Welcome to Unfriendly Towers! [suggestions please!]

[robject]

So I'm fleshing out bits of a colony world, and I've got these huge fancy towers, about 100,000 people living and working in each tower, combinations of office, commerce, and habitat. Industry, research, and agriculture are done off-site.

I figure they've got TL 11 security -- quite beyond what we're capable of -- and I'm thinking they typically require embedded and graded identification (DNA or electronic or fluidic) that enable law enforcement to easily tell if someone is a Citizen or not, if someone is authorized for the current level or not, and of course detain those who are not.

This leads to interesting scenarios. For example, the low-rent district is both an opportunity (to infiltrate the system, or to obtain goods without digital transactions, etc) and a risk (undocumented persons are technically "not people", and therefore there are no laws protecting them or their internal organs).

I'm wondering if there's anything I can tweak in the above setting to make it more fun for adventurers. For example, if my players stumble into one of these tower groups, I don't want them unceremoniously roasted over an open-pit fire and eaten. The goal is to think up obstacles for them to overcome, and not to kill their characters, nor to give them the keys to the city.

I've got several scenarios sketched out, but I'm always looking for more. For example, here are some of my ideas, in 10,000-foot form:

1. Ned Landrel's Lift Taxi
2. Ikaros Circle Bar & Open Pit Higarra Grill
3. Janis Ikkugan, maintenance
4. Crowd Control Squad #43

 

[BytePro]

Are the towers part of 'one big happy family' or are they more like independent arcology states who compete for resources, political power and foreigners? How is the wealth and tech distribution?

The towers are definitely begging for a Clandestine agency (or several) and probably gangs.

Where are the prisons, er, reform facilities - a separate tower or collocated within towers?

 

[robject]

Where are the prisons, er, reform facilities - a separate tower or collocated within towers?

Egads, that's a good question. I don't know. Huh. I really don't know. A separate tower would be interesting. Co-located within towers would also be interesting. Re-education camps... might be less interesting (I don't know).

Hmmm.

 

[sabredog]

You will need organleggers: I would have one organized gang with access to high quality medical facilities for harvest/surgery/storage. Storage can include cold sleep capsules for whole, live donors (read a player or NPC at some point waiting to be rescued) and for tissue banks. The whole operation will need to provide lots of bribes and inside contacts among the rich and famous so it won’t get shut down so that provides an opportunity to build up some good corruption on the inside. Demand for donor tissue can be high if there is some form of universal anti-rejection drug to make sure that tissues stay where put, and tissue replacement for all sorts of things is cheaper for the live-forever crowd than anagathics. Or anagathics may not be available.

There will be plenty of smaller individuals, and teams of two or three who run around in the lower levels looking for unaccompanied kids, unwary travelers, and the like to snatch and strip for goods to sell to the large gang. Maybe they even sell some to the legitimate medical businesses in the arcologies, some of whom might need a source on the side that doesn’t have to comply with all that expensive red tape. These gangs can be as simple as a guy with a stun weapon to take down the victim, and the other with a freezer box strapped to his back armed with knives to strip the goods. Little kids can be bait for these teams, standing in the open crying and thus luring some kind-hearted traveler to his doom.

 

[sabredog]

With tissue banks on one end, and the need for someone to clean the public restrooms you don't need no steenking prisons. Anyone commits a crime they lose their property to the tower management and end up parted out or an indentured servant to the state till their sentence is over.

 

[robject]

With tissue banks on one end, and the need for someone to clean the public restrooms you don't need no steenking prisons. Anyone commits a crime they lose their property to the tower management and end up parted out or an indentured servant to the state till their sentence is over.

I appreciate the enthusiasm of your post, and the tidiness of the solution. And though I agree that this is a fun dystopia to run, it's too draconian. I actually think that there must be prisons, or rehab, or something to manage problem people. Probably a mix of solutions, with the Ultimate Solution being recycling of course, but if you get cited for spitting on the sidewalks you don't lose your privileges.

