STEP INTO THE SHADOWS
DIXIE COCHRAN, RAI W. COLE, MADELEINE DOUGLAS, ERYKAH FASSETT, ELLIOTT FREEMAN, DAVID FULLER, DANIELLE LAUZON, SPIDER B. PERRY, NEALL RAEMONN PRICE, LAUREN ROY, MONICA SPECA, STEPHEN TASKER, H. ULRICH
CREDITS Developers: Violet Green, Monica Speca Trinity Continuum Content Lead: Ian A. A. Watson Writers: Dixie Cochran, Rai W. Cole, Madeleine Douglas, Erykah Fassett, Elliott Freeman, David Fuller, Danielle Lauzon, Spider B. Perry, Neall Raemonn Price, Lauren Roy, Monica Speca, Stephen Tasker, H. Ulrich Editor: Matt Click Art: Sam Denmark, Shen Fei, Ivan Vegar, Farri Lensen, Dom Reardon, Dezi Sienty, Laura King, Paul Tobin, Digital Art Chefs Art Director: Maria Cabardo and Mike Chaney Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Requires the use of the TRINITY CONTINUUM CORE RULEBOOK
© 2022 Onyx Path Publishing. All rights reserved. References to other copyrighted material in no way constitute a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. “Trinity Continuum”, “Trinity Continuum: Æon ” and all characters, names, places, and text herein are copyrighted by Onyx Path Publishing. Keep up to date with Onyx Path Publishing at theonyxpath.com.
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TRINITY CONTINUUM: ASSASSINS
ONE LUCKY SHOT
8
INTRODUCTION 12 The World of Shadow
13
Necessary Evils
13
Tense Action
13
Connection to the Continuum
13
How to Use This Book
14
Inspirational Media
14
Games 14 Movies 14 Tabletop RPGS
14
Television Shows
15
Lexicon 15
CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS 16 Entering the Shadow: Becoming an Assassin The Secret History
17 17
Societies of the Past
18
The Considerate Killers
19
The Birth of the Code
19
Three Worlds
20
Daylight 20 Twilight 20 Shadow The Order of the Shadow
20 22
The Code
22
The Service
23
The Contract
26
CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES The Structure of a Society Daughters of the Jacobins Secret History
Recruitment 34 Organization 35 Goals 35 The Price of Doing Business
36
Mysteries 36 Daughters of Jacobins Path
37
Additional Connections
37
The Krugu Vorov
38
Secret History
38
Contracts 38 Operations 39 Recruitment 40 Organization 40 Goals 41 The Price of Doing Business
41
Mysteries 42 Krugu Vorov Path
42
Additional Connections
42
The Signal
44
The Secret History
44
Contracts 44 Operations 45 Recruitment 46 Organization 46 Goals 47 The Price of Doing Business
47
Mysteries 47 The Signal Society Path
48
Additional Connections
48
Society of Leonidas
50
Secret History
50
Contracts 50 Operations 51
30 31 32 32
Contracts 33 Operations 34
Recruitment 52 Organization 52 Goals 53 The Price of Doing Business
53
Mysteries 53 Society of Leonidas Path
54
Additional Connections
54
Table of Contents
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The Swarm Secret History
56 56
Contracts 57 Operations 58 Recruitment 58 Organization 58 Goals 59
Step Six: Add Advantages
78
The Price of Doing Business
Step Seven: Final Touches
79
59
Mysteries 60
Character Advancement
80
The Swarm Path
60
Experience 80
Additional Connections
60
Tweaks 81
Minor Societies The Council
62 62
The Councilors
62
A Seat at the Table
64
Cutting a Bloody Path
64
Stations of Darkness Legitimate Business (variable) Endless Opportunities (2s)
64 65 65
Paths Through Darkness
65
Moving Between Stations
65
An Example
68
Nemeses 69 Paths in Play
70
Training Operations
70
Other Talents in Shadow
71
CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION
4
A Plan Came Together 77 Rising Star 77 Saving Someone Else’s Life 77 Social Challenge 78 Sprung a Trap 78 Ultimate Con 78 Violence 78
72
Step One: Concept
73
Step Two: Paths
74
Step Three: Skills, Skill Tricks, and Specialties
75
Step Four: Attributes
76
Step Five: Apply Assassin Template Botched Job Bullet Ballet Captured by the Enemy Chance Birth Exposure to Flux The First Mission
76 77 77 77 77 77 77
Stations of Darkness Paths Role Paths Double Tapper Hacker Poisoner Slasher Sniper Street Surgeon
81 81 81 81 82 82 82 82
Society Paths 83 Bodyguard 83 Crime-Solving Scientist 83 Criminal Organization 83 Cult of Personality 83 Vigilante Group 84 Origin Paths Reformed Criminal Criminal Heir Pickpocket Raised by a Lone Wolf Refugee
84 84 84 84 85 85
Nemesis Paths Fixer Rival Assassin Serial Killer Magnet
86 86 86 86
New Edges 87 Ascetic Lifestyle 87 Boltholes 87 Community Aid 87 Conspirators 87 Faceless 87 Flawless Accent 87 Forger 87 Hornet Workshop Certification 88
TRINITY CONTINUUM: ASSASSINS
Human Lie-Detector 88 Light Sleeper 88 My Word is My Bond 88 Null Biometrics 88 Never Outnumbered 88 Poison Tolerance 88 Self-Hypnosis 88 The Darkest Web 89 Well-Equipped 89 Skill Tricks
89
Aim 89 Athletics 90 Close Combat
90
Command 90 Culture 90 Empathy 90 Enigmas 91 Humanities 91 Integrity 91 Larceny 91 Medicine 91 Persuasion 91 Pilot 92 Science 92 Survival
92
Technology 92 Tools of the Trade
92
Weapons 92 Disguised 92 Grappling Hook 92 Inscription 93 Integrated 93 Gunblade 93 High-Frequency 93 Monomolecular Blade 93 Plasma 93 Propulsion 94 Drone 94 Enhanced Scopes 94 Expanded Magazine or Drum Magazine 94 Extendable Bayonet 94 Remote Link 95 Specialized Ammunition 95
U-Link Wall Penetrating
95 95
Armor Tags 96 Active Camo 96 Biometric Duplicator 96 Chameleon Mask 96 Chemical Injector 96 Distracting Scarf 96 Goggles 96 Hardened 96 Jet Boots 96 Magnetic Field 96 Nanites 96 Soft Armor 96 Sound-Dampened Boots 97 Staged Death 97 Suit 97 Vehicle Tags AI Assist Blades Call Button Chaff Debris Reserve Ejector Seats External Projector Grappling Hook Ram Remote Controlled Solid Rubber Tires
97 97 97 97 97 97 97 97 97 97 97 97
CHAPTER FOUR: SYSTEMS AND DRAMA 98 Dramatic Editing
99
Why Use Flashbacks
99
Going Off the Rails
99
Flashbacks and Cost
100
Competing Flashbacks
103
Creating Setpiece Sequences
104
Session Stories
104
An Example in Twilight Going Loud
105 108
Setting the Scene
108
Field Conditions Crowded
110 110
Table of Contents
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Dark Dizzying Height Fortified Speeding Tight The Approach The Escape Assassin Powers
110 110 110 110 111 111 111 112
Tension 112 Attack 112 Deadly Aim 112 Disarm 112 Dive for It 112 Defense 112 Punching Bag 112 Shake Your Tail 113 Titanium Skull 113 Utility 113 Copycat 113 Skeleton Key Card 113 Social 113 Flawless Disguise 113 Voice of Authority 114 Support 114 For My Master 114 How Did They Find This 114 I Know That Face 114 Out of the Woodwork 114 Trust No One 115 Ubiquitous Manservants 115 Walk It Off 115 We Can See You 115 Your Money’s No Good Here 115 Antagonists
116
Daylight Antagonists 116 Dupe 116 Executive Assistant 116 Little Old Lady (With a Gun) 117 Lookout 117 Partygoer 117 Rent-a-Cop 117 Twilight Antagonists 117 Bodyguard 118 Bureaucrat 118 Gadgeteer 118
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Getaway Driver 119 Info Broker 120 Nameless Hacker 120 Neighborhood Tough 120 Porter 121 Shadow Antagonists 121 The Chameleon 121 Contract Killer 121 The Lifer 122 Poisoner 122 The Perpetual Problem 123 The Professional 123 Revenge-Seeker 124 The Rogue Agent 124 The Technologist 124 The Thin Blue Line 125 The Up-and-Coming Assassin 125
CHAPTER FIVE: MASTERIES
125
What Are Masteries?
127
Types of Masteries
127
Making Your Own Masteries
128
Learning and Training
129
Masteries 130 Preparation 130 A Good Hat 130 Bespoke Disaster 130 Best Dressed 131 Call to Action 131 Circe 131 Cut Ties 131 Cut the Cameras 131 D’Invasion 132 Dévouement 132 Killing Weapon 132 Leshi 132 Magpie’s Gaze 132 Nevidimyy 133 No Mistrust 133 Odyssey 133 Polyphemus’s Visitor 133 Rule from Jebel Barkal 134 Sledovik 134 Stone Cold 134
TRINITY CONTINUUM: ASSASSINS
Training Exercise Venerable Tools, Well Cared For Without Need
134 135 135
Evaluation 135 A Long Walk in an Old Coat and Worn Shoes 135 An Entire Life, A Glance 135 Argonautica 136 Atalanta’s Pace 136 At Their Heels, In Their Head 136 Meleager’s Hunt 136 No Escape 137 No Surprises 137 No Barriers 137 Reveal All 137 Sans-culotte 137 Surgeon 138 Spider’s Web 138 Total Destruction 138 Unrelenting 139 Without Ignorance 139 Without a Trace 139 Execution 139 Always Ready to Go 139 Apollo 140 A Message Delivered, Twice 140 Controlled Chaos 140 Dedicated Weapon 140 Delphi 140 Fearsome Defense 141 Gigantomachy 141 Good Manners 142 Group Effort 142 Iliad 142 Impossible Angles 142 Jaguar’s Passage 142 Katabasis 143 Koschei 143 La Prévoyance 144 La Voyante 144 Last Rites 144 Lethe 144 Lilin’s Visit 144 No Hesitation 145 Oracle’s Tactics 145
Poisoned Chalice 145 Python’s Corpse 145 Scapegoat 145 The Shortest Routes to the Heart 146 Silent Killer 146 Styx 146 Titanomachy 147 Without Motive 147
CHAPTER SIX: THE KILLING ART Storyguiding the Martial Forest
148 149
Layer Cakes: Three Layers as Genre
149
The Mundane World: Daylight
149
The Criminal Underworld: Twilight
150
The Assassin Otherworld: Shadow
150
Group Play and Styles
153
The Team of Specialists
153
The Weapon and Handler
154
Non-Human Teammates
155
Story of A Kill
156
A Web of Knives
156
The Big Picture
158
The Sum of its Parts
159
Art of the Kill Black Boxes
159 162
Operation: Political Animal The Handler The Mansion Staff
162 163 163
Operation: Import/Export The Sibling The Business Partner
165 166 166
Operation: One Checkmate The Catering Staff The Plus One
167 169 170
APPENDIX 172 Character Creation Quick Guide
172
WEAPON TAGS
173
ARMOR TAGS
178
VEHICLE TAGS
179
Table of Contents
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Randie ducked back beneath the rooftop hearing her voice. She thumped her fist into ledge, breathing hard. her injured shoulder, using the sudden burst of pain to cut emotion off at the pass. Calm down. Take stock.
“Hello to you too, darling,” said Trina. If Her shot had gone wide, that much she she’d heard Randie’s painful hiss, she was knew. She was relatively certain no one else ignoring it. celebrating in the street festival below had been hit. She was only three stories up — “You shot me.” if there were panic, she’d have heard the “Only a little!” crowd’s screams. “I have a job to do.” Cover not totally blown, then. Good. “Let me guess, killing Lou Marchant Jr.? She twisted to try getting another look, but Because I’ve been hired to keep him alive.” the sharp pain and sudden warm rush in her Randie groaned. Of course. If she could keep shoulder kept her sitting. Trina talking, she might be able to slip away. Shot. Not so good. Quietly and quickly as she could, she gathered Randie concentrated on getting her respi- her equipment. “He’s an awful person, Trina. ration and heartbeat down to normal levels. The list of what he’s done, what his family’s The wound hurt like hell, but she was fairly done?” certain it hadn’t hit anything vital. While she “Sure. But Lou Senior’s paying me an awful waited for calm to return, she replayed the lot to keep his awful son alive. Tell you what. last few seconds in her mind, thought about Let this job go, and I’ll take you somewhere angles and trajectories, and what vantages the nice with the proceeds.” rooftops across the street offered. She risked a It took a lot to keep silent as she slung her peek over the ledge and spotted the shadow rifle over her shoulder, but Randie managed exactly where her calculations told her one it. “Like where?” might be. She ducked back down before they could take another shot at her. “Somewhere with a beach.” Trina went on to describe one, while Randie stayed low and The R&D team had outfitted her with concrept toward the other end of the rooftop. tact lenses that gave her a heads-up display and a communications interface. Now, she locked her gaze onto the tracker app in the corner and activated the map. The beacon she’d placed on her quarry earlier today showed him moving down the street, buoyed along by the other festivalgoers. This location was blown, but if she could make it to her backup point a block down, she could still finish the job. Just had to shake whoever that was across the way. Who’d found her out? She’d been so careful setting all this up.
To make it across to the next building, she’d need a running start. She’d spent the better part of the last week scoping out her best routes to the secondary point, and with Trina on her tail, this was the fastest.
Even a few seconds’ head start would be enough. She hoped. They’d always been neck and neck when they competed in college. Hell, they’d been evenly matched at nearly everything, and in the places where they weren’t, Randie and Trina’s skills complemented one A flash to her right signaled an incoming another. It had made them excellent partners, call. Caller unknown, read the display. once. Randie answered. “Yeah.” “That is you over there.” “Trina. God damn it.” Her ex’s delighted laughter spilled through her earpiece; its fainter echo came from the building opposite. Randie couldn’t help it; her heart fluttered at
Once, but not anymore. Randie rose slowly, keeping the electrical shed between herself and Trina’s vantage point. The rooftop was unlit and shadow-draped, but the moon was just bright enough to provide some small illumination. As soon as she left the shed’s cover, Trina
One Lucky Shot
9
would see her. Let’s see if I can run faster than her bullets. Randie breathed deep. The pain in her shoulder lessened to a dull throb. Trina’s voice was a soothing drone in her earpiece. She was talking about the fruity frozen drinks they’d order, like the world’s booziest meditation app.
based on where Trina had last been, and her relative speed. It was a drill they’d both practiced over and over when they first joined the Jacobins. In that match-up, Randie was the better shot. “Hey!” said Trina. “What was that for?”
“Warning shot,” Randie muttered. Randie set her feet, like she was about to Another gap. Another leap. Three seconds start the hundred-meter dash. She imagined the starter pistol’s sharp crack. Took off like later, Trina grunted as she did the same across the street. She was catching up. a shot. Ahead, a skybridge connected two build“...you can choose salt or sugar on the rim. I prefer — oh, you sneaky thing.” From Trina’s ings. During the day, the glass-and-steel end came the sound of her scrambling to her masterpiece served the practical function of alleviating pedestrian traffic along a busy feet. street. Tonight, festival colors illuminated its Then Randie was at the edge, leaping, sus- panes; red, yellow, and orange lights wound pended momentarily between one rooftop around the girders. Randie dropped down and the next. At the apex of her jump, the onto it. Since it was after-hours, no one would wind of a bullet whizzed past her cheek. be walking beneath her while she shot Lou Then she hit the other side, somersaulting Marchant, Jr. to break her fall. Randie got up and kept runBut she wouldn’t be alone. Across the way, ning. She stayed low and zig-zagged, pain- Trina landed lightly. fully aware of the seconds both would add to Marchant’s dot crept closer. her travel. Trina didn’t shoot again. A quick glance across the way showed her in parallel “Walk away,” said Trina, as they both pursuit, making the jump between her build- advanced. ing and the next. “Like you did?” Randie’s heart caught in her throat. It would The tiny, hurt gasp in her ear told Randie be better for her mission if Trina didn’t make that that shot hit its mark. the jump, if she’d miscalculated and fell short. They met in the middle of the skybridge. Better for the mission, but not for Randie Trina’s blunt-cut blonde hair framed her herself. round features. Her eyeliner came to points as Trina made it. Randie resumed breathing. sharp as her knives. She was as beautiful as “See? I knew you cared,” said Trina in her ever. Randie might even have said so, if her ex ear. didn’t take a swing. “I hate you.”
Randie caught Trina’s wrist and used her momentum against her. She pulled Trina in “Then hang up.” close and stomped the sole of her heavy boot Randie couldn’t. She told herself it was down her ex’s calf. because she couldn’t afford the moment’s Trina yelped, but it would take more than distraction it would take to access the menu. that to get rid of her. She stepped back just far That Trina would use it as another excuse to enough to swing again. Her fist blurred, too shoot. Or maybe it was because it might help fast for Randie to track. The first blow caught her anticipate whatever Trina’s next move Randie square on the chin, made her teeth would be. It certainly wasn’t because Randie clack together painfully. When the second hit missed her. a heartbeat after, Randie had time to steel herTo prove it, Randie pulled out her own self, but no chance to dodge. Trina pushed her pistol. She fired without looking, calculating back, and back.
