No one uses the Assassins' Guild

[Dr. B]

No new contracts have appeared for weeks and the board is currently empty. Apparently the current system gives virtually no incentive for players to hire the guild. Instead they've been hiring other player-run factions to do assassinations. I assume that the incentive to do so is that the latter do not provide an option to pay off the bounty.

Discuss.

[Jack Oat]

Good.

It's no secret that I hate the Assassin's Guild in its current iteration. I've put up suggestions before about how to change it to be more RP inclusive. I'm glad to see it's not getting use.

For those unaware, the Assassin's Guild contracts work as such:
-An individual (any individual) walks up to an in-game NPC in the Assassin's Guild and tells them the name of the person they want dead and the amount they're paying for it.
-That name and bounty then gets put onto a board in the part of the Guild that's only accessible by Assassins. It does not include the name of the person who put the bounty out, though. Only the target.
-Any Assassin, when they find the target, can kill them. Once they do they then use a special Assassin-only item on the corpse to claim 75% of the bounty with the other 25% going "to the Guild" (disappearing).

Why do I hate this system?
There is literally no RP interaction between the person putting out the bounty and the Assassin committing the deed. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And given the stigma PvP and conflict already have, this disappoints me.

I would prefer to see alternatives to the Guild crop up, or see the Guild fundamentally changed to allow for more RP around the deed.

[godhand-]

Why not have it work the inverse, Rather than putting the target, you put your price in, and your own name goes on the board so the assassin has to seek you out to find out information on the mark?

[Dr. B]

Good.


Why do I hate this system?
There is literally no RP interaction between the person putting out the bounty and the Assassin committing the deed. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And given the stigma PvP and conflict already have, this disappoints me. Furthermore, I'll go so far as to say it: If you use the Assassin Guild, I think you're scum making a poor OOC decision.

I would prefer to see alternatives to the Guild crop up, or see the Guild fundamentally changed to allow for more RP around the deed.

I'm not sure in what sense you think there must be interaction between the client and the target. Can you give an example of how such interaction would be required that does not involve giving away the client's anonymity? Also, can you explain how things were different prior to the addition of the guild, or how they are different in cases where a client hires someone outside the guild? In the latter instances, there is also nothing forcing the client and the target to interact, so I fail to see how this problem (if it is a problem) is distinctive to the Guild. Obviously the assassin and the target are required to interact, as per the Rules of Engagement, and this is true whether you use the Guild or not.

[Dr. B]

Good.


Why do I hate this system?
There is literally no RP interaction between the person putting out the bounty and the Assassin committing the deed. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And given the stigma PvP and conflict already have, this disappoints me. Furthermore, I'll go so far as to say it: If you use the Assassin Guild, I think you're scum making a poor OOC decision.

I would prefer to see alternatives to the Guild crop up, or see the Guild fundamentally changed to allow for more RP around the deed.

I'm not sure in what sense you think there must be interaction between the client and the target. Can you give an example of how such interaction would be required that does not involve giving away the client's anonymity? Also, can you explain how things were different prior to the addition of the guild, or how they are different in cases where a client hires someone outside the guild? In the latter instances, there is also nothing forcing the client and the target to interact, so I fail to see how this problem (if it is a problem) is distinctive to the Guild. Obviously the assassin and the target are required to interact, as per the Rules of Engagement, and this is true whether you use the Guild or not.

Why not have it work the inverse, Rather than putting the target, you put your price in, and your own name goes on the board so the assassin has to seek you out to find out information on the mark?

That would be awkward in practice, as there are several assassins in the guild and they'd all be seeking you out.

[Jack Oat]

Why not have it work the inverse, Rather than putting the target, you put your price in, and your own name goes on the board so the assassin has to seek you out to find out information on the mark?

Yes. This was more or less the suggestion I put forward.

I'm not sure in what sense you think there must be interaction between the client and the target.

Because if I wanted an anonymous assassin simulator I'd play Hitman. This isn't Hitman. This is Arelith, a persistent world RP server. The key term there is RP.

