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View Full Version : Detailing an Assassins' Guild (For a 3.5 Solo Campaign)



The Neoclassic
2009-01-19, 08:40 PM
I'm going to be running a solo campaign for a friend of mine. He wants to be an assassin, something with which I am totally fine, and a concept that fits well in the culture I want to set the campaign in. However, I need some help figuring out exactly what sorts of codes would guide the guild, how their hierarchy/organization would be set up, what sorts of missions he would face, and what the player would do while he's not killing people.

Here's what has already been determined: The culture is LE and (by their standards) very civilized. Theirs is a subtler sort of evil; in most criminal trials justice is served, torture is rarely used, and neither sexism nor severe racism plagues them. While there are many assassins out there, this guild is reputed to be the only one whose members are never caught. Of course, this is largely because on the extremely rare occasions when they are found, tried, and executed, they are able to hide any connection to the guild; it's a manner of honor for them to never, ever betray the guild. The guild has some principles which it considers in its assassinations, and a bit of its own agenda. All members of the guild must be LE, referred by a member of the guild, take the culture's primary god as their patron, and swear oaths of loyalty (possibly magically binding?). Nearly all are from a noble background; their targets are usually noble.

So, any suggestions for political intrigue, characters that the PC might be hired to kill, or how I could flesh out the guild? Thanks for any ideas!

Assassin89
2009-01-19, 08:52 PM
The targets are corrupt and are actively oppressing the common people by exploiting the law.

Examples of targets
King who holds banquets in the middle of a famine
Nobel who took a kingdom by force and killed most of the legitimate heirs of the previous ruler.

Outside of assassinations, each member acts as a productive member of society.

Members should include:
half-elf, elf, dwarf, human, goblin, gnome, halfling
one male and one female for each race.

Yukitsu
2009-01-19, 09:08 PM
Details of structure:

There is an overall leader. This individual has a code name and is never revealed to the other members of said guild. Due to game mechanics, this guild leader must have self produced items or cast spells that would protect against divinations, as it is suspicious for him to attain these through an open market. He/she/it sends all orders via mail, and recieves all folders at specific drop points. My recommendation be, that the overall leader works to some greater scheme than "just" money, and works behind the scene to ensure that the city remain in the state that it currently is in, or perhaps, is moving towards something more desireable.

As far as any member knows, there is no group beyond their immediate liason (who may work with 1 or more groups) that the PCs are ever aware of, and all contracts come to and from these individuals. Above the liason are a director and support staff that can find and provide intelligence about targets. They also accumulate as much information as possible about their own groups. Some come directly from the top organizer. Especially orders to terminate other groups, and to prevent spreading of information detailing their actions. This way, no group knows when they are targetting foreign assassins or fellow guild members, no one below liason can be targeted for assassination, and even if a group is captured, they can reveal no information on who they work for, even if they crack under pressure and torture.

If the above information is used, the party should spend a small amount of time killing off assassins from other guilds, a small amount of time assassinating bands of assassins that have gone turncoat, or witnesses to the same (100% loyalty is impossible. The illusion of 100% loyalty is not), and mostly, random or idealistic nobility. The way they get jobs is through letters sent to individuals that would benefit from their services. No one ever directly asks for them, and they never directly ask any one. This insures that none of the people higher than assassin will be captured.

Recruitment should be done by the director after sufficient information is given, and by nature of the guild, those people should never be directly approached. They can fill out some papers and drop them off. If they decline, they are terminated before they can spread word of the guild.

Just my suggestions on how an assassins guild should be run. :smalltongue: If it feels to modern for you, shadowy contacts may be appropriate.

The Neoclassic
2009-01-19, 09:29 PM
The targets are corrupt and are actively oppressing the common people by exploiting the law.

Ooh, not what I had in mind, but quite an interesting idea. I shall certainly have to have at least one like that.


Outside of assassinations, each member acts as a productive member of society.

Most certainly!


Members should include:
half-elf, elf, dwarf, human, goblin, gnome, halfling
one male and one female for each race.

Good idea, but I did forget to mention that this culture is overwhelming elven. :smallsmile:


Details of structure:

There is an overall leader. This individual has a code name and is never revealed to the other members of said guild. Due to game mechanics, this guild leader must have self produced items or cast spells that would protect against divinations, as it is suspicious for him to attain these through an open market. He/she/it sends all orders via mail, and recieves all folders at specific drop points. My recommendation be, that the overall leader works to some greater scheme than "just" money, and works behind the scene to ensure that the city remain in the state that it currently is in, or perhaps, is moving towards something more desireable.

I think maintaining the status quo most certainly. I know the guild is against entering a war, which an allied nation is attempting to convince them to join in, so that works well. Other suggestions very good as well.


