Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] - Page 2

arcanus · 06-04-2014, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

IMHO you seem to be setting the bar quite low. I could design an IW set-up where none of these things would ever work and in a default IW setting I would expect he I-Cops to have done such. This was part of why I was curious about how you were expecting your PCs to do it.

About the only things I could see working would be for one of the PCs to develop psionic Mind Control powers after he was sent to Coventry or for some special sort of Nexus Portal or Shift Realm to (at least temporarily) appear.

These last two would avoid your apparently desired last stage.

I can also say that if I were a PC I would try anything except shooting my way out of the terminal once I got off Coventry. It's be another of those things I would expect never to work.

I picture Coventry as being usually impregnable, Projector sending the Conveyor to an orbital station and the detainees shuttled to the surface.

However the Shift Realm idea is interesting.

The PCs and other high risk detainees could learn of a Shift Realm or gate opening somewhere remote, this leads to a race against time (read running battle) to reach the gate before it closes.

Astromancer · 06-04-2014, 10:08 AM

If the group does escape, maybe they'd want it to be more than a one shot. You might grant them a patron (say a Caballist) and let them become a small group of world-hopping adventure/mercenaries.

ericthered · 06-04-2014, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

<shrug>Okay, you're going with "The I-Cops are stupid.". Your game, do what you like.

<edit> Let me engage my "Tact" module and try again.

IMHO you seem to be setting the bar quite low. I could design an IW set-up where none of these things would ever work and in a default IW setting I would expect he I-Cops to have done such. This was part of why I was curious about how you were expecting your PCs to do it.

About the only things I could see working would be for one of the PCs to develop psionic Mind Control powers after he was sent to Coventry or for some special sort of Nexus Portal or Shift Realm to (at least temporarily) appear.

These last two would avoid your apparently desired last stage.

I can also say that if I were a PC I would try anything except shooting my way out of the terminal once I got off Coventry. It's be another of those things I would expect never to work.

I'm going with the ICops not being uber-competent paranoids. Historically, Just about any prison that does not completely restrain its prisoners can be broken out of. Or maybe I've just read too many books about WWII POW escapes. I'm also going with uber-competent PCs. I suppose I don't see coventry as being an uber prison ... its more like Australia than Alcatrez. And it really isn't infinities style to use tons of manpower or exotic resources

The basic plot is tunnelling in and sneaking back in the supplies portion of a conveyor run. I'm not quite seeing how that relies on ICop stupidity... just a lot of work.

How would you run the escape ... and how would you run the ICops? Design away.

Fred Brackin · 06-04-2014, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered

I suppose I don't see coventry as being an uber prison ... its more like Australia than Alcatrez.

The basic plot is tunnelling in and sneaking back in the supplies portion of a conveyor run. I'm not quite seeing how that relies on ICop stupidity... just a lot of work.

How would you run the escape ... and how would you run the ICops? Design away.

How many transportees got back to England by sneaking onto the convict transport ships?

I'm not sure what Infinity ships _back_ from Coventry. Maybe not even empty shipping containers. Ship everything in cardboard boxes and there isn't anything going back to hide in.

They probably don't ship anything back except Infinity personnel and I wouldn't think wearing fake uniforms would get you by security.

The Coventry conveyor head doesn't really need anything but guardposts. I can't see why it would have a basement to tunnel into. I think it would have a no go zone outside of it that was much too large for any tunnelling too.

There might well be a Transportee Services Complex where they hand out the rations and provide medical care but I'd make that separate and some distance down the road from the gatehead.

Then the special projector stage back on Homeline is going to be heavily guarded. I don't see any way to keep that from being a deathtrap.

Keeping the single (known) door to Coventry locked is so easy that I'd have to base any escape scenario on something Infinity didn't know about like a portal rather than sloppiness in security.

Astromancer · 06-05-2014, 10:37 AM

They've got a point. If I was running Coventry the only way in/out would be kept in someplace like Hawaii or a similarly isolated island or island group. The settlements would be set around the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Airships, commonplace in the IW setting, would take people back and forth.

The airship bases near the settlements would be high security sites. Trips back would involve constant security sweeps. There would be endless automated drone sweeps of the oceans around Hawaii. The chances of anybody getting back to the portal from the settlement would be nil.

Still, a campaign based around a group of people struggling to cross central Asia from the coast of the Black Sea to India. Then to build and sail a boat that would take them to Hawaii. That stuff would make a good story.

