After a few sessions in our current campaign I presented my party with a Crossroads encounter where they could choose between finishing the second half of a delivery quest for one faction or help another faction by infiltrating a prison as prisoners to discover who was secretly murdering some of the guards. They chose the prison, but a couple days later found out that the person on the outside who knew they were undercover and was going to help them out died in a shipwreck. They were on their own, but managed to solve the murders and convince the warden of their intentions, as well as defeat a powerful enemy with only a pickaxe, fog cloud, and 5 copper coins. One of our best adventures to date.
Player: I hate how we always meet in a tavern DM: You open your eyes, allowing them to focus on the bars. You sigh as you mark another tally on the wall. Why are you all here?
Martial classes would have a large advantage, casters would be mostly screwed due to limited access to the neccasary componets. I like that the prison break arks gives martial classes a rare moment to shine.
@@jamescopeland6802 not necessarily; most prisons have at least very small libraries which could consist of extremely old magic tomes -- like old to the point where the pages might be hard to read which might require a role LMAO 🤣😂
@@jamescopeland6802 find a tiefling collect their shit, that now means you can cast fireball. get creative. meanwhile in GURPS most of the magic systems need no items since it's actual magic, from the brain. but hey that's an actually good system.
@@amethystb12345 its a prison you need more then a book to cast a spells many spells have components needed like bat droppings for fireball, and a prison worth a dam isn't gonna give a spellcaster spellcasting mats, books maybe but not a full on spellcasting set. And even then thiers a difference between a library with mundane books and books with magical spell books, a prison has no logical reason to give prisoners access to tomes of magic.
@@amethystb12345 What you are suggesting is the same as the idea as the guards giving everyone who knows how to wield a weapon a weapon they are profficent in, in D&D magic isn't some mystery people know it exists and a prison would know not to arm potential magic users accordingly since in most "vanilla" settings magic has likely existed for thousands of years or more.
Pro tip for running a master plan that was explained "off-screen": non-linear storytelling. Just run the breakout without a fully fleshed-out plan. When the heroes come to an obstacle (guard, locked door, etc) rewind time to their planning phase and ask, "So how did you guys plan for this?" I've used this method in a game before and it went amazingly well. Good for heists, too.
This sounds a lot like the way the Oceans 11 movie ran! That aspect always had me on the edge of my seat! I never thought I could use it for narration though.... My friends and I take turns narrating for each other in the same world and around the same time with different characters, I will bring this idea up with them and we can figure out how this can work for us.
Players get set to jail so they can do a prison break. The GM "Ok. Here's a map of the prison. This is the schedule of the guards. And, due to your high perception, here are a number of other interesting details" The players "Is there a prison library so we can research our case? Woohoo, courtroom drama". GM "Unexpected approach. But let's run with it"
@@davidwatches It's a loooooong story. I don't think I can capture all the nuances in a RUclips comment. But, here's the short version: One of the party members was sent to jail. She meets an old friendly NPC there, and some other new ones, one of which is a little girl that only she seems to be able to see. She becomes friends with this girl, while that night, her old friend NPC disappears. The girl remarks cryptically the next day that the old NPC was taken, and that to get her back, our party member would have to kill her, the little girl. While that was happening, the other members found some information relating to the BBEG's big plot to turn himself into a god (important note: the party doesn't know who the BBEG is, they just know that he exists and is trying to achieve Apotheosis). Basically, they realise that the prison that their teammate is in is also being used to forge a legendary relic that is needed to carry out this Ascension ritual. They also find out that in order to create this relic, the BBEG would need a certain type of life force (EXP) to power their machine. To make a longer story shorter, they figure out that our PC and the old friendly NPC was taken for their EXP, and that if they didn't break them out soon, they would lose all their levels and create this terrible relic. They hatched a prison break plan, and execute it. It goes...fairly well. For some reason they let the rogue with 8 charisma speak instead of the sorcerer with 20 charisma, so things get a little...dicey. But they all manage to get into the place where our PC is being held, and find the large cage that they've put the NPC in to drain them of their EXP (to clarify, we are using milestone. but i felt EXP would be just a nice way to explain the level drain mechanic that was going on with the cage). Once they get there, all hell breaks loose. Our sorcerer accidentally sets the alarms off with a wild magic roll. The warden arrives, but is swiftly dispatched with a great Otto's Irresistible Dance. They barricade the door so that the guards can't come in. They manage to pass enough Arcana checks to open the door to the cage before the relic is formed completely. They manage to do everything they came to do. Except. They forgot to come up with a way to get out. And then. One of the big bads they have been facing the entire campaign shows up. Everything gets wilder. No one has much HP left. The guards are breaking through the barricade. I had prepared for them to lose this fight. In fact, I almost counted on it. What I wasn't prepared for, was for them to find the little seed I had planted earlier on in the game and use it. Basically, they figured out tha the little girl our imprisoned PC was the Daughter of the Weave. Using knowledge of the lore of this world, they managed to make her cast the Wish spell to get them all out of here on their next turn. And in order to make sure that happened, our bard used her last 4th level spell slot to Polymorph our monk (the imprisoned PC) into a T-rex. I did make them roll for the Wish spell, since none of them were at a level where they would have been able to normally cast it. They rolled badly, and so our wizard ended up having to choose between losing magic forever or changing class to cleric, in order to show their eternal faith in the Weave (a consequence that they had known about before they cast Wish). And the friendly NPC did end up losing most of their levels. But. They managed to get out. And earn the eternal wrath of a Rakshasa. I'm very proud of my players. Apologies if this is too long or rambly. Hopefully it met your expectations!