Can you give an example of how such interaction would be required that does not involve giving away the client's anonymity?

The client gits gud. Use an intermediary. Use the Speedy Messenger Service or an Illusion(ist) to send info. Wear Groucho Marx glasses. Or do give it away. Add that extra layer. Allow Assassins to earn reputations. Maybe one is known for never revealing their client, even under torture. Whereas another makes clients pay an additional fee for such silence. Y'know, cool RP plots.

Also, can you explain how things were different prior to the addition of the guild, or how they are different in cases where a client hires someone outside the guild?

They aren't different when someone hires outside the Guild. That's good. That was the point of my post. In the past Assassins would RP with their client, then go hunt down their mark. I played a few of those sorts of Assassins. It was extremely enjoyable.

In the latter instances, there is also nothing forcing the client and the target to interact, so I fail to see how this problem (if it is a problem) is distinctive to the Guild.

You're right! There's not! But there's still RP to be had in general, whereas the current system does NOT allow for that. There's no client-to-assassin RP. That's an issue.

That would be awkward in practice, as there are several assassins in the guild and they'd all be seeking you out.

That would be awesome in practice.

[Dr. B]

Rather than engage in a lengthy discussion, I'm going to throw out this suggestion for the developers to consider:

Remove the ability for targets to pay off the bounty, BUT provide the option for the person who placed the bounty to call it off and get their money back, if they so choose.

The other option is to essentially remove the NPC facilitator and have the PCs in the guild handle their own affairs. I suppose that's possible, but personally I like the simplicity and efficiency of the current system, as well as the fact that everyone in the guild gets a shot at taking out the target.

As far as interactivity goes, to my mind it's enough that the people doing the assassination aspire to follow the Rules of Engagement and make the game interesting for the target

[magistrasa]

I knew people who kept assassin alts in their roster just so they could keep tabs on the board and heard of other poor sports who'd keep assassin alts to collect bounties on their buddies via OOC coordination just so other people wouldn't get the satisfaction.

I played an assassin. Did my best to play to the "shady secret agent that no one knows is an assassin" archetype. It was very difficult to glean any satisfaction from the experience. The guild rarely got any bounties, and the ones that did pop up would typically vanish well within a day or two, one way or another. I agree that the guild needs more interactivity and incentive to engage with, though I'm admittedly not convinced JackOat's solution is much of a remedy to the problem. Personally, I think there should be some motivation for assassins to work together and seek one another out, as well as a way for them to be known to potential clients and earn a reputation.

This idea's coming to me while I write this post, so apologies in advance if it's just a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but here it is: What if there's a pseudonym system of some kind? Assassins' names are listed on a board or listed by the NPC you pay for people to get murdered, and it only keeps track of assassins who have been active within the last month or so - but the name listed is a disguise name (or a real name if the assassin is really bold). The list keeps track of the assassin's confirmed kills, and maybe a potential client could leave a message for that assassin through the guild, that only they can access. Maybe the list & pseudonym system is only open to assassins of a certain rank within the guild! It could mean assassins receive jobs that don't involve murder, and it makes it so that they can contact and coordinate with one another and keep track of competition. Maybe with this, an assassin can be hired directly for a job, and in such a case, the guild would take either a reduced cut, or even no cut at all. And if an assassin disguises under their associated pseudonym while wearing the assassin's belt, maybe they get a huge bonus to their disguise to help them maintain anonymity.

Another idea is for bounties to be made not just by name, but by note. A client writes a short message associated with their target, optionally describing the mark's appearance or weaknesses, and can leave their own name or the name of a contact for a potential assassin to seek out.

I think anonymity is integral to systems which enable shady business - but I also think the assassin's guild suffers from having been marooned in an endless sea of obfuscation, on a desert island empty of any meaningful roleplay. Enabling people to put a name to a face and have the option to risk the unbearable ordeal of being known, could really spice up the otherwise dull and disappointing assassin experience.

