Prisoner career

[zanwot]

Okay I have been thinking about a prisoner career, and I think it would probably be better to share the efforts with all the folks here.

You would not enter the career in a normal way of course. So the idea would be that if you fail a survival roll, you can trade a number of defects from that (don't roll on injury table, and maybe get to roll for advancement, but the lost benefit roll should stay lost as going to prison, including the court case before, is nevery good for money), with spending the next term in the prison career. This should be especially encouraged with Rogue, Drifter, and Agents (maybe conserve advancement roll and consequences only for those careers).

The three assignements would be:
*forced labor
*inmate
*VIP prisoner

the career should maybe give one less skill (maybe no stanard skill only advancement skill, or maybe no advancement roll), but I am not sure about this. there is a crititcal aspect of play-balance: Taking the wound and moving on to another career should be comparable to going to prison for a term.

Also there should be a roll upon entry to determine what assignement. But I am a little fuzzy on that.

 

[rust]

There is a German draft of a Prisoner / Gefangener career:

http://www.randpatrouille.de/mediapool/63/639023/data/Karriere_-_Gefangener.pdf

 

[zanwot]

:shock: Errr.... Guten tag?

 

[rust]

Sorry, but I have no translation, and translating it would take me quite a
while ...

Basically the three specialties are Zwangsarbeiter (= Forced Labor), Ver-
suchskaninchen (= Guinea Pig for medical research) and Festungshäftling
(= VIP Prisoner, SOC 10+), so it is very close to your ideas, I think.

The prerequisite for this career is a "lost" trial, the number of terms to ser-
ve as a Prisoner would depend on the sentence.

An interesting idea could be that each term as a Prisoner reduces SOC by
one, except for VIP Prisoners.

 

[zanwot]

The Guiney pig is a very cool idea. But shouldn't the basic classic inmate be another possible *assignment*? Which gives 4 assignments...

 

[rust]

But shouldn't the basic classic inmate be another possible *assignment*?

I think so, but the author probably thought that a term as a "normal"
inmate would be too uninteresting, perhaps because (in German pri-
sons at least) a prisoner's life usually is very uneventful and his time
rather "dead".

 

[TrippyHippy]

Can you get a career in being a test subject for medical experiments?

 

[rust]

Can you get a career in being a test subject for medical experiments?

The assumption is that you can reduce your prison sentence by volun-
teering (or "volunteering") for a temporary career as a test subject.

By the way, some people earn a living as medical test subjects in the
real world, and I am convinced that there are far more such jobs than,
for example, mercenary jobs in the real world ... :lol:

 

[RockViper]

Um 4 years in prison I think it would be possible to pick up at least one of the following skills.

Skill list
Shanking
Barter
Bribe
Survival (special)
Unarmed combat (dirty fighting)

 

[zanwot]

Can you get a career in being a test subject for medical experiments?

Why not? It would not be a volontary career of course, at least from the perspective of the character (the player of course it is another issue). A classic really of SF, a *nice* change from the forced labor.

You know in our days some people actually make some money from willingly being guiney pigs? Actually maybe it should be a seperate career, so people could *willingly* do it?


Anyway let's look at possible skills:

Personnal development:
+1 edu
+1 str
Melee (any)
+1 end
Gambler
Athletics

Forced Labor (difficult endurance survival roll):
Athletics (any)
Survival
Mechanic
+1 End
Steward
Melee (any)

Guiney Pig (difficult survival roll):
Medic
Life Sciences (any)
Athletics (any)
Persuade
[random implant - table to create]
[random physiological modification - table to create]

Inmate (average survival roll):
Deception
Persuade
Streetwise
Steward
+1 Edu
+1 Str

VIP prison (easy survival roll, only if Soc 9/10+):
Steward
Deception
Computers
Comms
Art (any)
Athletics (any)

 

[zanwot]

The assumption is that you can reduce your prison sentence by volun-
teering (or "volunteering") for a temporary career as a test subject.

Or not... While we are in Scifi, any society goes, including societies which have decided it would be convient to use (up) sentenced people in that way. Many SF stories are based on that. Not entirely unlike something that happened in the second world war...

 

[rust]

Quite true, and if you want to paint some society in even darker
colours, you can have "PCs and other foreigners" arrested and
sentenced unfairly just because some corporation needs more of
the test subjects.
And those test subjects could miss a kidney or some other not im-
mediately vital organ afterwards, as a kind of involuntary contri-
bution to some warden's personal economy. :twisted:

 

[zanwot]

And those test subjects could miss a kidney or some other not im-
mediately vital organ afterwards, as a kind of involuntary contri-
bution to some warden's personal economy. :twisted:

I get the feeling each *assignement* would need it's own very special Mishap table... :twisted:

Plus the table for random physiological modifications and random implants should be fun...


EDIT:
No upon thinking about it, I have the answer: Guiney pig becomes a seperate career, with the following assignements:
* Unwilling guiney pig (same special rules as prison)
* willing guiney pig (a *normal* career, less risky than the prisonner version, a sort of subsidised drifter)
* special military project (think robocop, bionic man... another *normal* career, very difficult survival throws, but some cool combat implants/modifications)

That way prisoner gets 3 assignements, guiney pig too, and each career does not have to have multiple mishap and events tables (though VIP prisoner could be a problem)...

 

[rust]

Please tell me when you have written the careers.

 

[zanwot]

Please tell me when you have written the careers.

well as stated at the start, I hope to get other people participating... :wink:

 

[RedBeardSean]

what? No carousing? I'm going to go have an Oz marathon, now...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The Guiney pig is a very cool idea. But shouldn't the basic classic inmate be another possible *assignment*? Which gives 4 assignments...

Maybe guinea pig is an Event that can be rolled. A PC could volunteer to be a guinea pig and then have various effects, both positive or negative based on a roll against Endurance or something. Or maybe a 1d table of results...

 

[Pyromancer]

Here is a quick and rough translation of my German prisoner career.

This is assuming that "forced labor" is the standard sentence, as seen in "Prison Planet".

 

[rust]

Danke !

I am glad you did the translation, I did not dare to mess around with
your work, and I hope I did not misinterpret it too much ...

 

[Jeff Hopper]

Can you get a career in being a test subject for medical experiments?

You know in our days some people actually make some money from willingly being guiney pigs? Actually maybe it should be a seperate career, so people could *willingly* do it?

That's one of the means I usd to pay my way through college.

My own experiences lead me to think that this may not be a good career (the work only lasts as long as the test), but if you choose that then I'd recommend reading The Good Rat by Allen Steele in which the main character is a professional medical test subject.