User:Icebreed/RG Progress/Powered Law Enforcement

Just like mortals, when power wielders are arrested for a crime, they have a trial to determine their innocence, before any sentence is carried out. When a character's guilt is very obvious, the trial is usually simply assumed to have occurred outside of RP scenes. Similarly, if their innocence can be easily proved, a trial is not RPed out. Under more contentious circumstances, the trial is either quickly discussed OOC, or, if necessary, RPed out.

Just as how many normal citizens break the law and are sentenced to prison, convicted power wielders are often sent to prison as well. Specifically, they go to Black Mountain, better known as the Dungeon. The Dungeon is as harsh and brutal a place as its name portrays, filled with all manners of social deviants with a variety of powers which may be used to make another inmate's life a living hell. Even the blackest-hearted villain can find himself in grave danger, if he is not careful. It is important to note that power wielders who did not use super powers to commit their crimes are generally handled as ordinary citizens if they are caught and allow themselves to be arrested.

Prison time is not the only possibility for sentencing, but it is the only one with serious character consequences. Most other forms of sentencing can simply be RPed at your leisure, or ignored entirely if they are minor enough.

Incarceration

In an effort to make character consequences less punishing on their MUNs, the imprisonment system has been simplified and revamped. When a character is considered convicted, the current room staff member in charge of the Ranger Guard, or other authorized storyteller, determines the total severity of the crimes the character is being sentenced for, on a scale of 1 to 12. A severity of 1 will represent minor offenses such as relatively small amounts of property damage, non-lethal assault, petty theft, and so on. Getting a severity between 4 and 8 is common for declared villains and other deliberate criminals who use their powers to rob banks, destroy buildings, kill people, endanger large numbers of civilians, and other such acts. A severity of 12 is assigned to the worst villains who have committed mass murder, killed a Ranger Guard, committed treason for an entity Cardinal is at war with, and similar heinousness. Each grade of severity equates to one month in prison. Though this is terribly lax by our IRL standards, it will be considered fair for Cardinalian citizens, due to the nature of roleplay (nobody wants to have their favorite evil character thrown away forever just because they got caught, unless they really, really deserve it).

While in prison, characters can freely roleplay with any other characters in prison, and unless they are in solitary confinement, they may have RPs where they receive visitors. Though Black Mountain is a harrowing place to stay, the prison guards are required to provide for any essentials a prisoner may need. Usually this is simply food, water, clothing, and a (usually very public) place to shower and remove bodily waste, but characters with unusual, specific needs will have them addressed as best as the staff is able, without compromising security. Where those needs would exceed the staff's ability to meet them, an alternative sentence may be considered, such as exile or deportation. Criminals who would not coexist well in a prison may have the conditions of their stay altered, at the discretion of the sentencing staffer. For instance, a creature too large and unintelligent to be held with the general population may be kept in a special kennel, and thus their Compromising Situations rolls may be modified to fit them.

Compromising Situations

As a place where all manner of terrible people and creatures exist, the weak are exploited, the innocent are forced to violate the rules, and even the strong must mind their behavior, lest they incur the wrath of a mob of powered warriors. At the beginning of every month of incarceration, and no less than once per sentencing, a sentenced character must roll 1d20. Unless the sentencing staffer deems fit to modify the roll, the result means the following:

• Result 1: Gang affiliation.

A character is only eligible for this result once in a sentencing. The character discovers a group of fellow inmates who have formed a gang based on a belief, race, or trait that the character shares. The character has the choice of joining this gang. If he/she agrees, for the remainder of the sentence, "Brutality/Violation" and this result turn into "nothing happens", and "Fight" and "Ambush" become "Criminal Activity". Once joined, if the character is ever incarcerated again, the character automatically rejoins the gang. If the character chooses not to join, nothing happens for this roll and all rolls of 1 afterward.

• Result 2~10: Nothing happens.

Lucky roll.

• Result 11: Brutality/Violation

One or more inmates who are more powerful than the character impose themselves upon him/her, using superior strength and a truly wicked mind to somehow horrifically affect the character, whether it's sexual assault, torture, or some other way of making a character's life hell. If your character likes it when it happens, that's not what happened. As a result, the character's personality must be modified somehow to reflect severe mental trauma. A single result of this will result in a change in behavior that is relatively minor or subtle, but may still come up in play. Multiple rollings of this result may cause multiple modifications and/or more severe changes. The changes may fade over time, but more severe changes should take longer to fade.