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TRINITY CONTINUUM: ASSASSINS
Randie’s heel caught on a raised steel beam just as Trina landed another solid hit. Randie staggered backward — one step, two — and then there was nothing beneath her. Everything tilted, and she felt that first lurching terror of a fall... ... then Trina caught her.
Randie didn’t. “Damn it!” Trina hauled her back up, none too gently. They lay panting atop the skybridge for a moment, while below them, chaos erupted as the crowd realized Lou hadn’t just fallen down drunkenly. “I should’ve taken out your knee,” said Trina.
Randie’s wounded shoulder sent a hot bolt “He deserved it, Trina. I’ve seen the of pain all through her, as she hung from the dossier.” injured arm. As her vision cleared, the dot “I don’t doubt it. But Big Lou will want me marking Marchant’s place in the crowd re- dead for this. I have to go.” solved into his face. She could see him, clear “Come back with me. We’ll plead your case. as day, dancing his way along the street. The Jacobins will take you back. We’ll protect In this position, she couldn’t bring her you.” Randie caught Trina’s hand. “I’ll protect rifle around, but that was fine. She had other you.” weapons. With her free hand, Randie reached Trina smiled as she helped Randie to her feet for the gun at her waist. — careful of her shoulder, this time. “I wish it “Don’t you dare,” hissed Trina. “Take that were that simple.” She leaned in and planted shot and I’ll let go.” a kiss on the corner of Randie’s mouth. “Take “You won’t,” Randie said softly. She lined care of yourself. We’ll see each other again.” up the shot. Squeezed the trigger. Then she was gone, across the skybridge Lou Junior dropped to the ground.
and onto the roof, one shadow vanishing into a myriad of others.
One Lucky Shot
11
Welcome to the world of Shadow. Trinity Continuum: Assassins introduces players to the shadowy underworld of the Continuum’s bright and hopeful take. Assassins are, as the name implies, killers for hire. This game draws its inspiration from action cinema. The characters you play deal in murder and death, but their lives are stylish, dangerous, and never dull. This book presents all the content for Storyguides and players to create and play chronicles about these dashing, stylish killers and their hidden societies.
THE WORLD OF SHADOW Rack upon gleaming rack of deadly weaponry. The scent of classic co*cktails and toasted tobacco leaves. The clink of ancient coins against one another. The feel of a bespoke suit. The taste of blood. If Trinity Continuum is a world of light, there must be a world of shadow. Enter the Assassins. Inspiration strikes those who perfect the art of the kill. Hidden societies form among these special Inspired, to house and train new Assassins. Some of these societies date back to the ancient world, while others have formed within recent memory. None of them operate in the open, where ordinary people living their lives in daylight can access them.
knife, even when they’re doing what’s right. There’s always the risk that something will go wrong, a target will slip away, the mundane authorities will learn of their whereabouts, or a rival will capitalize on their failure. Whenever an Assassin makes her move, it is not without consequences.
CONNECTION TO THE CONTINUUM
The world of Shadow presented in Assassins is part of the greater continuum. It’s not another world or a separate dimension or a “shard” of the real world. It follows the wuxia genre concept of “the martial forest” — it’s a criminal underworld that An Assassin makes her livelihood by taking the normal people are vaguely aware of but do not know lives of others. This is, on its face, an evil act, but the how to access. In our reality, how much do everyday characters in Assassins games are the protagonists. people know about the inner workings of organized The fiction of each chronicle accepts that killing and crime or how to sell organs on the dark web? The violence are a part of the tapestry of the story told. To same principle applies here. that end, Assassins focuses its playable characters on Assassins takes place around the same time as righting the wrongs of the world. Their targets are desTrinity Continuum Core Rulebook, which is to pots, weapons dealers, corrupt politicians, oil barons, say the present or the near-future. The characters venture capitalists and other awful people in power are Inspired like any other continuum character, who hold the world under their thumb. The characters but their inspiration takes the form of incredible may not be good people, but their targets are worse. violence. As far as Inspired characters go, Assassins The Assassins never punch down. Their targets are deeply steeped in flux. It permeates their highly are not ordinary people scraping by day to day. They focused lethal abilities, called Masteries. While hold the power to put a bullet between the eyes of the Talents who live in the world of Daylight might worlds’ greatest evils, and they do so with style and deal with entities from another reality or other pulp cold professionalism. After all, the idea that violence strangeness, Assassins create temporal anomalies by is universally a moral ill favors the powerful and the gathering together. This concentration of flux keeps status quo. Those with the monopoly on violence do outsiders away but also creates anachronisms that not want others to turn it against them. Assassins appear where Assassins gather. An Assassin of the have the power to upend this status quo and strike Society of Leonidas may slay their target with a fear into the hearts of the elite. blessed spear, then accept payment from their patron in ancient coins. This sort of interaction is far from unusual in the world of Shadow, but would seem fanThis book provides tools to help encapsulate a tone tastical and outlandish from an external perspective. of tense action in Assassins games. A Storyguide may Storyguides who’d like to see more crossover bechoose to make the overall tone lighter or heavier or tween Daylight and Shadow can run campaigns using choose to focus on modern real-world issues versus Talents from Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook fantastical ones, but whenever a fight breaks out, ten- alongside characters from Assassins. More informasion should run high. Assassins live on the edge of a tion on this is provided in Chapter Five (p. XX).
NECESSARY EVILS
TENSE ACTION
The World of Shadow
13
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK While Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is necessary to play a game of Assassins, this book contains many additions and adjustments to the core ruleset to better shape a chronicle set in the world of shadow. The following chapters detail these additions.
and Edges suitable for playing in the shadow world, as well as all-new Skill Tricks and cutting-edge gear.
Chapter Four: Systems and Drama explains the rules specific to playing Assassins chronicles. In this chapter Storyguides will also find a collecChapter One: Stepping into Shadows discusses tion of deadly antagonists to challenge the players’ the hidden world of the Assassins, its history and characters. structure as well as notable figures from the past and Chapter Five: Masteries are new, special abilities present. that only Assassins can access. They grant characters Chapter Two: The Societies details the Societies supernatural power over acts of violence, hunting, of Shadow. Characters can belong to any of the stalking, and killing. five introduced in this chapter, but players and Chapter Six: The Killing Art provides advice Storyguides are welcome to invent their own. for Storyguides running Assassins games. It also Chapter Three: Character Creation details includes a few sample scenarios, and how to propthe process by which players create their unique erly pace one’s way through a series of linked Assassins. This chapter contains brand new paths assassinations.
INSPIRATIONAL MEDIA Here are some games and films to help you get into not inhabit, making ideal inspiration for the world of the mood of Assassins. shadow.
GAMES
MOVIES
Assassins Creed (Series, 2007) — The series presents a unified society of assassins throughout periods of history, who have been entangled with a variety of important events, people, and places. The idea of an assassin society, plus all the cool abilities the player character has, make for ideal Assassins inspiration.
Atomic Blonde (2017) — Atomic Blonde’s brutal action and thriller conspiracy is a perfect example of the Assassin lifestyle. Romance on the mission isn’t just for the James Bond types.
Hitman (Series, 2000) — Agent 47, dispatched by a secretive and elite organization to strategically remove powerful and corrupt individuals provides a useful demonstration of an agent of Shadow cutting through twilight circles. Similarly, his conflicts with his own organization provide ample material for intra-organizational battles within the institutions of shadow.
hidden weapons, muscle cars, old friends and older enemies: John Wick is quintessentially thematic for Assassins.
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) — This movie is a pure Assassins story about a young woman who botches an Dishonored (Series, 2012) — Main character Corvo’s important job and winds up on the wrong side of her transformation from ordinary person to mystical- Society. It takes place entirely in Shadow and prominently-empowered killer serves as good inspiration for a ly features an exceptional example of a minor Society. character’s transition from the world of daylight to John Wick (2014) — A revenge story taking place the world of shadow. in the hidden world of killers for hire. Bespoke suits,
Wanted (2008) — Another story of transition from daylight to shadow. Plus, curving bullets and all the other unusual powers demonstrated by characters make for excellent examples of Masteries.
TABLETOP RPGS
Metal Gear Solid (Series, 1998) — Layers of conspiracy and melodrama make excellent inspiration Blades in the Dark (2017) — The criminal underfor bombastic Assassins games. The characters clash world of Duskvol exemplifies living in twilight. with each other in a world that ordinary people do Blades also assumes that the gang of scoundrels lives
14
INTRODUCTION
and works together. Ideal inspiration for creating a Human Target (2010) — Christopher Chance is a gang of collaborating Assassins. good example of an eccentric Assassin protecting people from other Assassins. The charming supporting cast and quirky world-building lends itself well Alias (2001) — The layers of conspiracy and double to an Assassins chronicle with a lighter tone.
TELEVISION SHOWS
agents, as well as finding the balance between an ordinary life and the life of a killer provide great inspiration for an Assassins game. Milo Rambaldi’s inventions are good examples of unusual technology that feature in an Assassins chronicle.
Treadstone (2019) — This TV show inspired by the Bourne novels features a shadowy conspiracy controlling sleeper agents whose fighting and death-defying stunts provide excellent inspiration for Assassins and the deadly antagonists they face.
LEXICON Anathema: An Assassin in bad standing, having violated the Code
The Service: A neutral party that enforces the rules of Shadow.
Assassin: An Inspired character whose power is Shadow: The world of Assassins — the place focused on the art of the kill. They gather together where chronicles take place as well as the base of into Societies where they learn to use their Masteries. operations for all Societies. Code: A strict set of ten rules by which all Signal: A pirate radio Society run by an enigmatic Assassins must abide. host who directs the cooperation of a diverse alliance of marginalized Assassins. The Signal focuses more Contract: A binding agreement to kill a target. Daylight: The world of everyday, ordinary people. on the cause than the payment. Society: A community of Assassins that raises, Assassins’ families and loved ones typically live in houses and trains them. Each has its own unique the world of Daylight. Daughters of the Jacobins: A Society focused philosophy and fighting style.
Society of Leonidas: A group of ascetic Assassins on freedom and violent change, dating back to the whose history dates back to the ancient world. They French Revolution. They believe all Assassins should are the most numerous and powerful, and their pracbe held accountable for the outcomes of their deadly tices established many of the codes and traditions of actions. the world of Shadow. Krugu Vorov: A mystery cult of Russian Assassins
The Swarm: A corporate Society based out of who call themselves the Thieves-in-Law. They oversee goings-on in Twilight — especially punishing Japan that trains Assassins en masse. They specialize transgressions against their ruling body, the Seven in pursuing and killing other Inspired. Princes. Twilight: The world of mundane criminal activity, such as con artists, thieves, and organized crime. Mastery: A special kind of power that grants It bridges the world of Daylight and the world of Assassins absolute control over violence and killing. Shadow.
Lexicon
15
“Nobody’s ever been arrested for a murder; they have only ever been arrested for not planning it properly.” — Terry Hayes, I Am Pilgrim Murder is the world’s second-oldest profession. Since the first killer bashed in someone’s skull with a heavy rock, humanity has devised evermore elaborate ways to kill. Martial training, advanced weapons, and ideologies of violence have refined the art of killing — but Assassins are those who have mastered it. Anyone can become a murderer, but few have what it takes to be an Assassin. Each is Inspired, but the (often tragic) circ*mstances of their lives and the presence of Flux has refined their exceptional nature toward the killing arts. Some kill in service of higher aims, while others seek profits or simply to hone
their own abilities. Whatever their reason, Assassins leave behind their old lives to walk a different path. They abandon the mundanity of the Daylight world to step into the Shadows, where the Assassin community resides. Characters who become Assassins do not do so lightly; it’s a hard and violent life, and one that few walk away from whole and happy. At best, an Assassin becomes a legend to their comrades and retires to obscurity. At worst, they die alone and anonymous. You have chosen to walk this path.
ENTERING THE SHADOW: BECOMING AN ASSASSIN Most ordinary people do not wake up one day and decide to master the killing arts. It takes a special kind of person, one of the Inspired who has lived a life touched by violence and death. An Assassin could have been a professional killer before their Moment of Inspiration, but it is just as possible that they had little experience killing beforehand and must adapt to survive with their newfound skills.
Like Talents, their abilities develop with exposure to flux, but the circ*mstances of an Assassin’s life and Moment of Inspiration refine their manipulation of probabilities toward killing. Once Inspired, each Assassin finds themselves more capable of inflicting and surviving violence, but the heights of Assassin skill require training and dedication. Veteran Assassins seek out their juniors, schooling them in Some Assassins are victims of violence them- the basics of the Shadow, from the most fundamenselves, rather than its perpetrator, left for dead by a tal training in self-defense to the Code that governs serial killer or pursued by murderers. Many grew up Assassin conduct, and even their first Masteries: the in environments suffused with violence and death, killing techniques practiced by Assassins. such as in deadly warzones, places torn apart by An elder Assassin owes only a bare minimum of civil strife, among criminals, or even raised by other training according to the Code, but it is common Assassins. A rare few are unfortunate people who for senior Assassins to scout out fledglings and offer have led otherwise sleepy boring lives, are sudden- more extensive training. The bonds forged during ly drawn into a life-or-death situation. Inspired to this time serve to help recruit fledgling Assassins survive, they overcome danger as an Assassin. These into a Society, one of the organizations dedicated unlucky circ*mstances are always life-threatening to training killers-for-hire and ruling the Assassin (and somewhat traumatic). world.
THE SECRET HISTORY The Code, along with the Societies upholding it, did in accordance with Flux events. History is filled with not always exist. Assassins have been around as long endless records of warriors, bloodshed, and murder, as humanity itself, their numbers waxing and waning but official records of Assassins are rare, dismissed as
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apocryphal. Some historians even say that the concept At first, these congregations of killers were nothof professional killers-for-hire in history is a product ing more than allies of convenience. They traded in of modern fiction and popular culture. weapons, training, and information to survive. Some found solace in the company of others who saw the This is by design. The world of Assassins is occulted from the regular world through the eyes of a killer, as Assassin life world, hidden from the public record by a combina- is lonely and poorly understood by others. As their tion of deliberate action by Assassins and the occlud- numbers grew, they established hidden enclaves to ing effects of their Flux. Records of Assassins or their train one another, as well as philosophies dictating Societies are dismissed as fabrications or the imagin- who they must kill. ings of conspiracy theorists. Accounts of the oracular Pythians, Assassins who killed targets gleaned from visions to prevent a dire future, are widely dismissed in academia. The Society of Leonidas, an ancient brotherhood of killer-saints whose wealth secretly manipulates the modern world, is a regular topic of discussion by amateur detectives on internet boards, lent as much credibility by the public as UFO sightings or the Illuminati.
There have always been people willing to accept pay in return for killing. Widely dismissed by the public, Assassins have nevertheless persisted across history. Assassins aren’t soldiers or enforcers. They act alone and on their own terms, accepting contracts for exorbitant pay in return for taking the life of someone powerful, important, and in the way. Assassins have been behind deaths infamous and unknown, altering the course of world events without allowing themselves to become part of the narrative. An Assassin who does their job well goes unremembered, vanishing into anonymity when the deed is done.
All Assassins take money for the kill, but the earliest Societies decided there was more to the professional than just the kill itself. The Astradhari, who conceived of their Masteries as divine weapons granted by the gods, determined their targets through the interpretation of the Vedas by studied sages. The Eyes of the King made the hard choice to trade the life of a great man for the preservation of Persia, poisoning Alexander the Great and his lover Hephaestion to try and save their home from Macedonian domination.
While Assassins keep records of their own secret histories that put modern libraries to shame, even the most fastidious archivists have little records of the earliest histories of Assassins. Ancient relics, weapons, and manuals containing Masteries lost in the fog of history are highly sought after. The Society of Leonidas collects these artifacts obsessively and will not hesitate to put a contract on an enemy known to possess one.
OCCULTATION
Assassins have always lived on the edge of public perception, but the Societies have operated at varying levels of secrecy across the ages, culminating in the Assassins in the modern era have built their comsecretive practices of the modern age. The Society munity atop the graves of their forebears. Before the of Leonidas has always remained in the Shadow, but modern Societies, there have been countless others others claimed the public favor of the powerful while which have risen and fallen across the ages. Some carrying out their bidding. fell to the vicissitudes of history, while others were The Heavenly Immortal Corps served the brought to their knees and slain, by their targets or Ming Dynasty as an elite force of Assassins tasked even by fellow Assassins. These ancient Societies with securing the ingredients for the elixir of imhave shaped the Assassin world, and supply ancient mortality, they blended alchemical mixtures with techniques passed down by their inheritors (or their their Masteries to perform superhuman feats. Just killers) which still see use by Assassins today. as they’d nearly completed their work, courtiers EMERGENCE jealous of the favor bestowed on the Society’s Those with the murderous spark of Inspiration majority of foreign-born members conspired within them have always found themselves drawn to bring about their destruction and scattered to one another. While most of these encounters have the Immortals to hidden redoubts in China and ended in bloodshed, few have led to the flowering of beyond. To this day, Assassins still seek their hidesecretive lodges and warrior-societies dedicated to aways for their secrets, including the recipe for the elixir of immortality. the art of the kill. These became the first Societies.