As far as any member knows, there is no group beyond their immediate liason (who may work with 1 or more groups) that the PCs are ever aware of, and all contracts come to and from these individuals. Above the liason are a director and support staff that can find and provide intelligence about targets. They also accumulate as much information as possible about their own groups. Some come directly from the top organizer. Especially orders to terminate other groups, and to prevent spreading of information detailing their actions. This way, no group knows when they are targetting foreign assassins or fellow guild members, no one below liason can be targeted for assassination, and even if a group is captured, they can reveal no information on who they work for, even if they crack under pressure and torture.

If the above information is used, the party should spend a small amount of time killing off assassins from other guilds, a small amount of time assassinating bands of assassins that have gone turncoat, or witnesses to the same (100% loyalty is impossible. The illusion of 100% loyalty is not), and mostly, random or idealistic nobility. The way they get jobs is through letters sent to individuals that would benefit from their services. No one ever directly asks for them, and they never directly ask any one. This insures that none of the people higher than assassin will be captured.

Recruitment should be done by the director after sufficient information is given, and by nature of the guild, those people should never be directly approached. They can fill out some papers and drop them off. If they decline, they are terminated before they can spread word of the guild.

Just my suggestions on how an assassins guild should be run. :smalltongue: If it feels to modern for you, shadowy contacts may be appropriate.

Nope, sounds pretty good. I may not insert all of it as is, but without doubt some very pointers which will get used!

Count Platypus
2009-01-19, 09:53 PM
i'm not sure if you're familiar with the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan, but the system the sisters of the dark use would be equally useful in running an assassin's guild. the premise is that everyone is part of two small groups, and they only know the people in those groups. if there is ever reason for larger meetings, all members come masked and with an item that changes their voice so they can not be recognized. this presents an easy way to isolate any member from command decisions, and it makes tracking orders neigh imposible, as orders would come down through other circles. of course, everyone would go by a code name as well.

Assassin89
2009-01-19, 09:55 PM
of course, everyone would go by a code name as well.

I anticipate possible code names would include numbers, objects, places, etc.

Count Platypus
2009-01-19, 09:58 PM
it's likely. the more varied they are, the harder it would be to narrow them down.

Lycanthromancer
2009-01-19, 10:13 PM
Not everyone in the guild should have levels in assassin, nor should they all be rogues. Having specialists (such as rogues, factotums, psions, wizards, clerics, bards, shapeshifters, druids, totemists, and so on) on-hand for assassinations that require particular talents is a must.

Also having a number of people in various professions and walks of life would be advisable. After all, a guild of assassins would run more on information than anything else, which means a good spread of members throughout all levels of society. Have the guild pay handsomely for information. Small amounts for useful rumors, and larger amounts for important validated facts. Not all of it needs to be regarding assassination targets; after all, there's sure to be side-enterprises the guild is enmeshed in, which includes information-brokering. Knowledge is power.

Give the guild some codified passwords and other (subtle) signs so that members can call for help in an emergency. Everything from tying a bundle of herbs outside of your doorway (different herbs for different reasons) to tell-tales in your manner of dress to phrases the members use to identify themselves. All of the members have different signs, all of which only the liaisons know.

Also, no Stupid-Evil amongst the higher-ups. You do not get killed for mere failure. If you're given an easy assignment and unexpected problems occur that you simply can't deal with, you are not overtly punished. If you fail in a routine mission without any unexpected problems, you merely don't receive any more difficult missions until you have proven yourself capable in embarrassingly easy ones. Members should only be dispatched if they are discovered or betray the guild. There should also be a contingency for members who have served well for some time and wish to retire. Magic of some sort to wipe knowledge of the guild from the person's mind.

Hope some of this helps.

Yukitsu
2009-01-19, 11:01 PM
Problems with above:

If you do pay for information, people will know you're looking. This is a disadvantage, and any long term information profiles should never be created via this method. Short term profiling can rely on this when desperate, but even then, it must be done by expendible agents that are able to discretely remove the individual that answered the question. There are two reasons to do this as opposed to your method. For one, except in the worst of times, no one will know you are looking. No tip off for security is greater than someone asking questions. For two, the promise of money requires that they can seek out your members, which is unacceptable. Never reveal where you are, or where you will be to the general public, unless it can't be avoided.

A universal sign is a disadvantage for the same reasons. Black lotus pills are the prefered tool, unless the group is important enough for a director level member to send another group in to extract them (which will usually occur if the captured group has information the guild needs)

Lastly, you can never get out of the game. Not completely. The skills stay with you, and given the right turn of thought, they can be turned against the guild. The only ones that retire are the ones good or lucky enough to survive. This means the guild won't be able to keep tabs on them or capture them without significant risk of public exposure, loss of key personnel and etc. Elimination prior to any thought of retirement prevents any possibility that the guilds best and brightest turn against the guild. Magic mind wipe will not work. All they would need to do to avoid all the implications of said mind wipe is write notes, place them in a safety deposit box (leomund's secret chest) and tape a note mentioning the recall method cryptically in a hollowed out shoe, or other similar hiding place. Lastly, for assassins, failure will usually imply death, but not as a punishment. The types of missions they go on, failure will be either death or capture, the latter always leading to death if you trained them right.

