Super Prisons without Super Tech

[Duke]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

What about a specific location. Say like a prison in the middle of the ocean with no transportaion off of the prison save a suply ship that comes once a month that is guarded by other supers.

[Lightray]

If your campaign doesn't have the tech to handle things like this, and if it's an issue that's just coming up... then things will have to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

 

This will become apparent as you start to look at who is being incarcerated. If the first few prisoners are brick-types, it's relatively easy to just over-reinforce everything for a Super-Duper-Max prison.

 

When you add in an Energy Blaster, you'll have to throw in some insulation and fire control or somesuch.

 

Once you have a Mentalist, it's time for closed-circuit cameras monitoring the prisoner who's never allowed to see or sense anyone he or she could affect.

 

Metamorphs are going to require frequent blood tests of all the prison personnel.

 

I had this situation in my own campaign. The first couple of incarcerees were brick-types -- Iron, Carbon, Lead. They were easy to hold. The next few -- Mercury, Chlorine -- were semi-metamorphs, who required sealed environments to keep imprisoned.

 

The players quickly realized the need for an on-staff super to be at the prison to deal with unexpected situations, and so quickly recruited one. They also started modifying some of the confiscated tech where they could apply it.

 

They were just starting to deal with mentalists when I put the campaign on hiatus. Basically, they'd started to rely on lesser mentalists with Mental Awareness being around to sense when mental powers were being used.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Metas with high-level but otherwise straightforward powers (bricks' date=' energy projectors and such) could likely be contained in cells made out of tank armour of varying thickness. A cell for a mentalist could consist of a bubble within a bubble, with the intervening space filled with a nutrient solution and living frog brain tissue or something. Too simple to manipulate, but too pervasive to get around.[/quote']

 

Oh _NICE!_

 

I'm going to have to use something along those lines sooner or later!

 

Rep to the TinMan for the novel idea!

 

 

Duke

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Declare them legally citizens of no nation, strap them in a rocket and deport them to the Sun.

 

Except for Supernova-Man. That could be bad.

[tinman]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

If the authorities had access to an interface and deep space capable meta who could transport prisoners a moon base prison (ala The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) would also work. Security would be the environment itself and survival would keep most of the prisoners too busy to do much else.

[tinman]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Oh _NICE!_

 

I'm going to have to use something along those lines sooner or later!

 

Rep to the TinMan for the novel idea!

 

 

Duke

 

[Diamond Spear]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

I like the immersive VR idea a lot. You could even rule that it is programmed in such a way that the prisoner’s personality is slowly re-programmed to be less violent and more law abiding. Something along the lines of what they were trying to do with the prison in Demolition Man. For an added twist treat it as a Major Transformation, with a fade rate of 5 pts per month or year. Have the technology be fairly new so no one is yet aware that over time the villains will slowly resort to their criminal ways. If you want to sow even more confusion set it up so that it does work permanently on some villains maybe an 8- activation role for a fade rate of 5 pts per century?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

I like the immersive VR idea a lot. You could even rule that it is programmed in such a way that the prisoner’s personality is slowly re-programmed to be less violent and more law abiding. Something along the lines of what they were trying to do with the prison in Demolition Man.

A bit of the Squadron Supreme approach, eh? I know they didn't use VR, but they did use "programming."

 

Such tech may fall under the blanket of "no supertech", though. Hmm....

[Diamond Spear]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

A bit of the Squadron Supreme approach, eh? I know they didn't use VR, but they did use "programming."

 

Such tech may fall under the blanket of "no supertech", though. Hmm....

 

Well I suppose you could substitute “Counseling Sessions†with the prison’s psychologist to use hypnosis and get the same effect with no need for advanced tech.

[transmetahuman]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Well I suppose you could substitute “Counseling Sessions†with the prison’s psychologist to use hypnosis and get the same effect with no need for advanced tech.

Or a government-employed telepath (very, very carefully watched). But that's likely to be well into human rights violations, if the law recognizes mind control at all.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

At first, caught totally unprepared, the authorities try some sort of "super maximum security" - it doesn't work. Desperate, the gov't places the convict in an aging submarine alone and sinks it as deep as it can reliably go. Rupturing the sub invites instant death to most supers.

 

This works, but is a pain to resupply and can only house one villian (putting two in together is inhumane - one will victimize the other). Depending on the campaign tone, tragedy can occur.

 

The gov't undertakes a crash building effort to make a super-deep prison complex, with individual containment zones such that if one is compromised, it will fail alone and the others remain intact. Food, air and other supplies are dropped down using guided "rocks" - very heavy payloads that can control where they end up as they sink.

 

Bad behaviour results in loss of electronic contact with society (phones, TV), uncomfortable temperatures, poor or reduced food, or even the power being shut off for a short while. Press releases report that the place is rigged to blow up if the worst happens (like an organized jailbreak).

