On Assassination
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On Assassination by Dymm
PvP has long been a controversial topic in our RP community. There has been conflict over duels, wars, looting, thieving, and any other imaginable form of conflict or competition. Of course then, assassinations is an extremely sensitive case, of which I am sure everyone has different opinions on. I know I will not get everyone’s support in my endeavor, but if I can at least propose my ideas, and then get something started out of them, I will be very satisfied. So, as you read on, please keep in mind that you will need an open mind.
Assassination is an important part of roleplay and should be treated as such. It is more then just killing for money. To the assassin, to the mark, and to the person taking out the contract, there must be more roleplay involved then an assassin popping up, killing, and leaving. It means nothing. To the assassin, it was simply a way to make money, not to roleplay. To the mark, he just gets resed, and continues as normal. To the buyer, the worst: simply a waste of money, in most cases. In the past, assassinations have been handled wrong, or not to their full roleplaying potential. You may blame the guildmasters, and it may be partly on them, but I want you all to forget the past. I want to make assassination a viable form of stimulating roleplay, and not simply a quick kill. If I still have anyone reading this, the following are my proposals.
Post-death Roleplay
The idea of an assassin, as most of you know, is surprise attack. It is the essence of an assassination, which can often not happen without that element of surprise. Keeping this in mind, assassination MUST be without warning. I know many will disagree with this, and say it is against the rules but there is simply no other way around it. I would list the problems with warnings, but they are all pretty obvious, I think.
The kill would not be without roleplay. Yes, the assassination would be a surprise, and there would be no roleplay before it, not on the part of the mark, at least. But, why not roleplay after the kill? Sounds silly to you? I am not talking about the assassin have a conversation with the ghost. What I am talking about is the assassin carving a letter in the ground next to the corpse, or leaving a distinctive item on the body, or taking something from the corpse to prove the kill (Not looting… roleplay). It can be something small like this, to show the act was not random, or even something bigger… Maybe the assassin would check the surrounding area to make sure no one saw him? Try to hide the body? There is a limitless amount of possibilities.
What about after the kill is committed and the mark brought back to life? An investigation would take place, and people wouldn’t automatically say, “He did it. Let’s go to their guildhouse and kill them.” Roleplaying detectives, anyone? Local law enforcement divisions, similar to what Spawn and Sanctus have instituted, could go into forensics and investigation, instead of simply apprehension and execution. There would be a process to figure out who the murderer was. Eventually, maybe the detective would find cycles and similar patterns in one killer? Maybe one killer always stabs in a certain spot, or always leaves a certain item on the corpse? Perhaps he would have to interrogate eyewitnesses to try and get appearance descriptions? There possibilities are limitless.
How would we control the assassin not looting, or making sure the assassin actually roleplayed? I will get to that later in the essay.
The Middleman
A major part of being an assassin is secrecy. Like some vampires, if you are a good assassin, people don’t know that you are an assassin at all. Why, then, have assassin guilds in the past freely advertised their services? In taverns and other public places even? Because there was no central idea of how an assassin should conduct business. In my plan, assassins would never offer their services, reveal their activities, or have to incriminate themselves at all in the public eye. An assassin should have an unrelated cover to hide what he really does (i.e. roleplaying a simple alchemist from Yew in public places). Everyone would know OOC what they do, but IC… It would be hard to figure it out, if done right. How, then, would assassin get jobs? The Middleman.
Assassins need an agent, of sorts, to do their business for them. The middleman is not a killer or an assassin himself. He is simply a businessman. This opens up whole new opportunities for roleplaying classes. An assassin group based on these principals would need several middleman, and good roleplayers to play them. The middleman would meet in secret with the one wanting to place a contract. The buyer would never actually meet the assassin, unless specifically requested for and securely planned. The middleman would set up all the details: payment, success rate, how to prove of the kill, etc. In this way, the secrecy of the assassin’s identity is kept in contact, while giving some roleplay fun to the middleman and the buyer.
The Point
What is the point of hiring an assassin in UO? Really? Nothing, but to make some roleplay, right? If you really wanted someone dead that badly, most people can get their guild together to take them out. They are then brought back to life a few seconds later and everything is normal again. Same thing with assassinations, right? Wrong.