A good story, not a plausible escape.

dataweaver · 06-05-2014, 01:48 PM

I don’t think “the I-Cops failed to think of everything” (or “the I-Cops aren’t willing to expend tremendous amounts of money, material, and manpower to plug a hole that the inmates probably don’t have the money, material and manpower to exploit”) is the same as “the I-Cops are stupid”. Your fleet of airships on patrol? They’ll need maintenance, which involves shipping maintenance personnel to Coventry or shipping the airships due for maintenance back from Coventry; either of these creates a potential loophole that inmates can try to exploit.

patchwork · 06-05-2014, 04:17 PM

Well, since I've spent far too much time on this, I'd like to share my thoughts. Some of my pre-gens:

An I-Cop recruited from Patterson (GURPS Cyberworld) and a rape victim. The Chicago Outfit got to her by bringing doppelgangers of her rapist for her to avenge herself on; she does a few favors for the Mob while growing more unhinged, and IA notices and figures there's really only one place to put her.

A swagman kidnapper who got too greedy on Lockridge kidnapping Einstein, Tesla, Princess Anastasia and Leon Trotsky. Fortunately the I-Cops bagged him before he was ready to go after the most dangerous game on Lockridge...Theodore Roosevelt...but it still left them with what to do with his kidnap victims. Well, Lockridge-Einstein now works for PL, but the others...

Arthur of Brittany, rescued from King John's dungeons on an echo by that same swagman kidnapper. That was some years ago, and while he does want to return to the echo he came from and reclaim his rightful throne, he's very grateful to the swagman who rescued him. Of course, his home echo is destabilizing because King John behaves differently when, instead of being properly corpselike, Arthur of Brittany magically vanishes from the dungeon, even if he doesn't turn up again for a few years...

A White Star account manager who started a small slave ring on the side to produce funding for a pocket kingdom on a bronze age parallel where they could live like a divine monarch.

The amoral, drug-using parachronic technician that the account manager had to rope into the scheme to get it off the ground without Infinity noticing.

The spunky reporter from Gernsback who uncovered the Secret.

None of these are nice people, but none of them are without redeeming qualities either. I also allowed for the possibility of one of the Coventry hospital doctors, taken hostage, getting dragged along on the escape and thus also becoming a PC.

My Coventry is on the site of Hanover, New Hampshire. I'll assume if you care about my reasoning/background you can ask. And since escape is functionally impossible, it's much like the Prisoner: the conveyor platform is in the hospital, which is the only building Infinity cares deeply about. the 6,000 or so prisoners live in a faux renaissance town/homesteads throughout New England; they can even own simple firearms to hunt and take care of bears. Coventry is not an ultramax prison; it's the place Infinity puts people that are INCREDIBLY inconvenient, but putting them through any Homeline justice system would be very bad for INFINITY.

And yes, I believe competent security personnel can, given Coventry's quirky physics, create a prison that is literally inescapable via parachronic physics.

Wasn't there a large player in the IW setting that doesn't rely on physics? Kind of rhymes with Rabble, depending on your preferred pronunciation?

johndallman · 06-05-2014, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patchwork

Wasn't there a large player in the IW setting that doesn't rely on physics? Kind of rhymes with Rabble, depending on your preferred pronunciation?

Indeed, but the question is what they want here. It seems kind of unlikely they have come to rescue this set of characters. Presumably they want someone else, and have been assessing the best way to do a rescue?

patchwork · 06-05-2014, 08:17 PM

A sound hypothesis, although a single successful field test of the technique seems likely to generate major backlash from Infinity.

Working out their motives for assisting would be a significant point of the game, of course. It's also possible they want one of those characters and the rest are just luck or distractions; it's not hard to imagine some of them interested in a rightwise King of England named Arthur, for example.

arconom · 06-05-2014, 09:35 PM

My version of Coventry has a shiftrealm that consists of a mountain which contains psionic lizard people who guard a nexus portal which leads to Reich-5.

The shiftrealm is on a two month rotation between Coventry, another shiftrealm controlled by Carmen Sandiego, Merlin-1, and the Chronobahn.

Banestorms are another way off Coventry, but you will need a Vistani to guide you or you will likely get stuck in Ravenloft.

Parachronic artifacts are another way to get off of Coventry, but they are dangerous and tend to attract the attention of evil gods.

If you don't mind eating a few bullets, you could try to steal a conveyor, given you know how to operate it and can get past the TL9 security with biometric identity verification and encrypted, time-sensitive passwords. Also you might want to know how to reference a quantum location using Infinity's coordinate system.

Honestly I'd rather fight the Yig lizards.