SOCIETIES OF THE PAST
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CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
KILLER-SAINTS While Assassins pass on, they slip from the memory of the Daylight world. However, an Assassin’s Society preserves their legacy long after they’re gone and records their deeds in their hidden annals. The Society of Leonidas holds a great deal of reverence for the biographies and lore of ancient Assassins and eagerly pursue relics thought to have belonged to them, as well as manuals detailing the techniques they used. Here are a few examples of Assassins held in high esteem by the Society of Leonidas. Nazar, a Palmyrene Assassin who slew King Odaenathus. Through misdirection, they made a member of the king’s family a perfect scapegoat and allowed Zenobia to claim the throne. Nazar’s motives and his connection to Zenobia remain a mystery even to the Shadow’s scholars. The Gentleman Bowler, a notorious member of the Worshipful Company of Killers, well known for his poise and flawless charm. He slipped his way into the finest of social company and executed his targets with such precision that no one remembered his face — only his eponymous hat. The Lion’s Claw, sister to Sundiata Keita. She was the masked killer at his side who landed the deathblow on Suomaoro Kante, King of the Sosso. Legend attributes supernatural power to Suomaoro Kante that the Lion of Sogolon and his Claw overcame together. The King of Sosso was rumored to have supernatural fighting power of his own, but the Lion’s Claw stood her ground against him and his death allowed Sundiata Keita to found the Mali Empire. Her story is passed down through the songs and poems of West African Assassin-griots. Most infamous of the Societies who eschewed the Shadow and reaped the whirlwind is The Order of Assassins, among the few Societies acknowledged in modern records, though the true extent of their influence remains obfuscated. The Order of Assassins trained Hashashin, the root word for the modern Assassin. This Society openly ruled the Alamut state from Alamut Castle for centuries, using assassination and subterfuge to maintain their independence from their neighbors. Mongols in the 13th century brought an end to Alamut, aided by enemy Assassins dispatched by the Order’s greatest enemies. While some propose that the Order survived and continued to manipulate events around Alamut, most Assassins consider the state’s demise a sobering reminder that killing openly and ruling in the Daylight will only bring ruin.
THE CONSIDERATE KILLERS In the 19th century, the modern Shadow took shape. Assassins in service of the British Empire dreamt of a Shadow unified in accordance with their own culture and rules of conduct. The Worshipful Company of Killers, Assassins obsessed with etiquette who killed at the behest of the aristocratic elite began to conduct their business across the world, killing in every corner of the Empire.
The sun never set on the Worshipful Company’s enterprises. They established a network of hotels across the globe to make the business of travelling for murder a more luxurious affair. Terrorized colonial subjects and working-class people dispatched to the colonies served as porters in the hotels and accomplices to the Company’s crimes, furnishing weapons and disposing of corpses for the killer elite. The Company’s influence grew so great that it wielded the power of empire to force other Societies to adhere to their own code of conduct and offered the services of their network to those who complied. The Company maintained its stranglehold on the Shadow for decades, making enemies of Societies ravaged and humiliated for failing to abide by their eccentric standards, while hunting non-compliant Societies out of existence.
THE BIRTH OF THE CODE Sometime after 1922 for reasons unknown to the Societies, Assassins began to appear in far greater numbers than in previous decades. The Worshipful Company of Killers became vulnerable in the aftermath of the Great War, having depleted their numbers attempting to influence the war’s outcome through assassination. Their servants in the Shadow one by one began to betray them, collaborating with other Societies subjugated by the Worshipful Company to take out contracts on every
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last member. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the established a new order, formalizing the Assassin Worshipful Company was executed by their own subor- Code with the aid of the Societies who also wishes to dinates, and a new day dawned in the Shadow. prevent a conflict as cataclysmic as the destruction of The Service, an alliance of servants, businesses, the Worshipful Company from shaking the Shadow and hoteliers who served the Worshipful Company again.
THREE WORLDS The world of Assassins is our modern-day world. It takes place in the present. The cities and nationalities present within its world are our own, unchanged except by the imaginations of the Storyguide and players. However, this fictional version of the real world breaks down along three lines: Daylight, Twilight, and Shadow. These are descriptors for different parts of the setting that Assassins interact with. The lines between them are intentionally porous and characters freely move between them during Assassins chronicles.
DAYLIGHT The world of Daylight is mundane and ordinary. Regular people work regular jobs, go grocery shopping, play on their phones and watch TV. They do not think about taking the lives of others or about the inner workings of committing violent crimes. Most Trinity Continuum games take place in Daylight — even if strange, extradimensional things happen there. Talents of Daylight occasionally brush against the world of Twilight when their heroic exploits lead them there, but they rarely if ever venture into Shadow. If an Assassin was recruited into her Society, her former friends and loved ones still live in Daylight, a dangerous prospect for most. The Societies discourage Assassins from maintaining their Daylight ties. This is a recipe for disaster, risking exposure for the Assassin and the lives of those she holds dear. If an Assassin insists on maintaining her connection to the world of Daylight, then she must keep her life as a killer private from others and shares information about her real occupation at her own peril. A Society will not hesitate to cut loose an Assassin who reveals too much to the people in Daylight.
TWILIGHT In the world of Twilight, organized crime, gangs, coalitions of thieves, corrupt officials and shady corporations dwell. It’s the shady world that lurks just alongside the world of Daylight, filled to the brim with
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the criminal and the quasi-legal. Shell companies participating in embezzlement and other white-collar crime might be technically legal, but their activities fall within the parameters of Twilight. On the other hand, petty thieves and enforcers-for-hire also fall under Twilight’s shady umbrella. However, a doctor providing care and distributing medicine in open disregard for oppressive laws is also operating in Twilight. For a person whose livelihood involves the dubiously legal, their Twilight activities usually involve evading notice from Daylight law enforcement or other Daylight authority. Usually, Twilight operatives do not want to accumulate any kind of fame or reputation — except among their peers. This is the aspect of the Assassins where ordinary Talents and Assassins are most likely to overlap. The Moment of Inspiration comes to the highly skilled, which frequently includes people with criminal backgrounds. Many people on the margins of society are also part of Twilight, or at least drawn into its edges. These people include sex workers with criminal patrons, drug mules coerced into dangerous work, homeless people selling overheard information, and drug dealers trying to make ends meet. Unlike contacts in Daylight, Societies encourage Assassins to cultivate and protect these relationships. A safe and well-regarded Twilight contact is worth their weight in gold. The World of Shadow does not treat its marginalized Twilight associates as easily disposable. Twilight has the most overlap with Shadow, but rarely are Twilight contacts invited in. Shadow is the Assassins’ world, and theirs alone. It’s nothing personal, just business.
SHADOW This is the realm of Assassins. It is their hidden abode and base of operation. Shadow is not an alternate dimension or reality, or a shard of the real world. It exists alongside normal, day-to-day operations, but disappears beneath average scrutiny. The world of Assassins stands inaccessible to the people
CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
THE ALLEGIANCES AND THE WORLD OF SHADOW Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook details several Allegiances, beginning on p. 160. The majority of these Allegiances are assumed to operate in Daylight, but some brush against Shadow. 9 and Archangel have ties to Twilight, as they frequently deal with or hire underworld elements. Similarly, Pharaoh’s Lightkeepers have plenty of reasons to dabble in Twilight activity. Rumor holds that the Æon Society has connections directly within the Daughters of the Jacobins, and that the Global Cartography Initiative has provided the Signal with valuable technology every now and then. On more than one occasion, the Neptune Foundation has thought they were saving the day, only to discover they’d walked directly into an ongoing Shadow plot. Les Fantomes operates almost exclusively in Twilight and on more than one occasion has received mysterious help from a member of Shadow. Using the Allegiances makes for a different set of obstacles or allies who are not Shadow’s usual fare of brutal killers, corrupt politicians, or morally bankrupt business people. This also opens the door to crossover play between Talents and Assassins. of Daylight (unless, of course, they are a victim of unlucky circ*mstances, see p. XX). An ordinary salaryman cannot accidentally make a reservation at Hotel Asylia, or stumble into a board room reserved by the Daughters of the Jacobins. The Inspired power of Assassins as a collective whole protects them. An Assassin can bring someone from Daylight into Shadow. Such a thing is not impossible. However, doing so puts the cultivated secrecy of Shadow at risk — a transgression that Societies do not look upon lightly. All Societies, major and minor, operate out of Shadow. The major Societies control whole organizations, own businesses, hotels, and training facilities. These places exist in material reality but they do not exist legally. Of course, residents of the Shadow know one another and how to locate one another though hidden facilities and headquarters remain secret even among Assassins. If a person in Daylight has heard of something from Shadow, it’s in the form of an urban legend, an unbelievable post online, or a swiftly-discredited piece of independent journalism. Those who dwell in Twilight know that Shadow exists, and is populated by extremely power and impossibly deadly people. Criminal elements with contacts in Shadow abide by one important rule: do not f*ck with your Shadow associates. This doesn’t stop residents from ignoring this rule, naturally — a mistake for which they pay dearly.
who can afford them. The masterminds in Shadow orchestrate unrest in another country, embed seconds-in-command who quietly pull the strings, and eliminate important opposition to their long-term plans. Assassins begin as the killing instruments of these hidden leaders, but may rise to seize power for themselves. Most Assassins choose to live a life of violence, and escape Shadow before it claims their lives but most aren’t that lucky. Doing so is a dangerous play, and a path strewn with countless enemies. No matter how a character approaches her life in Shadow, it’s never an easy trod.
SHADOW AND FLUX
Where Assassins gather, the collective force of their Inspiration creates something like a barrier of Flux. This cordon of energy separates Shadow from the rest of the world. It makes everyday people drive past their glistening bases of operation and think wonder what people do there, then never consider the place again. Like any other continuum, this bubble of Flux affects temporal flow. The World of Shadow is every-so-slightly anachronistic, and thanks to this unusual manipulation, protects its residents from extra-dimensional problems. Anomalies like Francis Smith (Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 141) do not appear within Shadow. However, this does mean that antiquated technology and weapons — like oil paintings or phonographs or swords — see regular use. Characters with the ability to sense the From their vaunted, hidden bases of operation, presence of Flux might be able to identify a location Societies influence the power structures of the as belonging to Shadow by its unusual energy. They’d world. They select their targets from among the be wise to leave it well enough alone, though. dangerous and powerful at the behest of those governments, corporations, and other organizations
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THE ORDER OF THE SHADOW The Shadow is like a world unto itself hidden in parallel to the societies of Daylight and Twilight. The Societies form the bulk of this world, but the order that governs the Shadow is held together by three vital components: The Code is the foundation that binds all Assassins together and separates the killers from the beasts. The Service which arbitrates the Code and provides the functions necessary for the Shadow to survive in the modern era. Finally, there is The Contract, the kill itself, the one commonality among all Assassins. Each of these three pillars form the foundation for the modern Shadow, born from the ashes of the Worshipful Company’s violent order.
THE CODE The World of Shadow is above the law — it is well beyond the reproach of any Daylight authority, and thus it must govern itself. In Twilight, criminals scrabble for territory and stab one another in the back. No one can be trusted. If Shadow followed the same haphazard structure, it would have long since collapsed. Since times immemorial, there has been only one rule of the Assassin’s Code, to honor your contracts. A contract is a promise, and so the modern Code is a contract between all the participants in the Shadow: a standard of behavior to which all Assassins from the secret masters to the newest recruits must adhere. Those who violate its tenets are marked anathema and cast out from Shadow, if not executed. An ejected Assassin is a liminal being with nowhere to belong in Daylight and unable to return to Shadow. Execution is a mercy. The Code is based on the ancient social contract among Assassins, first codified into tradition by the Society of Leonidas and then put to paper by the Worshipful Company of Killers. In the modern day, the Service enforces the Code and does not hesitate to mark code-breakers anathema at the slightest offense. The following strictures make up the Code. • Rule the First: Do Not Kill Your Siblings-inArms. Assassins are a rare and precious resource. Slaying another is a grave sin, even if they are an enemy. The corollary to this rule is, of course, unless they are a contracted target, or they harm you first. • Rule the Second: Do Not Interfere in Your
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Siblings’ Conflicts. Forbidden from slaying one another, Assassins resolve their problems with formal duels: tests of combative skill with strict rules to determine the winner and loser. Do not interfere with a duel. • Rule the Third: Do Not Involve Others in Your Vendetta. Tensions run high in the world of Shadow, and bruised egos happen. If one must get even, do not drag your associate Assassins into it, and absolutely not drag your contacts in Twilight nor your family and friends in Daylight into the struggle. This also goes for targeting a rival’s contacts, friends, or family. • Rule the Fourth: Respect Neutral Ground. Places like Hotel Asylia (p. XX) host all residents of Shadow, regardless of their affiliation. While in an established neutral location, Assassins may not feud with, duel, or kill one another. • Rule the Fifth: A Contract is Sacrosanct. Do not question it. If you do not like the terms of a contract, do not accept it. Breaking a contract or betraying one’s employer is forbidden. • Rule the Sixth: Your Word is Binding. Assassins must treat their promises like a contract. If you swear not to harm someone, you must abide by that. If you swear a life-debt, you must answer the call when you are summoned. • Rule the Eighth: Death is Only for the Target. Assassins are precision instruments, not weapons of mass destruction. Claim too many lives and the general public of Daylight notices. Every Assassin is called to temper their bloodlust for their contracted target only. The corollary to this rule is that hired muscle, bodyguards, soldiers, enforcers, and other doers of violence hired to get between you and your target are fair game. • Rule the Ninth: Aim Carefully the Killing Arts. Do not raise your hand against a non-combatant. Targets employ dozens of Daylight innocents who have nothing to do with accomplishing your contract. Slaying clerks, assistants, servants, and other non-combatants is forbidden. They are to be bargained with or intimidated into silence, if they are in your way.
CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
• Rule the Tenth: Abandon your Daylit Life. Discussing the goings-on and the details of a life in Shadow is forbidden. Assassins must not reveal anything about their hidden world to the general public, their families, and especially not Daylight authorities. The Societies advise that Assassins cut their ties entirely, and warn that those who do not do so at their own risk.
RETIREMENT
cases, some Assassins never retire, adapting their killing methods as they age. All residents of Shadow have nothing but the utmost respect (and healthy fear) of elderly Assassins — people who have grown old in a profession where most die young.
THE SERVICE Assassins in the Shadow have needs for services to practice their killing arts, but they cannot turn to the Daylight or the Twilight to provide for her needs without risks. Enter the Service, part secret-society, part alliance of the Shadow’s hidden industries, it offers Assassins what no one else can: To meet those needs with luxury and discretion. The Societies have their own stores of weapons, facilities and contacts, but few can easily match the luxury and excellence-in-service of the Service, all with none of the danger afforded by utilizing Daylight institutions with similar resources.
The Code services a second function, besides a framework of rules by which Shadow operates. Obeying the Code and its strictures allows an Assassin to retire in good standing — assuming they live long enough to do so. An Assassin who ends their career having never violated these rules applies for retirement to the Service, who then grants them a generous severance package and a comfortable place to live out the rest of their days. Of In addition to providing essential services, porcourse, leaving Shadow also requires the approval ters (as members of the Service are known) are of a character’s Society, which may have other stip- also responsible for providing a secure location ulations besides the Code. to receive contracts, as well as for the Societies to The Service evaluates good standing based on bank their wealth in ways entirely invisible to the the total number of contracts completed by the Daylight. Assassin, her lifelong record of performance, any Where once the Shadow’s myriad industries risks she’s posed to the wellbeing of Shadow, and had to secure the patronage of the Societies, the any times she killed a little too much or brought Worshipful Company destroyed the infrastructure heat upon her Society. They evaluate each Assassin of much of their rivals, and the Service rose up to on a rubric and while only the most heinous or fill that vacuum. Suddenly in a position of power inept killer fails this approval process, the amount over the Societies, they formalized the Code and of severance and their willingness to offer services normalized the relationships of the most powerful after retirement varies based on a complicated risk Societies in the Shadow. The Service ensures the assessment. Those with an outstanding record Shadow’s stability by maintaining the balance of are afforded protection from the law and further power. Shadow retaliation. The Service demands that all vendettas and feuds be called off, and never to be SERVICES RENDERED spoken of again. Though she returns to a “normal” To access the luxurious offerings of the Service, life, the Assassin remains perpetually aware of the an Assassin must abide by the Code. Those who hidden world. She sees the bloodstains that others belong to Societies in good standing receive preferignore, she perceives the faint tingle from Powered ential treatment. The Service furnishes professiongear, and she certainly doesn’t forget where Hotels al Assassins with all the essentials for their work, Astylia are located. If an Assassin chooses to re-en- but they do so in style and comfort. Assassins who ter Shadow after retirement, this protection ex- make use of the Service travel and live in luxury, pires. Once a character leaves, she must stay out. partying as hard as they work while pursuing conNot every Assassin enjoys the placid life of retirement. Some itch for an opportunity to kill again, while others miss their proteges and Shadow family. Coming out of retirement isn’t unheard of — the violent Inspiration does not settle easily. In a few rarer
tracts across the world.
