Scams and Frauds in the Imperium

[ottarrus]

More like ADX Florence, the Hole in the Rockies [wiki link below].
A couple of add-ons to my Imperial Prison ideas:
- There are no windows in Imperial Prison cells, but there is a menu of natural environment scenes on the wall screen. These are not frozen images, but recorded footage from a variety of worlds in the sector over the course of that environment's local year [think high definition trail camera]. However there is nothing at all depicting the prison's local environment;
- Every effort is made to ensure that prisoners have no idea of the prison layout:
- - When a Prisoner arrives at the prison, they are not thawed out until they are physically in their cell;
- - When a prisoner is moved from their cell, they do so hooded with sound-cancelling headphones;
- - Areas that prisoners have access to have uniform sameness about them... circular room of roughly the same dimensions, same paint job, same decor, etc.
- Prison guards are fully trained law enforcement officers and are empowered to make arrests for criminal acts among the prisoners. Prisoners don't get 'written up for a rules violation', they are charged with another crime, tried and sentenced to more time.
- Prison Confinement Officers are forbidden to beat or otherwise abuse prisoners. PCOs who violate their code of conduct are immediately charged with the appropriate criminal charges and tried and sentenced accordingly. Prisoners who are former PCOs are moved to another prison to do their time;
- Prison work is paid work at the rate of Cr 0.50 per hour. Prisoners receive their full untaxed pay on their Imperial ID upon release;
- There is no unsupervised communication between prisoners. Every interaction and conversation is recorded.

[link to ADX Florence wiki article]

ADX Florence - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Condottiere]

Lock-Out Official Trailer #1 - Guy Pearce, Sci-FI Movie (2012) HD

A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.

 

[actionman]

I have a pretty solid Imperial Prison concept IMTU.

Some thoughts, IMTU:

Imperial prisons are only for people the Imperium hasn't decided to execute. No parole, or anything else. IMTU everything we consider "rights" or rehabilitative whatever are forgotten customs from a corner of Terra thousands of years ago. No one cares. The Imperial government doesn't have to answer to its subjects. There are no lawyers or NGO's or activists to make noises on behalf of the condemned. Such people can easily find themselves condemned to the prison they're protesting about if they're annoying enough to come to the attention of an Imperial fiefholder or other official. The Imperium is an absolute monarchy. There is no recourse. All that can be done is use influence, gifts, and favors with the appropriate nobles to try to get someone released.

Everything about the Imperial prison system is underscored by a strong current of resentment that the The Emperor's Government has to spend a single .01Cr on inmates.

Let's remember the Kinunir adventure, in which people get disappeared into prison hulks and people get imprisoned without trial by Imperial Marines.

Imperial prisons would probably be run by Imperial veterans and retirees from Imperial agencies. The Imperial government doesn't tolerate idiots and washouts. There are no stupid air shafts to crawl through, there are no comic relief convicts who know the whole system but don't escape for some reason, there's no wise old man who once knew a guy who got away, there's no guy who's going to distract the guard, faking an illness or even having an illness will be ignored. Gangs are brutally suppressed, except on death worlds and involuntary colonization worlds where no one cares what the inmates do. Imperial prisons don't make tough ex-cons, they destroy people. Imperial prison staff have no reason to keep a prisoner alive. They do not care. Even corruption barely exists, because all guards and administrators know the horrors that await them if they screw up.

No unauthorized ships are allowed to land, on pain of death.

Types of Imperial prisons:

• Forced labor facilities. Inmates provide labor, and work in harsh conditions. These facilities turn a profit. Inmates are strictly controlled with implants, living conditions are the absolute bare minimum. People are sent here because the Imperium want to teach them a lesson then let them live. It is possible for characters to survive these prisons and be released.
• Death worlds / Involuntary Colonization. These are inhospitable worlds on which daily survival is a struggle. The Imperium sends people here to get rid of them. It doesn't care what happens to them. If they leave the world or assigned area thereof, their implants kill them. Cooperative prisoners are allowed to work on construction sites or resource extraction activities. The people who get sent here the Imperium wants out of the way permanently, but they haven't done anything to warrant execution. Political malcontents, people with inconvenient knowledge, noble offspring that aren't working out for whatever reason, and so on. If planetary governments can't handle their poors and request Imperial assistance, the offenders end up on worlds like these. Some of the Involuntary Colonization worlds are better than others. It is possible, though difficult, for characters to survive and possibly find a way off such worlds, as in the completing their sentences and have their implants deactivated, then somehow getting offworld.
• Black Sites. These secret facilities are for enemies of the state, criminals who have resources so extensive that they must be totally disappeared but kept alive for some reason, people undergoing extensive long term interrogation, nobles so disgraced that they have to disappear permanently but haven't been executed because of family connections or other reasons, people who can't be released because they have dangerous information, dangerous psions who are being studied, hostile foreign agents, people involved in extensive criminal or revolutionary networks who have cut a deal with authorities, and so on. They're the worst orwellian/Harkonnen prisons imaginable. Some sites are combined with secret Imperial research centers, and these are even worse. If a player character ends up in an Imperial black site, the player should make a new character.

Imperial prisons are located on inhospitable worlds with difficult survival conditions.

Exactly. The point is suffering, keeping inmates weak, and making them so concerned with daily survival that they can't do much else. If they're lucky, they're sent to the mines where they at least get vat slop crackers in return for production. Inmates would be fitted with tracking chips and control implants (nothing complicated, just an implanted neuro-taser or something).

Every prisoner goes into low berth for transport and doesn't get thawed until they arrive at their assigned facility.

Agreed. If prisoners die during transit, data is entered and they are forgotten. If families want to know what happened, they can request records from the Imperial bureaucracy.

The planets marked 'Pr' on the map are the overt prisons for medium violations of the law. Every Imperial sector has two or three secret prisons for those who need to 'disappear'.

Agreed. These are interrogation centers, detention for people who Imperium wants to disappear but doesn't want to dispose of (influential relatives, they still have information, etc., nobles so disgraced that they have to completely cease to exist).

There is no 'commissary' in Imperial prisons. You wear what you're issued, you eat what you're given [or not], entertainment privileges are on the media screen painted on the wall, there are no 'extras' for a prisoner economy.

Agreed. No commissary, just a tube of protein slop a day, or every three days. No media screen. No nothing.

Planetary prisons serve the planetary governments, and so they vary greatly. If player characters go to prison, they should go to a planetary prison. Imperial prison is the end of the line. There's no hope.

The moral of the story is, you don't piss into the wind, you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger and you don't do anything that draws the ire of Imperial authorities.

 

[ottarrus]

Some thoughts, IMTU:

The moral of the story is, you don't piss into the wind, you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger and you don't do anything that draws the ire of Imperial authorities.

I can see much of your points here, even if I'm a bit more humane about doing prison time.
Your Imperial Prison System is darker than mine, but if that works IYTU then have at it. Mine is more 'grey'.

IMTU the Imperium has a fairly extensive set of laws. Those laws spell out the consequences of violating them in clear detail. Some laws don't really meet the need to execute someone, but some do. But whether the sentence is capital or not, the Imperium's message to the criminal element is "Eff' up and we WILL find you. When we find you, you will be tried and sentenced. And you will do all your sentence, sure as Death itself. This will not be an enjoyable experience. You Have Been Warned."
Some high points about IMTU Theory of Incarceration:
- The Imperium does not care if you die in prison. If you want to punch your own ticket, it just frees up space for the next guest in the 'Solid Rock Hotel'.
- The Imperium doesn't care if you go crazy in prison. You'll do all your time and then you'll be frozen and shipped back to your homeworld for them to deal with - however they choose to deal with you.
- Most Imperial Prisons are for 'normal' prisoners... the thieves, murderers, con-artists, etc. For those needing 'special security measures' [political prisoners, psions, terrorists, organized crime figures, etc.], the Imperium snatches them off the street, takes them to a secure facility, tries them, and sentences them. For 'special security' prisoners there is no bail. Juries are made of citizens who report to the local Ministry of Justice building and they attend the trial by telepresence in a booth. The jurors are not labeled as such. They report to their booth, do the day's work, and leave completely anonymously.
- Trial footage is not released to the media until after the case is over. There is no media circus or 'court of public opinion'. The Imperium doesn't care about the public's opinion.
- There is no 'outside' in an Imperial prison. The 'yard' is a circular gymnasium-sized open space inside a building. Imperial prisons are not set up on garden worlds. If the world has an atmosphere at all, it's Thin Tainted and gets worse. About half to three-quarters of my Imperial Prisons are on worlds with an atmosphere. About 25% are on moons in vacuum. The remainder are bored inside a rock in the Oort Cloud of systems not listed on Travellermap. These last are for 'special security' prisoners.
- The Imperium's method of execution is simple: sedate the prisoner then vacc them. Their bodies are then cremated and the ashes released into space some distance from the facility.

