Prison Break RP – Why Is It Such a Hassle?

[Dexter Nevermore]

Prison Break RP – Why Is It Such a Hassle?

Where do I even start…

Prison break RP right now feels way more complicated than it should be. Yes, lockpicks were added, which is great in theory—but in practice, you still need admin permission to even get the RP started. And the biggest issue? About 90% of the time, there’s no response at all.

In just the past two days, I’ve tried twice to set up some fun RP by getting lockpicks into prison for the Loco’s. One time, I got no response whatsoever. The other time, I got bounced around—told to go from the wall to a table, make a “prayer,” then create a Discord ticket… which was then completely ignored. That just kills the momentum and makes it frustrating instead of fun.

On top of that, I’ve had situations where the officer processing me OOCly knows I have lockpicks, and suddenly they’re constantly patrolling the yard—something that almost never happens otherwise. It really feels like there’s some metagaming going on there.

At this point, prison RP just feels like too much of a hassle. Why do we even need permission to break out? I understand needing oversight for breaking into the prison, but escaping? You already go through a lot of RP just to get the required items inside.

Instead, you end up waiting around—sometimes as long as your entire sentence—for a response. And by then, what’s the point? Who’s going to wait hours after their sentence just to maybe get an RP scenario that could even add more time?

I really think this system needs a rework. It shouldn’t feel this difficult just to create good RP.

Jackson Jacobs - Loco's 

[Ash]

Seems like something that could be solved with "is there over X guards on shift? Okay lockpicking works now and you automatically get unprisoned when you make it so far out, if not lockpicking doesnt work"

[Asbo]

hey man this isnt prison break the TV show

[Eliza]

Prison breaks should just be a scripted activity where you could talk to an NPC, and the script cooldowns are put in place. 
 

If you begin the process of a prison break maybe the prison alarms go off and police would get alerted. 

[Cup]

2 hours ago, Dexter Nevermore said:

Prison Break RP – Why Is It Such a Hassle?

Where do I even start…

Prison break RP right now feels way more complicated than it should be. Yes, lockpicks were added, which is great in theory—but in practice, you still need admin permission to even get the RP started. And the biggest issue? About 90% of the time, there’s no response at all.

In just the past two days, I’ve tried twice to set up some fun RP by getting lockpicks into prison for the Loco’s. One time, I got no response whatsoever. The other time, I got bounced around—told to go from the wall to a table, make a “prayer,” then create a Discord ticket… which was then completely ignored. That just kills the momentum and makes it frustrating instead of fun.

On top of that, I’ve had situations where the officer processing me OOCly knows I have lockpicks, and suddenly they’re constantly patrolling the yard—something that almost never happens otherwise. It really feels like there’s some metagaming going on there.

At this point, prison RP just feels like too much of a hassle. Why do we even need permission to break out? I understand needing oversight for breaking into the prison, but escaping? You already go through a lot of RP just to get the required items inside.

Instead, you end up waiting around—sometimes as long as your entire sentence—for a response. And by then, what’s the point? Who’s going to wait hours after their sentence just to maybe get an RP scenario that could even add more time?

I really think this system needs a rework. It shouldn’t feel this difficult just to create good RP.

Jackson Jacobs - Loco's 

to put it in the simplest terms without going into all the details and blabbering. You need staff assistance because you scriptly cannot leave the prison without someone releasing you as it will TP you back inside after you go a certain distance. There are other factors of course but that is the main one.

 

There is a script in the works from one of the devs to make the prison break a script that would not require staff. However I cannot give you any timeline on that being finished.

[SneakySniper]

+1 A good idea but alot of other factors go into it like cup said above. If a prison break were to occur, there would need to be a cooldown, alarms at DOC to alert any guards of it happening, so you can attempt to counter, and preferably an automatic 911 call to SD/PD that says something along the lines of ''911 call: The alarms at the department of corrections have been triggered!''. Once they reach a certain point, to at least give them a chance.

[DaddyShrood]

I understand the sentiment behind this however lets turn it on its head slightly. Within the rules you are able to smuggle items into DOC as long as it's realistic etc etc. Why not use the lockpicks you just smuggled in to cause chaos for the guards? Why not unlock a gate in the yard and release as many inmates as you want into prohibited areas of the prison? Things like this are perfectly allowed under the rules and often create a lot more RP for everyone involved.

Prison breaks aren't the be all and end all of prison rp, there's plenty you can do if you think outside of the box a little. As a faction, DOC will try and accommodate your rp wherever possible, we can't do it for you though.

[JWIT1]

On 5/13/2026 at 8:54 PM, DaddyShrood said:

I understand the sentiment behind this however lets turn it on its head slightly. Within the rules you are able to smuggle items into DOC as long as it's realistic etc etc. Why not use the lockpicks you just smuggled in to cause chaos for the guards? Why not unlock a gate in the yard and release as many inmates as you want into prohibited areas of the prison? Things like this are perfectly allowed under the rules and often create a lot more RP for everyone involved.

Prison breaks aren't the be all and end all of prison rp, there's plenty you can do if you think outside of the box a little. As a faction, DOC will try and accommodate your rp wherever possible, we can't do it for you though.

This, this, this.

Prison Breaks (PB) have certain regulations surrounding them to ensure balance, there a multiple factors which go into approving or reviewing a PB request, in addition it takes a lot of time out of at least one, but most of the time more members of the administration team to review and oversee a PB.

As @DaddyShrood mentioned, the Prison Rules allow for the smuggling of "small amounts of money, drugs, or other smaller items that would be realistic to conceal", but prohibits the smuggling of "larger items such as weapons or radios on your own body" as it would not be realistic. 

If inmates who wish to engage in such roleplay do get inside with picklocks for example, and do picklock some doors within the prison without escaping/unlocking exterior doors then you have given the SADOC faction at least thirty minutes to an hours' worth of RP, especially with the more inmates you have.  Now if you are caught, you will face IC consequences, which should be expected and understood, but my point is, the RP is there waiting to happen, it just takes someone with the right mindset to unlock it.

 

In the latter part of your suggestion you do say 

On 5/2/2026 at 10:46 PM, Dexter Nevermore said:

Who’s going to wait hours after their sentence just to maybe get an RP scenario that could even add more time?

I would attest that people who understand what they are getting themselves into with trying to break out of prison, will wait for a potential response and approval because it is roleplay which they do want to engage with.  If you want to break out of prison, you understand that there is a high level of possibility that you will be caught and appropriately charged, it is at the end of the day, "high risk, high reward". 

An example was a prison break which happened two days ago where a lot of people from an illegal faction broke into the prison, took SADOC officers hostage and engaged in a long RP scenario where they eventually faced IC consequences for what they did, but it gave a lot of players something unique to do, something that doesn't happy daily.  In my opinion that is what a prison break should be, an in-frequent piece of roleplay which, if planned well, can really turn a lot of player's normal gaming experience into an in-depth and memorable one, something outside of the "norm" which happens daily, something that is actually proper roleplay.

 

Going onto how it can be improved, as @Cup has already mentioned, the developers are working on a scripted prison break function which would change how we've conducted prison breaks for years.  As a member of the senior leadership team within the SADOC faction, it is great to see that there is development within the area where the faction roleplays in, I truly hope that when the script is implemented that it will allow players to roleplay their prison break, while balancing it out for the SADOC faction members who are on duty, and the other factions who may be involved in such roleplay, some examples that @SneakySniper gave are ones which I have personally suggested to Legal Faction Management to ensure that there is some balance.  I truly hope that it will be a welcomed addition to the script by all players, if properly means tested.