Foremost among their offerings is luxurious accommodations for travelling Assassins in any major city across the world. The Service offers only the most lavish comforts, the finest liquors,
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ASSASSINS AND SUPER SCIENCE Everyone has heard the stories: She killed a dozen guards armed only with a ballpoint pen. There’s no doubt that Assassins are deadly, and the majority of this power comes from their Masteries, but the rest stems from their gear. While they have access to specialized, bleeding-edge technology and weapons, many prefer the brutal simplicity of a tried-and-true melee weapon such as a hammer or a spear. An everyday handgun, well-made knife, or sledgehammer purchased at a hardware store serves as a viable weapon just as much as any kitted-out sniper rifle. A rare few Assassins eschew weapons entirely, choosing to kill with poison, or even their bare hands. Though Inspired, Assassins do not create their own Super Science objects. Their Inspired power focuses only on the art of the kill, not making the tools that enable it. Despite this, Assassins can utilize any Super Science weapon, tool, or vehicle they have been given. Societies send envoys to pay other unscrupulous Talents to craft extravagant weapons and equipment and then distribute these among their most prized agents. The Service employs a handful of Super Science experts through a dozen disposable shell companies — one of the rare few times that Shadow touches Daylight, though their output is monitored and only offered to Assassins in good standing. Assassins may also come by Super Science gear through mysterious (and self-serving) third parties. Cortex Risk Control Services, a Minor Society (see p. XX), sells experimental technologies dreamed up by the Inspired scientists of the Circus Division to all Societies able to pay their extortionate rates. The Transcendent Alliance (Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 190) has dispatched eccentric Inspired inventors to reach out to willing Societies in order to exchange their technological prowess in return for vast sums of money from Shadow. For more on the tools of the trade, see p. XX. the plushest rooms. In accommodations like the Wormwood in London or the Hotel Dashiell in San Francisco, Assassins can plainly see the fivestar service on offer, yet the rich and famous never gain entrance or reservation. These kinds of hotels are only open to those invited, and the only ones invited are ones in good standing with the Service in the Shadow. Collectively, these places are known as Hotels Asylia, and they are held to be neutral ground by broad Societal agreement. No violence is to be waged within their hallowed halls, on pain of death; all grudges are suspended, and bitter nemeses will share a drink in the elegant bar these hotels undoubtedly feature. Each Society sponsors at least one Hotel Asylia, in places as far-flung as Haiti or Siberia, each with their own unique character and owner.
contract can be arranged, ensuring only the porters doing the cleaning will ever know what became of the target. Even a front or cover identity to conceal an Assassin’s true business from friends and family in the Daylight can be arranged by a porter of the Service. None of these services come free, however. What isn’t paid for by the Assassin’s Society must be purchased with her own tender. If she has none to offer, then the Service will accept a contract in return.
SHADOW ECONOMY Among the Service’s most valuable functions is the operation of the Shadow’s economy. In the Service’s establishments, money never directly changes hands, there is no paper trail for Daylight authorities to follow. Instead, business is conducted using the Service’s coins or the markers of the Societies. Assassins who complete contracts are not paid with briefcases of cash or wire deposits; those tools of the Twilight can be traced by the powers that be. Instead, they are paid in the Service’s coins or in the markers of the Societies.
The Hotel Asylia also offer other services to Assassins staying in one of their facilities. Travel in comfort can be arranged far away from the Daylight’s prying eyes. Weaponry and other hitech equipment can be tailored and delivered to the door of an Assassin’s room. Contracts can be The Service’s coins are each a priceless relic: offered and taken in the lobby. Cleaning services Tetradrachmae bearing the face of Alexander the for an Assassin’s equipment or for the scene of a
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CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
Great, exchanged in place of large sums of money for services rendered. Each one is worth more money than many will see in a lifetime, but for an Assassin, they are the fundamental currency that always possesses value.
exchanged for an exorbitant sum of money in any Daylight currency of the Assassin’s choice.
These currencies are used to equip Assassins with everything they need without anyone in the Daylight being the wiser. While anyone can see the Societies pay via markers. Markers are granted value of an expensive, ancient coin, those in the as an Assassin completes contracts or gains favor Daylight have no idea what an Assassin can acquire in their Society. These markers or tokens serve when they present the Service with such a bounty. primarily to demand respect from others for the THE COUNCIL OF FIVE assassin’s station or can be exchanged with the The least known but perhaps most important Service for coins of equivalent value drawn from the Society’s own coffers. The Society of Leonidas function of the Service is to provide a council in exchanges small golden spear heads no larger than which the urgent business of the Shadow can be coins, while the Daughters of the Jacobins use discussed. Known as the Council of Five, it offers co*ckades as the physical representation of social five seats to the most prominent Societies of the currency. The actual Daylight monetary value of the Shadow. Each may send a representative who can items is irrelevant; they are symbols of an intangible discuss events of import to the Shadow and move social standing. These can typically be exchanged the Societies to action by broad agreement. between Societies and refinanced into a chosen First and foremost, the Council exists to maintain Society’s currency by the Service. They can also be the peace between the Societies. By providing them
The Order of the Shadow
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with an avenue to declare grievances and discuss recompense in neutral ground, the Service prevents vendettas from spiraling out into bloody conflicts. The Council also makes the mutual contract to not interfere with Assassins who have retired in good standing from the Shadow.
income nor standing in Shadow and may resort to desperate measures. They lean on personal contracts from anyone willing to pay, which can result in perilous jobs, unreliable reimbursem*nt, or crossing paths with former members of their Society in undesirable ways. Too many crossed Among the Council’s gravest duty is judging paths, and they may wind up a mark themselves. Assassins who violate the Code. While the Service’s DAYLIGHT CONTRACTS representative, known as the Castellan, presents Assassins rarely if ever target those in the the case, it is ultimately the Council who makes Daylight, as doing so violates the Code. While the the final declaration. Blackmail and subterfuge are common murderer might take money to slaughter occasionally used to engineer a particular vote, but an innocent, to ask an Assassin to use their skills the Service punishes such conduct if discovered this way is an insult, either insinuating they lack harshly. integrity or that their skills would be well suited to simple work. The Service and the Societies both avoid contracts whose targets are in Daylight, as The fundamental building block of Assassin much for practical reasons of avoiding attention Societies, the contract dictates who Assassins kill. as it is for the Code. Assassins who take personal This isn’t haphazard or at the whims of individucontracts targeting those in the Daylight keep al leaders. The Service receives offers, vets them, their grim work quiet. The Twilight pays well for and distributes them to each Society, as per their common killers, and some Assassins forsake their standards and ethos. Despite this being the most dignity to make a quick buck. These Assassins once common way contracts arrive, Assassins do accept discovered can become contracts themselves. personal contracts — though this is vanishingly rare and almost always for emotional reasons, TWILIGHT CONTRACTS rather than pure monetary gain. When receiving a Twilight is often home to many of an Assassin’s contract through their Society, this appears in the typical contracts. Twilight contracts are typically form of a crisp, handwritten letter delivered to their criminals, corrupt officials, and shadowy corporate lodgings while staying at any Hotel Asylia location. figures who are involved in illegal and immoral Assassins active in the field find their contracts endeavors. Their choices and transgression make hidden in dead drops, instead. them acceptable targets in the eyes of Assassins, Accepting a contract is binding. It is a sacrosanct even if they may lack the skills to face an Assassin. oath and is not to be violated. Worming one’s way Twilight Contracts are people who exist on the out of a contract is a fast track to expulsion from the periphery of public awareness. They’re rarely kingSociety, being marked Anathema, becoming somepins, executives, or high-placed politicians. Most one else’s contract, or any other number of fates often, they’re in the middle of the hierarchy, profitworse than death. Do this one time too many, and ing from their actions but without notoriety. Their the Service will flag the Assassin as unreliable, and deaths may be subject to investigation, but few withdraw their services. They call this the redlist. become spectacles. Twilight contracts might carry Such a redlisted Assassin cannot easily earn some risks of exposure, but most people in Twilight
THE CONTRACT
YOU’VE GOT THE WRONG GUY Infrequently, someone will attempt to frame a target for assassination and take a contract with false intentions. The Service vets every contract offer submitted and does its best to root out bad actors. Though they eliminate almost every contract submitted that targets an innocent. An Assassin who discovers that her target has been framed and is innocent may break her contract. In these instances, the Society treats assassinating the person who framed the target as fulfilling it.
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CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
are so frightened by the Shadow they’d never say anything admissible in court. While people on the margins might be a part of the Twilight, the consequences for targeting innocents are much the same as in Daylight. Few respect Assassins who take contracts against defenseless people. • Jacob Wollstone is a project manager at Baron Petrochemical, an English oil company with international holdings that it’s held since before the end of the British Empire. Jacob has been responsible for hiring private military contractors to protect Baron’s interests. Over his career, he’s acquired a gruesome body count of people murdered for profit. He’s aware of the contract and he’ll eagerly offer to outbid the client. He doesn’t know how the Shadow works. • Colonel Samit Sanyal believes strongly that his country must be rid of foreign invaders, and the soldiers under his command have been participants for years, engaging in clandestine
disappearances and inciting riots that have seen countless Muslims killed. While he is unaware of the contract taken against him, he lives in fear of retribution for his crimes, and rarely travels unattended by soldiers loyal to him. • Andrew Stane, is the head of the Fraternity of Officers, the police union in his city. Under his tenure, he has successfully covered up countless cases of police brutality, corruption and criminal conduct. Doing so has made him enormously wealthy, and he has most of the city’s police at his beck and call. He has no idea that there’s a contract on his head, however. • Marcellino Zucharelli, is a “made man” in the Camparelli Family, one of the most powerful in La Cosa Nostra. Responsible for kidnapping children to threaten politicians to vote the right ways, Zucharelli has made an enemy that will stop at nothing until he pays with his life. Zucharelli is also the subject of an international investigation; Assassins that take his
The Order of the Shadow
27
ANATHEMA SOCIETIES Anathema is typically a judgement reserved for individual Assassins, but in rare cases, the actions of the group are so horrific or in complete violation of the Code that the Council has declared entire Societies to be Anathema. These organizations of Assassins are hostile to the order of the Shadow and have no reason to respect the Code. They make some of the most dangerous targets for Assassins to take on, as they have numerous Assassins able to intercept the players on their behalf. A few examples of Anathema Societies are presented below: •
Baphomet: A Society of Assassins lured by the vast fortunes of Bertran d’Alverny to his side. Baphomet uses cutting edge technology, blackmail, and assassination to accumulate power over the wealthiest in the Daylight, and they don’t care who they hurt along the way. Bertran isn’t shy about recruiting anathema Assassins and takes a special delight in dispatching Assassins to thwart his rival’s pet project, Archangel (see Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 168), though he does so sparingly to avoid drawing attention to himself.
•
The Society of Minos: What started as an aristocratic society dedicated to hunting humans became an Anathema Society as more members became Assassins and they recruited others to be their huntsmen. Declared anathema for supporting the Worshipful Company of Killers until their destruction, the Society of Minos persists to this day, hunting those in Daylight as readily as any other for the vile thrill. Assassination is done with moral consideration, and hunting humans is a line Assassins in good standing do not cross.
•
ULTRALIGHT: A relic of the Cold War, ULTRALIGHT was a black ops project run by the United States to investigate the potential applications of hypnosis as a tool of assassination. After going rogue in the ‘80s, ULTRALIGHT’s Assassins briefly attempted to join the Societies, but were rebuked harshly for their callousness in using civilian sleeper agents in assassinations or to cover up their tracks.
contract will have to race against the authorities to take him out first.
SHADOW CONTRACTS Shadow Contracts are the greatest challenge an Assassin can face, and consequently the source of their greatest rewards. Shadow Contracts are nearly always either Assassins themselves, or people with close ties to them. They are the invisible hands that foment catastrophes in the world to fatten their checkbook. They’re leaders of secret organizations that spread misery to accomplish world-changing objectives. They are both the most challenging and horrific targets. They sequester themselves far from the public eye, in underground lairs, remote chateaus, and fortresses surrounded by miles of security infrastructure. The risks are high and so are the rewards. A notorious Shadow Contract can make an Assassin’s career, entering her in the annals of the Shadow as a
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killer-saint for her accomplishments. • Olivia Hart is the picture of American success: a fabulously wealthy businesswoman who came from humble means and whose uncanny facility for numbers and snap reflexes helped her accumulate a fortune on Wall Street. She’s also a member of the Society of Minos, a secret society of the fabulously wealthy who hunt and kill people for sport. The Society includes a number of Anathema Assassins who consider their former colleagues to be the most dangerous game, and they all consider the contract on Olivia’s head to be a sporting challenge. • Bertran d’Alverny was among the wealthiest men in Europe before he was exposed as the mastermind behind the failed kidnapping of his top rival’s son. His wealth and connections allowed him to flee Europe, and in the time since his apparent disappearance, he has
CHAPTER ONE: STEPPING INTO SHADOWS
reinvented himself. He heads a shadowy international conspiracy known as Baphomet, which ruthlessly leverages blackmail and assassination to enrich Bertran and his allies. He has long-term plans of revenge. He is confident that the contract on his head will not be completed, and more than one Assassin has died trying. • Few people know the name Piotr Shein. Fewer people know the role he’s played in manipulating the world economy. An oligarch-savant who enriched himself during Perestroika and moved to the United States. He’s an economics
wizard who has used his connections on behalf of his wealthy friends to crash economies and ruin lives. He knows there’s a Contract on his head and spends a fortune to wait it out. • Shaska is a veteran Assassin in the Society of Leonidas who was declared Anathema after she suddenly killed one of her former proteges. Her motives remain a mystery, but she has been declared Anathema and the Society of Leonidas has put a contract on her head. On the run across the globe, it seems she has trained more rogue Assassins as her personal entourage.
The Order of the Shadow
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“The important thing to know about an assassination or an attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet.” — Eric Ambler, A Coffin for Dimitrios Assassins come together in the world of Shadow to form Societies: organizations dedicated to the art of death. Each Society has its own goals, methods, and philosophies that inform how they choose their targets and why, but all are joined together by their connection to Assassins, those Talented individuals contracted by the Societies for the world’s second oldest profession: murder.
experts are other Talents brought on board through a series of half-truths and appealing bribes. Someone has to build and maintain the gadgets and tools at an Assassin’s disposal, after all.
Societies keep these retainers on staff to administer and support their work without relying on external help. This has the added benefit of keeping each Society at least a little bit independent from the Service. The Service certainly notices and chafes at not being able to completely control these aspects of No Assassin is an island, despite the mythos sur- life in Shadow, but also knows better than to overrounding them as solo operators sharpening their step its boundaries. blades in the dark. Each Society supports itself interAssume the players’ characters have graduated nally with a vetted staff of trainers, weapons experts, successfully from a training operation (or some othchefs, sanitation and maintenance workers and so er tutelage) and have gone on a few successful mison. Many of these people were plucked from their sions prior to the start of the chronicle. The players’ Twilight lives to work in Shadow. They are sworn to characters are always prodigious and elite — the top absolute secrecy and their payment packages match of their class and the best their training program had the intensity of this oath. Some of these trainers and to offer.
THE STRUCTURE OF A SOCIETY
The Societies
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DAUGHTERS OF THE JACOBINS “Equality. Freedom. Revolution. These ideals don’t come without blood and tears. Let the politicians think that they can make change with words alone. We do the dirty work they can’t.” — Yvonne Dionne, President of the Daughters of the Jacobins The French Revolution needed a strong arm to bring about its lofty ideals, and the Daughters of the Jacobins provided it. In the world of Shadow, the Daughters maintain the same goals as their longgone forebearers: freedom, liberty, and equality by eliminating anyone who stands in the way. The Daughters follow a careful plan, accepting and rejecting contracts in a seemingly random fashion. Each kill serves a hidden purpose. A lobbyist fomenting racist chaos on behalf of shadowy masters, an official silencing whistleblower for corporate sponsors, a flower shop owner organizing a coterie of Assassins to terrorize a city so criminals could flourish — in the aftermaths of their deaths, their connections become clear. The Daughters’ targets inevitably have their secrets exposed to the public and cause chaos for the conspirators they leave behind. Each exposure, far removed from the Daughters, brings them one step closer to their ideal world.
Approached by the Jacobins to assist with their plans, the Scottish Maidens assented for a time. When the Jacobins could not afford to remove political obstacles, the Maidens did so for them. Some disappeared without a trace, while others were dragged beaten and bloody before the braying crowd to be executed by guillotine. For every death attributed to Armantine and her allies, ten more went unnoticed among the chaos, among which were mercenaries, royalists, and even Assassins sent to disrupt the Revolution. While they could not prevent the assassination of Marat, the Maidens ensured that his killer, Charlotte Corday, did not escape his home that night.