It has been talked about and shot down in other threads, but I think it can work if exclusively limited to assassins. Once assassinated, the mark must miss any non-necessary event. I am not saying we should have people assassinated so they can’t attend a tournament, or something. That is totally missing the point. I think I can best explain it by using an example (these guilds are totally off the top of my mind, and there are no real plots like this):
Mark Randerstill’s and Isilmea’s forces are preparing for battle against one another. Isilmea has secretly planned for the assassination of Isk prior to the battle. Isk is working out in Magincia, in preparation for the battle… An assassin takes this opportunity to fill the contract, an hour or so before the battle. Now, under the current system, the assassin would escape away, Isk would be resurrected and be totally ready for the battle. Humanis would be angered, especially if they knew Isilmea had planned it, BUT it didn’t directly affect the outcome of the battle. What if, instead, Isk was put out of commission and unable to attend the battle to do wounds from the assassin? What if he was feeling sick from the poison and could not attend the battle? What if this formed into a plot? How much more emotion would be poured into the plot now that Mark and the rest of Humanis is outraged. Isk would have to skip out on the battle, but for the better of RP in the end? In the first situation, Humanis may care very little about the assassination. In the second situation, they would try to track down the killer and if possible, try to figure out who he was hired by. What if the assassin lies? If they don’t believe him when he does tell the truth? Can you see what I am getting at? INTRIGUE! Assassinations do not have to be so two-dimensional and boring. They can spark ROLEPLAY!
Another advantage of this is bodyguards. I know many leaders have roleplayed bodyguards. Now, they would actually have more of a job to do. You would want your bodyguards around before a fight to insure your safety and health. Bodyguards would serve a purpose and leaders would want them. This of course, offers more roleplaying class opportunities.
The problem here is that the assassin will often have all power, and no punishment… My next proposition leads into this problem.
The Punishment
An assassin has many means of escape… Stealth is the most obvious example. That or recalling. But, what fun is it if the assassin kills, does a bit of roleplay, then “Kal Ort Por?” No fun at all, is what it is, and some would even say, godmoding. What is there to be done to fix this, then? If the mark could be forced to miss a battle because of an assassin, shouldn’t the assassin have some punishment if caught? And shouldn’t it be possible for him to get caught? Yes.
I propose that after an assassination, the assassin in question MUST remain in the general area/town/island that the assassination was completed in. In my previous example, I used Magincia. If Isk was indeed assassinated on the island of Magincia, the assassin would stay there for a certain period of time, to be determined. An hour, half hour, maybe? He could, of course, use all his abilities to keep from getting caught. The assassin would be stealthing around the city, and using the obscure places, like an assassin should. How would this fit in with roleplay on the part of an assassin? He is looking for an escape route, or watching the scene play out from the shadows, or surveying the area to find any witnesses to the crime, or anything. If the assassin were apprehended within this hour, the assassinated would be able to join in the battle/event. This would make people more willing to try to catch the assassin, not to just let him go and be over with it. This is another opportunity for roleplayed detectives to come and investigate. They could be hired, and even form organized groups. And, then it also leads to…
Bounty hunters. Yes, bounty hunters are quite different then assassins. Assassins are trained to kill. Bounty hunters can kill (though in a much different fashion, usually) or apprehend. They are usually hired to find criminals. Bounty hunter guilds, as an anti-assassin tool? Or, even existing guilds hiring themselves out to deal justice for the mark’s party? (I am thinking of you, Vaen.) What if they had tracking and ways to reveal the assassin? The assassin would then have to use cunning, and sometimes even force. Their stealth abilities would be pushed to the limits and the bounty hunters’ would have a good time trying to find the assassin, not to mention roleplay windows opening between bounty hunters and other guilds. Then, if the bounty hunters find the assassin, what will they do? Will they be forced to kill? Or will they arrest? Will the mark’s guild be upset with their job? So many possibilities.
The Rogue Underground
Finally, to enforce the above rules, a central assassin organization (including middlemen) would need to be formed. I would be more then happy to do this. Yes, it would be a guild, but a very loose guild IC. Assassins normally work alone, and they still would. The guild wouldn’t be so much a guild as it would be simply a way to roleplay the “rogue underground.” It is a network of information based between assassins. The members would never admit to being members. They would never give out the guild secrets. This idea may not be so beneficial to the entire community, but it would be fun for the people in the guild, I think. I have ideas to create secret meanings to certain phrases, describing not-so-legal activities. Would it not be interesting to talk in a sort of code in game? It really adds to the intrigue and puts depth into the roleplay of an assassin. Code names, and codes for who is killing whom when, and code names for certain meeting locations at certain times.
Even though I described the guild as not much of a guild, OOC, it must be very, very strict. As some would call elitist. Accepting members to the guild would be based on many things. Members would need a good background in roleplaying and know the rules like they know themselves. The guild would remain small (assassinations should not be a common occurrence) but would war everyone, for obvious purposes. We would leave guildtitles on, simply so you know what we really are, and will just hope no one points at our “badges.” Though, titles would likely not be “Assassin” or whatever. More along the lines of “Local Blacksmith” or even something in code.
And there are my ideas. I commend anyone that actually read through the whole thing. I anticipate questions, comments, criticisms, flames, or whatever the hell you want to say to this. Feel free to totally disagree with me, add on to my ideas, or whatever. Basically, all I want to do is spark more roleplay in the community, and roleplay of better quality. I want to make assassination a part of roleplay, and not just something that happens once in a while. Again, I thank you for reading, and I hope you read with an open mind. I hope to see some detectives tracking me down in the near future.