Downtime Assassination

This system is brand new and not sufficiently playtested. It will likely be tweaked a lot over the coming months. Please send feedback.

This system is a rules extension for handling abstract, downtime assassinations.Ex

Requirements

The character must be an assassin who has earned XP from adventure in the last game month.

Henchmen are prohibited from this system.

Procedure

DM determines contracts available in the settlement for that month, if not already determined.

Player chooses a contract.

DM rolls for time to complete.

Player rolls for the attempt.

On success, XP, GP, and possible bonus loot is awarded. On failure, consequences are checked.

Player can continue taking contracts as long as desired. Note that re-attempting the same target takes a -15% cumulative penalty for each attempt by the same assassin.

Contract determination

An assassin can check for available contracts by visiting the assassin's guild in a town or city (or a representative in a smaller settlement, if available).

The DM rolls d6 for every 1000 population of the settlement, rounded up to the nearest thousand.1) If the population is under 500, there is only a 1-in-10 chance of a contract, if the assassin's guild even has a presence in such a settlement. Every 1 on a die indicates an available contract for that game month.

For each available contract, the DM determines levels of the targets. The DM rolls a d20 for each target:

d20	Level of target
1-3	0-level
4-6	1st
7-9	2nd
10-11	3rd
12-13	4th
14	5th
15	6th
16	7th
17	8th
18	9th
19	10th
20	Reroll. If 20 again, special contract. Otherwise, as shown on second die.

The DM should note down these available contracts. If another assassin desires contracts from the same settlement during the same game month, the same list may be used (minus assassinated targets). For future months, the DM can simply re-roll the contracts, with the exception that there is a 50% chance for a special contract to persist into the next month, rather than being re-rolled.

Special contracts

Special contracts will be for targets of particular renown, widely-loved targets, highly defended targets, and/or targets above 10th level. For these cases, the player must provide a written plan for the assassination, and therefore in these cases the DM must take some time to pen a general outline of the contract and scenario. The DM will then judge the quality of the player's plan and assign any modifiers to the assassination roll as they deem appropriate.

Time to complete

If an assassin chooses to take on a contract, the DM privately rolls a d6, plus another d6 for each level of the target. Every 4-6 shown on the die indicates one day that is taken to complete the mission (minimum 1 day).

This includes reconnaissance, plotting, and other preparations. The player will not know how long it will take up front, but they can abandon the contract at any time.

Success

The assassin earns assassination XP, XP for the gold reward, and combat XP, as per the game rules.

All contracts completed using this abstract system are considered “simple” difficulty, unless they are special contracts. Special contracts are assigned a difficulty by the DM.

Bonus loot

There is a % chance equal to twice the level of the target to gain extra loot from the contract:

d10	Loot
1-7	d100 GP per target level.
8-9	d10: [1-6] 1d4 gems. [7-10] 1 jewelry.
10	Random map or magic item.

XP is awarded for extra loot, too. The extra loot will never be known by the assassin until the contract is successfully completed.

Failure

A contract can be re-attempted by the same assassin at a cumulative -15% penalty for each failure by that assassin. Time to complete is rolled for each attempt.

Failure can have consequences. 2d6 is rolled. Add +2 if the failure was by more then 20%.

Roll	Consequence
2	Embarrassing incident. Pride hurt. -10% to assassination attempts for 1 week.
3	Save vs w/s/r or lose 50% of max HP. If dead, then as 14.
4	Identified by a bystander. d100 GP bribe required, plus d100 GP per target level, or run out of the settlement for d12 months.
5	Contracts available reduced by d100% for 1 month.
6	Pass a Hide In Shadows roll to escape without consequence. On failure, reroll on this table.
7	Daring escape! No consequence.
8	Identified by the watch. 2d100 GP bribe required, plus d100 GP per target level, or run out of the settlement for d12 months.
9	Save vs pet. or captured by watch. Hard labor. 4d4 weeks, plus d4 weeks per level of target. Every week, can try 5% chance per assassin level to escape and become a fugitive. Another character can pay for the assassin's release; the cost is 100 gp per remaining week in the sentence.
10	Save vs insinuative poison as per DMG 20. Type is based on level of target: [0-3] A. [4-7] B. [8-11] C. [12+] D. If dead, then as 14.
11	Identified by the target. DM rolls private, flat, unmodified reaction check to determine if revenge will be sought (negative indicates it will be).
12	Save vs pet. or beaten to unconsciousness, at 25% HP, and stripped of all valuables on person.
13	Save vs pet. or stripped of all valuables on person and face scarred with acid as punishment. -2 CHA and -25% to disguise. If already had this done, then go to save vs. death, as 14.
14	Save vs. death or be killed (-2 penalty if not wearing armor). If killed, body is stripped of all valuables. Body is d6: [1-2] Found by an ally. [3-4] Taken by an enemy. [5-6] Destroyed, no raise dead possible.

Reasoning for extension

Assassins will want to take on contracts from the assassin's guild between sessions, but these missions can take considerable time to resolve during downtime if played out in regular gameplay. Even requiring a written plan from players takes considerable DM effort since the circumstances of each contract must be determined in sufficient detail to allow the player to write a plan. This might be desirable for some tables, but others may prefer to have an abstract system that doesn't require significant DM effort for the assassin players.

The AD&D rules provide a simple system for abstracting the success or failure of a mission into a single roll, but there are no mechanics for determining consequences. We are trialing this system which adds a little spice to the process. The goal is for the DM to be able to handle these missions without significant work during downtime.

The nature of the assassin's guild can vary greatly between campaigns. A DM is encouraged to adopt this system as they see fit.