The game
The camp
Everyone starts here. The camp is the tutorial, and the only thing to learn is the dig.
You step off the boat, you're processed in about a minute, and you're holding a tool. Detainee Labour is a real department with a real ladder, and a detainee can get somewhere without stopping being a detainee.
The detainee ladder
| Rung | How you get there | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| D0 Unprocessed | Step off the boat | A number and a jumpsuit |
| D1 Detainee | Processing, about a minute | Tools, faces, credits, the commissary |
| D2 Trusty | Three clean shifts at output | Unescorted inside the camp, a better commissary, a camp job: cook, orderly, clerk |
| D3 Ganger | An Overseer's sign-off | Runs a gang of four, takes a cut of its output, chooses the face |
| TS Time-Served | A release board, at a credit threshold | Leaves the camp, may apply to any branch with a recommendation, and skips the trial week |
In the fiction, a release is a sentence discharged and a contract converted: the Corporation offers site employment to discharged detainees because the licence makes leaving the island difficult.
Who runs it
A small staff administers the camp: the Superintendent of Labour sets the work programme and chairs release boards, the Labour Overseer assigns gangs to faces and signs off Trusties, and the Muster Clerk takes the roll and logs output. Security guards it. They are not the same people.
Consequences inside the fiction
The camp needs consequences to feel like a camp. Every one of them is short and administrative.
| If you | What happens |
|---|---|
| Missing muster | Days added to your sentence |
| Contraband | Item confiscated, credits docked |
| Refusing a work detail | Commissary suspended for a shift |
| Fighting | Solitary: a timed room, five minutes at most |
| Escape attempt | Days added, Trusty status revoked |
Solitary is capped at five minutes, for everyone, with no exceptions. A punishment that takes a player out of the game for longer than that isn't roleplay.