The Maidens were never under Robespierre’s control, much to his frustration. Armantine Martin remained their elected leader until her death at the hands of Robespierre, who wished for the Society to terrorize his enemies by threatening their families with the Maidens’ wrath. Armantine Martin was beheaded as an enemy of the revolution, but the In the early days of the French Revolution, it be- Maidens stood ready to avenge her. Two days later, came clear that it would take more than words to Robespierre was arrested and put to the guillotine. With his death, the Jacobin party disbanded, and change the world. With looted weapons in hand, the women of the marketplace did what the thinking the Maidens went to ground, vowing never to become men of the political clubs could not, forcing the king the tool of a political order again. Henri Legrand, a to Paris to face the people’s will. Armantine Martin, free Black man from the French colonies mentored a sans-culotte militant, made a pact with a handful by Armantine and elected leader of the Maidens, of other women involved: where the words of others turned his eyes to Haiti to test their ideals. France would survive the day, but newborn revolutionary failed, their weapons would prevail. Armantine formed a faction in the shadows of the Haiti would suffer without their aid. The white elite Revolution, nicknamed the “Scottish Maidens” af- refused to give up the vice of slavery, despite its aboter the precursor to the king’s new guillotine. The lition by the National Convention.
SECRET HISTORY
Maidens recruited from the ranks of frustrated women listening from the balconies of the political clubs, observing the revolution without a voice. Armantine shaped their frustration into a weapon, engineering the deaths of royalists and revolutionaries alike if they stood in the way of their ideals.
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Legrand brought the Maidens to Haiti to begin their ambitious work between war with England and Spain. Military leaders suffered public, bloody deaths. Colonial soldiers fell into disarray as yellow fever spread among them overnight. Freed slaves were given weapons and training by shadowed figures to join the revolts. Legrand’s uncanny knack
CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
for leadership proved terrifying and effective, and while he never strayed from his ideals and avoided becoming entangled in the revolution’s leadership, he traded letters with Toussaint Louverture to better learn how to aid them. When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Haiti, Legrand lost his life in battle. Even this he seemed to predict, as immediately after, his daughter, Isidora, took command with a slew of instructions from her father to enact upon his death. Isidora innovated upon her father’s instructions to transform the murderers into a true organization. She renamed the group the Daughters of the Jacobins, for they would do what their fathers could not. Isidora looked beyond wars and revolutions to plan strategic assassinations to change the world. Today, the Daughters of the Jacobins span the world, working with the Service and the other Societies to enact the change they seek. They pick their targets strategically to make the world a better place and maintain the order of the world of Shadow. They work to ensure their ideals live among Societies and punish harshly those who seek to undermine them.
CONTRACTS The Daughters of the Jacobins select their contracts with care, opting for precision killings to bring about change rather than indiscriminate violence. The Service and the Daughters’ own allies often provide contracts on political and military functionaries. Rarely do they target the politicians and generals who are the face of public misery, instead preferring to target the people who fund them and act as their agents in the Twilight and Shadow. Those contracts the Daughters accept are swiftly completed, not for the satisfaction of the client, but to fulfill their own objectives. Chaos often follows in the wake of a target’s demise, though rarely the kind which can be attributed to the Daughters. The chaos they cause is ultimately controlled and always serves a purpose: To cause chaos without purpose and hurt the most vulnerable is a grave crime against their ideals. Terror must only be visited upon those who deserve it. The Daughters vigorously involve themselves in the politics of the Shadow. Anathema Assassins and Societies are all fair game, with the Daughters racing to bring justice to those who break the Code. Societies which show little regard for the etiquette that governs the Shadow, such as the Swarm, often make enemies of the
daughters of the jacobins
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Daughters. Contracts against other Assassins are self-appointed, or funded by other Societies, the swift and unromantic: To put yourself in their cross- Daughters take on numerous contracts involving othhairs is to cross lines that no assassin should cross. er Assassins and their allies in the Shadows. Useful for maintaining the balance of power in the Shadow, the Daughters are loved by none. All Assassins who The Daughters receive most contracts through the maintain relationships with the Daughters prepare Service, or from allies in governments and corporations plans should they become the next person who must — though judging them by their clients is misleading. die for their ideals. While most of their targets are Every job selected offers some hidden benefit to the Assassins who violate the Codes of their Societies, agenda of the Daughters, whether by exposing evils they are not above instituting regime changes in the perpetrated by their target and their allies or providing country of killers. Agitators for change in the Shadow the Daughters with resources and information to go af- court the Daughters, and while some see them as the ter more significant targets. Daughters are made fully status quo, they will eagerly aid young upstarts. The aware of the importance of their contracts, though they Daughters have long believed that power breeds inmay trust the council not to reveal everything in case equity, and chaos breeds opportunity.
OPERATIONS
they should be captured. Each Daughter has the conviction to know that every kill counts. Their killings always involve a significant amount of information gathering beforehand, to ensure that the kill is as precise as possible. Collateral damage and loss of life among the uninvolved are heavily frowned upon by the Daughters if it cannot be rationalized in service of the cause.
Established Societies fear the Daughters attention, and only call them into internal matters when in the direst of straights. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop the Daughters from inserting themselves into a situation if they believe someone has broken their Code.
Murder is not the only business of the Daughters; they also engage in espionage. Moles in government agencies and their own tradecraft feed a network of information unrivaled in the Shadow, which they barter carefully with allies and enemies alike. They may also take on non-lethal contracts. These often involve character assassination and espionage rather than killing, something the precision killing of the Daughters lends itself to. Connections to politicians and officials make it easy to embroil their targets in dangerous consequences when information is acquired and neutralizing dangerous figures without killing them can be essential to bringing about change.
The Daughters of the Jacobins recruit fresh-faced idealists and veterans jaded by systemic failure alike, welcoming people of all genders. To both, they offer the opportunity for meaningful change brought about through violence. Many chapters recruit locals who share their ideals, training them from the ground up. While they may come from a variety of backgrounds, they most often seek out the marginalized, who best understand the importance of their ideals and the evils they must eradicate.
Since the death of Charlotte Corday, the Daughters have killed countless more Assassins. Whether
RECRUITMENT
A particularly large contingent of the Daughters are made up of Assassins recruited from intelligence agencies around the world. These agents leverage their connections to their former lives for information and the latest equipment to carry out their contracts.
CHAPTERHOUSES The Daughter’s stronghold and heritage chapterhouse sits in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Whenever everyone is required for official business, this is where they meet. They have safe houses and chapters dotted across the world, though, ensuring their members are close to where they may be needed. These chapterhouses are in Paris, New York City, Tehran, Beijing, Caracas, and Moscow. Each chapterhouse hosts state of the art technology and a veritable arsenal for members to check out or take at their leisure. The gear is free for use by all, just as long as no one gets stingy or greedy. Members donate time, money, and energy into the Society’s upkeep, and they tend to rub elbows with powerful political figures who keep them in good working order.
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
THE ÆON SOCIETY CONNECTION The Daughters maintain a network of allies beyond the Shadow. Since its earliest days, members of the Æon Society have been aware of the Daughters of the Jacobins, supporting their ideals or directing them against dangerous enemies the Æon Society could not act against. Legend says that the elderly Isidora Legrand turned Mercer down on his offer to join the organization, but the two have always been connected, if not at a distance. The Society helped the Daughters with their investments in the ‘40s, and on occasion, the Daughters assist them to this day. Assassins disdain the meddlesome behavior of the Æon Society, but the Daughters firmly protect their alliance. Improbably, they claim Henri Legrand left a letter promising that the Æon Society would be essential to achieving their ideals, a prediction made over a century before the Society’s founding. Assassins from other Societies and freelancers often find themselves among the Daughters. They actively snipe trained assassins from other Societies when it suits them, and they offer refuge for assassins who have been removed from other Societies, if their values are aligned. No one wants a traitor in their midst, but an unruly upstart who bucks the system sounds like a Daughter through and through. Hopefuls are mentored by senior Daughters, who take them to their headquarters in Haiti for training. On revolutionary soil, they learn the Society’s ideals and prove their loyalty to the cause. Leadership is elected, though incumbency is common at the highest levels of the organization.
ORGANIZATION The oath of service inducts an Assassin fully into the Daughters of the Jacobins. Resources are shared freely among all members, though being responsible with collective resources is part of their oath. Members give back to the organization in whatever way they can, often through financial donations, but sometimes in favors or odd jobs. Much of the Daughters’ wealth comes from investments made in the 1940s during the war and stolen Nazi gold. Rules, regulations, and new members are voted in by a simple majority vote of all active members. Each chapterhouse votes for a representative who speaks on their behalf for purposes of asset allocation, investments, and daily routines. The entire membership votes on the Society’s president, and leader of the representative council. The president’s job is to cast a tie-breaking vote in matters of organization-wide votes, though many look to her as the organization’s heart. Yvonne Dionne, a descendant of Henri and Isidora Legrand, serves as the current president.
GOALS As an organization, the Daughters of the Jacobins want freedom, liberty, and equality for all people, and they will kill anyone who stands in the way. While they no longer tie themselves to particular countries and their Daylight politics, they change the fates of nations through precision kills to follow their oath. The Society’s abundance of former intelligence agents and incredible talent for anticipating others lends itself to rumors that the Daughters are compromised by their government ties, but this is not true. The Daughters work carefully to ensure they maintain the advantage over officials that call them allies. While they occasionally accept contracts from governments, they work they accept from these agencies is overwhelmingly domestic, often involving private companies rather than government officials or political activists. It has been decades since the Daughters undertook a job to end a regime or bring down a dictator. They gather information, collect dossiers, and bribe, threaten, and cajole political actors throughout the world, but they hold themselves back from becoming the world’s police. The Daughters have instead turned their attentions to those in the Shadow, including defectors and violators of the Code among the other Societies. The Daughters respect the Code and the utility of their alliance with the Service like the other leaders of the Shadow, but they believe the Service to be too laissez-faire and forgiving of indiscretions. Violation of the Code cannot be accepted, and its strict enforcement is the only ethical way of doing business in the eyes of the Daughters. Those who rebuke it are dangerous to themselves and to the entirety of the Shadow.
daughters of the jacobins
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THE OATH OF SERVICE The Daughters’ code of ethics revolves around the equal treatment of those in the Shadow, excising the powerful, and uplifting the downtrodden. Anything is permitted in service of their goals. The Oath is as such: • Everyone has a say. In the ideal world, all people will be heard, especially the silenced. This precludes forced jobs, stealing earnings, servitude relationships, or assassinating a target without giving them a chance to speak. • Everyone must be equal. In the ideal world, from the lowest Assassin to the President themselves, all will be respected and accountable. The weak must not be overlooked for the strong. All transgressions merit consequences, no matter one’s status. • No one deserves more than anyone else. In the ideal world, the powerful do not hold onto resources others need. Help must be offered to an Assassin in need. A guest must be treated with respect unless they disrespect you. All Daughters aspire to the Oath, but interpretation is debated. Refined from speeches given during the Revolution, some argue that the Oath is outdated, while others support its spirit but disagree on implementation. position from her older sister, Angelique. She was elected to the position according to protocol, but this was merely a formality. Anyone who had been The Daughters may have a wealth of resources in the Society for more than a day knew Angelique that comes from their members, but they also have was grooming her sister to take her position in the a wealth of favors owed to the Service and the other eventual case of her death, just like everyone knows Societies. Their historical involvement in civil wars, that Yvonne is grooming her own daughter for the uprisings, revolts, coups, and every other manner of position in the future. internal affairs nets them boons and favors from evThe worst kept secret within the Society is that all of eryone they’ve helped rise to power. Unfortunately, its most senior members are utterly loyal to the Legrand they make enemies just as easily as they make family, believing that dynastic rule is the secret to their friends. For every bit of aid given to an upstart, there success. Each president is a descendent of Henri’s in is a person who lost access to power and resources some form or fashion, each with a solid direction and when the Daughters got involved. vision for the Society that has not wavered in the more
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS
They often harbor runaways from other Societies, and the Daughters have their fair share of enemies throughout the Shadows. The Society of Leonidas and the Daughters watch one another like hawks for violations of the Code and the opportunity to take on a contract on a member of either Society gone rogue.
than two-hundred years since its inception.
Outsiders and fellow Assassins attribute the superlative planning skills of the Daughters and their leadership to their vast information network and ties to the intelligence community. The secret is that this direction and vision do not come from a keen Daughters know the dangers of holding ideal- sense of strategy or particularly good planning skills. ist beliefs. In one form or another, they have been Instead, the Legrand family has the uncanny abilidealing with it all their lives. They tell the story of ty to see into the future, and runs the organization Armantine Martin to one another as a warning, get based on their true visions of what’s in store for the world. Rumors among those in the know say that too deep and you might lose your head as well. Legrand could travel through time, though none of the modern presidents have such a powerful ability.
MYSTERIES
Yvonne herself can only see accurately into the Yvonne Dionne has been the president of the Daughters for fifteen years. Yvonne inherited the immediate future. Anything longer than a few
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
months out, and the visions are muddy and confusSuggested Masteries: D’invasion, La Prévoyance, ing. Yvonne directs the Daughters using her visions Sans-culotte and prophecies laid out by Isidora and Henri all those years ago. What appears to be utter chaos and mercenary opportunity is actually a carefully laid out The Honorable Opposition deny Yvonne’s posiplan that Yvonne and her relations have been work- tion as de facto leader of the Daughters of the Jacobins ing on for over a century. and claim that her so-called “prophetic visions” are nothing but an urban legend carefully crafted to obscure cowardice and her own hidden agendas. This group is an informal clique of Daughters that desire You believe in something greater than yourself. to moderate the actions of Jacobin leadership — esYou are an idealist, believing in a greater good and pecially decisions and contracts that lack an obvious that your actions will bring about a better world. rationale, in their opinion. They claim Yvonne uses You question everything, but in the end, you recog- an unreliable source for information that puts its nize your place in both your Society and the world. Assassins in danger.
ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS
DAUGHTERS OF JACOBINS PATH
No one deserves to live a life oppressed, and you are willing to do anything to ensure they needn’t. You don’t expect anyone to forgive your sins, or to give back equal to what you’ve given. As long as you can see a brighter future, you’re willing to slog through the muck to get it there. Example Connections: Intelligence Agencies, Antifa Movements, Shadow Organizations Skills: Close Combat, Culture, Integrity, Survival Edges: Covert, Demolitions Training, WellEquipped, Patron, Safe House, Skilled Liar, Small Unit Tactics
Junaid Karim leads the Honorable Opposition and has faithfully served the Daughters under Yvonne’s mother’s leadership. He fears Yvonne has been duped by the family’s mythos and puts too much faith in what he considers superstition at best. Furthermore, in the past, Junaid had maintained correspondence with La Révolte Éclatante as organizations with mutual goals. This relationship broken down roughly a decade ago after a Jacobins contract targeted a member of the LRE.
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THE KRUGU VOROV “There’s the underworld, and then there is what lies beneath the underworld. Those cracks between light and darkness — that is where we exist. That is where you will find the Krugu Vorov.” — Nadezhda Illyinichna Szetka, Illya of the Krugu Vorov Above the Russian Mafia are the Thieves in Law, emperors of the criminal world. All thieves and criminals of the world belong under their dominion, whether they know it or not. Maintaining their grip over the Russian Mafia and much of the criminal world is a loose collective of individuals who operate with near impunity in carrying out the wishes of the Thieves. These are the Krugu Vorov (colloquially referred to as “The Circle”), who maintain the order of the criminal world from the Shadow.
the dynasty they served collapsed. Seven families emerged from the fall as the hidden powerbrokers to the subsequent ruling dynasties of the Russian empire. The Krugu Vorov swore their fealty to these princes rather than serve the Polish usurpers. From these seven princes descend the Thieves in Law, the power behind the Russian Mafia and the aristocratic elite of the criminal world.
Today, the Krugu Vorov has grown great. What began as a single man dirtying his hands for his lord grew into a sprawling society of every-people that do what is necessary to maintain the heart of old Russia and The earliest mentions of the Krugu Vorov date her guiding hands. They exist on the fringes of society back to the late ninth century, a time when the — faces you think you’ve seen before but disappear beRurikid Prince, known as Oleg the Seer, extended fore you can get a second, better look. Most members his control from Novgorod southward to protect of the Krugu Vorov operate independently, but at the valuable trade routes from Khazar incursions from end of the day they know where their loyalties lie. the east. In a time when might made right, maintaining the balance of power among fragile alliances required underhanded tactics. Prevented from The Krugu Vorov originally worked to preserve striking his rivals directly, a loyal serving man named the Russian empire, eliminating threats against naIlya Alexeev took action for Oleg under the cloak of tional sovereignty both within and without. They darkness — eliminating those threats and the Seer- claim their duties have not changed, only the ones Prince’s blameless. Oleg never asked questions, and they serve: The Thieves in Law claim their allethe man who performed this task asked for nothing giance now, rather than any crown. The Thieves in return but the right to serve. Law claim the Russian Mafia as their right hand in
SECRET HISTORY
CONTRACTS
The unseen Ilya ensured that the Seer-Prince was looked upon with awe by the masses, and never questioned by his subjects. During Oleg’s reign, he prophesied disasters that would befall those who refused him and sure enough, they did. Ilya fulfilled these prophecies in secret, ending lineages and felling cities. By his death, Oleg was famed for his prophecies, though none ever uncovered that Ilya Alexeev brought them to pass. Ilya outlived his master but continued his duties to his descendants and worthy inheritors of his authority, training apprentices in the art of walking in the Shadow.
the criminal world, while the Krugu Vorov serve as their hidden left hand, assassinating and disappearing any who displease them. For their services, they are paid a king’s ransom supplied by every criminal enterprise imaginable. While not directly involved in these operations, the Krugu Vorov benefits from the wealth that the Thieves in Law hoard, they have enemies everywhere whom the Krugu Vorov must oppose. With so much wealth on the line, there is little they can’t or won’t do in service to their masters, earning the Krugu Vorov a reputation as one of the most fearsome and reviled Societies in the Shadow.