[LichBait]

Having the assassin meet the person who is contracting them would be a great thing to foster RP. However, the main issue I see now is the guild's only real use that can't be emulated is facilitating settlement leader change. Most people, if they want someone killed, they'd rather hit up their shady thug buddies without having to pay the overhead.

[JubJub]

Another issue is at one time most the Assassins ig were part of the same UD group, so if you put a bounty out on someone they liked they could then just say hey Bob out a bounty out on you. Simply outing the person who placed the contract while having no desire to actually carry out the job. I have always thought why would the guild care who places a contract as long as the person pays. The big issue with the contract system is because of some past cheesiness the assassin now has to rp before doing the hit. having to RP first makes it a lot harder for the assassin.

[msterswrdsmn]

As far as I can tell, most of the people who has used the assassins guild thus far doesn't really want to interact with the members. Theres a message board right next to the administrator, with a note that literally says "please leave more information about your target here". No one has placed a note up. Half the names that show up are completely alien to me and we don't even know where to begin looking. The last name that was on the board was for a player I rarely saw on, and I have no idea how it got cleared out as it sat on the board for RL months.

The problem right now IG is people don't want to pay a bunch of money and just have it disappear into the ether because no one is able/willing to kill the target. The assassins guild has also built a pretty poor IG reputation for just being terrible at what they do. Meanwhile, going around posting messages for 100,000 gold bounties on the board is like, maybe 70 golds worth of paper and absolutely free until someone brings you a head.

On the assassins end, assuming you know the mark, theres a very real risk-to-reward ratio. Which there should be, but most of the bounties that come in have a very screwed up risk-to-reward ratio. The last one that sat on the board for months was 25,000, which isn't that much considering taking it out may get you thrown out of a settlement if it goes badly.

I've also noticed that when massive bounties are posted, characters suddenly appear out of nowhere and just go nuts. Its usually very, very obvious someone put a massive bounty out and it typically gets handled after the first few assassins are disposed of (theres an OOC issue here i'm not going into now).

Short version; unless you're trying to get someone removed from a settlement position, the assassins guild is probably the least effective way to get someone else killed.

Sorry if this sounds like complaining. I'll try to think up some productive solutions/steps

[Anomandaris]

Creating an assassin system to "create RP" when in fact it goes far outside how one would ever really hire an assassin does not seem sensible. Put your name up on a board as the client? Madness.. who hires to kill someone by advertising their intent? That'd be a sure fire way to make sure no one ever uses it.

There should be RP between the client and the target, as why is there an assassination put out? You don't need mechanics to do that. There is conflict leading up to the contract I imagine, hence the motivation for the assassination. There should also be RP between the assassin and the target. The one's I've met do a good job with this but I'm sure sometimes it's not always as thorough as it could be.

The reality is not everyone has shady friends that will or can kill hard targets. Being able to go and anonymously put down some gold to have someone killed is pretty neat. It's closer to how an assassin guild would run (albeit not as discreet) in reality. It's transactional, cold, ruthless and creates a separation between the client and the killer. There is AMPLE opportunity to RP all around this process.

Personally if I were playing an assassin I'd also take jobs outside the guild process, and there is a lot of that going on. The reality is "assassin" is a job, not just a class. Anyone who is able to kill people can be an assassin. This is the biggest limitation I see, being class restricted, but I don't see a way to solve that without taking away one of the biggest cookies the Assassin class gets (which they should definitely keep).

[Dr. B]

The list keeps track of the assassin's confirmed kills, and maybe a potential client could leave a message for that assassin through the guild, that only they can access.

There seems to be a tension between this suggestion and your desire (which I share) for assassins to be able to collaborate. That's why I actually like the idea of the current system, where names appear on the board for all the assassins to see. The issue, again, is the ability for people to pay off bounties. It creates a total disincentive to drop advance money for an assassination.

[The GrumpyCat]

So, I'm not here to 'Yay' or 'Nay' any of this really, but a few points have popped out at me that I sorta want to highlight to begin discussion over.

