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Hey guys.

I was daydreaming a bit today while relaxing, when something hit me. Assassin's Creed* would make a fantastic skirmish game, played on a 3'x3' or 4'x4' board.

I've got a few ideas for what seem to be 'innovative' mechanics (Concealment, Awareness, etc.), and I'll slowly be editing this post to reflect what I've written.

Hope my muse doesn't abandon me too soon!

*not that I'll be calling it that. If I do see this to fruition, it'll definitely be a free-to-play ruleset, but I wouldn't want someone blowing the whistle on me just in case.

Idea behind the Games
-Templars and Allies vs. Assassins
-Many Templars/other enemies, few Assassins
-Game of concealment, quick action, pursuit, and escape

Mechanics
Concealment: Concealment is the idea of trying to blend into the area. This is a mechanic used solely by the Assassin player, as the Templars have no need to try and keep themselves hidden. Certain actions - running, pushing over civilians, carrying weapons in the open, fighting - will cause the Assassin player to make a Concealment test, to see if any enemies notice them. The use of weapons also cause Concealment tests, unless the Assassin making the action is in Open Combat, at which point any Concealment tests are automatically failed.

For example, let's compare two weapons:
Throwing Knife - Con: 2-D6
Hand Pistol - Con: 16-D20

What does this mean? When throwing a throwing knife, the Assassin player rolls a D6. On a score of 2-6, the Assassin successfully throws the knife without anyone noticing.

The Hand Pistol, on the other hand, is much, much less subtle. When firing the Hand Pistol, the Assassin Player must roll a 16-20 on a D20. If he does, then he has miraculously fired the shot without anyone noticing. Perhaps the nearby Guards were paying attention to something else, or a roll of thunder crashed at exactly the right moment. Whether he hits his target or not, meanwhile is another matter.

Concealment covers a wide range of actions, and can vary depending on what the situation is. An Assassin who has an Axe strapped to his back and in Heavy Armor is easier to spot than an Assassin armed with only his Hidden Blade and wearing Light or No Armor. An Assassin who is running in front of enemies brings more attention to himself than an Assassin who is walking.

Awareness: Awareness is the idea of how attentive the enemy is. This is a mechanic used solely by the Templar player, as the Assassins can tell who is friend or foe - after all, the Templars and other Guards make no attempt to hide themselves.

Awareness comes in different degrees, and a Awareness test is made if two criteria are met:
1. An Assassin is within line of sight
2. The Assassin in line of sight has failed a Concealment test.

The different degrees of Awareness are:
Suspicious: The enemy becomes Aware of the Assassin on a roll of 2+ on a D6.
On Guard: The enemy becomes Aware of the Assassin on a roll of 3+ on a D6.
On Duty: The enemy becomes Aware of the Assassin on a roll of 4+ on a D6.
Bored: The enemy becomes Aware of the Assassin on a roll of 5+ on a D6.
Distracted: The enemy becomes Aware of the Assassin on a roll of 6+ on a D6.

When an enemy becomes Aware, he may engage the Assassin in Open Combat. Other Guards within Line of Sight become Aware at the same time, and may also engage the Assassin.

Line of Sight: Line of Sight is very important in this game. As the Assassin Player, you will need to stay out of enemies' Line of Sight, to prevent your Assassins from being spotted and then chased. As the Templar Player, you will need to try and balance your forces - a single guard will be easily overwhelmed by an Assassin, but if you place too many of the Guards together you run the risk of letting the Assassins slip by.

Models in this game have a 180° Front Arc, from shoulder to shoulder and facing forward.

Line of Sight is 12" from the models base within the Front Arc. A straight line must be drawn from anywhere on the models base in the Front Arc to the base of the Assassin.

All models in this game are to be on 30mm bases. Models are assumed to occupy the space from the bottom of the base to the height of 2"

Pre-Measuring: Pre-measuring is a Special Action. Pick a model, and use that model to make an Experience Test. If that model passes, the Player may measure the distance from the base of the model that passed the Experience Test to the base of one other model.

The Statline: This shows the models characteristics, via numbers.

