[Traveller] Halaskii Medium Security Prison - mess room

edited January 2021 in Show and Tell

I'll be startring a Traveller game soon, using the Pirates of Drinax campaign. The PCs, being hired for criminal stuff, need to have a somewhat criminal background. Thus, I'm making them take at least one career term (the final one) as a Prisoner, to reflect that at the start of the campaign, they're in prison for previous crimes. This gives me a perfect opportunity for a "strong start", wherein they're in the prison mess room, eating a meal, when a fight breaks out. That gets them into the action right away, allows them to setup bravery/cowardice character traits, and gets the blood pumping right off the bat as they start out in combat.

Of course, it'll only last a few turns, as then the gas rolls in to pacify the crowd, and the characters wake up face-to-face with their patron, who will have bought their prison contracts because he has a job they can do.

To facilitate this, I drew a (probably pretty basic) prison mess room map upon which they can have their riot.


[Deleted User]MonsenLoreleiRaikoLizzy_MaracujaDakLoopysueArcwynd

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    What's the intent behind the 'keep clear' text on the floor? It will be completely unreadable for anyone actually in the room, and it don't really convey any information about what to keep clear from. Was this room used for something else previously?

  • More of a joke really. It's a reference to the phrase in the movie "The Fifth Element". I'll probably pull it and replace it with more informative markings. Warnings and such for the prisoners.

    This map in only intended for use in one short scene, so I didn't want to go into great detail about it, otherwise I'd just map out the whole prison complex. Also, it will be used in a VTT, so the players will have a birds-eye view of the whole room, and they're really the intended audience for it.

    JimP
  • Monsen said:

    What's the intent behind the 'keep clear' text on the floor? It will be completely unreadable for anyone actually in the room, and it don't really convey any information about what to keep clear from. Was this room used for something else previously?

    It must be a government facility, with the space clearly marked as 'keep clear' all cluttered up.
    DaishoChikara
  • Like entries on pages that say:


    " This page intentionally left blank."

    Above I would write


    "Even though"

    I wrote underneath


    "Except its not."

  • I'm more curious as to why there is no attached kitchen. As I'm assuming this is the prisoner's mess hall (a staff mess hall would be smaller) the kitchen would probably be secured so that cooking utensils couldn't be used as weapons during a riot. There would also be extensive internal surveillance and an attached guard station in case the inmates got rowdy. I can imagine an aisle in front of the serving tables where prisoners would line up to get their food, separated from the main dining area by a low fixed barrier. The "KEEP CLEAR" warning on the floor could be between that barrier and the first row of tables. The serving tables might be safer behind a wall as part of the kitchen area with metal shutters that could roll down over the serving windows in case of trouble. (This isn't a minimum security prison where the inmates might be expected to be polite.)
  • Hi Daisho,

    It looks great, and it sounds like a memorable way to start your game.

    A strange bug eyed alien and a human with a scarred face come over to the table you are sat at. The human says, "He doesn't like you. I don't like you either!"

    DaishoChikara
  • As mentioned above, this map will be used once for a relatively short scene. A few turns of combat followed by anesthetizing gas. I didn't want to spend a long time on it. I might expand on it later, but if so will probably start over "proper".

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