Café de Nuit

Hi, recently my players were imprisoned by Falkovnian soldiers and I needed some information concerning the Central Prison. As far as I know there is no materials on that matter so I made it myself. Anybody interested, check www.zone.ee/rvloft (download file FalkPrisons.pdf).

Actually it turned out more than just about Central Prison, there's about gladiatorial fights and forced labour camps, too - generally about the Ministry of Central Prison. It is based on Soviet Union's prisons and labour camps, hence much of the material (and characters) are more or less based from real life (I used one guy's memoirs).

For someone who wants to use Falkovnian prisons should find it useful. Any new ideas or comments are welcome - my new group will face the same threat.

I flicked through it. Really good.

It seems rather backwards to have a central prison for Falkovnia. I mean, doesn't everyone who crosses Drakov get impaled?

According to Gaz II there is a Central Prison in Falkovnia. And anyway, I find it rather boring if Drakov simply impales everyone. Especially to imprisoned PCs: instead of interesting and funny prison/labour camp adventure where they can try to escape etc., they just get killed.

And it's also rather stupid - who repairs the roads, builds city-walls and castles then? If peasants, then they won't get the grain. I think Falkovnia needs prisoners for hard labour camps, for gladiators, for Horstmanns experiments etc.

this is great. thanks a bunch. going to use this soon.

Upon reflection I also remember how his historical basis, Vlad Dracula, dealt with mass dissent. If I'm correct, he would have the entire group of dissenters captured, have any who were incapable of hard physical labor (the very old, very young, very sick, etc.) impaled, and then force the rest to build whatever he needed built. Is this model applied in Falkovnia?

Manofevil wrote:Upon reflection I also remember how his historical basis, Vlad Dracula, dealt with mass dissent. If I'm correct, he would have the entire group of dissenters captured, have any who were incapable of hard physical labor (the very old, very young, very sick, etc.) impaled, and then force the rest to build whatever he needed built. Is this model applied in Falkovnia?

Actually, his historical basis Vlad Tepes/Dracula probably never impaled anybody - it is just a legend. His enemies imprisoned him and this imapling stuff was something like PR propaganda; they made Tepes a monster .

And yes, you are right, Vlad Drakov impales and sends the capable to labour camps. Lots of prisoners are impaled, but lots are sent to CP, too. Not better fate, by the way.

Note that Central Prison is not a place where prisoners rot for ages - it's just a place where the stop before they are sent to camps. You have to gather them somewhere, right? It is much easier to send them in groups than one by one. And I think somebody has to choose, who will fight on the gladiatorial arena. Considering the bureaucracy of Falkovinian state it is logical that there is some organization to organize it.

Sure, it is a matter of perception and liking, but IMC I wanted all this imprisonment stuff to be more complicated and interesting.

Kessler wrote: Actually, his historical basis Vlad Tepes/Dracula probably never impaled anybody - it is just a legend. His enemies imprisoned him and this imapling stuff was something like PR propaganda; they made Tepes a monster

That's news. I've got three history books here that outline precisely Tepes' very gruesome crimes and not a single one which lists this as a falsehood. I've never even heard of a historians document which refutes these crimes. If this is a falsehood, we're looking at a serious conspiracy here. I'm getting the vibe of holocaust denial here.

Regardless, in the example I cited above, I forgot to mention that after the structure in question had been finished, in this case the legendary Castle Dracula, he had all the survivors impaled. I thought that was the kind of person Drakov was supposed to be.

Manofevil wrote:I've never even heard of a historians document which refutes these crimes. If this is a falsehood, we're looking at a serious conspiracy here. I'm getting the vibe of holocaust denial here.

Never believe historians . Trust me, I know, being one myself. And this statement is valid for my version, too. Anyway, I don't know much that subject and I don't even remember where did I get this information, so maybe/probably you're right. Actually this question requires long mono/dialogue about the theory of history, what is historical fact, what is history etc. Which I believe is better to leave untouched .

But the point is, I've never liked the idea that in Falkovnia every soldier just kills the offender. It's not very interesting to play it.