As far a law level, I think it's no worse than, say, Texas, which can be uncomfortably intrusive, but dares not flaunt that sort of power.

 

[Dragoner]

Two words: Re-education Centers.

Some fun socials in there like when the characters get into trouble and then while "incarcerated" have to do such things as paint a picture that will then be deciphered by staff psychologists. Grimly fiendish, but not outright "evil". :devil:

 

[sabredog]

I appreciate the enthusiasm of your post, and the tidiness of the solution. And though I agree that this is a fun dystopia to run, it's too draconian. I actually think that there must be prisons, or rehab, or something to manage problem people. Probably a mix of solutions, with the Ultimate Solution being recycling of course, but if you get cited for spitting on the sidewalks you don't lose your privileges.

As far a law level, I think it's no worse than, say, Texas, which can be uncomfortably intrusive, but dares not flaunt that sort of power.

It's only dystopian if the kid used by the organleggers as bait gets parted out because she misses her quota.

Seriously, we make minor criminals perform public service like cleaning roadsides and work for restitution already. What I'm talking about is forfeiture of property for an offense, and your rights suspended until your sentence of public service is over. That also happens right now. Prisoners lose the privileges of a free citizen until their debt is paid. If they used their property to commit a crime (or the property was the crime) then it will be confiscated. Depending on the crime and the jurisdiction the property may be sold and the money go to the victims or the state as restitution.

So why would the same thing be considered dystopian?

 

[sabredog]

I should point out that 'forfeiture' of property may include money as a fine. Depending on the economy and available resources in the arcology 'property' can cover a lot of ground: money (fines), housing quality ("One more offense, citizen and you will lose another bedroom."), vehicles (First offense= fine...second = suspension...third= lose your vehicle...), .....

What sort of society is this? What are its values and mores? How plentiful are resources inside and outside the towers? How do all of the above change form one social strata to the next?

Those will tell you a lot of how the laws and other potential pitfalls for the stranger will be written and enforced. It will also tell you what all the little social habits are that will be the taboos and other things that may just cause travellers to rub people the wrong way or get them unwanted attention that could snowball.

 

[BytePro]

I can definitely see sabredog's suggestions incorporated into the 'justice' system...

The prisons are the official 'solution' - the unofficial one - how the corrupt, embezzling authorities actually 'deal' with overcrowding and underfunding - is by 'early' releases and electronically euthanizing.

I.e. a certain percentage of prisoners (notably those that don't play or can't pay) end up recorded as deceased or 'released' ('identity' is controlled or sold) - and get parceled off to the dregs (low-rent, low lattitude sections).

As non-citizens they would have no rights and thus be under the control of the ones who owned their 'identities'...

 

[Enoki]

For a dystopia I suggest watching the movie Brazil for material....

 

[sabredog]

If you want some ideas on the whole us vs. them arcology thing you should read Oath Of Fealty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Fealty_(novel)


It isn't their best work by any means, but it does capture that siege mentality that might develop among the better-off citizens of a fairly self-sufficient arcology when surround outside by the rest of the non-citizens.

 

[robject]

What I'm talking about is forfeiture of property for an offense, and your rights suspended until your sentence of public service is over.

Okay, I weren't all knee-jerk over the mandatory organ donation, and didn't see the other bits of your post. Mea culpa, I think you're going in a good direction.

 

[rancke]

So I'm fleshing out bits of a colony world, and I've got these huge fancy towers, about 100,000 people living and working in each tower, combinations of office, commerce, and habitat. Industry, research, and agriculture are done off-site.

I figure they've got TL 11 security -- quite beyond what we're capable of -- and I'm thinking they typically require embedded and graded identification (DNA or electronic or fluidic) that enable law enforcement to easily tell if someone is a Citizen or not, if someone is authorized for the current level or not, and of course detain those who are not.

How are the social classes organized in term of residency? Does each tower have a mix of upper, middle, and lower class accomodations, or are there upper class towers, middle class towers, and lower class towers?