Currently the bonus of using the assassins guild over anyone else is supposedly
a) Assassins are better at this (As signified by their class, but also by the fact that contracts loosen up the pvp rules, you only have to rp with someone once within 24 hours, after which you can (in theory) kill them at your leasure.
b) It's annonymous. It's the assassin that takes the risk of being 'found out.' Not you.

The possible lack of RP is a detriment yes, the counter argument is that this would remove the 'anonymity' value of the Assassins. Thus again one could argue making them less worth using.

If it was made so that contracts couldn't be 'paid off' by the victim, then it would be very detrimental to those in leadership roles. I'm sure a fair few classy individuals would respond by hiring bodyguards, ect. But a fair few would respond by just never leaving their quarters- thus hampering settlment rp greatly. Or even by hardly logging in at all, which is worse. (Though for what it's worth, I do personally think that a 'grace period' where a contract cannot be paid off is a good idea.)

Short version; unless you're trying to get someone removed from a settlement position, the assassins guild is probably the least effective way to get someone else killed.

This may be a fair point. On The Other Hand - changing this means either that we loosen the pvp rules, leading to a larger chance of terrible and unsatisfactory rp situations (and yes, even with our application process, some slip through.)
Another option is to make deaths via assassins matter more some how. Resulting in a longer respawn time, or loss of property, or a larger xp loss, or...

But as much as this would make assassins more effective, it would also make death by them more painful. As many people as would like the Consequence, there's also people who would hate it. And also people who would love the consequence when put on others, but hate it when enforced on themselves.

It's a tricky topic.

[Anomandaris]

So, I'm not here to 'Yay' or 'Nay' any of this really, but a few points have popped out at me that I sorta want to highlight to begin discussion over.

Currently the bonus of using the assassins guild over anyone else is supposedly
a) Assassins are better at this (As signified by their class, but also by the fact that contracts loosen up the pvp rules, you only have to rp with someone once within 24 hours, after which you can (in theory) kill them at your leasure.
b) It's annonymous. It's the assassin that takes the risk of being 'found out.' Not you.

The possible lack of RP is a detriment yes, the counter argument is that this would remove the 'anonymity' value of the Assassins. Thus again one could argue making them less worth using.

If it was made so that contracts couldn't be 'paid off' by the victim, then it would be very detrimental to those in leadership roles. I'm sure a fair few classy individuals would respond by hiring bodyguards, ect. But a fair few would respond by just never leaving their quarters- thus hampering settlment rp greatly. Or even by hardly logging in at all, which is worse. (Though for what it's worth, I do personally think that a 'grace period' where a contract cannot be paid off is a good idea.)

Short version; unless you're trying to get someone removed from a settlement position, the assassins guild is probably the least effective way to get someone else killed.

This may be a fair point. On The Other Hand - changing this means either that we loosen the pvp rules, leading to a larger chance of terrible and unsatisfactory rp situations (and yes, even with our application process, some slip through.)
Another option is to make deaths via assassins matter more some how. Resulting in a longer respawn time, or loss of property, or a larger xp loss, or...

But as much as this would make assassins more effective, it would also make death by them more painful. As many people as would like the Consequence, there's also people who would hate it. And also people who would love the consequence when put on others, but hate it when enforced on themselves.

It's a tricky topic.

Very interesting. The idea of a grace period whereby the contract could not be paid off sounds like a simple, positive change. Also some greater impact from death. Losing xp isn't a big deal as most ppl dealing with stuff are lvl 30. However some impact to affect the political RP would be interesting. Could lead to more turnover on political leadership and less stagnation/consolidation. Frankly if people don't show up to be present and RP because they are hiding from an assassin, while lame, it opens the door for a contender to use that against them in a coming election.

All in all the lack of a true "fear of death" makes the whole thing kind of meh. To really make a contract on a high profile target worth while (with risk of failure, reprisals etc) you need at least a few hundred thousand. That makes it painful to pay off (sorta for some people). And what do you get for that rather large amount of gold? One death and then they respawn and often nothing really changes unless the person is a super graceful RPer and rp's the "defeat" (which of course there are many and some do).