Movement: Speed, in inches. Movement is determined by Body Type.
Strength: How strong a model is. Strength is determined by Body Type.
Melee Rating: Determines skill in close combat. MR is based on Experience.
Ballistic Rating: Determines skill in close combat. BR is based on Experience.
Experience: A model’s knowledge. Used for Experience Tests.
Defense: A model’s ability to protect itself. Defense is determined by Body Type.
Armor: Determined by the Armor the model is wearing. Protects from damage.
Health: A model’s in-game Hit points. Health is determined by Body Type.
*Awareness: Non-Assassin only Stat. Based on Experience.

Body Type: There are 3 Body Types in the game – Light, Medium, and Heavy.
Heavy – Movement: 5, Strength: 9, Defense: 12, Health: 14
Medium – Movement: 6, Strength: 7, Defense: 13, Health: 12
Light – Movement: 7, Strength: 5, Defense: 14, Health: 10

Experience: Experience shows how well trained a model is.

Militia – Experience: 9, Melee Rating: 4, Ballistic Rating: 4, Awareness: Bored
Guard – Experience: 8, Melee Rating: 5, Ballistic Rating: 4, Awareness: On Duty
Veteran – Experience: 6, Melee Rating: 6, Ballistic Rating: 5, Awareness: On Duty

Templar Initiate – Experience: 7, Melee Rating: 6, Ballistic Rating: 5, Awareness: On Duty
Templar – Experience: 6, Melee Rating: 7, Ballistic Rating: 6, Awareness: On Guard
Templar Captain – Exp: 5, Melee Rating: 8, Ballistic Rating: 7, Awareness: Suspicious

Assassin Apprentice – Experience: 7, Melee Rating: 6, Ballistic Rating: 6
Assassin – Experience: 5, Melee Rating: 7, Ballistic Rating: 7
Master Assassin – Experience: 4, Melee Rating: 8, Ballistic Rating: 8

Experience Test: An Experience test is taken when a model makes a Special Action. The Player rolls 2d6, adds or subtracts the necessary modifiers, and compares that number to the model’s Experience.

If the number matches or is higher than the model’s Experience number, than the model has passed the Experience Test.

If the number is lower than the model’s Experience number, than the model has failed the Experience test, and may not take the Special Action. Some special actions may have consequences if their Experience Test is failed.

Some nice ideas, that I'll read through later in detail, but I would also direct you to the Mindstalkers skirmish game from Manorhouse Games in Italy, which is very similar to what you're describing.

R.

Like the idea. Any more idea's on the play area? how built up would you say worked well with the mechanic and subject matter?

@precintomega - Thanks for the reference.

I checked out the game. Definitely interesting, but the 40mm is a turn off.

@That one - If by 'play area' you mean the actual table... was thinking of an X by X sort of things - so then the area of the game is always a square. It'll definitely need to be terrain heavy with varying building height.

The whole 'parkour' idea of the game comes in as a Special Action. The Assassins are, after all, all about mobility. So 'running' up vertical heights will need to be worked into the game. Failing a 'Free Running' Special Action - say, your Assassin Apprentice fails his Experience Test - won't result in anything too bad, since you'll just move at normal speed instead of running speed. Failing at a 'Leap' special action, on the other hand, results in you missing whatever you were jumping at, and you'll take damage depending on how high up you were - unless you pass a second Experience Check, and manage to grab hold of something just before you hit the ground.

I'm thinking of tying in the number of Assassins allowed into the amount of table space - so, a 3x3 play area means a total of 3 assassins, while a 6x6 area means 6 assassins.

While that may not sound like a lot, I also have an idea for including 'Allies' - Thieves, Mercenaries, 'Damsels' - in the Assassin list.

Thieves, for example, could be purchased pre-game, and then placed on the map by the Assassin Player during deployment. If an Assassin comes close enough, he can roll an Experience Test to see if the Thieves follow him. If he passes, they come under the Assassin Player's control, and must stay in coherency with the Assassin that hired them (they'll also have their own stateline). They can be used to distract enemy - if they move into base contact with an enemy, the enemy will immediately begin to chase them, unless they're able to pass an Experience Test. Templars will most likely have a special rule that makes them less vulnerable, or even invulnerable, to such tactics, however.

