Assassins
From DreyNet
Assassins was another in a long line of story-light play by email games I used to run. Sometimes it was called CyberHunt. The idea was always the same: players could take on the role of any character they could imagine. They were then given a target to eliminate while some else tried to eliminate them in turn. The goal was to be the last surviving character. This took place in an arena cobbled together from various genres.
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Intro
You do not remember falling asleep.
An ethereal breeze awakens you to your impossible surroundings. Before you, rising out of inky night is a tower. It is exactly as you imagine it. You surmise from your vantage point that you are somehow embedded in the side of a smooth, sloping wall. Trying to move, you find that you cannot. After a panicked struggle you realize that you are not restrained; you are simply a consciousness with no connection to a body. It is impossible to recoil from this fact, futile to close your non-existent eyes. Slowly, as a mist dissipating on the warming earth, you sink into a resigned calm.
A murmuring in the hollows of this place informs you that you are not alone. Others are gathered here to share your fate. They are merely shadows, vague irregularities pressed against your mind, but they comfort you none the less.
Suddenly there is a brass-wrought platform descending from the top of the tower. Encircled within its railing is the figure of a hooded man. As the platform draws near, you recognize the man as the Master Gamesman, someone you have never met. His vest is riddled with pockets and zippers, his posture arrogant and childish, his face lost in the pit of the hood – he is lord of this domain.
The platform stops an intimate distance from you, yet ever so slightly above you. When he speaks, the Gamesman’s voice is equal parts fond memory and broken glass threat.
“With all the forgotten names of the Capricious Ones, I welcome you, my destiny-blown friends, to The Game. You are in the teardrop of the Child who sits on the edge of the cosmos to dangle his toes in the ripples of Always. There is no escape but by the oldest door: Death. Or victory, that bittersweet drink only one of you may taste.
“This world has its own laws which you shall learn shortly. You will find it a taskmaster with little patience for you. You will find it a grateful maiden with a king’s ransom of wonder. But I must warn you: heed only the siren song which beats inside your chest. For should it ever fade…”
The Master Gamesman vanishes.
“…your passing will be mourned by no one.”
An indigo ocean of laughter roars into the void, sweeping you away.
You find yourself elsewhere. A silky voice whispers in your ear, “Begin.”
Overview
Plunged into a strange environment, you have one goal: Survival. You will have a target character to eliminate. Likewise, someone will be coming after you. The game is played “Circle of Death” style; when you eliminate your target, you gain their target. If you eliminate your hunter, the person who was hunting your assassin will now be hunting you. The circle gets tighter and tighter until there are only two players left and then, ultimately, one.
The winner is the last character left in the game, with second place being determined by attrition. If you happen to eliminate the most characters AND are the sole survivor, you win the rank of Master Assassin.
Character Creation
Your character can come from one of three categories: Pre-existing, Archetype and Custom.
Pre-existing characters have been invented by someone else in another medium. These include characters such as Darth Vader, Spawn, Beowulf, Wolverine, Frodo Baggins, etc.
Archetypes are “generic” characters from role-playing games or fiction. These include mage, fighter, netrunner, dwarf cleric, secret agent, and so forth.
Custom characters are ones you invent from scratch.
When it comes to choosing a character, anything goes. But keep in mind the following caveats:
1. When using a pre-existing character, you may NOT add some new power or aspect to them. For instance, you cannot say “My character is Spiderman, except he has laser beam eyes too.” Instead, create a custom character that has the powers of Spiderman in addition to the laser eyes.
2. Although you may create a god-like character, these turn out to be difficult to play. For every potentially abusive, super-powerful character, there is an Achilles’ heel built into the game world to balance it. Have a good reason for playing a god-like being. If you need to play one because you’re afraid of getting killed too easily, then you’re in the wrong game.
3. Don’t be tedious and try to come up with some kind of gimmick character. Those of you who participated in the game with Tom Chiarella’s “Willy Loman” character know what I am talking about. This game is not an opportunity for you to see how clever you can be and stump the Game Master with some wacky, high-maintenance character that everyone will come to despise. Gimmicks include “character is made of thought”, “character is the Game Master and knows what he knows”, or “if another character looks at my character, they turn into a sausage.” Use your best judgment.
When you submit your character, please give me a name, physical description, vital statistics, special powers, equipment carried and a short background. Use whatever means you find comfortable to do this: write a intro from their perspective, give me a character sheet with Strength, Dexterity, etc. or whatever.
If your character is pre-existing, I will probably be familiar enough with it that I will only need a name. If I don’t know your character, then I will ask for more details.
Don’t feel that you need to describe every last detail or write a thesis on your character’s powers. I am pretty lenient when it comes to adding on stuff or elaborating on your character’s original description. If your character is a high-level wizard, he probably knows a fireball spell or even a magic rope spell. But he certainly does not conveniently have the Rod of Seven Parts in his backpack unless you told me that initially.
A Note to Traditional Role-Players
There are no character sheets, charts, dice or rulebooks in this game. There are no hit points, saving throws, skill rolls, spell levels, technology indices, etc. I work with guidelines rather than rules. And the main guideline of the game is “Giving what I know about the character and the situation, what would actually happen?” Assassins is character-based, so there will be no miraculous rolls of the dice to save you, just your wits. And, as in many things, stupidity will get you killed.
A Note on Participation
Dropping out of the game for a couple of days without any precautions is a good way to get you r character killed. If another character should come upon your character and talk to them, you have a day or so to respond. I f you don’t respond, the other player will get a message to the effect that you are out to lunch. Likewise, should your character be attacked, you have a day or so to respond. After that, your character will defend itself to its best ability, but will NOT attack. While in autopilot mode, your character will not attempt any extraordinary feats of self-preservation.
My advice for such occasions is to find a hiding place for your character, place booby traps around your character, or leave me instructions detailing your contingency plans.
Safety Net
Each character starts the game with a built-in magical safety net which can keep them from getting killed. ONCE! When entering into a combat or potentially hazardous situation, the player may tell me that they are going to use their safety net. If the net is activated, the character will be teleported to safety instead of being killed. They will also lose one real world day of playing.
The net must be activated BEFORE combat or undertaking something dangerous. Once it is activated, it is gone, EVEN IF THE CHARACTER IS NEVER PUT INTO DANGER. The net is provided as way to avoid getting killed early in the game. The player always has the choice to use it or not, but remember: once it is activated, it’s gone, no matter what happens.
Hunters and Hunted
You may only eliminate your target OR your assassin, whether you know who they are or not. If you kill any other character, there will be a severe penalty.
