I'd appreciate any advice on potential pitfalls or the like. Thanks

 

[ottarrus]

OK, a couple of things here.
a] There are subtle differences in the MgT 1st and 2nd Editions that pop up at the oddest times. Be ready for that.
b] Have a solid idea of which escape possibility you intend to use. I personally used the Plague scenario with the Natural Tunnel Escape into the desert and it worked well.
c] A lot of the time in any RPG, a referee has to be 'hard but fair'. In a prison scenario, you have to be 'harder and less fair'. Other prisoners have tried the simple stuff players will try already and the prison is ready for those solutions. Yes, even a prison as corrupt and banal as this one.

Just to give you an idea of the higher standards that Tarkwall aspires to, may I recommend the GT World Book: Darkmoon. Yeah, it's a different rules system, but it shows a prison that has its act far more together.

As for weaponry, I would just make such corrections in the text that make sense to you. It's much easier for a prisoner to hide an SMG than a shotgun, for example. I would also suggest that guard weapons have some kind of secure firing system. In my run through, I included a ring that needed to worn in order to activate an electronic lock. The prisoner who knows where the missing weapon is also knows about the needed ring and where the ring of the dead guard is.
I also never understood why the guards were equipped with a baton, an 'electric prod', and a 'stunstick'. These could easily be different settings on the same item even at TL 7. The way I ran it was the prison baton had 4 settings: Off [as Club], Stun [as a 'stunstick'], Incapcitate [an amperage that induces nausea], and Shock [a high power setting that would instantly KO a prisoner].

Good luck.

 

[Stumondo]

Thanks for that, so things to think about.

I ran plague myself, and the whole prison was killed by a bioweapon, hence the short game.
In the one I played, we escaped with Machines of Loving Grace.

Good point on the hiding of the weapon, that's a major consideration.
I actually thought the stun baton was an all in one, I'll have to review that.

 

[Arkathan]

Fun fact with real world Electro-muscular devices: You can build up a tolerance to them. Electricians and arc-welders tend to be able to shrug off the effects of the hand held contact stunners faster. Similar issue with instructors. The darts are more intense, and if they move afterwards, you just hit the trigger for another ride, but you are supposed try to restrain the individual before the effects wear off.
People who have been binging on Meth and similar drugs for days may develop Excited Delirium Syndrome, a controversial name for a real phenomenon. Basically, they don't feel it and power through the effects, frequently causing heart failure. They will be agitated, sweating profusely - often naked from trying to get cool, are very strong and violent. You have to rush them en masse, restrain them quickly and get them to a medic who can administer a sedative right away or they will fight the cuffs until they either break them or die in the attempt.

 

[ottarrus]

Fun fact with real world Electro-muscular devices: You can build up a tolerance to them. Electricians and arc-welders tend to be able to shrug off the effects of the hand held contact stunners faster. Similar issue with instructors. The darts are more intense, and if they move afterwards, you just hit the trigger for another ride, but you are supposed try to restrain the individual before the effects wear off.
People who have been binging on Meth and similar drugs for days may develop Excited Delirium Syndrome, a controversial name for a real phenomenon. Basically, they don't feel it and power through the effects, frequently causing heart failure. They will be agitated, sweating profusely - often naked from trying to get cool, are very strong and violent. You have to rush them en masse, restrain them quickly and get them to a medic who can administer a sedative right away or they will fight the cuffs until they either break them or die in the attempt.

All VERY true. A couple of cop friends have been very clear about that with me.
There are certain physical locations on the body that are more effective [the kidneys for example] but most of those are specifically off limits [again, the kidneys] in the US.
However, I'm unaware of anyone becoming acclimated to the nausea batons that some of the more authoritative governments use [China is a big user of 'puke sticks'].

Still, I think since the PC gets a saving throw against the effect, the game accounts for being able to 'shake it off'.

 

[ottarrus]

Good point on the hiding of the weapon, that's a major consideration.
I actually thought the stun baton was an all in one, I'll have to review that.

Just for reference's sake, not every SMG is the size of an Uzi or MP5. The Beretta 93R is a full-auto pistol that's built on it's -92 pistol frame. To put it another way, it's the exact same size as an auto pistol.

 

[Condottiere]

I believe automating pistols makes them machine pistols.

 

[ottarrus]

I believe automating pistols makes them machine pistols.

Nope. The autopistol is, and always has been, the semi-automatic, magazine-fed sidearm pistol.
In MgT 2022 [the current rules edition] the weapon's stats are on pg. 126 and do not have an 'autofire' number. And it is described on pg. 127 as a semi-auto pistol.

 

[ottarrus]

And to the OP:

I'm guessing that Tarkwall Prison is a medium security prison under planetary laws, rather than a prison being administered by the IMOJ. It's just too ramshackle a facility to be run by any government that's even remotely competent.

It would also be a good idea to decide what level of laws the PC's have been convicted of. The way the legal systems of the Imperium handles nobles who break the Imperial Rules of War and Imperial High Law are VERY different from a gulag run by some high-law-level planetary dictator.
The big questions are:
- What did the players do?
- Which tier of the Imperial justice system has jurisdiction [planetary local, subsector, or Imperial High Justice]
- And what are the legal consequences of their possible escape. For example, it's very unlikely the IMOJ is going to send marshals after PC's who offended some local religion and escaped from a local jail. But it's far more likely if the PC's offended a local Subsector Duke, were tried in an Imperial court [or on a world that's important to the Imperium] and escaped a noteworthy facility.

 

[Condottiere]

Semi.

I suspect you need a firmer grip and a longer cool down period in comparison to sub machine gun variants.

 

[Stumondo]

I've just remembered another inconsistency in the rules.

Trying to meet people in the prison. A prisoner in the same cellblock, fairly easy, different cellblock but same work assignment, a little more difficult. But there's no entry for different cellblock and different work assignment. I'd assume it's not possible, except it's explicitly stated that you can't meet a Staff member if you work in the Dangerzone, so it seems like an omission. How did people handle this? I'm inclined to just pip another 2 onto the difficulty, or does it give the PCs too much access to people?

 

[Condottiere]

Networking?

As I recall any number of prison flicks, there always seems to be the cantina, yard, launderette, and the bribed guards.

 

[ottarrus]

I've just remembered another inconsistency in the rules.

Trying to meet people in the prison. A prisoner in the same cellblock, fairly easy, different cellblock but same work assignment, a little more difficult. But there's no entry for different cellblock and different work assignment. I'd assume it's not possible, except it's explicitly stated that you can't meet a Staff member if you work in the Dangerzone, so it seems like an omission. How did people handle this? I'm inclined to just pip another 2 onto the difficulty, or does it give the PCs too much access to people?

Prison life is very regimented. Cell blocks are cycled to work assignments, meals, showers, everything on a routine schedule. And if something disrupts the schedule, it's usually in a negative way for the prisoner. For example, any given prisoner's lawyer will inevitably show up at either meal time [no meal for you!] or shower time or rec time... and almost NEVER during a work shift in the mines. Something that is often overlooked in the Prison Planet module is that the mine operates in three shifts. One cell block is working in the mine, one sleeping, one is eating /showering /doing maintenance chores. These are the reasons why it's hard to meet a prisoner from another cell block.

As for the guards in the Danger Zone, why would they go down there? No reason to suck up rads when you don't have to. Besides, TL 7 hazmat suits are heavy, bulky, hot, and generally uncomfortable to wear. If you can avoid wearing one, why not do so? And given the clearly parsimonious budget that Tarkwall is run on, the odds of them getting nicer, more comfortable TL 10+ hazmat suits is somewhere between zilch and nada.