Players: We want a seafaring campaign! DM: You shuffle to your left, your ankle chains connected to each other and to the floor. Brief sunlight beams down from the ladder as another prisoner is brought into the bowels of the prison ship.
The squirrel bit is always so surreal to me. My D&D group has been using that gif as a joke for like the past 4 years. We always called it "squirrel posting" lmao
I had players in my WEG Star Wars game who, when playing as Rebels, would turn in one of the characters to the Empire, collect a bounty then break them out of prison. Rinse and repeat.
Start the whole campaign with the characters ALREADY in prison. They have to meet each other, deal with the vicissitudes of prison life perhaps (or just avoid getting hanged...), then plan and execute the escape. It's like a heist in reverse. You could say that it's kinda railroadie, but so are alot of other introductory adventures. Best of all, it thoroughly avoids the "meet in a tavern" trope. You're welcome. 😁
In my years of playing TTRPG, I've had 3 prison arcs. My first one was playing FFG Edge of the Empire, our group landed on a planet without the proper authorization and we were surrounded by imperial forces, causing us to have to head to prison where we had to find a way for us to breakout, which ended up being a lot of fun. Second was a one-shot where we classically started out the one-shot inside the prison with no starting gear, was one of the most fun I had, playing as a half-orc barbarian just smashing his way out of the prison. The third was a campaign where we started with amnesia, leaving a ruin and trying to find our way to a nearby city only to be caught by slavers and brought to an arena built for entertainment and we had to plan our breakout while fighting to survive the arena fights.
This gives me a great idea for my "larger than life" Unarmed Fighter. He has an ability to grow to huge size of given the room, so if he could get out to a courtyard he could transform and be a literally huge distraction to give the more squishy casters a chance to get their gear or get out/ into a better position
Safest way to run a prison arc is as a game starter / first session, or a racconto to use the past as an explanation for what's going on in the present situation. If player have nothing to lose, or know they get out, they won't feel bad against the prison act.
Oh I'm fully planning a prison arc for my Icewind Dale campaign (one of my players' long-lost mom is locked in Revel's End for taking part in a mage rebellion and they've caught wind of the plot thread, so they've been planning to at least visit for a bit now to get some answers)
A friend of mine played a barbarian that ALWAYS said "nothing can hold Cynric" every time we entered any form of civilization. And the guards always thought that meant he was a criminal, and was arrested and jailed. In a place he COULDN'T escape. And it finally ended with a simple 30 foot deep hole with no way out being the simplest prison he couldn't escape. We had to keep breaking him out.
Pretty sure the basic thing for a prison encounter is removing all equipment and magic, and then the players need to find a way to get said resources back, since that's usually a sufficient win condition to allow escape.
Only time I've gotten to do a prison arch was actually with supervillain games I've both played in and run, was Mutants & Masterminds and a lot of fun to see how creative players get after having one really bad day with their arch nemesises. Probably the only campaign style I've found players end up getting themselves into positions to get thrown in prison in games I've been in or ran though, still a lot of fun thought. I also when I was running the game, made it very clear that messing up badly enough as a supervillain CAN lead them into a prison arc but explained the goal at that point was to escape prison or get set free.
@@P1X0L4T3D boo is most definitely correct.... However in a setting where magic and hexblades are well known to exist, even if rare it is quite logical to have such items exist. Knowing the character is a hexblade right off the bat is kinda meta unless they are already well known beforehand (such as the case of a party in a already established campaign) meaning the hexblade, if starting the campaign at level 3 the warlock is probably completely unknown to be a hexblade, far more feasible that they wouldn't have been restrained by a probably quite expensive resource that is also likely in short supply due to not being in extreme demand. It's more probable to have several guards per shift capable of casting dispel magic and watching for spellcasting prisoners who had previously gone unnoticed in their spellcasting ability. Which means the hexblade or other casters get one chance to get out once they reveal their abilities, putting a little extra pressure and urgency on the successful attempt.
I just thought of another idea, the players might need to find a method of removing such restraints from a member of the party or a NPC crucial to the escape plan.... Perhaps there is a well known high level pyromancer in the prison who is simply waiting for the first chance to rampage? Would be a excellent distraction, even better if it was a necromancer instead... Then again releasing a high level necromancer from magical restraints within the prison holding them may not be the brightest idea, anyone else thinking maybe they might become the bbeg later?
TBH, it is fun to design wardens for prisons like these. They are one of the biggest parts of said arc, fighting them, reasoning with them, or just sneaking past the is one of the best parts to see.
Great video! I'm currently working on ideas for a urban investigations campaign. Maybe an adventure will have the characters go to prison. Thanks for that!
I've been jailed twice in DnD. Both times were amazing. Once was us getting framed for regicide by the captain of the kings guard, a man we trusted implicitly. due to the severity of the crime, we were facing insurmountable odds against the entire city watch force. We were given the option of (1) give up and be jailed, or (2) die fighting....we chose the former. The second, we were already fugitives working in the underground to overthrow an evil dictatorship. We were finishing up a quest, returned to the quest giver's hideout, only to see the chief of the secret police sitting at his desk and then we all had black, silence-enchanted bags over our heads, and were beaten to unconsciousness. The first ended up with our day in court where we managed to prove it was a frame job and, once the real perpetrator was revealed, we got our sweet revenge in a sick boss fight. The second ended with a prison break where we made some unlikely friends, lost some good men, and had a few really big character moments.