Some greater impact for death by assassin (under a contract) would certainly make the process more feared, as it should be if a group of hired killers is after you. It may ultimately make mindless pvp less common, if the fear of reprisals through the guild were in the back of one's mind. What this penalty would be however, is extremely tricky and difficult to answer.

[Nevrus]

If we want to make assassinations meaningful but not completely destructive:

1. 25% of the target's gold in their bank account is transferred to the assassin as a 'bonus.'
2. Any property the target owns immediately goes up for sale- it can be bought back by the target if they get there before anyone else.
3. The target loses citizenship and gains the 1 IC year penalty to voting/running for office.

All of this is recoverable over time, and could be used to inflict RP-centric harm to a person while also increasing the inherent value to the assassin of completing the contract.

This should also be implemented with a lever to undo it in case the assassination is carried out in violation of any rules.

[Archnon]

An assassin's guild that allows targets to buy out there contracts is not an assassin's guild, it is simply an extortion guild and one that does not benefit PC's at all except as to create an opportunity to bankrupt a player. Given the level of inflation on the server economy, this even isn't a significant threat.

That beings said, I think there are a number of ways to counteract the fact that settlement leaders or others will be targeted with little recourse. These include:

1.) Allow people to cancel contracts, as someone already mentioned. Then people not wanting to get axed can have their own spies investigate the contract. They can then approach the person, take out a contract on them, provide whatever leverage.... This will likely result in extortion as well, ie, i put a hit on you, pay me to remove it. But at least it is player-player, it is not the only option, and it forces RP. Further, you could even leave a window, like it takes 30 cycles to fully cancel the contract.

2.) Get bodyguards! Settlement leaders especially have lots of friends around. Use them. It creates incentives to group up, enhancing RP.

3.) Get professional body guards..... Devs and DMs could set up a counter Guild, the guardians.... Lawful only (either good or evil), you contract with them to protect you. This could be NPC's at a high cost, but it could also be a player based guild. Would encourage some builds that were ranger/paladin etc aimed at high spot, listen, and counter sneakers. They could even get some custom +5spot +5 listen gear. Something to encourage a niche to fight assassins would be great for generating RP. Sort of like the witchhunter concepts. This may even come about naturally as a new faction if assassins actually become a threat.

4.) Make taking hits on settlement leaders way more expensive.... I mean immersion wise, this makes sense. The guild incurs a much higher risk going after these people.

5.) Allow assassins to take on a contract and cap the number of assassins that can take it on. New contract goes up, make it level restricted, and only 5 assassins can take the contract, or maybe you pay-per-contract. They each get one shot. If they die via pvp, are captured, or are identified, the contract expires. The identified could be done with an NPC that you can go and report a complaint regarding the guild that so and so failed to kill you. This will take some coding but will encourage a.) RP to rally around a player until the threat is past b.) assassins to consider teaming up for kills. It would also encourage assassins to plan carefully so as not to get 1.) killed 2.) outed. It will force that application to actually be worth while.

If you allow contracts to not be bought out, it will also create more contracts. All of this will encourage more RP, something that the current changes to the guild do not do.

[Diegovog]

So, I'm not here to 'Yay' or 'Nay' any of this really, but a few points have popped out at me that I sorta want to highlight to begin discussion over.

Currently the bonus of using the assassins guild over anyone else is supposedly
a) Assassins are better at this (As signified by their class, but also by the fact that contracts loosen up the pvp rules, you only have to rp with someone once within 24 hours, after which you can (in theory) kill them at your leasure.
b) It's annonymous. It's the assassin that takes the risk of being 'found out.' Not you.