Mercenaries will be fighters, of course - but will not be able to follow the Assassin that hired them across rooftops, so that'll force the Assassin Player to take the streets. The offset will be the fact that the Mercenaries are a powerful buffer, and even Templars will not forgo rising to the challenge.

Damsels will not be able to fight nor follow the Assassin that hired them beyond ground level, but they will have a 'area of affect' ability that changes the Awareness of any model in it to 'Distracted'.

I was meaning the more 'vertical' aspect of the game but you have covered that quite thoroughly there. Have you any ideas on 'target' scenarios. more stealth, aiming for a clean, unseen kill on your mark?

That one over there wrote:I was meaning the more 'vertical' aspect of the game but you have covered that quite thoroughly there. Have you any ideas on 'target' scenarios. more stealth, aiming for a clean, unseen kill on your mark?

Scenarios I'm thinking of:
Escort - Templar Based, must get VIP from Templar placed entry point to Assassin placed exit point.

Message Delivery - Templar based, courier must reach Templar placed entry point to Assassin placed exit point. No escort, but Courier is superior in speed.

In Peace - Templar Based, must protect multiple VIPs, alternating placement by Templar Player and Assassin Player

Escape! - Assassin based, must reach board edge after Templar-set trap. All enemies are On Guard/Suspicious.

I like the idea of the 'clean, unseen kill', which could be made as a Special Action - Clean Kill. Some weapons, like the Hidden Blade, or Poison, would have such a low Concealment roll, something like 2-d20, so the chances of being seen are slim. But a botched Experience Test could make all enemies with Line of Sight become Aware of the Assassin.

Oh! I could do Aerial Assassinations as well.

And yet another idea - make Poison act like the Rage rule, where the target moves randomly for 1 turn, then attacks the nearest model for 2 turns, then dies. I could give the Posion model the same rule as the Damsels, so it'll have a Area of Effect bubble that shifts Awareness to Distracted.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another thought: I'm thinking of changing Health from Body type to Experience Type. This would better reflect the Assassin's ability to get through multiple enemies in a relatively quick amount of time.

That all sounds fantastic so far. I look forward to seeing more.

the 40mm is a turn off.

First off, why is that a turn off?

But also, the rules aren't scale-specific. I wouldn't suggest you just use their rules. After all, half the fun of writing your own game is that you're writing your own game. But a good designer knows that he doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas. Mindstalkers has lots about it I'm not keen on, but does have some clever mechanics which evoke the late-medieval period that you might like to borrow or adapt to your game.

R.

precinctomega wrote:

the 40mm is a turn off.

First off, why is that a turn off?

But also, the rules aren't scale-specific. I wouldn't suggest you just use their rules. After all, half the fun of writing your own game is that you're writing your own game. But a good designer knows that he doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas. Mindstalkers has lots about it I'm not keen on, but does have some clever mechanics which evoke the late-medieval period that you might like to borrow or adapt to your game.

R.

Heh, I should have said, 'I'm not a fan of anything really larger than 15mm nowadays".

And, I didn't knock the game itself. I'll definately need to take the time to sit down and read "The Condottiere's Rulebook". I won't deny the fact that the game I'm writing has been influenced by others - in fact, I'll be borrowing heavily from Warmachine when it comes to the combat rules, and it's where the Melee/Ballistic rating, Defense, and Armor stats will be coming from.

The idea of concealment and awareness is a pretty neat idea and probably fairly unique for tabletop games. Aside from Assassin's Creed it reminds me of the computer game Thief 3 (well, the whole series really).
I think once you get some playtesting going you'll get an idea on the best mechanics for implementing it, as I'm not 100% convinced on the idea of an extra roll with variable dice size being the best solution, both from a flavor and mechanical point of view.

Any advice then on concealment? I like the idea of it, but at the moment I'm open to different mechanics.

The idea of the varying dice size is to reflect how stealthy a weapon/piece of armor could be.

Although... perhaps I could restrict it to d20's only? Or perhaps make it a percentage roll instead. Hm.