This video couldn't have come out at a better time. Im currently writing a part of my D&D campaign where the party needs to break someone out of prison, the problem is that the prison is a flying blimp and breaking in is nigh impossible.
We are now on the second prison arc in our campaign, though both are quite different. The first one we infiltrated as guards and cooks to break out a friend of one of the party members and disable a lab they were building to experiment on prisoners. It ended with the party member who's friend was in the prison blowing everything up after we opened all the cells and caused chaos. The second arc just started, we were next to an elven profet when they died, and the tarot cards they put down were not very favourable. Next session will be us in prison, and probably us trying to prove our innocence.
Fail states are a huge boon for this kind of scenario. Sure they fail, but the consequences aren't immediate. Sure, you're spotted by a guard. Do you get to him before he yells for help? Does he get away to sound the alarm? How long does it take for the guards to respond to the alarm? How long does it take for the guards to corner the party. So much can happen between the fail states
this is actually perfect timing! im about to start a new campaign which STARTS IN A PRISON!!! im using it as an intro to my dming style. since i run everything as acticely encouraging wild choices and open world feel because there isnt a big railroad, the plot is made by the player's interactions with the world. sort of like what Zelda has done in the last two games, with an interactive, large, but restricted area to play around with as you gain your powers. (they start at level 2) and once you leave, the world is your oyster. this is helping to inspire me to properly get some plans down for the prison.
I did a break out of prison one shot and one of my players was offered a deal to cross the party. They also got double crossed. My players were cool with this and it was pretty funny. They destroyed the prison with a manic item that would create a physical fortress. And then they all ran away in different directions. Now my players for the one shot made characters that didn’t like each other. It was so much fun
Unironically one of my DnD game concepts literally starts with the player characters waking up in a prison by being branded with a magical seal on the back of the neck and being given the choice to accept the Hostile takeover of the kingdoms the players characters come from or to be imprisoned (im hoping one of the players disrespects the warden as players are inclined to do causing the warden to go so youve made your choice and activating the brandings power before sending them into the prison as new prisoners.
My character was just arrested - albeit for a very stupid reason. And my character being my character, I rolled w it - and it let to amazing departure scene of my character from the party (cuz I have to take pause from playing for few weeks) - almost as if getting caught lend to that scene coming. And best part - we didn’t plan it at all. Me leaving was planed, the scene after my character being thrown into prison most likely too, but prison not, but it felt so natural.
I started a campaign using a prison break, that involved a call for a job to rescue someone important turn into a set up for the party. So they had to get information from the others that were set up with them, and then decide who to partner with to escape!
Gonna go plan a prison arc now for my players!! Think I'm gonna do with a prison or crazy house, where a local hero has been wrongly imprisoned by a monster that's making people crazy
Got a prison arc in mind that is orchestrated entirely by the BBEG, with the point being to use the Players as a diversion while simultaneously infiltrating the prison to seal and steal an artifact that would shut off player's powers and faking his death(through one of his 13 disciples which he revives later due to forbidden necromancy). All so he can become something greater than what's been seen before.
Funnily enough I put finger to keys about a week ago putting together a prison arch of the current campaign. Basically at the start of the campaign they was traveling with a bounty hunter who was transporting the murder of the pervious King. One of the Kings councillors is trying to get information out of the prisoner but keeps being denied access to the national prison. Also said councilor will mention to the group that there is no record of that killer on the prisoners list. So the group will be 'totally legitimately arrested' to gain access to the prison. They need to confirm the prisoners is there, interrogate them if they are and get out scot-free. Looking forward to see how it all plays out
While not having imprisoned my players they had to rescue someone. Some characters had no good reason to be in the prison without getting a criminal record so some had to be prisoners to get in. So already the group was seperated. One thing lead to another and the prisoner players got caught. The undercover players saw this, but didn't step in to help. One of the prison characters felt so utterly betrayed by this they ratted on the undercover players. In the end the prison was a bloodbath that was half in flames. With many traumatized as to how low they had gotten to escape.
Me sitting here with a character who has a fear of prisons lol. I really hope my DM doesn’t see this video for my character’s sake. But a prison arc could also be cool
Best adventure I've seen with this premise is Granite Mountain Prison by Roger Baker, form Dungeon Magazine #36. It's 2nd ed but could be adapted for any setting/system. The design of the prison, quest to get into the prison to rescue a revolutionary fighting a corrupt government, and shear difficulty, makes it a real challenge. The dificulty should be a selling point for players who think their characters are unstoppable, or anyone who wants a challenge.
