Assassin of the Order LP

[Suicide King]

How does this look? It is supposed to be a powerful lifepath, on par with the knight. It belongs in the Noble Court and Religious settings, I think the requirement will be having had an LP with a weapon skill... they will take anyone they find useful.

Assassin of the Order
5 yrs 10 +1M,+1P
Skills: 9 pts: Poison, Appropriate Weapons, Stealthy, Inconspicious, Disguise, Assassination-Wise, Observation, Climbing, Lockpick
Traits: 1 pt: The Order Owns You or The Order Wants You, Cold-Blooded, Haunted

Trait:
The Order Owns You
You get a 2D affilitation with the assassin order that trained you, however, these orders usually have a strict hierachy and as such you will be expected to take orders without questioning them and without dissent. Failure to do so might result in this trait becoming The Order Wants You instead.

The Order Wants You
You are actively hunted by the order of assassins that trained you. You get a 2D reputation as hunted by the order, among people of your order and directly affiliated with them. The price on your head should be substantial, in the magnitude of an Ob 6 or 7 resource test.

[ChrisG]

Ditch Appropriate Weapons (what assassin worth the name doesn't already know how to use a weapon by the time he goes pro?). I'd also ditch Lockpick. It doesn't seem to fit, unless you're shooting for a ninja-type guy. Even then, I'd say buy it with General Skill points, since picking locks isn't something that defines being an assassin to me. That is, some might know how, but it's just a handy skill, not part and parcel of assassination.

I like the two traits. Cool concept. I get the sense this guy only takes out the upper echelons of society. You might give him some skills like Etiquette, etc to help him infiltrate a noble's household (I just re-read Burning Sands, so take that with a grain of... salt?).

[luke]

The Order traits should provide infamous reputations.

I'd leave Lockpick and weapons. But I'd put Assassination-wise as the first skill (that way players can choose their specializations).

What are the reqs for the paths?

-L

[The_Tim]

I agree with putting Assassination-wise first. For prerequisites I suggest any Soldier life-path or the Desperate trait.

[khelek]

The Traits are kind of Wonky. Only because if I take the Assassin of the Order Twice (and it is not a bad one to do so) then I end up being hunted by the Order!? Put 'The Order Wants You' last or something...

Cold Blooded is a much better Second Trait.

[zabieru]

Well, Khelek, I think that's [The Order owns you|The Order wants you] as the first trait, then cold-blooded as the second.

[Suicide King]

Khelek - That was my intention yeah, the same as the Serving Wench LP (village setting). The two traits are mutually exclusive, so you get one of them, then you can't get the other... at chargen at least :)

(actually, I would allow a player to choose. Having both traits would represent the character being trained by one order, then working for another while being hunted by the one that trained him... devious :D)

I've added garotte and ettiquette, but not increased skill points, representing the need to specialize, they don't get one skill point for each skill.

So... possibly final version (before going up on wiki)

Assassin of the Order
5 yrs 10 +1M,+1P
Skills: 9 pts: Assassination-Wise, Poison, Garotte, Stealthy, Inconspicious, Disguise, Observation, Ettiquette, Climbing, Lockpick
Traits: 1 pt: The Order Owns You or The Order Wants You, Cold-Blooded, Haunted
Requirements: Must have a previous LP containing a weapon skill, any weapon skill or take the Desperate trait.

Trait:
The Order Owns You
You get a 2D affilitation with the assassin order that trained you, however, these orders usually have a strict hierachy and as such you will be expected to take orders without questioning them and without dissent. Failure to do so might result in this trait becoming The Order Wants You instead.

The Order Wants You
You are actively hunted by the order of assassins that trained you. You get a 2D infameous reputation as hunted by the order, among people of your order and directly affiliated with them. The price on your head should be substantial, in the magnitude of an Ob 6 or 7 resource test.

[Drozdal]

Skills: 9 pts: Assassination-Wise, Poison, Garotte, Stealthy, Inconspicious, Disguise, Observation, Ettiquette, Climbing, LockpickDo those assasins are working on their own, or as a part of the guild? If they work close with the guild they do not need poison skill at all - guild should have it's own poisoneers.
If you want to keep poison skill, swich it's place with Stealthy skill. Stealth is a bit more essential for an assasin IMHO.

[luke]

Boo on the reqs. Do you really need me to burn up my Squire Assassin Knight Captain Sorcerer to show you why the reqs should be a bit more restrictive?

-L

[The_Tim]

I had an idea for the requirements. Desperate or a Soldier lifepath AND an Outcast lifepath.

Also it's in the court and religious sub-settings, right? What are its leads? I imagine it would go to Outcast and Servant, with maybe Soldier if you were feeling generous.

[khelek]

hmm.. i would require one or two of the Outcast lifepaths, I don't have the book so I can't recall what would be a good selection: thief...

Defintly justlead to Outcast or Captive (which would be interesting). I would really imagain that a Soldier and Assassin are completely different.

[Suicide King]

Argh, this is harder than I thought.

On skills: These guys are supposed to be experts in getting close to a mark, acquiring whatever they need to (poisons, spirit weapons, etc.), carrying out the deed and getting away alive. That's it, so I'll strip away poisons and make sure they are focused on getting what they need, intrusion and killing people.

This is mostly on the request of a player, I'll try and go over his concept again with him and go over my own idea of what I want these to be in the campaign...

For prerequisites: I think they should be recruiting from people showing some kind of special talent or training that could be useful, or from people who cannot say no (Codename Nikita, anyone). Further, they take 'em
young.

I sort of have an idea of the LP being only possible to enter from an apprentice LP of some kind (neophyte sorcerer, temple acolyte, page), special talents/training (criminal, young lady) or from the desperate (urchin, desperate killer). The LP can only be entered directly from those AND the age must be 18 or lower. How does that sound? Too complicated?

And thanks for all the input, I appreciate the help in getting this worked over :)

[Drozdal]

That's it, so I'll strip away poisons and make sure they are focused on getting what they need, intrusion and killing people.
This is mostly on the request of a player, I'll try and go over his concept again with him and go over my own idea of what I want these to be in the campaign...Great. Rememeber - if player really want to have that Poison skill - he has some general skill points, let him spend them.

[Omar]

Hey SK, I was bashing out a similar concept (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Ministry_of_Information_Setting) on the wiki a few months ago. Maybe it'll help.

[Suicide King]

Hey Omar - Thanks for the link, that was very useful.

It turned out that the player and I had misunderstood each other... He wanted to be an agent, who sometimes had to resort to violence, but who was mostly an investigator for the throne... quite different from an assassin.

Anyways, I kinda like my assassin LP, so here's what I'll do. I'll make a "gateway" LP, apprentice to the order or somesuch, that is the requirement for assassin of the order. Should be done soon :)

[The_Tim]

You could make a whole, portable secret-society sub-setting. With trainees, assassins, infiltrators, directors, etc. It grafts onto outcast, religious, or noble-court as needed for a particular society.

But that might just be crazy amounts of work.

[luke]

or you could port out and over Pete's Society setting from the Roden.

-L