06-04-2014, 10:08 AM	#12
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] If the group does escape, maybe they'd want it to be more than a one shot. You might grant them a patron (say a Caballist) and let them become a small group of world-hopping adventure/mercenaries. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

06-05-2014, 10:37 AM	#15
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] They've got a point. If I was running Coventry the only way in/out would be kept in someplace like Hawaii or a similarly isolated island or island group. The settlements would be set around the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Airships, commonplace in the IW setting, would take people back and forth. The airship bases near the settlements would be high security sites. Trips back would involve constant security sweeps. There would be endless automated drone sweeps of the oceans around Hawaii. The chances of anybody getting back to the portal from the settlement would be nil. Still, a campaign based around a group of people struggling to cross central Asia from the coast of the Black Sea to India. Then to build and sail a boat that would take them to Hawaii. That stuff would make a good story. A good story, not a plausible escape. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

06-05-2014, 01:48 PM	#16
dataweaver Join Date: Aug 2004	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] I don’t think “the I-Cops failed to think of everything” (or “the I-Cops aren’t willing to expend tremendous amounts of money, material, and manpower to plug a hole that the inmates probably don’t have the money, material and manpower to exploit”) is the same as “the I-Cops are stupid”. Your fleet of airships on patrol? They’ll need maintenance, which involves shipping maintenance personnel to Coventry or shipping the airships due for maintenance back from Coventry; either of these creates a potential loophole that inmates can try to exploit. __________________ Point balance is a myth.[1][2][3][4]

06-05-2014, 04:17 PM	#17
patchwork Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] Well, since I've spent far too much time on this, I'd like to share my thoughts. Some of my pre-gens: An I-Cop recruited from Patterson (GURPS Cyberworld) and a rape victim. The Chicago Outfit got to her by bringing doppelgangers of her rapist for her to avenge herself on; she does a few favors for the Mob while growing more unhinged, and IA notices and figures there's really only one place to put her. A swagman kidnapper who got too greedy on Lockridge kidnapping Einstein, Tesla, Princess Anastasia and Leon Trotsky. Fortunately the I-Cops bagged him before he was ready to go after the most dangerous game on Lockridge...Theodore Roosevelt...but it still left them with what to do with his kidnap victims. Well, Lockridge-Einstein now works for PL, but the others... Arthur of Brittany, rescued from King John's dungeons on an echo by that same swagman kidnapper. That was some years ago, and while he does want to return to the echo he came from and reclaim his rightful throne, he's very grateful to the swagman who rescued him. Of course, his home echo is destabilizing because King John behaves differently when, instead of being properly corpselike, Arthur of Brittany magically vanishes from the dungeon, even if he doesn't turn up again for a few years... A White Star account manager who started a small slave ring on the side to produce funding for a pocket kingdom on a bronze age parallel where they could live like a divine monarch. The amoral, drug-using parachronic technician that the account manager had to rope into the scheme to get it off the ground without Infinity noticing. The spunky reporter from Gernsback who uncovered the Secret. None of these are nice people, but none of them are without redeeming qualities either. I also allowed for the possibility of one of the Coventry hospital doctors, taken hostage, getting dragged along on the escape and thus also becoming a PC. My Coventry is on the site of Hanover, New Hampshire. I'll assume if you care about my reasoning/background you can ask. And since escape is functionally impossible, it's much like the Prisoner: the conveyor platform is in the hospital, which is the only building Infinity cares deeply about. the 6,000 or so prisoners live in a faux renaissance town/homesteads throughout New England; they can even own simple firearms to hunt and take care of bears. Coventry is not an ultramax prison; it's the place Infinity puts people that are INCREDIBLY inconvenient, but putting them through any Homeline justice system would be very bad for INFINITY. And yes, I believe competent security personnel can, given Coventry's quirky physics, create a prison that is literally inescapable via parachronic physics. Wasn't there a large player in the IW setting that doesn't rely on physics? Kind of rhymes with Rabble, depending on your preferred pronunciation?

06-05-2014, 08:17 PM	#19
patchwork Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] A sound hypothesis, although a single successful field test of the technique seems likely to generate major backlash from Infinity. Working out their motives for assisting would be a significant point of the game, of course. It's also possible they want one of those characters and the rest are just luck or distractions; it's not hard to imagine some of them interested in a rightwise King of England named Arthur, for example.

06-05-2014, 09:35 PM	#20
arconom MIB Join Date: Dec 2009	Re: Escape from Coventry Pre-gen Ideas [IW] My version of Coventry has a shiftrealm that consists of a mountain which contains psionic lizard people who guard a nexus portal which leads to Reich-5. The shiftrealm is on a two month rotation between Coventry, another shiftrealm controlled by Carmen Sandiego, Merlin-1, and the Chronobahn. Banestorms are another way off Coventry, but you will need a Vistani to guide you or you will likely get stuck in Ravenloft. Parachronic artifacts are another way to get off of Coventry, but they are dangerous and tend to attract the attention of evil gods. If you don't mind eating a few bullets, you could try to steal a conveyor, given you know how to operate it and can get past the TL9 security with biometric identity verification and encrypted, time-sensitive passwords. Also you might want to know how to reference a quantum location using Infinity's coordinate system. Honestly I'd rather fight the Yig lizards.