Prison Sentences

Being sentenced to serve time in prison is something which many Characters will have to face at one time or another during their criminal careers. Unlucky Characters might even visit prison so often as to come to consider it their second home. Vendetta is a long game, covering a period of fifty years, so prison sentences are not only to be expected, but also accepted - in real life few mobsters or hoodlums never serve any time at all. In Vendetta prison is by no means the end of any criminal's career, even your Boss Character's, and even a murderer serving a life sentence can be fully pardoned if you have influence in the right place.

There are two prisons in Vendetta, the State Penitentiary and the Federal Penitentiary. The latter houses all criminals convicted of any Federal crime, while the State Penitentiary will become home to those convicted of any other crime.

While many of the Characters listed as inmates will be known members of player-controlled underworld organizations, in each prison there will also be a selection of named NPC inmates with no such ties. These will all be tough, violent criminals serving long sentences for such as armed robbery and murder, and are named as Characters in the game due to their high position within the inmate hierarchy. These will be involved in operating one of the Prison rackets (see below) and will do what they must to protect their power & income. These characters are as much a potential threat - or a potential friend - to your own Characters as are the members of rival organizations serving time. Being named characters in the game, they can also be targeted for the purposes of influencing or attacking, as if members of a rival organization. Some of these Characters will also form small gangs to protect (or avenge) each other, just as all the imprisoned members of your own Syndicate or Family would also form a small gang on the inside.

Generally speaking, the Federal Penitentiary has tighter, less-corruptible security and will be a tougher place to be, making it harder to earn Prison Income and harder to get away with carrying out a Prison Hit. Both prisons will however have an internal hierarchy among the inmates, one able to be dominated by powerful, mob-connected convicts willing to take the risk of possibly coming up against the NPC inmate groups.

Characters serving prison sentences are forced to operate in a special Mode, one which reflects the strict routine and restrictive nature of prison life by allowing them just 6 'Time Points' for actions & orders each week. Their available Orders would also be restricted to those few possible in prison. Inmates might be given this as 'Free Time' and so develop their skills better, although some skills will be very difficult to practice in prison - the most obvious being 'Marksmanship'.

When a Character begins to serve a prison term all of his Racket operations will become temporarily 'inactive' and thus be placed on the Organization's 'Inactive Rackets' screen for the Boss to assign to another Character to operate. An imprisoned Character will however continue to earn the income from any legitimate businesses he owned before being sentenced, as these are managed for him by his personal family and friends on the outside.

All Characters in prison will require an Income Subsidy (see the section on 'Character Finances') from the Boss if their legitimate income on the outside is insufficient to support their personal family. Alternatively, they might attempt to make their own income on the inside by muscling in on one of the prison rackets, which will replace the Income Subsidy or at least reduce it. As the Boss you have the choice not to pay the required Income Subsidy for any particular Character, but it should be borne in mind that not doing so is often the prime cause of imprisoned Characters feeling betrayed, and so feeling justified in betraying the organization in return.

A player-controlled Boss serving a prison sentence does not lose control of his personal Organization, it will simply be run for him by his loyal subordinates until he is released. However, the risk of being killed while in prison is generally greater than that outside, even for those Characters with the means to hire bodyguards for themselves from among the tougher, named inmates.

Prison Rackets

Any underworld character serving a sentence in the State or Federal Penitentiary may attempt to make money on the inside, dealing in any or all of the following: booze smuggling, drug smuggling, protection, gambling or high interest loans (Shylocking). However, the Organization to which this character belongs must have knowledge of this racket type in order to make money from it on the inside, as this equates to having the necessary contacts.

Each Penitentiary has just a single racket territory for each, meaning that every drug dealer is in competition with every other drug dealer, etc. While it is possible for one character to monopolize a particular racket it will not be easy. However, any Character is more likely to succeed in monopolizing a Prison racket if this is something that he was personally involved in on the outside, and if he is willing to kill, or have killed, the main rival operators of this racket - whether members of rival organizations or powerful NPC inmates. Killing rivals should not be attempted unless the Character is serving a very long sentence and has little to lose.

All Prison Rackets will be more profitable under the lax security / corruptible guards of the State Penitentiary than in the tougher Federal Penitentiary. However, controlling a large part (or even a monopoly) of a particular prison racket can be extremely profitable, even in the Federal Penitentiary.

Imprisoned Characters still pay Tribute from their income as they would on the outside, as remaining a part of the organization earns them status and respect on the inside.

Prison Hits

The skills 'Unarmed Combat' and 'Close Combat' are very useful in prison. Any underworld character serving a sentence in the State or Federal Penitentiary may undertake to try to kill any other named inmate, or might himself become the target of another inmate. Such violence would generally be caused by competition in one or more of the Prison Rackets, but it's entirely possible that gang wars among rivals on the outside will also be reflected on the inside. The reverse is also likely to prove true.

Prison Hits should be Planned in advance just as for Hits on the outside, with the difference being that these are easier to plan on the inside and only a character currently being held in that prison can plan the hit - though he may share the plan with another named inmate rather than attempt to carry it out himself. Prison Hits are always either 'Close Assault' or 'Covert' in nature, with only the better planners being able to plan a 'Covert' hit. Consequently, Characters serving a long sentence and still remaining loyal to the Boss are probably the best to chose for most ('Close Assault') prison hits. These have little to lose and would generally be willing to take greater risks, attempting even half-baked hit plans with wild abandon.

Prison Hits will generally be more difficult to plan & carry out safely (ie. without being caught) under the tighter security of a Federal Penitentiary than under the lax security of the State Penitentiary.