I figure it's a few things: 1) even a favorite hobby can pall if you don't have alternatives, hence the gladatorial fights, etc.; 2) information extraction is also useful, and you need a place to do that; 3) Herr Doktor van Horstmann needs research material now and again.

Kessler wrote:
But the point is, I've never liked the idea that in Falkovnia every soldier just kills the offender. It's not very interesting to play it.

Well, if I remember my history correctly, any soldier who witnessed an offense and killed to offender would have been overstepping his authoriy and impaled himself for doing so. What Tepes' soldiers did was to bring the offender before Tepes and he would kill them or have them killed. All roads led to the impaler in that sense. Actually, as I reexamine the model I've put forth, I think it might still be applicable. Only in Drakov's case, he'd be using captured foreign villagers. So let's say he needs a road built. He again attacks Darkon and the first three villages his men capture, he has all people capable of hard labor force marched back into Falkovnia while the rest are impaled on the spot. The captured labor builds the road and any who survive are impaled when it's done. It may never have been done that way in Falkovnia, but it could be... and it would give them a reason for a central prison.

Of course, using your model, the Central Prison may still be a crucial part of the Falkovnian legal system.
If Drakov is the judge for every single case, then he may very well have a huge backlog of case. Each criminal needs to get his or her day in court, but with the King-feurer's busy schedule only a handful actually get executed.
Certain cases might jump the line. Important dissidents, rebellius nobels, or other high profile cases would be brought up first.

As well, I'd guess that jailor beurocracy is less than steller. Many people might fall through the cracks, or just get lost in the shuffle between cells. In fact, some "lucky" people might have their paperwork lost, and since the jailors don't want to admit to having lost the work (and thus interfered with justice) they just stow them permanently in some dark corner.
And just to add in corruption, some wealthy people might be able to bribe the warden into delaying the trial and keeping the prisoner on the bottom of the list.
So, the prison would be Drakov's waiting room - with people's number being called at random, and every now and then the floor opens up and swallows someone.

I like the concept and the way you developed it.

Do you need a place to host this file ?

Joël

Thanks everybody for the feedback.

Joël of the Fraternity wrote:Do you need a place to host this file ?

Sure, Joël .

That resource is very interesting, and I think it deals with prison life in a very frank and unflinching way, even to include the factual details of torture. Definitely a mature rated topic.

I once read the Human Rights Commission's report on North Korean jails and labor camps. There was a lot of fascinating and shocking information there. Here's what I remember off the top of my head:

Prisoners were essentially starvation workers. They were fed a tiny amount of cabbage soup each day and worked literally to death because the regime had no other use for them. Stealing food - quite a common crime - was punishable by death on the spot.

When beatings came, the guards would often require prisoners to beat each other. This provided a psychological tool of dividing and conquering the prisoners, as well as a handy excuse so that guards could honestly deny they beat any prisoners.

Prisoners who were sick or otherwise ready to die were often sent home to expire, so in-camp death counts were kept low.

Forms of torture included whipping, beating, rape, and mutilation. However, the most feared forms of torture were arguable entirely non-violent. The prisoner would be forced to stand outside at attention in the cold, regardless of exposure. The single worst form of torture, according to the prisoners who escaped and contributed to the report, was being made to stand up and sit down repeatedly, often over the course of an hour, until the victim collapsed from exhaustion.

Koreans who were repatriated from across the Chinese border would receive life sentences. Pregnant women who came back would be beaten until they miscarried, or given labor-inducing drugs to birth their children, who would then be killed. The ideological justification for this was "the resources of the state cannot be wasted on non-Korean children". The camp's doctors employed well-behaved prisoners to assist with the killings, and the favored method was a quick jab of the scalpel into top of the skull.

One Korean defector whom I interviewed told me he was once classified in the "privileged" loyal class in that society, even attending school and university free of charge. One day after he turned 21 or so, everything changed - he was called to an official's office and then told that somebody in his family was a traitor, requiring him to be sent to a reeducation camp.

He ended up in a farming labor camp, where the conditions were not too bad. Nobody was beaten to death, although he did develop jaundice from exposure and his diet.

It could be interesting to see that even trusted members of the regime sometimes end up in the prison camps - and these may be the ones who can really effect an escape.