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Thread: Prison Planet

  1. #1
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    Prison Planet

    http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...d=1#post184930

    This thread is for discussion of the "flavour text" of the above linked thread.

    Omega1967 said:
    "Station Data: The prison was constructed one kilometer under in surface of the planet as a partial protection of the prisoners. The planet is barely habitable and has forty degrees Celsius in the day light and minus four at night with a slow rotation of planet of sixty hour days. The facility is placed where if the prisoner does escape there is nowhere to escape too.

    The prisoners may send as many messages to friends and family and business associates but there messages in and out are reviewed with the thinking that they maybe planning to escape with outside help. The majority of the prisoners are watched via sensors and view screens or through windows with little contact physical with the guards. They each wear ankle monitors that make alerts that alert the guards of the location of the prisoners as they attempt to escape.

    Notable stations: Elba IV has a Federation Prison that has a rehabilitation facility that is a Rating 5 (+1) [5 power/round] <25>. The Federation has several other similar facilities spread across the core of the Federation worlds on remote worlds. The Romulan Star Empire has a number similar prison on the fifth moon of a Gas Giant in the Romulus systems.

    Notes: Constructed to prevent a large and small scale assaults and attempt on rescuing any of the prisoners, yet the facility is not constructed to keep a prisoner from escaping easily but can be done with some engineering yet to date no one has yet escaped successfully from the faculty let alone the planet.

    Creation Notes: Star Trek the Original Series has traveled to a few different prisons slash criminal rehabilitation facilities where there where prisoners that were kept and treated for a mental illness. There would also have to be a prison where the most extreme prisoners would be kept. I used the size sixteen to generate the facility to have at least one kilometer of surface with only a single tower entrance and a if you look at the used SU’s there is notes about the additional material that is on top the station with a resistance of one and acts as ablative armor forcing a ship to burn its way to the station if it wished to destroy it. The Facilities has not only soil but bedrock layered on top. I gave it a rating one but someone could give it three resistances for more protection. A layer of Neutronium rocks or other materials laid on the top of the facility would prevent weapons fire from reaching the Facility if attacked from orbits with resistance increased above the layers.

    For a Twenty Fourth century version of the above prison, the shields should be doubled and food replicators and medical systems increased and there is no holodeck’s as they are prisoners being punished but the guards have their own holodeck’s and the rehabilitation.

    Let me know what you think.
    "

    Coatition replied:
    "It is an interesting start, but a barely habitable rock could still be slowly terraformed by the Federation, or at least put sealed outposts on the planet to handle the longer day/night cycles.

    To really make it harder to escape, how about an airless planetoid? For more fun, give it a decaying orbit over a star or gas giant, with a chemical fueled rocket to keep it from falling in. Fuel is delivered via transporter, and there is never enough fuel to set up an orbit that will last longer than 1 month. The only kindness is that the thruster is only on while all the prisoners are inside, verified by life-form scans and video surveillance of their quarters.

    The prisoners are expected to go out, mine raw materials, and return with them. They have an EVA suit with chemical thrusters and a limited supply of oxygen, so if they calculate wrong the route back, or decide to stay out too long, they suffocate or drift past the station.


    As to the organization that has opposite goals to Section 31 and wants to remain covert, how about the Tal'Shiar or the Obsidian Order? Both of them are interested in weakening the Federation, and their operations will want to remain covert. This person was assigned to infiltrate the prison and determine its location, with a cloaked ship waiting to break him out. The connection is telepathic, though Betazoid and Vulcan guards make it difficult (a Medusan would make it impossible).

    The goal of the traitor is to allow the ship to gather recruits from the station, though an antimatter bomb on the outside will make it difficult to be rescued.
    "
    Last edited by Owen E Oulton; 12-05-2014 at 01:01 AM.

  2. #2
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    Moderator's hat is now OFF. This message is not an official comment.

    GM's hat and Trek purist's hat are now ON.