I strongly disagree with A. From my own experience what happens once you interact with someone letting them know you are going to murder them they simple vanish, keep protected from scry and it's either impossible to find them or they will lay a heavy trap in the form of a personal army to protect them.
The advantage is probable the few minutes past you announced yourself, characters probably out of dignity don't just run and hide, they try to play cool going at leisure somewhere protected. That's the only window I noticed feasible.
Mechanically they are super fun but we all know they aren't the better at this. Poisons suck, I wrote a heavy review on poison and sent to the devs/DMs a long time ago. There's about three poisons that are useful. One which will likely work under the right circumstance. Paralyze only works out of combat, which has no synergy to the interaction prior to pvp.

But B is spot on.

If it was made so that contracts couldn't be 'paid off' by the victim, then it would be very detrimental to those in leadership roles. I'm sure a fair few classy individuals would respond by hiring bodyguards, ect. But a fair few would respond by just never leaving their quarters- thus hampering settlment rp greatly. Or even by hardly logging in at all, which is worse. (Though for what it's worth, I do personally think that a 'grace period' where a contract cannot be paid off is a good idea.)

Completely agree there. I just think the victim should pay double the amount placed on their heads. That way the people who paid the hefty bounty don't simply feel they achieved nothing. The economic hit would be severe if nothing else.
That is in my opinion the reason why nobody is placing any bounties at the moment. There's no easy way to collect (which is pretty cool) and everyone knows the bounty will simply be paid off in one or two days.

[Diegovog]

4.) Make taking hits on settlement leaders way more expensive.... I mean immersion wise, this makes sense. The guild incurs a much higher risk going after these people.

There has been hefty 1 million bounties on settlement leaders and the mark was simply nowhere to be scried or found and in two days it was paid off.
Settlement leaders are often filthy rich

[Dr. B]

All in all the lack of a true "fear of death" makes the whole thing kind of meh.

This is not the issue. The issue is that people can log off until their contract is paid off, which makes the idea of a grace period utterly useless, unless it could be scripted in such a way that the timer ticks only when the target is logged on and not idle.

[Nitro]

The only 2 ways I've seen successful assassinations in the past year has been:

1: The payer organizes with the assassin beforehand to have them ready and in position to strike at a certain time when the bounty is put up, not giving the target time to hustle off to safety/pay it off.

2: The bounty is put up and a non-assassin hitsquad goes to kill the target, then delivers the corpse to the assassin to have the knife used on it to complete the contract.

[Archnon]

4.) Make taking hits on settlement leaders way more expensive.... I mean immersion wise, this makes sense. The guild incurs a much higher risk going after these people.

There has been hefty 1 million bounties on settlement leaders and the mark was simply nowhere to be scried or found and in two days it was paid off.
Settlement leaders are often filthy rich

I should say, all my suggestions are premised on the idea that you CANNOT buy out contracts.

[monkeywithstick]

Add a "confessional booth" to the guild.
The inside is unscryable and both occupants have a magically unbreakable disguise. They can speak to one another through a small window, but there is no line of sight for spells or attacks.
Each half of the booth has a source portal so people cannot simply follow one another upon leaving.

When placing a contract, select a time slot and pay a deposit. If no assassin activates the room within that time slot to meet the unnamed client then the deposit is refunded.
Upon the assassin entering the confessional, the client is given a -yoink script to the other side of the confessional, or a messenger telling them where to go to enter.

If they refuse to attend (either turn down the yoink or do not arrive within a time frame) they lose their deposit. (I prefer the -yoink but it might have issues across servers)

If they accept, they go to the booth, negotiate and fill out the name and the value of the bounty to the guild's ledgers via a script. Upon killing of the target, the money goes to the assassin.

Neither side *really* knows who hired them or who they hired. There may be some inferrence from mannerisms and times of absence. If the guild really want to know who, they can investigate and it will be hard but not neccesarilly impossible. If the assassin wishes to give a trade name they may, but it is not really directly tied to the characters real name.

This also allows negotiation, we all know a co-ordinated PvP "hit" against a level 30 character can be quite a lot of gold in consumables etc. The assassin can thus refuse the job unless the pay is worth it, and the client is made aware that his offer is too low.

