Falkovnia - Ministry of Intelligence

[Claymora]

Ok, so something was bugging me last night when I was looking up different organisations in ravenloft. With the falkovnian ministry of intelligence...

Do their agents have some manner of surgery to remove/hide the zweifaulk brand or do they recruit foreign nationals and train them as agents when subtlety is required, or no trace of falkovnian involvement important.

Granted, I can't imagine the Kingfurher being especially concerned that his allies know he had agents in their borders... given Drakov's blunt tactics.

Naturally, I can see some tasks going to foreign agencies, contracting other assassin groups... but some things need to be handled in house I imagine.

If anyone could give me ideas/shed some light, I'd be curious to know your thoughts.

This is for a character I've been contemplating rolling up for a while.

[Olywynn]

Falkovnian loyalists have no reason to be outside of the country.  Nor can one start off being a member of a Falkovnian loyalist organization.

Any Falkovnian PC would be someone who escaped the Kingfuhrer's lands, or was born to refugees who escaped.

[TheGrinningHound]

I dunno. I've had a different experience.

I contacted a DM about it specifically to make sure it was alright, but I was able to roll a loyalist Falkovnian PC in the Ministry of Intelligence. He was working outside of his home country specifically to recruit foreign nationals and expand the web of informants. One of his largest tasks was to discover and capture refugees.

If what you're saying is just reporting an old DM stance, I would say that the best thing to do would just be to contact the DM team directly about it because they have in the past allowed exactly the kind of things you're looking for. If what you said is just your opinion, Olywynn, I think it falls unfortunately short. There are plenty of reasons for a Falkovnian loyalist to be outside of his country.

Edit: To answer your question, Claymora, my character was still branded. But I was trying to balance being obvious myself while contracting shadow agents. Given my tasks, it was alright if people knew that I was Falkovnian-- what concerned them instead was who they didn't know I had pressed into service.

[Olywynn]

No country outside of Falkovnia would look at a group of Falkovnians who claim loyalty to the Kingfuhrer and say "they're totally not up to no good."

If anything, such a group, or potential individual spies, would be fleeced up by the local authorities and likely disappear.  Playing a refugee is one thing, playing a loyalist is another entirely.  A loyalist permitted outside the country would likely be a higher level, to mark how far they came to -earn- the ability to leave, due to the trust the Ministry has in them not to just go AWOL as soon as they're outside of Falkovnia.  Remember that Falkovnia is the hardest country in the Core to escape.

[Olywynn]

To make a quick addition:

You start off as level 2, and must have a background fitting that.  You can't start off working for a lore organization.  You can't work for Strahd, you can't work for d'Honaire or the Council of Brilliance.  Yet we're able to play spy for the Ministry of Intelligence, who would only let spies out who are highly accomplished, and have proved their loyalty.  That's not a level 2 background.

So the only Falkovnian outside of Falkovnian that would be playable would be a refugee.

[Apsalar]

The Ministry of Intelligence is primarily concerned with reconnaissance, sabotage, and counter-intelligence. None of these things really require some kind of foreign secret identity.

Playing a member of the Falkovnian military should require DM approval since it's basically impossible without DM support. A loyalist would only have permission to leave Falkovnia if they were given a specific task, and they would be expected to return as soon as it's completed.

Also, members of the Falkovnian military who retain any measure of rank and respect have proven themselves by committing horrendous acts in order to rise in the ranks. To my mind starting a character who is already irredeemably evil in Ravenloft somewhat misses the point, but that's just my opinion and there are certainly concepts that work within a persistent world. I'm just not sure Falkovnian spy is one of them outside the realms of a DM plot.

[Claymora]

In regard to levels, allot of NPC figures are not especially high level. furthermore, we have had a bunch of loyalist pc's start as such.

It is also worth noting that trust is not the only way an organisation can ensure a member's loyalty.

But that is not the point of this thread and I would appreciate keeping to the original topic about how the ministry operates outside falkovnia. This was not a thread asking if/how to roll up a char as part of an organisation

[Claymora]

Playing a member of the Falkovnian military should require DM approval since it's basically impossible without DM support. A loyalist would only have permission to leave Falkovnia if they were given a specific task, and they would be expected to return as soon as it's completed.

Also, members of the Falkovnian military who retain any measure of rank and respect have proven themselves by committing horrendous acts in order to rise in the ranks. To my mind starting a character who is already irredeemably evil in Ravenloft somewhat misses the point, but that's just my opinion and there are certainly concepts that work within a persistent world. I'm just not sure Falkovnian spy is one of them outside the realms of a DM plot.

Guys, off topic. I am not asking about rolling up a ministry of intelligence PC.
To make a quick addition:

You start off as level 2, and must have a background fitting that.  You can't start off working for a lore organization.  You can't work for Strahd, you can't work for d'Honaire or the Council of Brilliance.  Yet we're able to play spy for the Ministry of Intelligence, who would only let spies out who are highly accomplished, and have proved their loyalty.  That's not a level 2 background.

So the only Falkovnian outside of Falkovnian that would be playable would be a refugee.

Off topic guys, I am not talking about rolling up a member of the ministry of intelligence.

[Bad_Bud]

Off topic guys, I am not talking about rolling up a member of the ministry of intelligence.

If anyone could give me ideas/shed some light, I'd be curious to know your thoughts.

This is for a character I've been contemplating rolling up for a while.

If that's not what you meant, then your original post is unclear.

[Claymora]

I was asking for information about how they would operate. Yes it is for a character I am planning but I currently have no idea what this character is going to be

No need for anyone to jump to conclusions about what I might be wanting to play

[Geiger]

Let me describe to you Falkovnia's ministry of intelligence:

Really stupid.