    Coalition, the idea of making the planetoid into a death trap seems to be contrary to the ideals and philosophy of the Federation, as does the concept of "hard labour" as a punishment. An airless asteroid does make sense, though one with a hazardous atmosphere like the Elba II facility where Garth was incarcerated is just as good.

    Omega1967, the layer of neutronium rocks seems a waste of a potentially valuable and scarce resource. I'd think a shield barrier projected from a system of satellites (sorta like the Death Star II projected arould the Endor moon) would seem to work just as well, and would be just as secure from tampering by escapees.

    Naturally only the most hardened and incorrigible (and incurable) criminals would be incarcerated in such a prison. Ordinary criminals would be sent to a rehabilitaion facility, ranging from minimum security places like New Zealand Penal Settlement (Voyager: Caretaker) to more secure facilities like the Tantalus Colony (TOS: Dagger of the Mind). More serious (but still treatable) cases like Garth of Izar would be in places like Elba II asylum (TOS: Whom Gods Destroy).

  3. #3
    With stuff like this, I can't help but thinking a little deviously about what you could do with Federation technology.

    One of the primary questions about the situation, though, is what the Federation draws upon, ethically and medically, as the purpose for such facilities. Given the disparities in what human cultures consider appropriate and just, member world's cultures will run far afield in what they consider appropriate and necessary. 'Federation' facilities need to be special in some way—like Elba II or Tantalus—to warrant jurisdiction beyond that of a particular member planet.

    Anyway, here's some ideas:

    • A penal colony within a colony, wherein subjects of rehabilitation may wander freely and live their lives within normal colony business, but are implanted with monitors which relay their every move and experience to a central observatory. If they become violent or break any colonial regulation—or try to leave a certain boundary—they are beamed back to the central ward, where they must extirpate their antisocial tendencies before they're allowed to leave later. This might be part of specific colonies set up for this purpose, or a way of dealing with resocialization in larger colonies or with antisocial persons at a late stage of their rehabilitation.
    • A treatment centre which is entirely holographic; they are transported unknowingly between real and unreal environments, and subjected to stimuli which are designed to trigger antisocial behaviours in repetitive fashion, allowing them to reflect on situations in various contexts.
    • 'Isolation wards' that consist of huge chambers or areas wherein they are the only sentient beings. These can be estate-sized areas on planetary surfaces (on habitable planets), in artificial chambers underground, or areas in a space station. They are provided resources in the environment to create their own tools and provide for themselves once they figure out how. If they seem unable to figure out how to survive caches of food are left to be discovered. Other than basic feeding, they are left to their own devices and may arrange their lives as they see fit. Occasionally, they may be visited by counselors who discuss how they feel with them, and other elements may be introduced into their environment based on treatment needs or their apparent desires.
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  4. #4
    This prison was intended to be for those who can not be rehabilitated and returned to society. The Badest of the bad. The coldest blooded killers. The surface would be artic cold or Dessert hot.

  5. #5
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    That was my impression - much like Rura Penthe, but as a pure prison rather than a slave-labour camp. There may even be "prison guards" who are holographic in nature, with very a few actual humanoid personnel inaccessible to the general population. There would almost certainly be a "receive only" transporter pad. The few personnel who do come down from the orbital administration station would be beamed back up by the station. The prison facilities would be able to be flooded with anaesthezine gas and would also be equipped with stunner fields. We'd be talking about a place which would make the modern day US "Super-Max" facilities look like junior kindergarten.
    Last edited by Owen E Oulton; 12-05-2014 at 02:25 PM.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Omega1967 View Post
    This prison was intended to be for those who can not be rehabilitated and returned to society. The Badest of the bad. The coldest blooded killers. The surface would be artic cold or Dessert hot.
    Except this is the Federation—there's no one impossible to rehabilitate, there's only those who have not been rehabilitated yet.
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  7. #7
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    Surely there are those for whom Federation science has not yet discovered a cure, short of rebuilding the persona from the ground up, effective destroying the original persona, which would be utterly contrary to Federation ethics. The Hannibal Lecters of the time. I mean, you could always just drop them on an unihabited planet and say "make it on your own," like Kirk did to Khan and his followers, but we all saw how THAT turned out...