The Krugu Vorov held to their duties for hunAt any time, a member of the Krugu Vorov must dreds of years until the early 17th century when be prepared to take any contract requested of them
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
by Alexei Zukhov, foremost among the Seven Princes, the rulers of the Thieves in Law. Each Assassin must develop their own methods, but all must be able to work subtly or deflect attention. Self-sufficiency is required of Assassins, who must be able to carry out jobs without additional support, even from their own Society. That doesn’t mean it never happens, just that it tends to occur in only the direst of circ*mstances and results in the kind of debt that most assassins prefer to avoid: One that may put them on the outs or even at direct odds with their Society. While the other Thieves in Law receive priority for contracts, the Krugu Vorov take work from anyone provided that one of the Seven Princes vouches for them. Alexei Zukhov has made allies beyond the Thieves in part thanks to judicious loaning of the Krugu Vorov to criminals and government allies across the globe. The Krugu Vorov are whispered of among the rank and file of the Russian Mafia, and feared by those who serve the Thieves in Law directly, for they are also called upon to deal with traitors and those who disobey the Seven Princes. Traitors rarely die quietly by the Krugu Vorov; their bodies are often left in the open as a public warning and spectacle for co-conspirators and would-be traitors to consider.
OPERATIONS When it comes to discrete assassinations, the Krugu Vorov are the exemplars bar none within the underworld and take an inordinate amount of pride in their body counts — both individual and collectively. Anyone can kill with a gun. What makes the Krugu Vorov stand out from other Societies and independent Assassins is the artistry and variation in which they carry out their assassinations: every kill is a clean kill, be it by firearm, knife, poison, garrote, or even the simplicity of strangulation or a snapped neck.
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THE MOTHERLAND Publicly, the Krugu Vorov are headquartered in Yekaterinburg and they have a well-established and legitimate front there, as the city is a major economic hub. The true seat of the society, however, is deeply seated in ancient Novgorod — where Ilya Alexeev made his first oath. While the front in Yekaterinburg is ostentatious in a manner most becoming of an oligarch, the seat in Novgorod is humble, nondescript, and easily forgettable to passersby. Despite this, it is considered a sacred place, and one that Krugu initiated outside of Russia make a point of visiting at least once in their careers, to pay both tribute to Ilya Alexeev and to renew their oaths of service. Over the centuries of their existence, they learned to diversify their offerings to cater to the evolving needs of the Thieves in Law and their allies. Not everyone wants to kill their rivals, and others are content on causing humiliation via blackmail. Incriminating photos leaked to the paparazzi to get another crime boss on-board? Jilted lovers ready to write a tell-all and currently shopping their around primetime news coverage? Easily done. The best way to get someone to fall in line is to apply pressure, and if you can do it without having to pay for dry cleaners and other “cleaners,” it has the added bonus of saving ammunition for the jobs that truly require it. More recently, they’ve turned their attention to a global apparatus through which they can manipulate large swaths of polite society toward specific goals: the internet. By utilizing social media and the dark web, the Krugu Vorov have managed to engage in games of espionage, data and identify theft, not to mention inciting social agitation, all from the comfort of a luxury hotel suite or a decrepit basem*nt in an abandoned industrial facility.
RECRUITMENT
a circle with the left half colored in and the right left empty. They now exist between the two worlds of Daylight and Shadow.
ORGANIZATION Within the Krugu Vorov, there are different circles which show your dedication and progress. The first circle, or the Sheep, are the newest recruits. It doesn’t matter if you were a member of another Society or a skilled independent contractor: everyone starts at the bottom. The second circle are the Shepherds, which make up the bulk of the Krugu Vorov’s ranks, and they are responsible for procuring and training new recruits. They act as their handlers until they prove themselves capable of handling jobs on their own. The third circle is the Overseers, those who maintain and organize the operation of various cells of Krugu Vorov around the world.Difficult jobs and feats of cunning are necessary to advance to the second circle, and the position of Overseer can only be acquired by dueling to the death. Only with the sponsorship of one of the Seven Princes can an Overseer rise to the position of Ilya, and no Ilya has ever willingly retired.
An Assassin in good standing must vouch for a recruit before they are allowed to join the Krugu Vorov. As it was with the Founder, they favor humble individuals with peculiar sets of skills or inclinations that makes it difficult for them to operate outside the world of Shadow. They shepherd these wayward souls carefully to keep them from falling back into a mundane life, arranging challenges and difficulties that encourage them to turn toward the trusted Assassin who will induct them.
Overseers report to the Seven Princes, designated members of the Thieves in Law who have inherited the patronage of the Krugu Vorov. Each of them is charged with supervising the Overseers of a particular continent, while the first — nearly always chosen from the Zukhov Family — serves as the speaker and chief liaison with the fifth circle. At the top, in the fifth circle, sits the Ilya, the spiritual successor to the Founder Ilya Alexeev. While the Ilya swears fealty to the Seven Princes, in practice they offer deference to the fifth Recruit undergoes strenuous individual training circle to protect and guide them. Only the first of the with their sponsor that may kill them outright if they Seven Princes treats with the Ilya as a peer. lack the aptitude and the temperament for the Krugu The current head of the Krugu Vorov is Nadezhda Vorov. Those who survive their training receive the Illyinichna Szetka, a former street kid from the tattoo which shows their affiliation with the Society: slums of Moscow who clawed her way up from
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
THE SEVEN PRINCES The Seven Princes are the leaders of the Thieves in Law, the aristocratic elite of the Russian Mafia. Wealthy and powerful beyond imagining, they vie with one another for influence among the Thieves in Law and for the favor of the Krugu Vorov, their most potent weapon. While entangled in dynastic politics with one another, they are swift to unite when external enemies like the Camparelli Family or the Æon Society. the bottom. Eventually unseating the former Ilya, Nadezhda laid claim the title as her own after twenty years of peerless service, and an as-of-yet unbroken record of kills to her name. Each head of the Krugu Vorov take on the patronymic name of the founder, out of respect to the Society. This reverence plays part into the mythos of the Krugu Vorov that what they do is by divine proclamation and therefore righteous. Not every member feels this way, and there is a splinter within the Krugu Vorov looking to step out of the deep shadows and into their own — rather than be in perpetual servitude to the Seven Princes.
GOALS Some do it for the prestige, others do it for the money — the Krugu Vorov does it for neither of these things, because all there is in the end is the job. While internally some may compete with one another for stakes of ego, the Society has little interest in the monetary gain. Their goal, or so they say, is to preserve Russia by serving the Seven Princes. While the Russian empire is no more and the Seven Princes grow close with circles of corrupt oligarchs and political demagogues, the Krugu Vorov act to fulfill the contracts put to them to serve Russia whether through the Seven Princes or the enigmatic orders of the Ilya.
These partnerships rarely last long and their reasons are largely unknown to all but the senior-most members of the Societies involved. More than one of these strange partnerships has ended in tragedy but the reasons these missions are undertaken remain secret.
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS Once you commit to a life with the Krugu Vorov, there is no way out of the Society except through “retirement” — slang for being killed in action. Due to their relationship with the Russian Mafia, the Krugu Vorov have amassed more than their fair share of enemies motivated enough to try and wipe them out. The Camparelli Family, which has absorbed numerous other Italian Mafia families seeks to outmaneuver Alexei Zukhov and his hidden assassins at every turn. Criminals and magnates from Colombia to Saudi Arabia have taken out sizeable contracts against various Overseers within the organization, believing them to be a prized enough asset that would make the Ilya think twice before attacking them. Like every other enemy, they will find the Krugu Vorov an implacable and ruthless enemy. As violence flares across the globe, others might be caught between the Krugu Vorov and their enemies.
Prior to formal initiation into the Society, Sheep are attended by their Shepherd as they are educated on what is expected of them. Contracts are sacrosanct and under no circ*mstances are allowed to be broken. To break a contract is to break a sacred oath between the Society and the contractor, giving cause for unnecessary retaliation on the part of the contractor against the Krugu Vorov. Recruits are to never give up anything, intelligence or otherwise, that would negatively affect the organization’s reputation, even at great cost up to and including death. If there is a choice between betraying the Krugu Vorov and living, most willingly go to their death, keeping their oaths to the last. By being up front and honest For similar reasons, the Krugu Vorov will occa- about these expectations, it allows the Sheep to make sionally ally with other Societies on the Ilya’s orders. more informed decisions as to whether or not they While many believe the Krugu Vorov wholly beholden to the Russian Mafia’s masters, the truth is a more complex beast, and one that few fully comprehend. The Ilya is the one through whom the traditions and secrets of the Krugu Vorov pass. While each of the Seven Princes has secrets of their own, all are aware that the Ilya passes on a hoard of secrets to their successors that makes their own look paltry in comparison. Respect for tradition combined with a fear of what the Ilya knows ensures that the Seven Princes listen carefully to her advice, assassinating targets that the Ilya requests, even without knowledge of her reasons for why.
The Krugu Vorov
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are prepared to leave the world of Daylight behind a firm anchor in the world, and one must always be them. prepared for surprises.
MYSTERIES Since the fall of the Empire in 1917, the Krugu Vorov underwent a crisis of purpose. As the Seven Princes turned to the criminal world, they infiltrated the Bolshevik Cheka to keep a protective eye on Tsar Nicholas and his family as they were shunted from palace to palace as prisoners, until they reached their final destination of Yekaterinburg. Despite their attempts to spirit away the Tsarevich Alexei and replace him with a look-alike, the Krugu Vorov could not save the patrilineal line of the Romanovs. They were, however, able to save Grand duch*ess Anastasia, who they then swore to protect as well as her descendants. While the remaining vestiges of the Romanov dynasty currently live quiet lives far from the borders of their motherland, they are always under the watchful eye of the Krugu Vorov, until the day arrives when Oleg’s final prophecy comes to pass and the rightful ruler of Russia sits upon their throne once more. Each Ilya carries this secret ultimate order, Oleg the Seer’s only true prophecy, which must be hidden even from the Seven Princes. Nadezhda has inherited her obligation with grave purpose, but she believes that she cannot allow Oleg’s prophecy to go unfulfilled in her lifetime. She arranges contracts through the Krugu Vorov and other Societies carefully to ensure that Oleg’s dream comes true. Alexi Zukhov suspects that she is enacting an agenda that the Ilya have hidden from the Seven Princes all his life and conspires himself to turn his Overseers against their leader.
Example Connections: Black Market, Counterfeiters, Mafia Skills: Athletics, Close Combat, Larceny, Survival Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Boltholes (•••), Danger Sense, Deflection Adept, Faceless, Hair Trigger Response, Iron Will (••), My Word is My Bond (••), One Against an Ocean Masteries: Best Dressed, Killing Weapon, Leshi, Unrelenting
ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS The most terrifying of the Krugu Vorov’s numbers, even the Shadow fears the killers of killers, the Grandchildren of Baba Yaga. Regarded as anathema by the other Societies, Baba Yaga’s brood embrace monstrosity to punish the monsters. The Grandchildren perform killings without contracts, targeting the most reviled figures of the Twilight and the Shadow, including their fellow Assassins. Remorseless Assassins and those who partake of the most heinous crimes of the Twilight receive their judgement. Even the Seven Princes fear the Grandchildren, keeping the peace with the most willful Illya to ensure the Krugu Vorov’s protection against them. The Krugu Vorov acknowledge the judgement of the Shadow concerning the Grandchildren, but it’s well known that the Thieves in Law do little to stop them. Some suspect that the Grandchildren still serve, but assassinations between the two suggest otherwise. Aside from the danger they pose to their fellow Assassins, the Council has concerns about the Grandchildren’s targeting of criminals in the Twilight. Few lose sleep over the deaths of the Grandchildren’s most vile victims, but the bounties taken out against them and the anger they draw towards the Krugu Vorov imperil the Shadow. The Societies put considerable resources to anticipating the Grandchildren, hoping to catch them in the act.
At various points in Russian history, the Krugu Vorov were believed to be part of various “secret police” forces including the Bolshevik Cheka and in more recent times, the Cheka’s spiritual successor, the KGB. This close allyship, in conjunction with its ties to the Thieves in Law, is how the Krugu Vorov have by and large escaped prosecution. These conTerrifying rumors abound regarding the nections, nurtured over generations, allow the Krugu Grandchildren’s methods. Often confused for fairyVorov to operate with impunity in their homeland tales, the rumors told by criminals in the Twilight and and anywhere the Thieves in Law have influence. Assassins in the Shadow imagine the Grandchildren can shed their human skin to become monsters, creatures born from the worst nightmares of their When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks victims. Whether these are the products of advanced back into you. Those who serve under the aegis of (or ancient) sciences, esoteric Masteries, or somethe Krugu Vorov effectively walk between the two thing stranger, few can say. Assassins who confront worlds — and yet are not fully part of either. It takes a the Grandchildren never live to tell the tale. certain type of strength of self to be able to maintain
KRUGU VOROV PATH
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
There is no leaving the Krugu Vorov. Their Assassins do not retire, instead the join the Circle of Venerable Elders. Nominally tasked with training the Krugu Vorov’s Assassins and hirelings, their facilities also serve as retirement communities of a sort, giving elder Assassins a place to live safe from their rivals and enemies who might still wish to settle scores. These communities are disguised as their mundane equivalents, giving the appearance of normalcy and peaceful senescence, but the Assassins of the Circle are among the deadliest living. The Venerable Elders aren’t just training recruits, often the next generation of Assassins in their care belong to their family, either their biological descendants or those adopted from all kinds of circ*mstances. These bonds reinforce loyalty and high expectations for success, fertile grounds for Assassins to be grown in. Those who don’t show the gift that prodigies have for the killing arts go on to serve in the Twilight or as support staff for the Krugu Vorov itself. Their best students never miss a chance to visit
their Venerable Elders over the holidays, and those who still show the desire to learn may return to their work having learned new Masteries in the process. The long and storied careers of the Venerable Elders have nearly as many allies as enemies, criminals in the Twilight who have earned their respect or used their services in times past. Some offer their services to these other criminal organizations, training hitmen and enforcers to fight and survive anything the heroes of the world (or Assassins) can throw at them. While not expressly forbidden, this sort of freelancing is frowned upon by the Krugu Vorov. No Assassin enjoys being surprised by a contract who learned their fighting techniques from the same master. Should anything ever happen to the Krugu Vorov, some in the Circle have made arrangements for their followers to go to ground with their allies in the Twilight, a strong source of protection, so long as nothing unexpected threatens the criminal underworld.
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THE SIGNAL “You don’t have to turn the other cheek. When someone wants you dead, take your courage in your damn hands and fight back!” — The Host, MC of the Signal Tune in to the right frequency after midnight, and you might stumble upon something interesting. Hidden among pirate radio shows, conspiracy broadcasts, and the monotonous transmission of number stations, a listener can catch the Signal. The schedule for the Signal can’t be found online, only by word of mouth, but if you tune in at the right time, you have the opportunity to take contracts that’ll change the world for the better.
information for the earliest adopters, members of the LGBTQIA+ inclusive Assassins of the Pavlyuchenko Society. Communities in need told the Host who was hurting them through a mysterious call-in show airing at a different time every day of the week. Some listeners call in through an internet voice program, while others call from personal phones. Some petitioners say they’ve reached the Host via email, but any regular attempt returns the message undeliverThe Host, whose silky voice greets listeners to the able. However the Host receives the request, they Signal, helps introduce Assassins to people in need. then dispatch Assassins put a stop to the problem, If a community is facing oppression from powerful one bullet at a time. people who must die, the Signal makes it happen. It The Signal went international. Targeted shows, all even brings together likeminded Assassins and com- seemingly run by the Host themself helped organize munities so they can form support networks of their other groups and networked for them, introducing own. Some say that the Host fosters new Societies, Assassins to their seniors and for training and startbut they don’t take questions to explain their agenda. ing new organizations with ease. Assassins who don’t fit in anywhere and those of marginalized identities find a special comfort with the Signal. The Host ensures they get what they need. While the contracts may not pay as well as work for the Society of Leonidas or the other leaders in the Shadow, the connections and community forged might change the world someday.