This leads to interesting scenarios. For example, the low-rent district is both an opportunity (to infiltrate the system, or to obtain goods without digital transactions, etc) and a risk (undocumented persons are technically "not people", and therefore there are no laws protecting them or their internal organs).

So there is such a thing as an undocumented person? Where do undocumented persons come from and where do they live when they're not infiltrating a tower?

I'm wondering if there's anything I can tweak in the above setting to make it more fun for adventurers. For example, if my players stumble into one of these tower groups, I don't want them unceremoniously roasted over an open-pit fire and eaten. The goal is to think up obstacles for them to overcome, and not to kill their characters, nor to give them the keys to the city.

You may want to look into present-day gated communities for inspiration.

Also, SF author Mack Reynolds wrote a number of books set in the Year 2000. Some of them take place in the sort of towers you seem to be describing. The Towers of Utopia would be especially apposite -- other books set in the same world deal with people who move away from the towers.

There's also The Towers of Atora, my writeup of Atora, the capital of the Duchy of Regina, for JTAS Online. Atora is composed almost entirely of huge residential towers.

I've got several scenarios sketched out, but I'm always looking for more. For example, here are some of my ideas, in 10,000-foot form:

1. Ned Landrel's Lift Taxi
2. Ikaros Circle Bar & Open Pit Higarra Grill
3. Janis Ikkugan, maintenance
4. Crowd Control Squad #43

That last paragraph conveys no sense at all to me.


Hans

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Larry Niven's "A patch work Girl", dealt with a woman falsely accused of a crime in a society where high crimes (Murder) resulted in your body being parted out. The story ends telling the reader, that reforms were necessary in the system.

You could use that as the result of one of your infiltration into the towers...

 

[sabredog]

Larry Niven's "A patch work Girl", dealt with a woman falsely accused of a crime in a society where high crimes (Murder) resulted in your body being parted out. The story ends telling the reader, that reforms were necessary in the system.

You could use that as the result of one of your infiltration into the towers...

The Jigsaw Man (Known Space but not one of the A.R.M. stories) also provided a lot of background on how things got that way and how the legal process works in a lot of chilling detail. I especially liked the padded cell and bars the suspect was kept in so he didn't damage himself before court and disassembly.

The Gil Hamilton of ARM stories are excellent (and with an interesting psi special, too) for inspiration. I thought the rationale for why the leader of the organlegging gang was in that business was especially good and made a lot of sense.

 

[BlackBat242]

With tissue banks on one end, and the need for someone to clean the public restrooms you don't need no steenking prisons. Anyone commits a crime they lose their property to the tower management and end up parted out or an indentured servant to the state till their sentence is over.

Larry Niven's "A patch work Girl", dealt with a woman falsely accused of a crime in a society where high crimes (Murder) resulted in your body being parted out. The story ends telling the reader, that reforms were necessary in the system.

You could use that as the result of one of your infiltration into the towers...

The Jigsaw Man (Known Space but not one of the A.R.M. stories) also provided a lot of background on how things got that way and how the legal process works in a lot of chilling detail. I especially liked the padded cell and bars the suspect was kept in so he didn't damage himself before court and disassembly.

The Gil Hamilton of ARM stories are excellent (and with an interesting psi special, too) for inspiration. I thought the rationale for why the leader of the organlegging gang was in that business was especially good and made a lot of sense.

The Jigsaw Man, (1967): This is the first of Niven's "organ bank" stories. As a way of prolonging life organ transplant technology has made leaps and bounds. The rich ultimately realize that they can add hundreds of years of life by purchasing the organs of the dead. The problem is that the economy is doing so well, and there are so many rich, that the organs start to become scarce.

So the law "catches up" with society, and legislators start making minor crimes punishable by death, so that the organ banks can harvest the organs of the condemned. In this story a condemned man manages to break out of prison as he is awaiting trial. He is ultimately recaptured and the reader learns in the end that he is being sentenced to death for a series of traffic violations.