  8. #8
    Except if you have a Hannibal Lector show up in Star Trek, then the Will Grahams and the Clarice Starlings will be there, too—since the Lector is there to be a villian. Ceti Alpha V worked fine until Khan had to show up again...

    This brings up the extended question of who the Will Grahams and the Clarice Starlings will work for. Starfleet Security? Federation Security? I'm running a Delta Green game right now, and it occurred to me that you could effectively borrow the FBI model for a Trek game where Starfleet Security criminal investigation teams travel from colony to colony aiding local law enforcement.
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  9. #9
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    In my campaign, I have an organisation known as FIPA, the Federation Interstellar Police Agency, an FBI/Interpol/RCMP style organisation. They'd work for FIPA, alongside Mulder and Scully.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Owen E Oulton View Post
    In my campaign, I have an organisation known as FIPA, the Federation Interstellar Police Agency, an FBI/Interpol/RCMP style organisation. They'd work for FIPA, alongside Mulder and Scully.
    So it operates both investigations itself, and also works as an information clearinghouse for member planets?
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  11. #11
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    Just a random thought about ankle monitors; they seem kinda retro compared to Trek tech. What about each inmate getting an injections of specialized nanites? They act as tracking devices, monitoring devices and perhaps even punishment/control devices. Once injected, the nanites proceed to monitor the inmates behavior, either by recording his brain activity or literally colonizing his neural pathways and recording his thoughts and actions. As a control/punishment they could either stimulate pain receptors, turn off motor functions or perhaps even disrupt higher level thought and render the inmate a zombie (think of all those Enterprise crewmen being led by Borg to be assimilated in First Contact).

    Some interesting plot developments for this level of security: Someone is misusing the nanites, maybe they are trying to "reprogram" the inmates; something causes the nanites to function much like the Borg nanites they are modeled after; someone uses prison nanites on a player character/ campaign npc and the crew travels to the prison to find out why.
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King View Post
    So it operates both investigations itself, and also works as an information clearinghouse for member planets?
    Perzackly.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Owen E Oulton View Post
    Moderator's hat is now OFF. This message is not an official comment.

    GM's hat and Trek purist's hat are now ON.

    Coalition, the idea of making the planetoid into a death trap seems to be contrary to the ideals and philosophy of the Federation, as does the concept of "hard labour" as a punishment. An airless asteroid does make sense, though one with a hazardous atmosphere like the Elba II facility where Garth was incarcerated is just as good.

    Omega1967, the layer of neutronium rocks seems a waste of a potentially valuable and scarce resource. I'd think a shield barrier projected from a system of satellites (sorta like the Death Star II projected arould the Endor moon) would seem to work just as well, and would be just as secure from tampering by escapees.

    Naturally only the most hardened and incorrigible (and incurable) criminals would be incarcerated in such a prison. Ordinary criminals would be sent to a rehabilitaion facility, ranging from minimum security places like New Zealand Penal Settlement (Voyager: Caretaker) to more secure facilities like the Tantalus Colony (TOS: Dagger of the Mind). More serious (but still treatable) cases like Garth of Izar would be in places like Elba II asylum (TOS: Whom Gods Destroy).

    I was woundering what shield rating would be?

  14. #14
    If you want the players to destroy the shields, less than the player's ship's phaser power.

    If you want the shield to be an impenetrable barrier, too strong to beat.
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  15. #15
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    No prison is so impenetrable that PCs can't destroy it. Realistically, such a super-max prison would have the same shields as a starbase. Anything less is not taking it seriously, and anything more is ludicrous.

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