Part of losing your items itself can be a quest in and of itself. Especially if such items are very personal or crucial. Having invested my Warlocks arcanums strictly to a staff that without which… he doesnt have. Is a risk I chose as a player with the understanding the DM will likely take it away… and trust the dm that I will get it back after working hard to retrieve it
Step 1: Secure the keys Step 2: Ascend from darkness Step 3: Rain fire Step 4: Unleash the horde Step 5: Skewer the winged beast Step 6: Wield a fist of iron Step 7: Raise Hell Step 8: Freedom
So this reminds me of something that happened to me in a game I was a part of a while back. We were doing a homebrewed system, plot, everything, it wasn't 5e, but that's not too important. We (me and the other 2 players) ended up in a holding cell in a military facility with an npc. Let's name this npc Mark. We were in this cell and trying to figure a way out when Mark suggests that when a guard comes by to check on us we attack the guaard and take the keys. I half agree and we wait, after a short while a guard comes into the cell, let's call this guard Joel, and mark grabs Joel and signals me to attack him. I finally make up my mind to not go through with it as I had been going back and forth for a while on it and seperate Mark and Joel. Joel runs off to get help and Mark is not happy. More guards come and knock us all out. The three of us wake up and Mark is nowhere to be seen but we notice that the door is open so we sneak out and begin to look around until we realize the facility is empty. we continue to look around until we find a guard, who turned out to be Joel. Turrns out Mark was killed for attacking a guard and then the entire rest of the facility staff left 3 days ago, leaving just us three players aand Joel. Due to me seperating Mark and Joel he left our door open so we could get out. During our exploration we had come across a room which we all agreed smelled of boss fight so we decided to save that for later. As we learned more of the facility from Joel we learned we were right to be suspicious of said room as it was indeed, a boss fight. We also found a room of what I'll just refer to as wolves. Not exactly what they were but oh well. As we were trying to come up with an escape plan it dawned on us that the wolves only let one person get close enough to feed them, and it wasn't Joel, meaning these animaals hadn't been fed in 3 days. So we came up with the plan to create a scent trail between their pen and the boss room, then release them and lock ourselves in rooms they couldn't get into. the idea was that after they try and fail to get to us their stomachs would force them to look for food elsewhere and they would follow the scent trail to the boss and attack it and then we escape in the ensuing chaos while the boss and mobs are distracted. So we executed the plan and had to make several rolls, and we nailed it. The plan went perfectly for us and the three of us managed to escape this facility without taking or dealing any damage. Unfortunately Joel got trapped inside when the boss exploded and caaved in the entrance and the gm foreshadowed something else in the facility.
currently i'm dming a campaign the player met at prison, , they convinced the other prisoners to revolt killed a few guards and ran away while the rest of the guards fought the other prisoners
I would highly suggest never doing this. Players are WAAAAAY too attached to their magic items and need to be free to murder hobo around. I have killed my own campaign and watched 3 others die because of some sort of prison or jailbreak plot.
Then it was poorly managed. If I want my players to succeed, I can allow it. Our job as DM's, is to keep things fun. Watching the heroes roll 4 critical strikes in a row is boring, but so it is for them to see their plans falling apart again and again.
I have put my players in prison after a full party wipe, only one of them was really killed and one lost a limb but could have survived so only one rerolled a character.
I think you can allow your players to totally screw up and get themselves into deeper shit, but if you're going to do that then you should raise the stakes while maybe also providing a way to expedite the process. For example, their prison break goes horribly wrong, so the warden decides to transfer them to another, far more secure prison. The transfer process could be by land or sea or whatever, but it provides a solid point of vulnerability that the players can exploit to try and get out. Or maybe someone else intercepts the transfer to break either them or someone else out, which could lead to the players owing someone a huge favor, or getting caught up in the chaos.
Your players don't kill all your villains from before hand? I've only had that happen once and that guy was the Emperor of a nation so kinda hard for him to get arrested.
Prisons are great, but I actually feel getting the players to choose the prison is far less impactful. In this case I actually find railroading to be better. You just have to be subtle with it. A fight they think they can win has unexpected reinforcements causing a tpk without the killing..... They are captured instead. The sense of "I lost?" Combined with "I'm alive" and "what do we do" is just amazing. You just can't do it too often.
The only valid argument for spoiler warnings is that people are being born all the time, and not everyone is as old as us. Kids today simply haven't had the time to watch all the stuff we have.
I kind of disagree with that notion. Some times you just have to be a product of when you were born. And that can mean knowing whos father darth vader is before even know what empire strikes back is
After a few sessions in our current campaign I presented my party with a Crossroads encounter where they could choose between finishing the second half of a delivery quest for one faction or help another faction by infiltrating a prison as prisoners to discover who was secretly murdering some of the guards. They chose the prison, but a couple days later found out that the person on the outside who knew they were undercover and was going to help them out died in a shipwreck. They were on their own, but managed to solve the murders and convince the warden of their intentions, as well as defeat a powerful enemy with only a pickaxe, fog cloud, and 5 copper coins. One of our best adventures to date.
Player: I hate how we always meet in a tavern
DM: You open your eyes, allowing them to focus on the bars. You sigh as you mark another tally on the wall. Why are you all here?
Martial classes would have a large advantage, casters would be mostly screwed due to limited access to the neccasary componets. I like that the prison break arks gives martial classes a rare moment to shine.
@@jamescopeland6802 not necessarily; most prisons have at least very small libraries which could consist of extremely old magic tomes -- like old to the point where the pages might be hard to read which might require a role LMAO 🤣😂
@@jamescopeland6802 find a tiefling collect their shit, that now means you can cast fireball. get creative.
meanwhile in GURPS most of the magic systems need no items since it's actual magic, from the brain. but hey that's an actually good system.
@@amethystb12345 its a prison you need more then a book to cast a spells many spells have components needed like bat droppings for fireball, and a prison worth a dam isn't gonna give a spellcaster spellcasting mats, books maybe but not a full on spellcasting set. And even then thiers a difference between a library with mundane books and books with magical spell books, a prison has no logical reason to give prisoners access to tomes of magic.