• Result 12: Debt Owed to Lifer

The character finds him/herself singled out by a explotative Lifer, who demands recompense later for allowing the character to live. The Lifer expects the character to commit a crime in an RP, once they have been released. If this result is rolled multiple times in a single sentencing, the crime expected becomes more severe; each rolling of Debt Owed causes the crime to be sufficiently high-profile to allow one person to respond to it and attempt to stop it. If the character fails, he/she is expected to try again until he/she succeeds (supposing that the character was not arrested again). If the character does not try at least once a month after release, they will be ambushed as described in "Make an Enemy", except it will be rated at 2x their power.

• Result 13: Make an Enemy

An inmate with influence outside the prison decides to hold a vendetta against the character. After release, the character will be the subject of a Battle-level adventure where they are ambushed by a gang of thugs in a private location. While others can come to their assistance, it should make sense in how the fight is discovered. Additionally, while the thugs will fight everyone who defends the character, their main focus will be on putting the character out of commission.

• Result 14: Criminal Activity

The character either decides to or is coerced to do something illegal while imprisoned, such as smuggle in contraband, or brutally assault someone. Roll a 1d10. On a roll of 5 or better, the character succeeds and nothing happens. On any other roll, the character is caught and their sentence is extended by one month. This may extend a sentence beyond 12 months, but does not count for being considered a Lifer.

• Result 15~17: Fight

The character is forced to defend him/herself or be beaten into a bloody pulp. Skirmish adventure against 4 inmates rated at 75% of the character's power, or 1 inmate rated at 125% of the character's power, randomly chosen.

• Result 18: Solitary Confinement

The character gets into a brief scuffle with another inmate of equal strength, but when the guards come to break it up, your character is implicated in starting it, regardless of whether that was actually the case. For this month of incarceration, the character cannot be RPed with other characters (NPC or otherwise) and PT slows further, to one quarter normal speed.

• Result 19: Ambush

A group of spiteful inmates decide to attack the character when he/she is most vulnerable and least expects it, such as while bathing or sleeping. Play the 4 inmate adventure from "Fight", but the character's primary durability is halved in strength.

• Result 20: Fight to the Death

A fellow inmate's hatred for the character increases to the point where he/she decides to end the character's life. Staff create an NPC they believe to roughly be the character's match, and attempt to kill the character with it. If the character manages to last for 6 rounds, the guards will enter and break up the fight.

Sentence Commuting

Players may, once per month per incarcerated character, write solos detailing the character's prison experiences. Once approved by a staff member or the Ranger Guard moderator, this will reduce their sentence by one month, even if they only were sentenced to one month to begin with. This may only be done three times for a single sentence.

Nothing To Do But Train

While imprisoned, a character may redeem PT any day, backlogging any amount of time up to the date of incarceration, without RPing. If you choose to do so, however, redemption will occur at half rate.

Repeat Offenders

Characters who have been arrested and sentenced to prison before will have 1 added to the severity of their sentence for each time they were previously imprisoned. This will not cause a sentence severity to exceed 12.

Throwing Away The Key

Characters who receive a sentence severity between 10 and 12 (including the repeat offenders rule) more than once may instead receive a lifetime sentence, making them a Lifer. This is determined by the sentencing staffer. Lifers are in jail for as long as they can be kept there. Their only hope for escape is a prison break (which requires considerable effort and ability from outside), having someone clear their name, or if they are long-lived characters, the eventual breakdown of Cardnalian society. On the upside, they grow accustomed to living in prison, and generally become respected and feared members of the inmate society.

Players may create characters that are Lifers, who begin play incarcerated under a life sentence. See the Lifer page for details.

Prison Breaks

The first thing any real villain thinks about when they are captured is escape. Prison breaks, however, are extraordinarily difficult, since we provide heavily watered down sentences compared to what they likely ought to face. Prison breaks may not occur from within; rather, they must be perpitrated by a group of powerful allies with a variety of abilities. Besting the super-high-security prison requires technological know-how, fighting ability, and subtlety. Characters who are not considered fairly strong among others should not consider attempting this, as they will be caught.

Should an imprisoned character be successfully freed, however, they will be considered Declared Villains as far as character interaction is concerned (they will not receive any DV benefits). Non-Lifer characters who are recaptured will automatically be resentenced at severity 12, with consideration for a life sentence if applicable. Lifers who escape may be deemed kill-on-sight.