IMTU there ARE prisons as you describe, but they're the local prisons in the high LL systems.

 

[MarcusIII]

Every human society that has had absolute rule by birthright gov and has stratified feudal system with a colonial empire has had a brutal penal system. To remain consistent with human nature the 3I should be no different.

 

[MarcusIII]

Imperial prisons are only for people the Imperium hasn't decided to execute. No parole, or anything else. IMTU everything we consider "rights" or rehabilitative whatever are forgotten customs from a corner of Terra thousands of years ago. No one cares. The Imperial government doesn't have to answer to its subjects

This. Absolutely correct based on how the 3I is described in game material.

 

[Condottiere]

Demolition Man | Unfreezing John Spartan | Warner Bros. Rewind

Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) has escaped from his cryo-facility, the only way to bring him in is to bring back John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) after 36 years of being cryogenically frozen

A Los Angeles policeman and his ruthless nemesis from 1996—sentenced to frozen incarceration as inmates—return into 2032 when they re-enter a bewildering and pacifist society.

Sandra Bullock stars as 21st Century cop Lenina Huxley who resorts to desperate measures to apprehend killer Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who has escaped cryoprison: she reanimates a no-holds-barred 20th Century cop named John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) who had also been sentenced to cryoprison, known in an earlier century as the Demolition Man.

Now two men from another time bring a level of non-stop action long unseen in this future, idyllic world.

 

[actionman]

Your Imperial Prison System is darker than mine,

It's an exploration of the prison system of a far future absolute monarchy that is thousands of years distant from contemporary ideas about justice and reform. It's an exploration of the prison system that serves only the interests of that power, a power that is completely unaccountable to its subjects. If an entire planet riots, the Imperial works it over Ilelish style, and it's oh no, anyway. I kept asking, but why would Imperial prisons have this or that, but why would Imperial prisons have any kind of rehabilitative quality or entertainment. Why would Imperial prisons bother with expensive facilities when they could be desolate planets where most people don't survive for more than a year. Doing time is a very Western and modern contemporary concept, while in ancient times it was more like someone screwed up and they were punished in such a way that the power could get use out of them. Salt mines, galley slaves, etc. What would Imperial prisons look like, considering the Imperium's absolute power, lack of accountability, and lack of the social and philosophical underpinnings of a more humane system? Total control or malignant neglect. An ethos of "not going to waste time or money on this idiot". Look at the prison system of a particularly large Asian country, with its brainwashing, slavery, and forced organ harvesting. Not even my Imperium is that dark.

Getting far away from contemporary rl ideas is something I deliberately strive for IMTU. A long time ago I had enough of players destroying Startown and then demanding their phone call or a public defender. In the Solomani Confederation, Confederation prisons are probably not as bad (except for the SolSec black sites) because Terran ideas of punishment but leaving people able to still be members of society are much more a part of the Solomani cultural tradition, whereas they are almost completely absent from the Imperial cultural tradition (replaced by the Vilani cultural tradition of utility, practicality, and disregard for the individual).

 

[actionman]

This. Absolutely correct based on how the 3I is described in game material.

Rather than being depressing, it raises the stakes to feverish heights for adventurers who break the law or set themselves in opposition to the Imperial state, for Imperial nobles who seek true reform, and for foreign agents for whom a single misstep is living hell in the depths of an IN black site. IMTU, those who raise their hand against the Imperium are so daring, so bold, and so tragic that they can be larger than life figures.