@@amethystb12345 What you are suggesting is the same as the idea as the guards giving everyone who knows how to wield a weapon a weapon they are profficent in, in D&D magic isn't some mystery people know it exists and a prison would know not to arm potential magic users accordingly since in most "vanilla" settings magic has likely existed for thousands of years or more.
Pro tip for running a master plan that was explained "off-screen": non-linear storytelling. Just run the breakout without a fully fleshed-out plan. When the heroes come to an obstacle (guard, locked door, etc) rewind time to their planning phase and ask, "So how did you guys plan for this?" I've used this method in a game before and it went amazingly well. Good for heists, too.
This sounds a lot like the way the Oceans 11 movie ran! That aspect always had me on the edge of my seat! I never thought I could use it for narration though.... My friends and I take turns narrating for each other in the same world and around the same time with different characters, I will bring this idea up with them and we can figure out how this can work for us.
Players get set to jail so they can do a prison break. The GM "Ok. Here's a map of the prison. This is the schedule of the guards. And, due to your high perception, here are a number of other interesting details"
The players "Is there a prison library so we can research our case? Woohoo, courtroom drama".
GM "Unexpected approach. But let's run with it"
My party avoided a prison arc by going to court. They cast Modify Memory on themselves, so Zone of Truth helped them avoid going to prison at all.
That’s actually a brilliant use of the spell kudos to your party for coming up with that
@Evil_Wizard I laughed so hard my mic couldn't pick it up and we had to end the session a little early so I could gather my bearings. 😂
I just finished a prison break arc! They ended up turning into a dinosaur before meeting the Goddess of the Weave. It was fun!
(grabs popcorn)
I feel we need more details on this...
@@davidwatches It's a loooooong story. I don't think I can capture all the nuances in a RUclips comment. But, here's the short version:
One of the party members was sent to jail. She meets an old friendly NPC there, and some other new ones, one of which is a little girl that only she seems to be able to see. She becomes friends with this girl, while that night, her old friend NPC disappears. The girl remarks cryptically the next day that the old NPC was taken, and that to get her back, our party member would have to kill her, the little girl.
While that was happening, the other members found some information relating to the BBEG's big plot to turn himself into a god (important note: the party doesn't know who the BBEG is, they just know that he exists and is trying to achieve Apotheosis). Basically, they realise that the prison that their teammate is in is also being used to forge a legendary relic that is needed to carry out this Ascension ritual. They also find out that in order to create this relic, the BBEG would need a certain type of life force (EXP) to power their machine.
To make a longer story shorter, they figure out that our PC and the old friendly NPC was taken for their EXP, and that if they didn't break them out soon, they would lose all their levels and create this terrible relic. They hatched a prison break plan, and execute it. It goes...fairly well. For some reason they let the rogue with 8 charisma speak instead of the sorcerer with 20 charisma, so things get a little...dicey. But they all manage to get into the place where our PC is being held, and find the large cage that they've put the NPC in to drain them of their EXP (to clarify, we are using milestone. but i felt EXP would be just a nice way to explain the level drain mechanic that was going on with the cage).
Once they get there, all hell breaks loose. Our sorcerer accidentally sets the alarms off with a wild magic roll. The warden arrives, but is swiftly dispatched with a great Otto's Irresistible Dance. They barricade the door so that the guards can't come in. They manage to pass enough Arcana checks to open the door to the cage before the relic is formed completely. They manage to do everything they came to do.
Except. They forgot to come up with a way to get out.
And then. One of the big bads they have been facing the entire campaign shows up. Everything gets wilder. No one has much HP left. The guards are breaking through the barricade.
I had prepared for them to lose this fight. In fact, I almost counted on it. What I wasn't prepared for, was for them to find the little seed I had planted earlier on in the game and use it.
Basically, they figured out tha the little girl our imprisoned PC was the Daughter of the Weave. Using knowledge of the lore of this world, they managed to make her cast the Wish spell to get them all out of here on their next turn. And in order to make sure that happened, our bard used her last 4th level spell slot to Polymorph our monk (the imprisoned PC) into a T-rex.
I did make them roll for the Wish spell, since none of them were at a level where they would have been able to normally cast it. They rolled badly, and so our wizard ended up having to choose between losing magic forever or changing class to cleric, in order to show their eternal faith in the Weave (a consequence that they had known about before they cast Wish). And the friendly NPC did end up losing most of their levels. But. They managed to get out. And earn the eternal wrath of a Rakshasa. I'm very proud of my players.
Apologies if this is too long or rambly. Hopefully it met your expectations!
@@MrScripted Holy hell that was epic!
THEY turned into A dinosaur? what is this a Megazord?
Players: We want a seafaring campaign!
DM: You shuffle to your left, your ankle chains connected to each other and to the floor. Brief sunlight beams down from the ladder as another prisoner is brought into the bowels of the prison ship.
The squirrel bit is always so surreal to me. My D&D group has been using that gif as a joke for like the past 4 years. We always called it "squirrel posting" lmao
I had players in my WEG Star Wars game who, when playing as Rebels, would turn in one of the characters to the Empire, collect a bounty then break them out of prison. Rinse and repeat.
Start the whole campaign with the characters ALREADY in prison. They have to meet each other, deal with the vicissitudes of prison life perhaps (or just avoid getting hanged...), then plan and execute the escape. It's like a heist in reverse. You could say that it's kinda railroadie, but so are alot of other introductory adventures. Best of all, it thoroughly avoids the "meet in a tavern" trope.