Jimp
2009-01-19, 11:36 PM
A good source for getting messages around without contact are the low level messaging spells like Animal Messenger.

Lycanthromancer
2009-01-19, 11:43 PM
Note that I said, "All of the members have different signs, all of which only the liaisons know," meaning that while you might know a couple of the most well-known signs, the signs you have access to are only known by you and the various liaisons you deal with. Thus, you can either put out a general call for assistance (and risking outing yourself because of a huge emergency), or you can put up the signs that only the liaisons you generally work with would know (thereby calling for assistance at very little risk).

And as for the information bit, who says that the assassin's guild doesn't have a legal front for information brokering? If I were in charge, that's what I would do. And even if they were 100% secretive-in-the-shadows types, that doesn't mean you don't offer your operatives the chance to make a bit of extra money on the side. The more the guild knows about the world around them, the more successful they will be. I'm not suggesting that the guild puts up fliers for information all around the city, stating outright that they want information for assassinations (that'd just be dumb). What I AM saying is that information is power, and that the more they have the better off they are. Civilization is ran off of who-knows-what. The more info they have, the better they can avoid repercussions, give intel to operatives for successful dispatches, avoid political strife that would embroil them, and so on.

And there are ways to insure that your retiring operatives don't renege on their desire to get back in the game. Spells like zone of truth will make certain that no niggling little tidbits are finagled away, and others like mind rape will completely erase memories and skills gained in the guild (and will assure that the subject has no desire to get involved ever again). It's quite possible in a world with magic that someone can be made to forget totally, completely, and irreversibly.

Yukitsu
2009-01-20, 12:00 AM
Note that I said, "All of the members have different signs, all of which only the liaisons know," meaning that while you might know a couple of the most well-known signs, the signs you have access to are only known by you and the various liaisons you deal with. Thus, you can either put out a general call for assistance (and risking outing yourself because of a huge emergency), or you can put up the signs that only the liaisons you generally work with would know (thereby calling for assistance at very little risk).

Even so, a signal between even a pair of individuals can be caught by observant individuals. At the liason level, you shouldn't expect them to see you make the sign when they wouldn't know about the predicament already, and as such, it's simply another level that could allow others to catch on to you, and the members of your group. At most, intergroup signs could be used, but those wouldn't bring in any assistance from higher up. Typically, they'll be an "eye in the sky" type administration anyway, which is superior to using signs, as it allows constant supervision.


And as for the information bit, who says that the assassin's guild doesn't have a legal front for information brokering? If I were in charge, that's what I would do. And even if they were 100% secretive-in-the-shadows types, that doesn't mean you don't offer your operatives the chance to make a bit of extra money on the side. The more the guild knows about the world around them, the more successful they will be. I'm not suggesting that the guild puts up fliers for information all around the city, stating outright that they want information for assassinations (that'd just be dumb). What I AM saying is that information is power, and that the more they have the better off they are. Civilization is ran off of who-knows-what. The more info they have, the better they can avoid repercussions, give intel to operatives for successful dispatches, avoid political strife that would embroil them, and so on.

It's infinitely better to go to them, not the other way around. And even better than that is to use espionage to get the intel without letting anyone know you're after it. Stolen and memorized letters and personal books, journals, etc. Especially useful is perusing a wizard's spell book. The amount of information that can be attained through the preferable methods of espionage and observation is generally enough.


The problem is, any method of information gathering that requires interaction with others without implying a knife in someones back is that it provides knowledge to the world at large about you. Same with a front. Discrepencies can't be avoided, and a public group that works on information will provide a trail of breadcrumbs greater than the amount of information you generally want leaked. With a legitimate business front, be prepared to burn a lot of bridges if someone catches wind of, well, anything about an assassins guild.


And there are ways to insure that your retiring operatives don't renege on their desire to get back in the game. Spells like zone of truth will make certain that no niggling little tidbits are finagled away, and others like mind rape will completely erase memories and skills gained in the guild (and will assure that the subject has no desire to get involved ever again). It's quite possible in a world with magic that someone can be made to forget totally, completely, and irreversibly.

On the contrary, it's really rather easy to avoid such a fate. I leave it to you to guess what's in my hypothetical super agent's safety deposite box that could completely circumvent all of the methods that you just mentioned, including mindrape. :smallamused: Admittedly, most DMs ban the thing I used for this (I played a spy in a campaign once) but it was designed for this, and banned for another, unrelated reason. No method is so supreme that a sufficiently paranoid individual can't circumvent it aead of time, save death with a thinaun weapon in a shackles of anti-magic zone.

Kalirren
2009-01-20, 04:18 PM
Have you ever heard of the Morag Tong (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Morag_Tong)? The link leads to a very good description of the organization, and it's largely in keeping with what's been suggested so far.