 

This doesn't work for some villians. Those that can survive being crushed, frozen, drowned, nitrogen narcosis, and being 50 miles from land could escape - if they can break through the steel plated hull.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Of course, the oceans around the area are monitored 50 different ways. Multiple weapon systems are constantly targeting the area. It's rumored that space based lasers can be brought to bear on anything seen in the restricted sea zone, and no one mentions (or doubts) the possibility that nukes could be used without risking anything but the prisoners below.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Surgically implant tracking devices in the villians' abdomens. Publicly announce they are used for tracking only, tell the convicts they explode. Of course, no one will ever be able to prove they explode...

 

Or can cause disease...

 

Or - just about anything that can cause the villian to voluntarily restrain himself from attempting to escape. Psych Lim anyone?

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Carrot & stick - while they serve time in prison, they will be trained by the gov't to use their powers very effectively. After (or during) their incarceration, they will get all the rewards they desire while doing the gov'ts bidding. They become a new, secret class of government employee.

 

Normal psychologists should be able to figure out what makes many villians tick. Power, sex, wealth, even public acclaim can be arranged. Just as long as the convict remembers who controls the 5,000 +20 OCV 8d6 killing attack weapons. The gov't will probably be very desirous of employing these new super powers in creative (and sometimes illegal?) ways.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Villians with super intellect would not normally be caught more than once. A little growing up, a little maturing ought to teach them that they don't need to commit crimes -

 

they need to be the ruler of the current system.

 

Wealthy beyond belief = power.

 

Political / Military office = power.

 

Criminal mastermind = the target of all that power.

[TaxiMan]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

There's always the potential for simply enacting a "2 Super strikes and you're out" law. If a supervillian (so legally designated by a court hearing) escapes, commits further super crimes or otherwise contravenes his sentence, he is subject to the death penalty. To be administered anyplace, anytime.

 

I can truly see that law passing in the event we ever get supervillians. I can truly see people screaming about the "slippery slope", but that wouldn't stop passage.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Passing a law won't do it. You need a Constitutional Amendment if you want to trump the Bill of Rights.

[BlackCobra]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Friend of mine back in college had a super-prison set in Antarctica.

 

It was deep in the heart of the continent. This was for an IST world (based on GURPS Supers International Supers Teams setting, but using Hero, of course), as I recall, which was popular with our gaming group at the time.

 

The place was fairly fortified, but not overly so. Basically the only villains sent there were folks who wouldn't survive the thousand mile trek to one of the other research bases on the continent. Food and other supplies were flown in monthly and air-dropped; the plan never landed. Power was from a fusion plant located 50 miles away (and underground).

 

There were water-spraying system located on the outside of the base in case someone made a break for it, just to be sure.

 

I think the guards were all PhD psychologists, trained in some martial arts but completely without weapons. There must have been more to this, otherwise how long would they live?

 

But locating a prison in such a place has a LOT of advantages:

 

- don't need to worry about pressurizing it

- don't need to armor it much

- as long as heat is maintained, everything is good

 

The key is only sending those prisoners who aren't immune to cold, or who can make a reasonable break for it.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

I would say that the quickiest likely answer is "continuous drugging," until some more effective solution can be built.

 

If someone *can't* be kept drugged, they might need literally continuous attention from a superhuman to keep them contained until something better comes up.

[Wanderer]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

There's always the potential for simply enacting a "2 Super strikes and you're out" law. If a supervillian (so legally designated by a court hearing) escapes, commits further super crimes or otherwise contravenes his sentence, he is subject to the death penalty. To be administered anyplace, anytime.

 

I can truly see that law passing in the event we ever get supervillians. I can truly see people screaming about the "slippery slope", but that wouldn't stop passage.

 

Congrats, Mr "Tough On Super-Crime" Politician. You have just managed to turn the vast majority of criminal superhumans, who were previously relatively peaceful jewel thieves and ATM-rippers, into a huge horde of mass-murderous, highly-motivated, rapidly-organizing, hyper-violent terrorists hell-bent to smashing any extant law enforcement structure and utterly destroying your government because it's their only hope of survival. When superheroes that weren't alienated by your genocidal stance and your armed forces get crushed by sheer numbers and motivation, and your severed head gets picked on the White House fence, you will have ample time to contemplate the depths of your foolishness in the Metahuman Dominion that is to follow.