You're welcome. 😁
In my years of playing TTRPG, I've had 3 prison arcs. My first one was playing FFG Edge of the Empire, our group landed on a planet without the proper authorization and we were surrounded by imperial forces, causing us to have to head to prison where we had to find a way for us to breakout, which ended up being a lot of fun.
Second was a one-shot where we classically started out the one-shot inside the prison with no starting gear, was one of the most fun I had, playing as a half-orc barbarian just smashing his way out of the prison.
The third was a campaign where we started with amnesia, leaving a ruin and trying to find our way to a nearby city only to be caught by slavers and brought to an arena built for entertainment and we had to plan our breakout while fighting to survive the arena fights.
This gives me a great idea for my "larger than life" Unarmed Fighter. He has an ability to grow to huge size of given the room, so if he could get out to a courtyard he could transform and be a literally huge distraction to give the more squishy casters a chance to get their gear or get out/ into a better position
Safest way to run a prison arc is as a game starter / first session, or a racconto to use the past as an explanation for what's going on in the present situation. If player have nothing to lose, or know they get out, they won't feel bad against the prison act.
Oh I'm fully planning a prison arc for my Icewind Dale campaign (one of my players' long-lost mom is locked in Revel's End for taking part in a mage rebellion and they've caught wind of the plot thread, so they've been planning to at least visit for a bit now to get some answers)
I go with the " Someguy Importantman is the only one alive that knows MAGUFFIN, and he's currently locked away in BAD PLACE"
A friend of mine played a barbarian that ALWAYS said "nothing can hold Cynric" every time we entered any form of civilization. And the guards always thought that meant he was a criminal, and was arrested and jailed. In a place he COULDN'T escape. And it finally ended with a simple 30 foot deep hole with no way out being the simplest prison he couldn't escape. We had to keep breaking him out.
Pretty sure the basic thing for a prison encounter is removing all equipment and magic, and then the players need to find a way to get said resources back, since that's usually a sufficient win condition to allow escape.
Dm: you have one week to plan your jailbreak
Me, gifting them ace attorney on steam: is this an option?
Only time I've gotten to do a prison arch was actually with supervillain games I've both played in and run, was Mutants & Masterminds and a lot of fun to see how creative players get after having one really bad day with their arch nemesises. Probably the only campaign style I've found players end up getting themselves into positions to get thrown in prison in games I've been in or ran though, still a lot of fun thought. I also when I was running the game, made it very clear that messing up badly enough as a supervillain CAN lead them into a prison arc but explained the goal at that point was to escape prison or get set free.
Hexblade Warlocks can summon their spellcasting component, their weapon
Simple: Handcuffs with anti-magic sigils imbued into them for spellcaster types
@ravenknight4195 booo!
@@P1X0L4T3D boo is most definitely correct.... However in a setting where magic and hexblades are well known to exist, even if rare it is quite logical to have such items exist. Knowing the character is a hexblade right off the bat is kinda meta unless they are already well known beforehand (such as the case of a party in a already established campaign) meaning the hexblade, if starting the campaign at level 3 the warlock is probably completely unknown to be a hexblade, far more feasible that they wouldn't have been restrained by a probably quite expensive resource that is also likely in short supply due to not being in extreme demand. It's more probable to have several guards per shift capable of casting dispel magic and watching for spellcasting prisoners who had previously gone unnoticed in their spellcasting ability. Which means the hexblade or other casters get one chance to get out once they reveal their abilities, putting a little extra pressure and urgency on the successful attempt.
I just thought of another idea, the players might need to find a method of removing such restraints from a member of the party or a NPC crucial to the escape plan.... Perhaps there is a well known high level pyromancer in the prison who is simply waiting for the first chance to rampage? Would be a excellent distraction, even better if it was a necromancer instead... Then again releasing a high level necromancer from magical restraints within the prison holding them may not be the brightest idea, anyone else thinking maybe they might become the bbeg later?
Me (an Unarmed fighter, with un-armoured defense) "I see no downsides"
TBH, it is fun to design wardens for prisons like these. They are one of the biggest parts of said arc, fighting them, reasoning with them, or just sneaking past the is one of the best parts to see.
Just ran a City of Mist arc where they willingly went to prison in order to get needed information. Was very fun!
Great video! I'm currently working on ideas for a urban investigations campaign. Maybe an adventure will have the characters go to prison. Thanks for that!
I've been jailed twice in DnD. Both times were amazing. Once was us getting framed for regicide by the captain of the kings guard, a man we trusted implicitly. due to the severity of the crime, we were facing insurmountable odds against the entire city watch force. We were given the option of (1) give up and be jailed, or (2) die fighting....we chose the former. The second, we were already fugitives working in the underground to overthrow an evil dictatorship. We were finishing up a quest, returned to the quest giver's hideout, only to see the chief of the secret police sitting at his desk and then we all had black, silence-enchanted bags over our heads, and were beaten to unconsciousness. The first ended up with our day in court where we managed to prove it was a frame job and, once the real perpetrator was revealed, we got our sweet revenge in a sick boss fight. The second ended with a prison break where we made some unlikely friends, lost some good men, and had a few really big character moments.
This video couldn't have come out at a better time. Im currently writing a part of my D&D campaign where the party needs to break someone out of prison, the problem is that the prison is a flying blimp and breaking in is nigh impossible.