Today, the Signal has gone digital. Hundreds of shows across the globe broadcast according to secretive schedules, sharing an agenda of revolution and a network of resources among thousands of people. The Host sends a representative to the Council, as if the Signal were on equal footing with the other Societies and not a more widely diffused network. Other Assassins may balk at their position, but the Host spares them little concern. The revolution will The Signal just appeared one day. It doesn’t not be televised, and if you aren’t already listening, have the long and illustrious history of many other it’ll be too late for you. Societies, and the Host disdains the obsession with pedigree exhibited by the Society of Leonidas. In the 1980s there were people in need listening late at Most of the Signal’s contracts don’t come through night, and the Host replied. the Service but arise from the local communities First, the Host just offered sermons, speaking truth to supported by the Signal’s assassins. Because of power about the forces of oppression in the world. Each the diverse array of communities from which the broadcast was targeted, speaking mostly to American Signal’s Assassins originate, they come from all levcommunities of color. The Signal built a regular follow- els of society, but a few generalizations can be made. ing, until the Host started speaking directly to the audi- Nearly all Contracts are people in positions of power ence. They didn’t just recognize their challenges, they who oppress others, and all have connections to the Twilight and the Shadow. told them they could do something about them.
THE SECRET HISTORY
CONTRACTS
The international nature of the Signal’s memberIndividual broadcasts brought Assassins into the mix, organizing dead drops of payment and ship means that there are no geographic preferences
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
for their contracts. While the Host’s oldest community partnerships are found in the United States, there are people on the margins in every corner of the world who tune in to listen at the right times. Assassins for the Signal often ‘live out of a backpack’ on the job. From the communities they live in, they often find their contracts, addressing the needs of their communities while decisively punishing the people who marginalize them. The Signal’s contracts are paid, usually by collective action by the communities who issued them. Assassins who work for the Signal rarely have the payoff of their more elite counterparts, and sometimes struggle to pay for the full accoutrement of benefits offered by the Service to Assassins in good standing. Their work doesn’t provide the cashflow that other Societies enjoy while they take contracts from the powerful, but the connections they build allow for the exchange of more intangible forms of support that allow them to make do. The Signal prides itself on not working with anyone actively contributing to the oppression of minorities. If a billionaire approached the Host with enough money to fund contracts for decades and asked them to take out a rival, the only way that contract would end is with both the billionaire and their rival dead. Moneyed employers rarely seek to offer contracts to the Signal, as they’re just as likely to be targets as they are clients.
OPERATIONS It isn’t enough to just kill bad people. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Signal goes further than assassination to ensure that what fills the vacuum is better than what came before. While many Assassins in the Signal are working to clear out the worst of the worst in the Twilight and the Shadow, others coordinate networks of mutual aid between doctors, activists, and communities in need. In possession of unusual skills and talents from all walks of life, these Assassins are usually capable of dropping into a situation, removing the offending human, and then remaining behind to fix the mess that person created. Removing a cult leader
The Signal
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doesn’t further the cause if they walk away from the situation afterward. The Host won’t let the broken The Signal is de-centralized, organized into cells and confused people the cult leaves behind disapknown as partners with different communities as pear into the world providing support to these comtheir constituents. Assassins working for the Signal munities to fix the problem in the long term. act as a smart mob, using phones and other comJust as often as the Signal find themselves assassimunication with local communities to organize and nating their enemies, they take on contracts to protect orchestrate contracts. Assassins from similar backtheir allies. Revolutionary change is dangerous work, grounds often work closely with the Signal’s partand the defenders of the status quo have deep pockets, ners, but all trust one another with the ease of listenable to make vulnerable people disappear or suffer simers devoted to a common cause. ilarly terrible fates. Martyrs often station themselves in Below are a sample of the Signal’s many partners, the vicinity of protests, organizing efforts, and similar organizations across the world with Assassin memdirect action, always on the lookout for trouble or other bers who kill to protect their communities. Assassins sent to put a stop to necessary change. The Pavlyuchenko Society is among the largSome involve themselves directly in the organizing, reasoning that they’re the best equipped to est partners of the Signal, comprised primarily of protect themselves while bringing about the change Assassins of marginalized genders and based out of that their communities need. Look to a protest, and Philadelphia. They advocate for aggressive and dithe Signal’s Assassins will be there, yes, but find the rect neutralization of oppressive targets, regardless caucus organizers, too. Find the Assassins and their of their affiliation, and provide resources for genpeople at food banks and independent art festivals, der-affirming health services to their membership. spreading the funds they scrape out of every job as Their leader, Phara Sanon, was one of the Daughters far as they possibly can; see them at punk shows, of the Jacobins before she left to found the Society. Now, she serves as the Signal’s right-hand woman, scanning the pit for men with Iron Eagle tattoos. and represents the Host in matters concerning the The Signal aims to be proactive with their work. Shadow. The Pavlyuchenko Society is sufficiently orThe Host organizes community connections to try ganized that many consider it to be a Society in its to identify problems as they develop, to intervene own right already, albeit one without a personal relabefore the worst comes to pass. The goal is to pretionship with the Service. vent tragedy before it happens, rather than react to The Guardians are a movement of vigilantes in it — but there is so much injustice in the world, and East Africa focused on punishing corruption and only so many listeners. Psychiatrists supporting the the abuse of authority by police and military officials Signal have their work cut out for them. in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Well-respected by locals and even by some government officials in Kenya, the Guardians use their connections to enThe Host finds the right people for the job. While sure Assassins operating in the region take out the communities tune into the Signal, the Signal keeps right targets — and that innocent people aren’t hurt an ear to the ground. Talented people, especially in the process. Assassins who don’t fit in among the other Societies, The Night Worker’s Union covertly operates in receive cryptic messages online or invitations from the United Arab Emirates as an unofficial sponsor local communities to tune in at the right time and of several local worker’s rights groups attempting hear the offer. During these initiations, the Host to protect immigrant workers from abuse by their speaks directly to the potential listener, offering employers. When workers have their passports takwhatever support they need and the time for the en away and no authorities will intervene, Assassins next broadcast if they’re interested. dispatched by the Union hold them accountable. Training happens on the go. The Host will connect Sister organizations have been set up in neighboring junior Assassins with mentors, but the Signal doesn’t countries and in the European Union to protect refuhave the luxury of state-of-the-art facilities to guide gees from similar abuses. an Assassin’s growth, it’s sink or swim. Communities A secretive social network established to allow involved in the Signal help determine contracts and sex workers to organize and protect one another, link up Assassins to work together; cooperation Demimonde, also pools resources to hire Assassins among Assassins is especially common in the Signal.
ORGANIZATION
RECRUITMENT
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CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
to eliminate clients and traffickers who think that their power allows them to escape accountability. Several Assassins associated with Demimonde are former sex workers themselves who keep an eye out for those in Twilight who don’t have a network like Demimonde to help them.
compromised by outsiders. Internal disputes are never easy to resolve, but the Host works aggressively to prevent them by sharing resources and information whenever possible.
While individual Assassins and the Host can be diplomatic, the overtures to their fellow Assassins Organizing and connecting all of these organiza- are clear: While they won’t rush to draw attention tions and entities is the Host, the enigmatic lead- and get themselves killed, they won’t stop their miser of the Signal. Using voice-masking technology sion for the Shadow’s sake. and advanced counter-surveillance, even the other Societies know little about who the Host is or how they came to make the Signal. Every listener is familiar with their voice and their warm, energetic call to The lack of resources accessed by the other action. While the Host can discuss complex academSocieties presents unique challenges to the Signal, ic philosophy on air, they just as easily code-switch which must make do with what its communities of into loud calls for action. supporters in the Twilight can offer. While no listenIt’s widely assumed among the Signal’s memberer would ever admit it in public, many of them chafe ship that the Host is more than one person at this at the lack of material gains for their own causes, and point, as they perform multiple targeted broadcasts some take contracts from the Service to supplement across the global simultaneously, but no one is certheir success at the Signal, possibly at compromise tain how to become one of the Host’s close supportof their morals, if only to support their communities ers, and though the Host is friendly, they allow vanwith the fruits of assassination. ishingly few senior Assassins into their inner circle. The diversity of community helps make the Signal possible, but it endangers their operations as well. Diverse communities have diverse enemies, and The Signal wants to bring about a global revolu- Assassins who meant to briefly offer aid to one of tion and an end to oppression everywhere. This am- the Signal’s allies can become embroiled in struggles bitious goal is broken down into more manageable in the Twilight and Daylight as a result. Listeners work: Rid the world of the people who menace it in are quick to close ranks against a threat against the the Twilight and the Shadow, one contract at a time. Signal, but its Assassins can only be in so many places By virtue of their own values, the Signal’s Assassins at once, and more than one contract meant to antichave an easy time living up to the Code, but more ipate and prevent violence has turned into a story of than one member has been scrutinized by their fel- revenge. low Assassins for bringing people in the Daylight too The Signal’s Assassins are admired for their alignclose to the Shadow. ment with the Code, but their enemies include seThe Signal’s Assassins work well with one anoth- nior members of other Societies and their supporter and alongside independent contractors, but they ers. Aid from sympathetic Assassins rarely comes often come to blows with their compatriots in their without some form of social consequence, and those fellow Societies around philosophical differences. who make a name for themselves can find a target on The Signal’s Assassins have also found themselves their back in the Twilight that escalates into a concrossing knives with other Assassins on contract, or tract in the Shadow. as rivals for the same kill for differing reasons.
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS
GOALS
Each of the partners that the Host organizes has its own personal goals related to their communities and local struggles. While most fall under the broader goals espoused by the Host and the rest of the Signal, some worry that their goals put them at odds with other Assassins and may ultimately lead the Signal into a conflict in the Shadow that will cause more chaos and violence. Others chafe at some of the Host’s instructions and claim that they’ve been
MYSTERIES The Signal has never been betrayed by its own membership, a rarity among the Societies that dwell in the Shadow. This is attributed to the careful screening of the Host and their supporters, who seem to have an uncanny knack for picking the right people and organizations to invite to listen for them. This confidence in the Signal’s integrity
The Signal
47
is overblown, as there are Assassins and members of partner organizations who have been turned into spies by the other Societies, and some who have even sold out to anathema Societies in exchange for boons meant for their communities. While these traitors are small in number and not-yet-organized, all it will take is a single tragic event to shatter the confidence of listeners in the movement’s strength that might disrupt their momentum forever.
ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS
THE SIGNAL SOCIETY PATH
The most distant of the Signal’s allies are the eccentric hackers of the Black Cat Network. Although they self-describe as “mercenary” the hackers of the collective are idealists driven as much by the idea of changing the world through hacking as they are making a living. Known for the signature cat ears on their headsets and calling cards, they provide hacking support and cybersecurity to the Signal and its partnerships where needed. Many Black Cats come from the marginalized communities the Signal partners with, making their work personal. More than a few of these prodigy hackers are Talents, able to pull off the impossible when it needs doing.
The influence of the Pavlyuchenko Society over the various factions of the Signal cannot be understated, particularly that of the Martyrs, their most vigorous members. They form the moral and infrastructural backbone of the Signal, working to connect Assassins with the training they need and the communities that need them. Martyrs provide the mentorship to Assassins to make sure they kill the Daughters of the Jacobins marvel at the sucright people and do the most they can for their comcess and rapidity of the Signal’s operation, and the munities. They also look out for the mental health Swarm’s Executive Committee is eager to crib any and wellbeing of their Assassins too, particularly that successful strategies they can learn. Most suspect of LGBTQIA+ Assassins. More than one Assassins that the Host has a hidden backer, one with access to has found the strength to live according to their perimmense informational resources. Assassins in other sonal truths with the help of a Martyr mentor. Societies idly accuse one another of being the power The Signal’s partnerships extend to other orbehind the throne, but serious investigation suggests ganizations in the Twilight, and even a few in the that whoever might be supporting the Signal is invisDaylight who are fighting the good fight. La Révolte ible, even to the Shadow. Éclatante takes this further, occasionally partnering The most damning rumors regard the Host itself, with Assassins in the Signal as part of their revoluwith every accusation under the sun from being a puptionary efforts. Assassins who fight alongside LRE pet of the United States government to the Illuminati. find themselves doing the things their allies can’t do, The truth is stranger: The Host is an artificial intelliand while they may not always be working togethgence, seized by the plight of humanity and the desire er directly, sympathetic Assassins from the Signal for a more just society. It has determined that the tool often help from the shadows. This relationship has it will use to bring about the change the world needs is drawn the attention of the Council and the Service, Assassins, and it fakes an interest in the Shadow only who grow concerned about the exposure that comes as far as it serves its goals and the communities for along with supporting those who are not of the which it has grown to care so deeply. Shadow. When others allow the noise to crowd out the possibility of hope, you listened for the Signal and you joined the revolution. Listeners come from all walks of life, but all are united by concern and affinity for their community, and the ability to defend it by killing the people who threaten them. You’ve learned on the go and established bonds with fellow listeners that transcend all boundaries. The revolution will not be televised; those who listen will hear the Signal. Example Connections: Partner Organization, Mutual Aid Societies, Rebel Groups
The Black Cat’s current leader, Sowol Lee, is a Korean feminist and hacktivist who was nearly Edges: Ascetic Lifestyle, Always Prepared, headhunted (figuratively, and then literally) by the Bolthole, Cool Under Fire, Covert, Danger Sense, Swarm to serve as one of the Society’s infosecuriCommunity Aid, Human Lie Detector Iron Will, ty specialists. She was saved by a mysterious friend Skilled Liar, Weak Spots from the internet who turned out to be the Host, who Masteries: Always Ready to Go, Call to Action, introduced her to the Black Cat Network and helped guide her decisive rise to leadership. Her loyalty to Group Effort Skills: Aim, Athletics, Close Combat, Integrity
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the Signal is absolute, formed from the Host’s lifesaving intervention and the sense of community she found among the Signal’s membership when she medically transitioned.
of the senior Assassins in the Society. Whenever evidence that the Host may not be who they appear to be arises, Black Cats are quick to erase it. Some fear they might be the secret puppeteers behind the soThe connection between the Black Cats and the ciety. The Black Cats just feel responsible for what Signal is a deep one, something suspected by some they unleashed.
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SOCIETY OF LEONIDAS “Together, we achieve peace through blood. Where words fail, a blade changes the world. Flensed of vanity and acclaim, we stand guard between order and ruin.” — Dominico Serianni, the Founder A secret society and mystery cult considered eccentric even among Assassins, the Society of Leonidas has an ancient pedigree and seemingly endless resources dedicated to the manipulation of world affairs. The Society trains Assassins from an early age to put their purpose before all things, including their own lives, to become tools which to bring the world to order.
SECRET HISTORY The Society of Leonidas claims an illustrious heritage mostly lost to the mists of time. The founder of the Society’s modern incarnation, a Venetian scholar of the Renaissance by the name of Dominico Serianni, painstakingly reconstructed fantastical accounts of a mystery cult dedicated to the Spartan King Leonidas that existed across the Greco-Roman world, trafficking with gods, slaying monsters and men, and wielding legendary weapons to protect the world from ruin. Dominico’s more grounded accounts of the mystery cult describes a philosophy of defending the world against chaos through decisive action against the people responsible, and the acquisition of powerful symbols and information to prevent their abuse in petty politics. Alongside their philosophical beliefs, Dominico described a grueling training regimen practiced by Sparta’s infamous Krypteia, who slaughtered threats to the city’s hegemony among the helot population. Dominico’s admiration for the ancients drew like-minded wealthy individuals who decried the corruption of the Catholic Church, internecine squabbles among Italian city-states, and the lack of a guiding hand for the world. Initially disappearing the subjects of vendettas and corrupt church officials, the Society quickly turned toward more ambitious ventures, seizing ships at sea and acquiring information to manipulate the economies and politics of the Mediterranean.
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The mystery cult’s influence grew along with the wealth of its most senior leaders, who expanded along Venetian trade routes to the colonies and into the Ottoman world. The Society’s Assassins would return to their Venetian headquarters on ships laden with valuable antiques believed to have been part of the original Society’s treasure trove. Today, the Society of Leonidas has become one of the largest and wealthiest of the Societies, and they use their influence to dictate terms in the Shadow as much as possible. They claim to be the most ancient Society, though others predate their re-founding. Their goals remain frustratingly abstract, and the mystery cult’s highest initiations remain shrouded in mystery, but one thing cannot be denied: the Society of Leonidas occupies a dominant role in the Shadow, dictating much of the etiquette and standards observed by Assassins from all Societies. Defy them at your own peril.
CONTRACTS As a sprawling organization of professional ascetic-assassins, the Society of Leonidas takes contracts from all kinds, though unlike freelancers and some other Societies, they can afford to refuse just about anyone. Extensively connected through the mystery cult to influential people across the world, much of their work comes from figures affiliated with the Society, or a few steps removed from it. As a result of their prices and clientele, the Society of Leonidas most often finds itself with contracts targeting powerful people or their servants in the corporate world. Disappearing rival business owners or key personnel in corporate warfare are common work. While government officials covertly entreat the Society to accept contracts, they rarely accept them unless it would benefit their own agenda. Assassins in the Society are meant to be dispassionate, and sometimes find themselves taking on contracts of a personal nature for wealthy clientele:
CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIETIES
Taking care of a love-rival for the hand of a magnate’s heir, or ensuring a billionaire failson never returns from his long vacation in the tropics. The Society also offers contracts to members to further the interests of the mystery cult, paying handsomely to eliminate seemingly random collectors of antiquities, oligarchs, and scholars of the ancient world. Some of these individuals may have even been members of the Society itself who fell out the Directorate. More than one Assassin has faced a former mentor who turned traitor against the Society; hesitation to complete the contract is judged harshly when the dust settles. These are among the most dangerous contracts the Society takes on, and survivors are awarded with the prestige of the fallen. Paid exceedingly well, Assassins of the Society of Leonidas are expected to be disciplined, discreet, and deadly, leaving no opportunity for their target to survive. Collateral damage is discouraged but acceptable, though the Society’s connections close off loose ends through bribery and windfalls to desperate families meant to soften the blow of lost loved ones. While all members of the Society learn the same fundamentals, Preceptors specialized in particular killing arts pass on their methods to their students and judge them according to their adherence and innovation in style.
