Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 24 of 24
  1. #21
    Site Moderator Ariadne's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    near Frankfurt/ Germany
    Posts
    801
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    Originally posted by kgauck

    Such a figure maintains a minimal court at best, and probabaly has a reputation of paranoia. Even smallish noble houses were maintained by what would look to us as an army of servants. [...]
    Yes and no. As the high priestess of a Temple of Khirdai, she has only about 3 to 5 direct servants (maintenance costs are paid for other things :) ). Yes cooks, etc. are servants too, but only in her bedroom are these wardings (she lives in a temple). A Kitchen etc. can can be crossed by anyone. [To stop the next idea: She ALWAYS has prayed for a "detect poison" ;) or a priest at hand, who has]


    [...] Even so, contraversial nobles who lived in times of greatest risk of assasination (Italian Renaissance, English & French Reformation) endured a high ratio of attempted assasinations to successful ones. [...]
    That's right. There is Napoleon, who had the constant paranoia of being poisoned. That's why he gave himself always a little bit of Arsenic to get a resistance (we all know, he fell because of other things).
    May Khirdai always bless your sword and his lightning struck your enemies!

  2. #22
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    883
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    Gary wrote:
    ...

    > the basis of campaign, let alone a domain action, so turning it into a
    > little one or two die roll event strikes me as being a horrible waste.

    And players who really got attached to their character will cry out loud
    to lose him/her because of 2 dice rolls :-(

    > The base success number for an Espionage action is 20 - province
    > population
    > level of the target province - levels of guild holdings the acting regent
    > controls in the target province + levels of law holdings in the target
    > province controlled by the assassination target. So two questions:
    > 1. What additional modifiers might be applied to that success number for
    > attempting to assassinate different kinds of people at the domain
    > level? The aforementioned heirs, LTs, family members, advisors, etc.

    I would first make certain that a succesful espionage action used for
    assasination gives the player
    not a dead enemy but only the possibility - it should only give him a
    successful attempt which still could fail.

    > 2. How might a successful assassination of one of those characters effect
    > the domain? That is, if one assassinated the captain of a unit of elite
    > infantry for some regent might that unit take "a hit" for a domain
    > turn? If one assassinated a regent`s heir might that have an effect on
    > loyalty in addition to the obvious loss of his heir? What kinds of
    > characters might be assassinated that would have an effect at the domain
    > level and what might those effects be?

    ITSOD had a rule for assasinating military units:

    > <http://www.birthright.dk/itsod/Images/die.gif> New way to use
    > Espionage - Espionage may be used in a combination of locate troops
    > and assassination. This variation can be used to assassinate the upper
    > levels of command in a unit, thus reducing it`s efficiency. The
    > mission can target an already know unit (+2 to success), the first
    > unit encountered (no modifier), or following a list of targets based
    > on priority (-2 penalty). If the mission is successful, the unit
    > functions as a lesser unit. knights will become cavalry, cavalry will
    > become infantry, elite infantry will become infantry; infantry,
    > archers, pikemen, and scouts will get a -1 to all their stats except
    > movement. Scouts will also get faulty information when they attempt to
    > look for enemy units. Irregulars will become levies (but will not gain
    > any more hits). Levies cannot be targeted because their command
    > structure is weak to begin with and the people do not have the army
    > soldier`s need for a command structure. The effects of this action
    > wear off after one full month.
    >
    The computer game of Sierra allowed assasination to kill one unit of
    soldiers when successful on the other hand.

    About heirs and wifes being assasinated I would say use the already
    existing rules:
    p. 48 Rulebook "Losses of Regency" divided into minor, major and
    catastrophic losses - they are due for failure to respond to events and
    assasination is an event. And the severity is dependant on who is
    assasinated, e.g. wife or designated heir killed major loss, lieutenant
    or other children than the heir killed minor loss or something like that.
    bye
    Michael Romes

  3. #23
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    BR mailing list
    Posts
    1,538
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    The way I did it in a PbEM I was helping with was this : A successful espionage
    action would get the assassin close to hisvictim, nothing more. The actual
    encounter then proceeded like an adventure. We had a system based on characters`
    (and monsters`) experience points, and also several other factors, to determine
    how these encounters went (complete success, partial success, etc).

    Some Regents were assassinated, but only very few. One assassin (a mage) was
    killed by his intended victim. I worked rather well.

    Robin

    ************************************************** **************************
    The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
    Birthright-l Archives: http://oracle.wizards.com/archives/birthright-l.html
    To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
    with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.
    NOTE: Messages posted by Birthright-L are automatically inserted posts originating from the mailing list linked to the forum.

  4. #24
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    21
    Downloads
    12
    Uploads
    0
    I've had to give this topic serious consideration as my guys tend to resemble "The Black Hands" from Knights of the Dinner Table. Likewise, they wholeheartedly subscribe to the Sun Tzu/ Machiavellian principle of winning a war by not fighting one and are always looking for that unconventional warfare angle. Mind you, we haven''t started the campaign yet but the topic has come up.
    Personally, I have no problem with assasination in general and that of PCs in particular. However, I am treating the idea of domain/regent security in greater detail than the rules do. First of all, you create a spymaster as a lieutenant. That spymaster can either be engaged in active intelligence gathering, insurgency, etc. OR can be wholly on the defensive and occupied with counter-insurgency. You can, of course, create two dedicated lieutenants: one for domestic security and another for foriegn operations (kind of like how the F.B.I. and C.I.A. were intended, in theory, to compliment each other.)
    When it comes to the die rolls, the enemy spymaster is trying to overcome the defending spymaster with difficulty modifiers reflecting the province level and defending spymaster's level of skill. At best the enemy will be captured WITH proof of the operation; not as good, the enemy will be intercepted and killed; worse, a plot is identified but the assassin cannot be found/intercepted; finally, worst case scenario, the regent has been cornered and you roleplay the dire deed. In the case of the plot being identified but the assassin is still at large, you roleplay the attempt but allow the regent PC to stipulate certain placement conditions (reflecting the fact that he or she was on alert status.)

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
BIRTHRIGHT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, the BIRTHRIGHT logo, and the D&D logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by permission. ©2002-2010 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.