Don’t get me wrong, with that title: I still want characters being assassinated in various ways (stabbing and poisoning will be popular, and I also think I’ll provide for certain opportunities for “accidents” in certain locations – a high tower for people to fall from, for instance).
But I don’t want the game to be all murder all the time. There should be ways to try and get one up on the opposition without killing them. Some possible options I’m considering:
Imprisonment: both false and just, potentially. A character imprisoned can potentially escape (again, roles for the architect here, and for the captain of the guard), or even just be influential from their new location. At least they’re safe down there, for one thing.
Discrediting: attack people’s credibility, legitemacy, trustworthiness, and motives. Particular characters would be weak to particular kinds of attacks: it’s be relatively easy to accuse the vizier of treachery, perhaps; everyone trusts the word of the archbishop, but if he’s demonstrated to have lied, it goes very badly for him…
September 10, 2009 at 9:59 pm |
Mes,
Well, I think that there are some good tools you can use to represent “damage” like reputation, confidence, stress, bad habits (maybe when they lose, they go on a bender?), debt, promises made, promises broken, social obligations, legal obligations, etc. In other words, these are all things that degrade the character’s effectiveness without putting the attacker behind bars, no?
Dave M
September 10, 2009 at 10:09 pm |
Oh certainly, and much of that will be captured in the fiction of the game and the rules of each character. I’m thinking here more about end-points – the ultimate pain characters are aiming to bring down on one another.