The Prison Experiment

Over in our community, Game Master Bart shared a fantastic campaign report and premise:

Had my first session of the campaign yesterday, it was a blast!

We all agreed in session 0 to start in a prison. Players didn’t know what to expect beforehand, some thought it was just the escape to get going.

But I created a tiny society in the prison based on the Netflix series Unlocked: A jail experiment.

In the prison there are 3 things to keep them interested.

A lot of NPCs which I could pull from.
A task board with jobs so they can earn privilege points. Each task has a story behind it which they can explore. They took the cafeteria job, but the job itself will be next session.
A magical arena. You need 3 privilege points to compete against teams. The players were very interested in it, even though they couldn’t compete just yet – not enough points.

Biggest wins were:

The orc bard is a famous artist. There was a moment where he shined being recognized and had a fun interaction with a NPC.
The halfling rogue stole a hairbrush from a cell, returned it because of personality traits, lied she found it, and failed the deception.
The long-haired minotaur wasn’t having any of it, wanted to pull the halfling in his cell to learn her a lesson, but she managed to escape his grapple and was saved by closing time and the cells needed to lock. To be continued, but the first enemy has been made.
The human sorcerer is struggling with magic as it is almost impossible to cast. But some magical runes got her attention, which she is exploring. I created an ancient magical script she can decipher, empowering spells or act as spell scrolls. She made a Fey pact to get magical powers in return of something she doesn’t know yet.
Dwarf/Monk is a well known WWE fighter and also famous. Had planned to put her in the spotlight like the bard, but saving this for next session.
Players joked of a Gnome Sweatshop, that is now canon!

I am hyped!

Great job, Bart. And fantastic idea for a campaign. Thank you for the report.

I especially like the privilege points mechanic you added, and how you integrated that into your job board. An excellent meta currency for plots and encounters.

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

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