They're bad and have an auxiliary role. They're basically for when Drakov briefly considers wanting to use cowardly means to achieve something and he either intervenes in it and it fails. Everything that isn't the direct military forces in Falkovnia not only sucks to be in you're never able to do what you want because "Drakov knows best."

In Falkovnia, everything but the military sucks. But then also, its the Falkovnian military so its terrible, evil, and full of things no one wants to be apart of.

General note (and not to you, but for others who read this) - people working for the Falkovnian government (even in history, beyond being a basic grunt who is now a deserter or retiree) would need the Team's approval, as someone who has the Ministry after them, or had once worked in the ministry or the Arcane Tower Dudes I can't remember the name of would be rare and exceptional.

It's best to plan out characters from Falkovnia of being deserters, rebels, undesirables and what have you as those are the things you don't really need any pre-DM interaction with (and also what they try to steer your towards in the Gazetteers, especially heroes as Falkovnia is a brutal, dark place where even the most dim shine bright for their deeds.)

[Pagliacci]

Let me describe to you Falkovnia's ministry of intelligence:

Really stupid.

They're bad and have an auxiliary role. They're basically for when Drakov briefly considers wanting to use cowardly means to achieve something and he either intervenes in it and it fails. Everything that isn't the direct military forces in Falkovnia not only sucks to be in you're never able to do what you want because "Drakov knows best."

In Falkovnia, everything but the military sucks. But then also, its the Falkovnian military so its terrible, evil, and full of things no one wants to be apart of.

General note (and not to you, but for others who read this) - people working for the Falkovnian government (even in history, beyond being a basic grunt who is now a deserter or retiree) would need the Team's approval, as someone who has the Ministry after them, or had once worked in the ministry or the Arcane Tower Dudes I can't remember the name of would be rare and exceptional.

It's best to plan out characters from Falkovnia of being deserters, rebels, undesirables and what have you as those are the things you don't really need any pre-DM interaction with (and also what they try to steer your towards in the Gazetteers, especially heroes as Falkovnia is a brutal, dark place where even the most dim shine bright for their deeds.)

Because of the whole "burning them at the stake" thing. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

[herkles]

Let me describe to you Falkovnia's ministry of intelligence:

Really stupid.

They're bad and have an auxiliary role. They're basically for when Drakov briefly considers wanting to use cowardly means to achieve something and he either intervenes in it and it fails. Everything that isn't the direct military forces in Falkovnia not only sucks to be in you're never able to do what you want because "Drakov knows best."

In Falkovnia, everything but the military sucks. But then also, its the Falkovnian military so its terrible, evil, and full of things no one wants to be apart of.

General note (and not to you, but for others who read this) - people working for the Falkovnian government (even in history, beyond being a basic grunt who is now a deserter or retiree) would need the Team's approval, as someone who has the Ministry after them, or had once worked in the ministry or the Arcane Tower Dudes I can't remember the name of would be rare and exceptional.

It's best to plan out characters from Falkovnia of being deserters, rebels, undesirables and what have you as those are the things you don't really need any pre-DM interaction with (and also what they try to steer your towards in the Gazetteers, especially heroes as Falkovnia is a brutal, dark place where even the most dim shine bright for their deeds.)

Because of the whole "burning them at the stake" thing. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

Nah. Falkovinia is Nazi Germany but with a "medieval" trapping, just as evil. Not sure if they have death camps but they do enslave all non-humans and are generally as horrible as nazi germany without any good trapings. Falkovinia is a horrible land without anything redeamable or good about it at all.

[Olywynn]

In some respects, they may be worse than Nazi Germany.  In Falkovnia, the only ones who are well fed and reasonably happy are the soldiers. 

The rest are malnourished, miserable. The streets are lined with impaled corpses.  Women are raped at random and men can be killed at any random offense against a soldier or Drakov.  Say what you will of Nazi Germany, but they certainly were not public with their killings and genocide, and the average citizen supported their government.

No one save the most devout of Drakov's army like him.

Where Hitler can be called a charismatic evil, Drakov is moreso a brute force, stupid evil.

[Pagliacci]

Let me describe to you Falkovnia's ministry of intelligence:

Really stupid.

They're bad and have an auxiliary role. They're basically for when Drakov briefly considers wanting to use cowardly means to achieve something and he either intervenes in it and it fails. Everything that isn't the direct military forces in Falkovnia not only sucks to be in you're never able to do what you want because "Drakov knows best."

In Falkovnia, everything but the military sucks. But then also, its the Falkovnian military so its terrible, evil, and full of things no one wants to be apart of.

General note (and not to you, but for others who read this) - people working for the Falkovnian government (even in history, beyond being a basic grunt who is now a deserter or retiree) would need the Team's approval, as someone who has the Ministry after them, or had once worked in the ministry or the Arcane Tower Dudes I can't remember the name of would be rare and exceptional.

It's best to plan out characters from Falkovnia of being deserters, rebels, undesirables and what have you as those are the things you don't really need any pre-DM interaction with (and also what they try to steer your towards in the Gazetteers, especially heroes as Falkovnia is a brutal, dark place where even the most dim shine bright for their deeds.)

Because of the whole "burning them at the stake" thing. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

Nah. Falkovinia is Nazi Germany but with a "medieval" trapping, just as evil. Not sure if they have death camps but they do enslave all non-humans and are generally as horrible as nazi germany without any good trapings. Falkovinia is a horrible land without anything redeamable or good about it at all.

The joke is that anyone who does anything heroic in falkonia, such as sharing a crust of bread, would be caught and burned at the stake.

[Olywynn]

They don't burn you.  They impale you.  Much worse of a fate.