Trying to think up ideas for weird prisoners in a sci-fi jail.

[solamon77]

Anyone feel like helping me out here? My party is breaking someone out of a sci-fi jail/mad scientist lab using the Starfinder lore and ruleset. Basically, it was a Guantanamo Bay type of prison for the worst prisoners, a place they send you to forget about you, then about a year ago this disgraced Azlanti noble took charge of it and turned it into his own personal Dr. Mengele style laboratory. So now it's a mix of really awful prisoners, but also people who were just brought in on trumped up charges to be experimented on.

I need a couple good ideas for interesting prisoners. I have already created this Azlanti drug lord/wizard who ran an Arcadrome Empire (a type of magical drug that's seeded with Aeon Stones). And then I got this ferret guy who escaped and now lives in the walls collecting junk and what not. There's also this cryo cell that contains a giant ooze that at one point got so large it consumed a whole star system (they had to spend decades slowly cordoning it off and then reducing it's size).

Anyone want to contribute something?

 

[Jd Smith1]

A former high-end fixer (think assassin for complex issues) who has had a psychotic break, and is now hallucinating both a cellmate and a phone, through which he communicates with his girlfriend, therapist, broker, bookie, etc.

A humor addition, unless he gets loose.

 

[aco175]

Someone such as a little kid. The players will certainly think that something is up and that tension can be played upon. Why is nobody messing with the kid? Why is the kid not holding someone's pocket? How can the kid survive? You could have things like the Aliens movie with the kid just hiding and finding out secret air ducts and such.

 

[le grand fromage]

A super inteligent shade of the colour blue, was / is working a ponzi scheme across time & space...

 

[Deset Gled]

A space anthropologist who was studying a non-advanced species. One day he violently killed his partner/student, who happened to be the offspring of the head of a major corporation. It is ambiguous if the players should believe his story that the partner was planning to destroy the civilization for corporate gains, or if he just went crazy.

A mutant with a supersonic loud voice. A nice person, but they occasionally just get excited and accidentally talk too loud, hurting those nearby. In prison for many counts of manslaughter. Wears a modulator that keeps their voice safe, but it's prone to breaking (or tampering). Can't whisper to save their life.

 

[solamon77]

Wow! This is great stuff! Thanks!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why is the kid not holding someone's pocket?

This feels extremely dark for most tables.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think you have to have the obligatory raccoonfolk rogue with a love of big weapons and chaos.

 

[Enaknomolos]

It might be worth picking up the absolutely classic Traveller module Prison Planet. It's cheap and has pages of prisoners, guards and staff. Most of these are fairly 'normal', but in an interesting gameable way, which might provide a good contrast to your truly weird ones. Plus, some are a little bit odd:

• "Batman" gets his name from his hobby: training cave bats. Anyone who gives a bat to "Batman" gains him as a friend.
• Arpad is a withdrawn, silent person with telepathic abilities, He is persecuted and has been heavily conditioned against use of his power.
• Avram is an adherent of a weird religious cult which demands human sacrifice, which is why he ended up here. He attempts to convert other prisoners, but is usually scorned. Anyone may gain him as a friend by becoming a convert; however, this reduces one's prison reputation

 

[Necropolitan]

An intelligent ooze imprisoned in a watertight container. They can communicate telepathically, leading to a fun/scary reveal when the PCs discover the real identity of the prisoner they were mentally conversing with.

A hive mind where each body has been imprisoned individually to make them less dangerous.

A shapeshifter who impersonates one of the PCs and claims that the PC with the party is the shapeshifter. Or the person in the cell might not be lying...

A halfling that grows to the size of an ogre (or bigger) the moment they're let out of their cell and attacks. They were actually capable of shifting their size and the cell prevented them from growing.

A giant avian humanoid pirate and their much smaller pet primate which they have perch on their shoulder. (Basically reverse pirate and parrot situation)

A cannibal who's taken over the kitchen and pretends to be harmless until they can attack.

A construct that's was accidentally formed from discarded guard gear and restraints thanks to the buildup of negative emotions from the prisoners. It seeks to nonlethally disable intruders and then lock them up.

A prisoner who's convinced they're the protagonist of the campaign and acts like it but has none of the skills to back it up.