Long sentence in Imperial Lock up.

[Dredwulf60]

One of my players has a character who has been sentenced to several years in an imperial prison.

There are no plans to break him out or anything, he just has to do his time.

I am taking the campaign on a time-jump forward by several years.

But I want this player to get a sense of what his sentence was like.

I plan on running a mini-session with him to flesh it out.

I plan on making a chart or series of charts to roll on on a monthly basis.

Looking for prison events to populate it with; Star Wars specific as well as the typical tropes of the prison movie genre. Things that will be spring-boards for RP scenes or fights.

like:

- Large species inmate tries to take food off your plate.
- Unwanted shower friends pay you a visit
- Smaller inmate is being intimidated and wants your help
- Guard decides he doesn't like your attitude
- Cell mate finds out his wife has left him.
- Friend comes to visit.
-
-
etc

[griff]

Watch Shawshank Redemption again. I say again because you should have seen it multiple times by now. But saying that, routine, routine, and routine. And a sense of institutionalization if the character has been released b when the game starts back up again.
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"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[CRMcNeill]

There are YouTube videos where guys talk about what life is like in prison; they usually do 5-10 minute videos on specific aspects of it, so any questions you might have would show up in a specific search.

One major aspect that comes up is the racial divisions in US prisons; each race is controlled by a specific gang; considering the overt speciesism of the SWU, it's likely that the pattern would hold here, too, with gangs forming on species lines.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

Don't forget the occasional Shanking attempt.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Urban Spaceman]

Maybe they find out about an escape attempt, and the PC could decide what to do about it (with potential consequences for the choice, which might provide hooks for after the time skip).

They could keep quiet (might have to try CON rolls when asked if they know about the attempt).
Join in (maybe escaping in the process, shortening their time inside, but with a warrant over their head).
They could rat the escape attempt out (potentially knocking some time off their own time).
They could join in but it fails (adding time to their sentence).
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"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

[Zarn]

Nobody wants to be cellmates with a Verpine. A lone Verpine is deranged by default; someone who is in lockup has nothing but time on their hands. You'll find your stuff dismantled and put together to make new, "interesting", and "better" things.

One of the largest gangs in the slammer would likely be run by Herglics. And they'll gamble on anything.

Any prisoner would be slave labor. For instance, putting together crates from sheet durasteel, working with old, obsolete, and dangerous gear. The point isn't that it would be more efficient to use droids for this work, or that one might produce double the amount by simple upgrades to the equipment. The point is the slave labor itself.

For Imperial military personnel, I think one might brush some dust off the concept of penal companies. https://swfanon.fandom.com/wiki/21st_Penal_Battalion

[Pel]

Interesting concept! I like it except for the visitation option. Pretty sure a brutal regime like the Empire wouldn't allow visits or care packages, instead focusing on slave labor. I might burst into flame for suggesting this, but watch Star Trek VI. Except for the staged prison break the rest was good material for a remote penal colony. Play up the alien angle and introduce a few that are unknown to your players.

Oh, and absolutely rewatch Shawshank. Cool Hand Luke is another good choice. Strother Martin's 'Captain' would be a great Imperial Overseer.
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Aha!

[garhkal]

Heck. Heart's war for a german POW camp, is also a good one to look at.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dredwulf60]

While we all know that the Empire can be brutal, this is set in its very early days still, only 8 years after the end of the Clone Wars. I had always assumed a gradual process of stripping away civil rights in most areas.

ie...when the character got arrested, the sector rangers still needed a warrant, which they got. By the time he gets out...they won't need one if he gets into more trouble.

So while rebels and traitors are going to get the worst treatment under the regime...I'm going with the idea that 'regular' criminals are still dealing with what we would recognize as a modern prison system...although it would be one of the more brutal institutions...and by the end of the sentence he might be doing some of the more dangerous forced labour mentioned by Zarn.

That's why I'm including the idea of allowing visitors...though rarely. And the empire has not yet done away with criminal defense lawyers, so they are a valid visitor for appeal purposes.

And yes...I've seen the Shawshank Redemption.

There are lots of prison movies, just looking to pick some brains other than my own for what comes to mind.

Thank you, and...

Please, continue to keep them coming.

Eventually I'd like to put together a table...or a series of sub-tables.

Each month would be a roll on the table...with a bunch of slots with no events...just doing the time.

The higher slots would be the worse events.

And then I'd add modifiers for things that have happened. Such as a +1 if he's gotten into a fight the previous month, or a -1 if he talked himself out of a situation the previous month.

The characters not in prison I am going to award a blanket CP sum to simulate the time they spent doing their regular lives.

for the guy in the prison...I want to link his CPs to the events.

Like no CP awarded in a month that he ended up in the infirmary.

-1CP if he ended up in solitary.

+1 CP if he prevailed in a fight and gained some respect.

that sort of thing. Still thinking about the details.

[Mamatried]

Escape from Sobibor.

This is a classic war movie about a small band of russian POWs that arrive at a extermination camp.
They soon begin to organize the prisoners and eventually break out of the camp in a "great action sequense"

worth looking at since it touches both on slavery, extermination and the military, and imo can be applied easily to star wars

[CRMcNeill]

[Pel]

[cheshire]

I know that the "shower friends visit" is a common encounter in rougher prison fiction, and an unfortunate reality reported in approximately 6% of inmates, but be careful that you're not going to touch on any real-world issues that may be in the table. Sexual assault history isn't something that people feel comfortable sharing with the rest of the gaming table, and it's something that can be triggering. So, first and foremost, know your table and what's likely to go over well.

Personally -- and this is my choice for my tables -- I feel safer leaving rape out of the game.

It's funny, because I was just thinking about this on the train ride to work today, that we had a user here a number of years ago who was distraught that a GM told her that while her character was in prison, her character was repeatedly assaulted. It pretty much broke the game for her, and she wound up leaving that table.

Do what you think is best, but I thought I would leave that caveat.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Whill]

[CRMcNeill]