Escape from Blackshore OOC

We'll use this thread for OOC communication from here on, I hope!

The prison and island seems to a rather hard nut to crack although I have some ideas for how I might make it off. Depending of course on how things develop.

I'll probably use this thread for questions and maybe some brainstorm planning to get Edward forward, while the actual plans will probably be posted in the game thread.

Beautiful! Yes, keep me in the loop where possible.
At the end of the day, a lot of what you roll and how is very much up to you, I think - my role as storyteller/GM is to set the scene, mood and the task at hand. If there are guards, you get to decide whether you want to fight them, sneak by them, talk to them, or have a flashback where it just so happens that you actually helped them win big in the weekly poker game, so they're inclined to look the other way as you saunter by.
The system is very free form - just because you are a Cutter, that doesn't mean you should always fight. You should always be looking for ways to bypass combat when possible, partly because stretching your character to interesting/challenging circumstances is what nets you XP and because combat is really swingy in my experience - a single chain of bad dice basically means your character dies (which is, no joke, actually a pretty normal thing in setting, since when you "die," usually by running out of stress, you drop out of the current mission and we pick up the story later on with your character being subtly changed for the worse by the experience.)
Looking forward to this!

Ok, some questions on Edward's imprisonment.

How are the inmates housed?

What activities beyond the mines are the inmates allowed/forced to do?

How heavily armored and armoured are the watchers?

Are there any prison staff except the Watchers on the site? Because it sounds like the Watchers are the guards, so there might be other non-guard personal as well. Or so I guess with my very limited knowledge of the subject RL.

- How are the inmates housed?

Rough tents, mostly, with some rugged stone huts and cobbled together structures. The oldest (and generally considered nicest) "camp" looks a bit like those old irish/scottish villages where the walkways are dug into the ground, so it looks like it's just ground level, without all of the verdant greenery that usually accompanies such locales. This camp is, of course, occupied by the meanest of the gangs (naturally).

- What activities beyond the mines are the inmates allowed/forced to do?

There is an exercise yard, little more than a cleared field about thirty meters from the small fort by the docks. The fort stands immediately between the field and the docks. Due to the slightly rugged terrain elsewhere on the island, the field serves as a natural chokepoint - the fort has an emplacement facing specifically in that direction for maximum effect against a massed enemy force. Beyond mine work, enforced by a decent-sized detachment from the fort, the inmates are left to their own devices. Food is brought by shipment and left in the exercise yard, and the gangs divvy it up amongst themselves, passing it along to the camps (whilst taking their cut, of course).

- How heavily armored and armoured are the watchers?

Fairly - not sure how to measure armor in this system quite yet, but they generally wear sort of standard military uniforms with thick cloaks against the truly abysmal weather. When they have to sortie from their little fort by the docks, they often wear light plate armor - not bullet proof, but enough to ward off attacks from knives and stones well enough. Of course, they also carry guns with them, and are often pretty free with executing prisoners at a whim. There's a high turnover rate in the prisoner population.

- Are there any prison staff except the Watchers on the site?

A handful of engineers - most of them fellow prisoners, actually - drawn from the ranks of the criminals but on a different time frame. Engineers, because of their expertise, work off their sentences more quickly, and are rigorously defended because they get to put in a good word with the Black Wardens and can reduce prison sentence times as well (or extend them). At least two generations of gang leadership have actually left the island by coercing/controlling the engineers to put in positive reports, and anyone who harms (or is reasonably accused of harming) an engineer is executed on sight.

Ok, my grand plan is like this, in general.

I get in touch with an engineer (or corrupt Watchman/Watchmen), give or offer that person something which I can provide that the person can't in exchange for help with getting smuggled out from the prison on a ship.

Now I figure that what I can do for the engineer that the engineer himself/herself is to take risk of getting problems with the Wardens or someone else with power in the prison.

Edward will probably be working with or for one of the gangs in order to get access to that thing which engineer wants but probably can't get due to the risk involved. Probably either smuggling in something like drugs or booze which can be sold down the line in the prison, doing violence against someone powerful like a Warden officer or gang leader or something along that kind of risky line.

One thing I think which Eward has to offer is that Edward is ready to take risks, big risks, to get out of here while an engineer is already having a pretty good spot right now and might be more risk aversive due to that good spot.

The details needs to be sorted out but I think this is something to start with.

Nice! So! If I have the rules about right, you've got to pick what ACTION RATING you'd like to roll (that is, what skill you think most fits the situation. I'd recommend Consort, Sway, or Survey as likely options to fit the style of your approach)
I can see Eward working with one of the gangs in exchange for a bit for a bit of status and protection. Since you'll have some standing in the prison's community, I figure this will be a "Controlled" threat, so the consequences won't be severe on a bad roll - you just won't really get anywhere with it. Roll when ready!

I think that the stuff I would like to use for this attempt is Sway.

Ok, here goes the roll. Its a 3. So a failure, but since its a controlled threat I hope I won't get anything to bad for me right at the start.

https://orokos.com/roll/970941

So a week since the last post. Is this game still on?

Another week has past and the GM hasn't been on the site since 5/3.

GM seems to have gone into the void and nothing new has been posted for a long time. I think the mods can close down this game.