Assassin Token and Guild

[Watchful Glare]

By that logic, you can use any other class and take private contracts already and not be in the guild. Which sounds exactly like what you want to do. Which you already can do.

It doesn't have to be assassin, as it has the mechanics that does with the caveat that it is linked and accountable to the Guild. Exactly for the reasons Arigard mentioned.

[Arigard]

Being able to move the political landscape using assassins is one of the only actual RP paths in Arelith that has any weight to it mechanically. That's why the assassins guild has power in the first place, why assassin is an application and although not the most attractive mechanical class, is a very attractive social RP class to play.

Would it suck to be elected and then deposed through an assassination? Sure, but that's a risk of the position. Nobody is forcing anyone to be a settlement leader.

Big gold bounties will cease if mechanics that are the very reason why the service is valued and paid for are removed from the assassin system. At that point, just go and get a group of allies to go out and ambush whoever it is you don't like. But hey, guess what? It won't make a shred of difference to the political landscape. That's why you hire an assassin. That's the point.

It also rarely even happens.

Take away the reasons to place bounties and there will be no bounties.
Take away the weight of what assassination achieves and assassination will have no value.

So, sure. Gut the system and everyone will get their assassin, but it won't be worth anything in the grand scheme of things.

[xanrael]

I agree with removing the application lock on the assassin. If someone can run around with a bone arm without application, I don't see why someone can't play an assassin without application.

Though I do think that joining the assassin guild should be on application.

I also wanted to add that removing a settlement leader sounds like an extremely powerful ability that makes no sense to me personally.

Citizen one : "Why is Katrina no longer the Mayor?"
Citizen two: "She was murdered by an assassin"
Citizen one: "Are you sure? I just saw her sipping wine in the Nomad"

Then being the player on the other hand who is forced to roleplay they where attacked by an assassin and due to this they decided to step down. But oocly they didn't decide it was forced.

My head canon and in no way Arelith's canon is that IC there isn't a way to ensure that the same person that died is the original soul or even if so it hasn't been changed due to some magic or anomaly. Yeah there is a 99% chance things are fine but best to have a "cooling off period" than leave what could potentially be a force inimical to the people/living/realms running the government.

Though personally I see that as more on the ex-leaders to RP with the mechanics. For example, RP being wounded for an extended time and unable to fulfill the role of office. It's something I try to personally strive for in my own RP but I know I can't control the actions of others or tell them they must play X way so can just come up with a reason that works for my character and move on.

[Algol]

By that logic, you can use any other class and take private contracts already and not be in the guild. Which sounds exactly like what you want to do. Which you already can do.

It doesn't have to be assassin, as it has the mechanics that does with the caveat that it is linked and accountable to the Guild. Exactly for the reasons Arigard mentioned.

That's a bit like saying you can RP as a druid with the Shan class. I mean yes, I can. But it is perfectly normal that I want to play a druid and be a druid.

I'm not saying delete the guild... Let it remain there for people who want to trigger election or prefer ease/ comfort of it. But if I wanted to see someone dead icly, I'd prefer the weird cult over the mechanical one. Do people who place the bounty even get a notification if the assassination has been carried out successfully? Afaik they don't. How does this add to RP?

[Halibutthead]

Also +1 to opening more alignments. Killing people for money isn't evil when that's what writs are.

This is why i have a hard time envisioning assassins as some kind of murder expert.

Everyone on arelith, barring most commoners and the hypothetical "most *dedicated* roleplayers who go out of their way to avoid killing" has left a trail of bodies miles long by the time they reach level 10. That super nice guy on Cordor streets? He butchered a thousand people in the past week. He probably hasnt even thought about any of them since, unless they inconvenienced him in some way or dropped some good loot.

[Ork]

Untoken the assassin class but keep the guild (and the belt) permission only. I think that's a fair compromise and doesn't dilute the water. The nice fact about this could be that future assassins could claim never to be part of the guild and get familiar with settlement leaders only for them to actually have always been an guilded assassin.

[Sincra]

It seems to me that alot of the proponent attitude to removing the app involves the Guild as if it was somehow auto attached to the class, it is not.

To clarify, the guild is an optional agency you may join when you have a certain amount of levels, this being 5.
This access is given at level 5, from an NPC, for assassin in the form of a dagger key that cannot be dropped or removed and is used for contract completion on a body.
Harper or Zhent who are thrust into full access of their respective groups upon receiving the token and level 1 aren't given this choice by comparison.

The Guild logic is reasoned as follows:
While in the Guild you may not make another competing Guild or betray it, otherwise you may just vanish.

The positives vs negatives are therefore:
Outside Guild Positives:
Can start a competing organisation.
No cut taken.
Can cushy up to anyone.
Can choose your jobs.

Outside Guild Negatives:
No middle man to hide identities (automatically).
No guaranteed pay if you don't take upfront payment.
Need to find like-minded individuals, not even necessarily assassin class, to form the alternative group.


Guild positives:
Middle man.
Safer space.
Info board with Names.
Existing group.
Guaranteed pay.
Safer identity.
Can choose your jobs.
Can cushy up to leaders provided it doesn't harm the Guild (This doesn't mean not notifying the leader of a contract, it means not outing the members, the Guild still gets paid).

Guild negatives:
Pay cut taken.
Can't form another Guild.


I'm sure I missed a couple points but my overarching aim here is to demonstrate that they're not mandatory but each have different goals or playstyles.

Assassin as the class is locked, not the Guild, moving it to the Guild defeats the point.

[Algol]

Okay, thank you. Then the issue is wiki article as it clearly states any assassin applicant must operate within the guild.

[Sincra]

Okay, thank you. Then the issue is wiki article as it clearly states any assassin applicant must operate within the guild.

That would be the case then, yeah.
Otherwise it'd just be a forced given at level 1.

If that's what the team wanted it to be going forward it'll be better to rename the class as Guild Assassin.