EDIT: This also plays into how ordinary "citizens" (subjects, let's be real) perceive Imperial characters, like the deference they show to PC's with high enough SOC. People seriously don't want to get on the bad side of someone who might be able to mention them to their world's fiefholder.

 

[MarcusIII]

Yes, noble running a planet will have their own Star Chamber and police to squash dissenting subjects of average or lower SS

 

[actionman]

Yes, noble running a planet will have their own Star Chamber and police to squash dissenting subjects of average or lower SS

Absolutely, the Imperial fiefholder would be stupid not to. Imperial fiefholders would have their own household retainers, security troops, spy networks, assassins, dungeons confinement facilities guest quarters, etc., and he and his star chamber would work hand in glove with powerful individuals in the planetary government to enforce their will.

 

[phavoc]

The nature of the law enforcement practices in the Imperium seem to be nebulous. The game itself posits and interesting juxtaposition of a strong central authority figure (i.e. the Imperium) that is both crushing in its' enforcement of laws, but also quite laisez-faire in its setting of said laws.

The quote from Dune of "the spice must flow" is apt here - except one should substitute 'trade' for 'spice'. The Imperium allows worlds a great deal of latitude, as well as individuals and corporations, to do all sorts of things against each other and 3rd parties - so long as trade and the economy are not affected. Which is an interesting dichotomy as certain activities will naturally affect economics at all kinds of levels. One cannot overthrow a planetary government, or even mining colonies or whatever, without causing short or long-term disruptions to output. I don't think it's very reasonable to assume that Party B overthrows (violently, as it's Traveller) on Day 1 and on Day 2 everything is back to normal.

So one would (or could/should) assume that these sorts of things MAY happen, they probably aren't all that common. SuSAG is probably not going to work with Interstellar Arms to wipe out an LSP manufacturing facility just to get a corner on the market. The RPG Shadowrun has a background where actively taking down opposing corps is the norm, however I've not really gotten that impression from Traveller over the decades. Sure, you may see a Hammer's Slammer scenario where oppressed colonists hire a merc company to take down their oppressors - but let's be honest here. Assuming that happens, and there is enough credits, the megacorp is gonna be back with it's own mercs to reassert control. And they'll have more money and incentive to put the colonists in their place lest word gets out and it causes a sub-sector or sector-wide 'Freedom' spring to occur.

Which I take to be that these sorts of things are not the norm. And that the Imperium isn't a repressive police state with a blind eye towards terrible governance so long as trade isn't affected. These things are all interelated because at the bottom of them all is the people of the worlds that make up the Imperium. Some sort of social stability has to be present in order for this to occur. As we have seen in history there are many paths to stability, and not every path is one that people would like to live under. At some point every authoritarian regime has fallen - either to outsiders or to internal conflict as repression tends to beget rampant corruption.

I think there is enough wiggle-room to make for an environment of adventuring without a need to create something that shouldn't probably exist for as long as the Imperium has.

 

[rinku]

Computer skills, technical skills, inside information, a lot. Something I've noticed is that criminals who heist have generally found some kind of weakness in the process, and exploit it.

Possibilities:

War. Military action devastates a subsector capital. Shipments of authorized bank fund certificates never made it out. An intrepid team of adventurers prepares to raid the bank vaults under the noses of the occupiers. Natural disasters or other threats could serve the same purpose.

Kelly's Heroes and Three Kings fit that trope. Although they also fall under a broader trope of looting/salvage. But con games may be required to outmaneuver command and/or the enemy.

Also, any time the potential fraudsters happen to hold a useful information advantage, things can happen. The courier that is delivering the very first news of something that's going to turn the local economy on its head either needs to be oblivious to that, utterly incorruptible or very, very well paid. The rogue who found out and realises they can arrive before anyone else falls into the same bracket.

 

[actionman]

Kelly's Heroes and Three Kings fit that trope. Although they also fall under a broader trope of looting/salvage. But con games may be required to outmaneuver command and/or the enemy.

War or disaster upends the status quo. Many things become possible which were impossible before.