We are now on the second prison arc in our campaign, though both are quite different.
The first one we infiltrated as guards and cooks to break out a friend of one of the party members and disable a lab they were building to experiment on prisoners. It ended with the party member who's friend was in the prison blowing everything up after we opened all the cells and caused chaos.
The second arc just started, we were next to an elven profet when they died, and the tarot cards they put down were not very favourable. Next session will be us in prison, and probably us trying to prove our innocence.
Fail states are a huge boon for this kind of scenario. Sure they fail, but the consequences aren't immediate. Sure, you're spotted by a guard. Do you get to him before he yells for help? Does he get away to sound the alarm? How long does it take for the guards to respond to the alarm? How long does it take for the guards to corner the party. So much can happen between the fail states
The monk shines here.
this is actually perfect timing! im about to start a new campaign which STARTS IN A PRISON!!!
im using it as an intro to my dming style. since i run everything as acticely encouraging wild choices and open world feel because there isnt a big railroad, the plot is made by the player's interactions with the world. sort of like what Zelda has done in the last two games, with an interactive, large, but restricted area to play around with as you gain your powers. (they start at level 2) and once you leave, the world is your oyster.
this is helping to inspire me to properly get some plans down for the prison.
I did a break out of prison one shot and one of my players was offered a deal to cross the party. They also got double crossed. My players were cool with this and it was pretty funny. They destroyed the prison with a manic item that would create a physical fortress. And then they all ran away in different directions.
Now my players for the one shot made characters that didn’t like each other. It was so much fun
Unironically one of my DnD game concepts literally starts with the player characters waking up in a prison by being branded with a magical seal on the back of the neck and being given the choice to accept the Hostile takeover of the kingdoms the players characters come from or to be imprisoned (im hoping one of the players disrespects the warden as players are inclined to do causing the warden to go so youve made your choice and activating the brandings power before sending them into the prison as new prisoners.
My character was just arrested - albeit for a very stupid reason. And my character being my character, I rolled w it - and it let to amazing departure scene of my character from the party (cuz I have to take pause from playing for few weeks) - almost as if getting caught lend to that scene coming. And best part - we didn’t plan it at all. Me leaving was planed, the scene after my character being thrown into prison most likely too, but prison not, but it felt so natural.
I started a campaign using a prison break, that involved a call for a job to rescue someone important turn into a set up for the party.
So they had to get information from the others that were set up with them, and then decide who to partner with to escape!
Love Wife's opening bit encouraging you to Be Jay, Do Crimes
Gonna go plan a prison arc now for my players!! Think I'm gonna do with a prison or crazy house, where a local hero has been wrongly imprisoned by a monster that's making people crazy
Got a prison arc in mind that is orchestrated entirely by the BBEG, with the point being to use the Players as a diversion while simultaneously infiltrating the prison to seal and steal an artifact that would shut off player's powers and faking his death(through one of his 13 disciples which he revives later due to forbidden necromancy). All so he can become something greater than what's been seen before.
Funnily enough I put finger to keys about a week ago putting together a prison arch of the current campaign. Basically at the start of the campaign they was traveling with a bounty hunter who was transporting the murder of the pervious King. One of the Kings councillors is trying to get information out of the prisoner but keeps being denied access to the national prison. Also said councilor will mention to the group that there is no record of that killer on the prisoners list. So the group will be 'totally legitimately arrested' to gain access to the prison. They need to confirm the prisoners is there, interrogate them if they are and get out scot-free. Looking forward to see how it all plays out
Blades in the Dark has an entire sub-setting when players do time. You can in theory take over the prison.
While not having imprisoned my players they had to rescue someone. Some characters had no good reason to be in the prison without getting a criminal record so some had to be prisoners to get in. So already the group was seperated. One thing lead to another and the prisoner players got caught. The undercover players saw this, but didn't step in to help. One of the prison characters felt so utterly betrayed by this they ratted on the undercover players. In the end the prison was a bloodbath that was half in flames. With many traumatized as to how low they had gotten to escape.
Me sitting here with a character who has a fear of prisons lol.
I really hope my DM doesn’t see this video for my character’s sake. But a prison arc could also be cool
Best adventure I've seen with this premise is Granite Mountain Prison by Roger Baker, form Dungeon Magazine #36. It's 2nd ed but could be adapted for any setting/system. The design of the prison, quest to get into the prison to rescue a revolutionary fighting a corrupt government, and shear difficulty, makes it a real challenge. The dificulty should be a selling point for players who think their characters are unstoppable, or anyone who wants a challenge.
[laughs in Monk]
I do understand the point of the exercise, though, and I agree.
Oh shit peep that Swig drink! I LOVE SWIG. My wife and I have like 5 of their tumblers.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a great prisonbreak story.
Part of losing your items itself can be a quest in and of itself. Especially if such items are very personal or crucial. Having invested my Warlocks arcanums strictly to a staff that without which… he doesnt have. Is a risk I chose as a player with the understanding the DM will likely take it away… and trust the dm that I will get it back after working hard to retrieve it
Great video, you’ve inspired me in a variety of ways, I’ll be back after our session to report
Step 1: Secure the keys
Step 2: Ascend from darkness
Step 3: Rain fire
Step 4: Unleash the horde
Step 5: Skewer the winged beast
Step 6: Wield a fist of iron
Step 7: Raise Hell
Step 8: Freedom
Sasuke Retsuden is actually a great example on how to set it up if your players are stronger than the average person.