The same process could potentially be used to buy off the contract. Pay twice the coin or whatever to remove a name from the ledger. Done in the anonymous meeting room in person or by proxy, either way it will generate RP. Or that can be done another way.

Only fly in the ointment I can think of would be metagaming via player ID if you click on the portrait of the speaker to see who the tells go to. Perhaps there is a way round that.

[Anomandaris]

Add a "confessional booth" to the guild.
The inside is unscryable and both occupants have a magically unbreakable disguise. They can speak to one another through a small window, but there is no line of sight for spells or attacks.
Each half of the booth has a source portal so people cannot simply follow one another upon leaving.

When placing a contract, select a time slot and pay a deposit. If no assassin activates the room within that time slot to meet the unnamed client then the deposit is refunded.
Upon the assassin entering the confessional, the client is given a -yoink script to the other side of the confessional, or a messenger telling them where to go to enter.

If they refuse to attend (either turn down the yoink or do not arrive within a time frame) they lose their deposit. (I prefer the -yoink but it might have issues across servers)

If they accept, they go to the booth, negotiate and fill out the name and the value of the bounty to the guild's ledgers via a script. Upon killing of the target, the money goes to the assassin.

Neither side *really* knows who hired them or who they hired. There may be some inferrence from mannerisms and times of absence. If the guild really want to know who, they can investigate and it will be hard but not neccesarilly impossible. If the assassin wishes to give a trade name they may, but it is not really directly tied to the characters real name.

This also allows negotiation, we all know a co-ordinated PvP "hit" against a level 30 character can be quite a lot of gold in consumables etc. The assassin can thus refuse the job unless the pay is worth it, and the client is made aware that his offer is too low.

The same process could potentially be used to buy off the contract. Pay twice the coin or whatever to remove a name from the ledger. Done in the anonymous meeting room in person or by proxy, either way it will generate RP. Or that can be done another way.

Only fly in the ointment I can think of would be metagaming via player ID if you click on the portrait of the speaker to see who the tells go to. Perhaps there is a way round that.

That sounds really cool actually

[Dr. B]

Add a "confessional booth" to the guild.
The inside is unscryable and both occupants have a magically unbreakable disguise. They can speak to one another through a small window, but there is no line of sight for spells or attacks.
Each half of the booth has a source portal so people cannot simply follow one another upon leaving.

When placing a contract, select a time slot and pay a deposit. If no assassin activates the room within that time slot to meet the unnamed client then the deposit is refunded.
Upon the assassin entering the confessional, the client is given a -yoink script to the other side of the confessional, or a messenger telling them where to go to enter.

If they refuse to attend (either turn down the yoink or do not arrive within a time frame) they lose their deposit. (I prefer the -yoink but it might have issues across servers)

If they accept, they go to the booth, negotiate and fill out the name and the value of the bounty to the guild's ledgers via a script. Upon killing of the target, the money goes to the assassin.

Neither side *really* knows who hired them or who they hired. There may be some inferrence from mannerisms and times of absence. If the guild really want to know who, they can investigate and it will be hard but not neccesarilly impossible. If the assassin wishes to give a trade name they may, but it is not really directly tied to the characters real name.

This also allows negotiation, we all know a co-ordinated PvP "hit" against a level 30 character can be quite a lot of gold in consumables etc. The assassin can thus refuse the job unless the pay is worth it, and the client is made aware that his offer is too low.

The same process could potentially be used to buy off the contract. Pay twice the coin or whatever to remove a name from the ledger. Done in the anonymous meeting room in person or by proxy, either way it will generate RP. Or that can be done another way.

This is amazing, actually. Developers, are you reading this?

Only fly in the ointment I can think of would be metagaming via player ID if you click on the portrait of the speaker to see who the tells go to. Perhaps there is a way round that.

Could be averted by putting the two rooms of the "confessional" in different areas and have dialogue spoken in one room appear in the chatlog of the character in the other room, and vice versa. That also removes the need for magical disguises.