 

Ever got to read Hunter ? It's a quite descriptive exploration of what is to follow if governments think that unbridled "tough on crime" brutality is the answer to super-crime. Supervillains get a clue, organize world-wide, crush superheroes, conquer the world, rewrite reality ("We have no end of archmages and cosmic supergeniuses among us. There is nothing we can't do if we can get along", quoting from memory), and set up as a secret society of the unquestioned hidden masters of the world.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Ever got to read Hunter ? It's a quite descriptive exploration of what is to follow if governments think that unbridled "tough on crime" brutality is the answer to super-crime. Supervillains get a clue' date=' organize world-wide, crush superheroes, conquer the world, rewrite reality ("We have no end of archmages and cosmic supergeniuses among us. There is nothing we can't do if we can get along", quoting from memory), and set up as a secret society of the unquestioned hidden masters of the world.[/quote']

 

Who's the author? I haven't read that one but from your description, I want to!

[Wanderer]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Carrot & stick - while they serve time in prison, they will be trained by the gov't to use their powers very effectively. After (or during) their incarceration, they will get all the rewards they desire while doing the gov'ts bidding. They become a new, secret class of government employee.

 

Normal psychologists should be able to figure out what makes many villians tick. Power, sex, wealth, even public acclaim can be arranged. Just as long as the convict remembers who controls the 5,000 +20 OCV 8d6 killing attack weapons. The gov't will probably be very desirous of employing these new super powers in creative (and sometimes illegal?) ways.

 

Surgically implant tracking devices in the villians' abdomens. Publicly announce they are used for tracking only, tell the convicts they explode. Of course, no one will ever be able to prove they explode...

 

Or can cause disease...

 

Or - just about anything that can cause the villian to voluntarily restrain himself from attempting to escape. Psych Lim anyone?

 

I like the immersive VR idea a lot. You could even rule that it is programmed in such a way that the prisoner’s personality is slowly re-programmed to be less violent and more law abiding. Something along the lines of what they were trying to do with the prison in Demolition Man. For an added twist treat it as a Major Transformation' date=' with a fade rate of 5 pts per month or year. Have the technology be fairly new so no one is yet aware that over time the villains will slowly resort to their criminal ways. If you want to sow even more confusion set it up so that it does work permanently on some villains maybe an 8- activation role for a fade rate of 5 pts per century? [/quote']

 

These are instead quite sensible and reasonable approaches that are likely not to alienated the superhuman population and be greenlighted by the courts, as long as they are kept voluntary: you have a choice, enjoy your 25-year, no-parole sentence or volunteer for our reeducation and psych reorientation treatment who will make a productive citizen of yourself, plus automatic enrollment in the Metahuman Enforcement Corps of the Departments of Justice and Defense where you will have a good, high-paying job and the government will put your exceptional powers and your proclivities to violence to good use. This little device in your abdomen ? Don't worry, it's a monitoring device, and it ensures that you don't want suffer any relapse from your conditioning. We have to track and be confident of our operatives, after all. There' s always some rogue state that really needs an attitude adjustment and you can never have too many government superteams patrolling the streets.

 

You buff up your law enforcement and army ranks, you cut down the population of supercriminals in a way that won't get them hate you, and you make your country a superpower in the process. Superhumans are far too precious a resource to waste in the death row.

[Wanderer]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

Who's the author? I haven't read that one but from your description' date=' I want to![/quote']

 

Mark Millar, IIRC. Trust the guy to get in touch with the Iron Age memes to the nth degree. The supervillain revolution is in the past of the miniseries though. It's the POV of this utter loser, hypocondriac, hen-pecked, coward nobody who discovers to be the love child and heir (with genetic potential to be super-assassin, fortune, super-babe associate, and membership in the secret society) opf a supervillain who just get felled in an inner power struggle among the society's leadership. Yep, Adolescent Comic Fanboy Escapist Power Fantasy On Acid. It's still cool to read, and the world quite makes sense.

 

Cheating, Abusive Girlfriend of our "hero" who's getting trained as super-villain "Mark, are you seeing someone else ?"

 

Main Character "Well, there's this super-babe who is giving me wild sex in the sidelines of training me to be a super-assassin, but it's not like we have a relationship, for now. Do you remember comic books ? it's all true, only there are no more super-heroes because the super-villains won and rule the world. And I get to be one of them. Oh, and don't worry about my former best friend who has been cheating me with you these two years. I've killed him and dumped the body last night".

[freakboy6117]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

umm isn't that called "wanted" which is currently being adapted into a movie( no idea hwo that will work for a genral audience but hey) it wa sreally good and worryingly seems to be the blue print for infite crisis.

[Wanderer]

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

 

umm isn't that called "wanted" which is currently being adapted into a movie( no idea hwo that will work for a genral audience but hey) it wa sreally good and worryingly seems to be the blue print for infite crisis.

 

Argh, you might be right, I'm currently unable to find my copy of the GN so I quoted from memory. Sorry if I misquoted the title. Great read, nonetheless.