Hmm my concern (aside from having to switch dice sizes) is that besides equipment it doesn't sound like the player has many options for improving his concealment? In which case a lot of the game becomes based on luck, since a single bad concealment roll can mess up an otherwise perfectly planned situation. But I might be misreading or missing something.

Anyways what about concealment being more like a "saving throw", such as a base number they have to beat on a D20.
Either that or have it D6 based, but maybe on successes instead of a set number? Like they need 2 successes (which count as 4+ or something) and get 2D6 as a base, so unless they improve their odds it's likely they'll fail. DIfferent weapons could give more D6s, situations could remove D6s, and so on. It's a bit easier to add or remove an entire dice instead of +X, since a bunch of modifiers are probably realistic but can become cumbersome.

I don't know, I'm sure you'll figure something out!

I like this Idea, sounds like alot of fun.

I'm loving the idea and would love to see a full set of rules. I think keeping it D6 based would be easier for players but I'm not sure about for you the creator. At the end of the day, make of it what you will and play testing should slowly reveal cracks if there are any.

The OC-D

Wouldn't it be cool if the amount of assassins allowed in a game would be/also be affected by the mission? Like you could have a mission simulating the typical game scenario having one assassin active trying to assassinate a protected target that the players could roll for/take turns moving and executing other actions.

Also you could do concealment similar to 40k. For example half-concealment is a modifier/greater-than-half concealment is a greater modifier, etc.

Lastly, wouldn't it be cool if you had models representing random people walking around in the environment? Weaving through crowds was a really big part of the game, and you could maybe have a minor action to gently push people aside to keep walking, kill them to leave distractions, or simply use them for cover.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS: When you have a rough draft of playable rules, please PM me, email me (fr4gm4n@gmail.com). I would love to help with playtesting if you ever get that far along.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PSS: I think you should keep the game to one kind of die. Maybe d12-only to be original and cool.

ZacktheChaosChilld wrote:
Lastly, wouldn't it be cool if you had models representing random people walking around in the environment? Weaving through crowds was a really big part of the game, and you could maybe have a minor action to gently push people aside to keep walking, kill them to leave distractions, or simply use them for cover.

Actually, I had this planned from the beginning. I've got vacation next week, so I'll have a bit of time to think of the rules.

Essentially, the act of walking within a group of people (staying in coherency?) would give you a better concealment roll (which will probably now be a percentage roll or a d20 roll, so you'll only need 3-6 dice max). So, an Assassin walking into Line of Sight with a Greataxe, Longbow or Halberd would be a bit of a problem, but hiding in a group wouldn't be as big of a deal (Allies would work the same way, with Mercenaries, Thieves, and Damsels giving better Concealment).

As for movement, I'd probably take a cue from the video game - 'Groups' would move at a constant rate, either back and forth a certain distance or in a circular pattern.

infinite_array wrote:

ZacktheChaosChilld wrote:
Lastly, wouldn't it be cool if you had models representing random people walking around in the environment? Weaving through crowds was a really big part of the game, and you could maybe have a minor action to gently push people aside to keep walking, kill them to leave distractions, or simply use them for cover.

Actually, I had this planned from the beginning. I've got vacation next week, so I'll have a bit of time to think of the rules.

Essentially, the act of walking within a group of people (staying in coherency?) would give you a better concealment roll (which will probably now be a percentage roll or a d20 roll, so you'll only need 3-6 dice max). So, an Assassin walking into Line of Sight with a Greataxe, Longbow or Halberd would be a bit of a problem, but hiding in a group wouldn't be as big of a deal (Allies would work the same way, with Mercenaries, Thieves, and Damsels giving better Concealment).

As for movement, I'd probably take a cue from the video game - 'Groups' would move at a constant rate, either back and forth a certain distance or in a circular pattern.

Maybe you could use random movement with the GW scatter die.

So, is this Players (Assassins) versus "bots" (Templars) or PVP?

Slarg232 wrote:So, is this Players (Assassins) versus "bots" (Templars) or PVP?

Two players. One is Assassins and one is Templars.