Ideas for Inmates in a Prison Setting

[Dannyalcatraz]

Members of a resistance (Neo-nazi types)

Instead of this, you could flip this on its head, like in Hogan's Heroes.

The resistance leaders broke into the prison and are "hiding in plain sight." They've managed to make and maintain a secret passage that lets them have free ingress and egress. They cannot be found by the authorities because they will never look in the prison.

 

[Nytmare]

So with my last western game, every time I sat down to work on the game, I'd load up a western on Netflix for background inspiration.

They also have at least a solid month of jail break/prison movies you could use.

Off the top of my head: Cool Hand Luke, The Experiment, Shawshank...

 

[was]

-An ambassador from Karrnath who is also a powerful necromancer. He/she was imprisoned in another country for breaking into the royal crypts and raising deceased nobles. His/her goal was to interrogate them for information/serve some nefarious purpose. At the current time, several bodies...maybe a ruler's dead parent..are still missing.

-A psychotic juggernaut warforged bent on killing one person for every warforged destroyed during the war. There exists a controversy on whether it should be imprisoned or destroyed.

 

[Quickleaf]

- A bard whose long lies, rumor-mongering, and exaggerated tales of his exploits have come back to bite him in the ass. IMC he was notoriously known as the "Black Bard" for his black-barbed tongue which got several nobles into deep trouble before he was abducted.

 

[Terrance888]

-A constantly comatose drunkard (who knows why he got in?)
-A man who got exactly what he deserves, and he knows it, and is tired of everyone else whining.
-A paladin/fighter/whatever pleading that he needs to get out and save the world
-Someone writing a book which he thinks will change the world.

 

[RealMarkP]

Great ideas guys.

As a followup question. Since a prison is built like a fortress, it will prove difficult to adventure in the traditional sense. What types of quests can a party do within the prison or under close supervision? For the sake of discussion, consider the party low level and assume that they won't spend their entire lives in the prison (maybe a few sessions).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Wizard of Oz?

 

[Terrance888]

Hand off a note/message to a certain prisoner, but you have to figure it out through riddles/stuff and other prisoners also know some, but not all, of the answers. (Stealth)
A prisoner drew something in blood that people are interested in checking out. (magical? Summoning?)
Someone is attacking the Prison and wants a detailed map of the insides and inmates.
They are supposed to tell the Guards how THEY would burst out of the prison, because it is holding an similiar adventuring party who tried to escape already, and they are baffled at how they are doing it.

 

[Nytmare]

You could wander away slightly from the standard prison most of us would recognize, and move more towards banishment to a self sustained pocket somewhere, where the prisoners were left to fend for themselves in some remote pocket somewhere.

An inescapable island or network of caves or mines. Maybe a pocket dimension or otherwise hard to find place.

To continue my previous trend: No Escape (1994)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Think you have to also look at "who is in power" in your game world.

• King's brother
• The old King and family
• Smugglers and those that did not pay taxes
• Duelist - killed the wrong man or just waiting trial
• Adventures - they did start that tavern fire and kill some people
• Dwarves or elves or another race - purge or just hate
• Zombies and other other undead - what, it was for life and some just don't die!
• The mad men - from bad drink or spells or horrors seen
• The worlds greatest lover
• The worlds most interesting man (you know who I am talking about)