So this reminds me of something that happened to me in a game I was a part of a while back. We were doing a homebrewed system, plot, everything, it wasn't 5e, but that's not too important. We (me and the other 2 players) ended up in a holding cell in a military facility with an npc. Let's name this npc Mark. We were in this cell and trying to figure a way out when Mark suggests that when a guard comes by to check on us we attack the guaard and take the keys. I half agree and we wait, after a short while a guard comes into the cell, let's call this guard Joel, and mark grabs Joel and signals me to attack him. I finally make up my mind to not go through with it as I had been going back and forth for a while on it and seperate Mark and Joel. Joel runs off to get help and Mark is not happy. More guards come and knock us all out. The three of us wake up and Mark is nowhere to be seen but we notice that the door is open so we sneak out and begin to look around until we realize the facility is empty. we continue to look around until we find a guard, who turned out to be Joel. Turrns out Mark was killed for attacking a guard and then the entire rest of the facility staff left 3 days ago, leaving just us three players aand Joel. Due to me seperating Mark and Joel he left our door open so we could get out. During our exploration we had come across a room which we all agreed smelled of boss fight so we decided to save that for later. As we learned more of the facility from Joel we learned we were right to be suspicious of said room as it was indeed, a boss fight. We also found a room of what I'll just refer to as wolves. Not exactly what they were but oh well. As we were trying to come up with an escape plan it dawned on us that the wolves only let one person get close enough to feed them, and it wasn't Joel, meaning these animaals hadn't been fed in 3 days. So we came up with the plan to create a scent trail between their pen and the boss room, then release them and lock ourselves in rooms they couldn't get into. the idea was that after they try and fail to get to us their stomachs would force them to look for food elsewhere and they would follow the scent trail to the boss and attack it and then we escape in the ensuing chaos while the boss and mobs are distracted.
So we executed the plan and had to make several rolls, and we nailed it. The plan went perfectly for us and the three of us managed to escape this facility without taking or dealing any damage. Unfortunately Joel got trapped inside when the boss exploded and caaved in the entrance and the gm foreshadowed something else in the facility.
currently i'm dming a campaign the player met at prison, , they convinced the other prisoners to revolt killed a few guards and ran away while the rest of the guards fought the other prisoners
When I first saw this video, I thought it was about real life lmao
If I cast a target spell on myself in a reflect magic field, is the spell going to bounce back at me nonstop until I am not in the field?
I would highly suggest never doing this. Players are WAAAAAY too attached to their magic items and need to be free to murder hobo around. I have killed my own campaign and watched 3 others die because of some sort of prison or jailbreak plot.
Then it was poorly managed. If I want my players to succeed, I can allow it. Our job as DM's, is to keep things fun. Watching the heroes roll 4 critical strikes in a row is boring, but so it is for them to see their plans falling apart again and again.
the fact they're way too attached to their magic items is the exact reason why you SHOULD do this
I have put my players in prison after a full party wipe, only one of them was really killed and one lost a limb but could have survived so only one rerolled a character.
Okay im now adding a prison city to my world
Hey! You're finally awake!
I think you can allow your players to totally screw up and get themselves into deeper shit, but if you're going to do that then you should raise the stakes while maybe also providing a way to expedite the process.
For example, their prison break goes horribly wrong, so the warden decides to transfer them to another, far more secure prison. The transfer process could be by land or sea or whatever, but it provides a solid point of vulnerability that the players can exploit to try and get out. Or maybe someone else intercepts the transfer to break either them or someone else out, which could lead to the players owing someone a huge favor, or getting caught up in the chaos.
Steal from Blades in the Dark is also a potential option
So I have a major question as a new-ish DM. How do I rotate focus during RP? It always seems that one person gets the spotlight.
Your players don't kill all your villains from before hand? I've only had that happen once and that guy was the Emperor of a nation so kinda hard for him to get arrested.
In my campaign another player met his future husband in prison
Prisons are great, but I actually feel getting the players to choose the prison is far less impactful. In this case I actually find railroading to be better. You just have to be subtle with it. A fight they think they can win has unexpected reinforcements causing a tpk without the killing..... They are captured instead. The sense of "I lost?" Combined with "I'm alive" and "what do we do" is just amazing. You just can't do it too often.
I wasn't allowed to watch Scooby Doo of all things BUT FEAR FACTOR IS A PERFECTLY FINE THING TO WATCH.
Hello fellow homeschooler. :)
Love your channel! Keep making videos!
This type of story wont fly while playing in prison, at least not with the guards around 💀
Start there at level 1!
Im starting my next campaign in prison
What about... a prison school (1) arc ?!
(1) if you don't know: it is an anime.
Thats how i start my next Campaign, they are all in prison, they cant use magic or Features because of some fancy handcuffs. so they have to think..
Prison arc you mean like GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT 200 GOLD
Unfortunately it turns out that my characters aren't more than their abilities
I live in Sweden and do not have a VPN… how the F am I going to watch Avatar, that’s my excuse.
Where was the spoiler warning?
The only valid argument for spoiler warnings is that people are being born all the time, and not everyone is as old as us. Kids today simply haven't had the time to watch all the stuff we have.
I kind of disagree with that notion. Some times you just have to be a product of when you were born. And that can mean knowing whos father darth vader is before even know what empire strikes back is
Im conviced you are @majiinbae twin.