LogFAQs > #882498622

Mario_VS_DK posted...

One of the players is from a powerful family of assassins, so I'd really like to implement that somehow, but I'm not really sure how.

Someone staggers up to the group. They've clearly been stabbed multiple times. Gasping out their last breath, they die before they can say anything. In their hand, they're clutching a signet ring with the PC's family crest. Did they kill this person? Is he an ally of theirs, murdered by an unexpected threat? Was it coincidence that he found the PC, or was he actively trying to find them to deliver a message? Or worse, were they killed by someone specifically to send a message to the PC?

The answers to all of these questions depend entirely on how the players react to the scene (and how it fits with your greater plans).

Or perhaps they're in a large city, with a bit of a carnival vibe. Describe multiple acts, including a clown-masked juggler in fool's motley who deftly juggles three or four knives without cutting himself. Later, there is a commotion - the fool has killed someone by throwing a knife (or three) at them, then dashed off into the crowd and down narrow alleys. Do the PCs chase, or decide it's none of their business? If they follow, in one alley they discover a discarded mask and motley - now the killer could look like almost anyone (bonus points if they looked like a man in disguise but it was secretly a woman all along, because PLOT TWIST). Can they find the killer in a crowded city full of strangers, with no real idea of what they actually look like?

And if they find the killer, who are they and why did they do it? Are they part of the assassin house? Does the assassin player possibly realize this before the other PCs, and is thus forced to choose to either risk revealing their secret or subtly help the killer escape? If they do catch the killer, what if they claim to have a good reason for the killing? Their victim was evil, or they were acting on orders of the king, or the victim was themselves an assassin sent to murder a powerful and important noble (perhaps implying a brewing civil war in the assassin family itself?).

For more funzies, perhaps there are rival assassin houses with conflicting motives (like the Iga and Koga ninjas of Japan). Perhaps they are now on opposite sides of a political struggle, and their covert shadow war will cause all sorts of problems unless the PCs investigate and do what they can to end it (one way or another). Do the PCs support the other PC's assassin family? Or does a conflict potentially occur if the rival family seems to have the more "noble" (or at least convenient) goals? Will the party split as one player chooses to side with his family while his allies turn against them?

And worst of all - if this seemingly coincidental side event starts to unravel into a major conspiracy or behind-the-scenes threat, can they afford to spend time investigating it? Make it clear that they can either meet with the contact they were already waiting for to continue that plot line, or must pursue this new (and seemingly unrelated) mystery. If they wait and continue their original goal, the assassin trail starts to grow cold, and events may play out in their absence. If they rush after the new mystery, they miss meeting the contact they were originally waiting for, and later find that he was killed by someone (either because he knew something important, or possessed something). Or they attempt to split the party to accomplish both goals, but potentially risk getting killed in a fight they're not strong enough to win. Make it feel like they live in an active world that doesn't simply wait for them to get around to finishing sidequests, and that there CAN be consequences for their choices.


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