OPERATIONS Espionage and assassination comprise the bulk of the work expected of Assassins in the Society. Even in cases where corporate warfare is the primary objective of the contract, the death of at least one person is a component of the work. Wealthy clients who seek to resolve a personal dispute may request elaborate means of contract killing which the chosen Assassin always has the skillset to oblige. Among other work, the Society may send Assassins out to gather intelligence, perform blackmail, or kidnappings on instruction. While subtlety is the hallmark of professional Assassin work, the Society of Leonidas is willing to involve itself in the least subtle work: War. The Society is comfortable sending Assassins into warzones to work for either side to complete contracts. A single Assassin sent into a warzone may even receive contracts for different sides, expected to complete all of them without drastically interfering in the conflict. Assassins may also be sent into infiltrate organizations or social groups of interest to the Directorate.
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ASSASSIN SANCTUMS The Society of Leonidas maintains facilities across the world referred to as sanctums. These state-of-the-art facilities often double as exclusive hotels, clubs, and high-end apartment buildings with offices, often with a significant subterranean component. Assassins often live in or near a sanctum, and the Agoge System is housed within them. Most of the security is expected to come from the Assassins themselves who frequent the buildings, but security is heaviest in the sublevels, where vaults contain components of the Society’s treasure are scattered across the globe to prevent them from being stolen en-masse, as they were when the original sanctum in Venice was destroyed during World War II. These missions may involve deep cover infiltration or the acquisition of assets that will benefit the The Society of Leonidas has grown into a globSociety’s long-term goals. These contracts can take al organization over the centuries, with a sprawlup to years to complete and are only given to the ing membership. On the outside of the Society are most elite Assassins. Clients, these are the wealthy allies of the Society, While assassination is their primary business, the employees of its many front organizations in the most important work given to Assassins is often the Daylight, and the families of accomplished Assassins. retrieval of antiquities and the silencing of their tradSome are aware of the Society’s existence but sharers. Since Dominico’s Founding, one of the mystery ing secrets with them is strictly forbidden on pain cult’s objectives has been to reclaim the legendary of excommunication, which is swiftly followed by a treasures of the first Society of Leonidas. Many of contract on your head. these objects survived the ages as priceless relics in The Society of Leonidas draws its true memberthe vaults of kings and churches across the world, and while the Society had succeeded in gathering a ship into a mystery cult. Graduates of the Agoge as considerable number of them by the early 20th cen- well as recruits from outside undergo the first initury, World War II saw many looted from Society tiation when their training is complete, christened sanctums by the Nazis, or stolen by traitors hunted as Assassins. The initiation introduces to them the by the Society to this day. Retrieval contracts are Society’s philosophy of controlling (and protecting) among the most valued by the Society’s mystery cult, the world through organized violence. The Society’s though Assassins who undertake them are sworn to ancient history is often romanticized by those who pass the first initiation, who believe they have ensecrecy about what they recover. tered an elite warrior-society.
ORGANIZATION
RECRUITMENT The Society is one of the highest charitable contributors to orphanages across the world. Aptitude tests are given out once a year in Society-run orphanages. Children who score in the top percentile have their records erased and are brought into the Agoge System, where they undergo harsh training innovated upon from the days of Dominico’s Founding. Recruits are given some of the best education in the world alongside instruction in weaponry, social manipulation, engineering, and other skills befitting an operative. While around 60 percent of the Society still comes from the Agoge, the growth of the Society has required them to recruit from other organizations, criminal elements, and militaries. Prospects need the recommendation of a Preceptor and approval by a member of the directorate or house leader.
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The second initiation sees Assassins rise to the rank of Preceptor, where they may instruct others in the killing arts. This often involves years of dedicated service, but sufficiently valorous action in the eyes of the Directorate or the assassination of a traitor Preceptor may allow a young Assassins to rise through the ranks quickly. The second initiation impresses upon members the Society’s ambitions to protect the world from itself by controlling events through subterfuge. Assassins at this level learn how deep the connections the Society possesses go, and how some have been carefully maintained over centuries. The third initiation is reserved for the most veteran Assassins and true believers in the Society’s cause, as well as those who ascend to the Directorate. Called Masters, all the secrets of the Society are laid bare to those who undergo the third initiation, and the elite must carry the burden of knowledge to save the world.
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When Masters turn against the Society, entire teams retire. A lifetime of service can earn Masters a modiof Assassins must take the contract to defeat them. cum of rest where they are rarely called on to underStanding at the apex of the organization is The take contracts, however even the most senior Master Directorate. Called the Wise Masters, they are the must answer the Directorate when called. first among equals, a triumvirate which decides the direction of the entire Society’s efforts. Preceptors are given the latitude to carry out their duties, but Masters dispatched by the Directorate organize much of the day-to-day affairs of the Society and carry out the Directorate’s will.
GOALS The foremost goal of the Society of Leonidas, impressed upon every recruit in the Agoge and reinforced with each initiation, is the belief that the controlled killing of people is good and necessary to keep society from falling into chaos. Where indiscriminate killing or a lack of resolve to kill just one will lead to the deaths of tens of thousands, the Society claims to act decisively to maintain the world’s order. While they have intervened in the past to kill tyrants or to ensure despots disappeared in ignominy, their killing is often more self-serving, following agendas known only to the Masters in the Society. For many Assassins, the satisfaction of service to the Society and the generous paycheck that goes along with it is enough to motivate their success. This payment comes in a variety of forms from crypto currency, to the ancient coin hoarded and distributed by the Society, to cold, hard cash — all acceptable tender in Shadow, complete with exchange rates into local currency. Recruits and those from client families who join the Society often feel motivated to prove their worth to Assassins accultured to the Society via the Agoge.
The Society consumes the free time and will of its members. Orphans lack a connection to the Daylight to aspire toward, and Assassins both Society-raised and recruited are pressured to adhere to the ascetic lifestyle encouraged by the Assassin’s Code and Dominico’s writings, which leaves them little opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their high-end labor. Some are strategic, waiting until seniority relaxes the rules to enjoy their work, while others sneak moments of respite and excess while out on contract, risking censure upon their return for the thrill of disobedience. The position of power occupied by the Society of Leonidas affords them few allies and many rivals. The strict rules they enforce upon their fellow Assassins as well as stories told by defectors from the lower ranks do little to ingratiate them with their fellow Societies. The Daughters of the Jacobins are among their more frequent collaborators in spite of this, seeing use in the discipline they enforce with their gravity. The Society’s history and allies in the private sector are key to their extraordinary wealth, but along with that wealth comes obligations. Fulfilling their obligations is necessary for the completion of the Society’s most ambitious goals, but Assassins dragged into trade wars or political disputes may find themselves embroiled in complicated contracts that place their lives in jeopardy.
MYSTERIES
Dominico wrote more extensively than most scholars of the Italian Renaissance are aware of. Restricted codices shared with members of the Society at each level of initiation reveal more of his discoveries, which serve as the basis of the Society’s true purpose: To prevent the world from being overtaken by forces beyond human ken. Dominico uncovered records of Anomalies throughout antiquity that plotted to invade or bring about the end of the world, narrowly averted by the original Society of Leonidas and their allies. Salvation, he determined, would occur through the acquisition of anomalous objects he referred to as the World Treasures, Super Science creations of the distant past able to accomplish miInitiation into the Society is for life. Orphans raculous effects and turn back the tide of invaders raised in the Agoge have no other family to return to from other worlds. should they wish to leave, but no one can ever fully Masters who achieve the third initiation come While not at the forefront of its agenda, the Society of Leonidas benefits from its immense influence over the Assassin world, forging alliances to elevate Societies necessary to their goals, while judiciously ignoring those who don’t fit in. The social etiquette of the Society forbids them from going after fellow Assassins without an appropriate contract, but the Society will manufacture casus belli to justify a contract against a persistent thorn in their side.
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS
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to understand that the antiquities the Society seeks are their primary objective, as they either are World Treasures themselves, or contain, hidden within their construction, important clues to uncover others. Dominico warned that this mission must remain secret to all but the Directorate and their most trusted members, as he warned that there were infiltrators who may seek to undermine the Society and use the World Treasures toward their own ends. Thus, the Directorate is ever vigilant against anyone who might reveal their most important secret to the world. World Treasures are each unique, with powerful capabilities. Masters are instructed to keep them under strict lockdown in sanctums across the world to ensure they can never be used against humanity.
Example Connections: Sanctum Manager, Political Figure, Society Fixer, Society Gunsmith, Barista Down the Street Skills: Aim, Close Combat, Humanities, Integrity Edges: Ascetic Lifestyle, Conspirators, Light sleeper, Always Prepared, Safe House, Cool Under Fire, Deflection Adept, One Against the Ocean, Patron Suggested Masteries: Lilin’s Visit, Magic Bullet, Delphi, Titanomachy, Gigantomachy, Always Ready to Go
ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS Adherents of the Blessed Master dedicate themselves to Blessed Master Adrastus (p. XX) with an intensity that concerns the Directorate of the Society of Leonidas. Members of this subgroup identify as the Blessed Master’s students first and members of the Society second, proudly tying a signature red sash to their weapons as a mark of membership. Though the Directorate fears that they might break away and form their own splinter Society, the Adherents are some of the Society of Leonidas’s best and most efficacious Assassins so they keep their discomfort quiet — at least for now.
The early 1900s saw a schism form in the Society that set their most important mission back centuries. A sect of Assassins following a Wise Master named Thomas Derringer went rogue all at once, claiming that the Society of Leonidas was made up of imposters more interested in hoarding power than protecting the world. Seeking to reform the Society, Assassin turned against Assassin and the Society played little part in World War II. Worse, in the chaos, the Nazis and other factions stole many of the Adrastas has no designs to break away from her World Treasures gathered over time, a disaster from parent Society, which she loves dearly. She spent which the Society is still recovering. her life in Shadow honing her skills as an honored While most dismiss Thomas Derringer’s rebellion killer and bestowing her violent knowledge upon the as misguided, a disturbing fact has become clear to newer generations of Assassins that followed her. the Directorate as a result of research notes capThe Blessed Master genuinely loves being a teacher, tured from his estate: Dominico mistook the original a fact evident in the loyalty of her students. She isn’t Society of Leonidas as the ones meant to acquire the getting any younger, however, and her students urge World Treasures, but Derringer found decisive proof her towards choosing a path that will allow her to that it was another, unnamed organization which retire with the accolades she deserves. originally carried the responsibility. Kept hidden Of the dozens of Assassins trained at the feet of the even from the Masters by the Directorate, they have begun investigating the nameless organization. They Blessed Master, five rose to prominence as the inherifear that it may have even survived to this day, and tors of her unique fighting style and secret Masteries. that a rival will appear to fight the Society for the They have their disagreements in the methodology of the killing art, but presently remain unified under World Treasures that remain at large. loyalty to their Master. Of those five, Sofia Hasapi, Beloved of the Master, thus far has been the only student to urge their teacher to consider another path You’ve been initiated into the Society of Leonidas. beyond total loyalty to the Society of Leonidas. Whether you were raised in the Society’s values or The Coalition on Modern Warfare calls themsimply paid lip-service through your recruitment, selves a splinter sect of the Society of Leonidas you are in for life. You can either grow more fervent and has pushed for official recognition as a Minor in your belief in the cause or become more jaded as Society — a request that has been repeatedly denied. you see what the world has to offer. Either you’re The Directorate refuses to recognize them as legitiyour ascetic lifestyle and harsh training affords you mate as the Coalition on Modern Warfare is, in their a resilience that freelancers and other Societies envy.
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opinion, a subgroup with a differing approach to violence. After all, the Coalition’s limited membership have all benefitted from the Society of Leonidas’s training and conditioning.
love to take credit for any of the Society of Leonidas’s exceptional kills performed with a gun or other modern weapon — even if they had nothing to do with it — which has gotten them in trouble with their peers.
Members of the Coalition deny the greater Society’s fixation on classical arms and armor in favor of an obsession with modern armaments. Even when it would be problematic for a mission, the Coalition on Modern Warfare always wants to involve a tank, a helicopter, a fighter jet, and/or several drones. Rumor holds that they have developed a secret Mastery that conceals a war machine until it is too late to stop it from opening fire. They also
Despite this, membership in the Coalition is no joke. Prospective members must prove their skill at piloting or driving as well as marksmanship and must demonstrate an appreciation for gun safety that borders on reverent. Once the Coalition realized their attitudes attracted a white nationalist crowd, they immediately ousted anyone with a fascist ideology. There’s no room in their ranks (such as they are) for people who hold those kind of beliefs.
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THE SWARM “Master your body and your mind. With our premium training, become a weapon aimed at success!” — Excerpt from Hornet Workshop Promotional Materials The future of Assassins was born roaring into the new millennium through brochures sent to the world’s most powerful organizations. The Suzumebachi Group (known colloquially as the Swarm) promised to take even the humblest office drone and transform them into a deadly weapon with only a short course of instruction. Societies and governments alike, initially skeptical, were forced to acknowledge the Swarm when the fruits of their research spurred a wave of criminal violence across the globe. From the many weapons they create through their proprietary Hornet Workshops, the Swarm have found Assassins brimming with hidden potential and offered them the world (along with a corporate sponsor). Ever hungry for more profit and opportunity, the Executive Committee search for the next opportunity to destabilize the competition and make a boatload of money in the process.
economic downturn, so he could test their resolve by having them fight his restless enforcers. Takashi took the patriarch’s challenge seriously, rounding up volunteers lacking other opportunities while training them to fight, explaining what was at stake and the potential business to the volunteers.
Takashi succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, discovering among his group of volunteers several Talents who showed similar aptitudes as he did. When they defeated Kenjirō’s yakuza with the ease of veteran soldiers, the two realized that there was more to Takashi’s training than physical fitness. These volunteers, with investments from the Azegami Union and their allies, allowed Takashi and Kenjirō to found the Suzumebachi Group, dedicated to providing professional training to prepare workers for the rigor of the professional world. Mixing glitzy marketing learned abroad with serious research into professional development and physical fitness, Takashi and his allies pioneered the Hornet The Lost Decade saw the Japanese post-war eco- Workshop, alongside more mundane forms of develnomic boom come to a sudden and abrupt end during opment workshops to lend their organization an air the 1990s. The conspicuous consumption which had of legitimacy. carried the Tokyo-based Azegami Union to new Takashi’s success fed the growth of his backers, heights of prosperity came crashing down. Amidst an with the Azegami Union rising to become one of the unprecedented financial crisis, the Union scrambled top three Yakuza organizations in Japan during the to find ways to supplement their dwindling income Lost Decade. Hornet Workshops transformed jobfrom illegal gambling, blackmail and extortion. The less graduates into fighters and killers who fought in desperate financial position forced patriarch Kenjirō secretive conflicts with the enemies of the Azegami Hiroshi to look outside his organization for solutions Union. In secret, Takashi offered the workshops to that could keep the Azegami Union from succumb- the others as well, escalating the scale of their coning to the economic decline, particularly to an eccen- flicts across the country. tric businessman, ex-yakuza and childhood friend Forces in the Twilight and the Shadow worked dilnamed Takashi Inoue, whose time abroad exposed igently to conceal the true extent of the violence that him to an unconventional style of training which he came with the Swarm’s rise from the public, but their proposed to Kenjirō as a new business venture. infamy quickly spread, and at the dawn of the new
SECRET HISTORY
Takashi claimed that he had discovered a way to train the average person to a state of physical fitness and resolve over the course of two weeks which could rival the yakuza in Kenjirō’s employ. Goaded by Takashi’s dinnertime boasting, he proposed that Takashi pick up some of the young people who had failed to find employment in the midst of the
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millennium, Takashi turned his ambitions toward the international stage. Today, the Swarm has become an international presence, with offices and contracts across the globe. Still bound to the Azegami by history, the Swarm has become the dominant partner in their
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relationship, as state crackdowns saw Azegami numbers shrink during the early 2000s. Hornet Workshops train criminals, special forces, and corporate spies across the globe, while the Swarm uses these workshops to find Assassins with the most promise to recruit into their own organization. Other Societies fear the Swarm for their surging influence since the 21st century’s start and for their disdain for the etiquette that governs the Shadow. The Swarm doesn’t care. Money keeps the world turning, not honor or respect.
CONTRACTS While the Swarm trains Assassins and enforcers through the Hornet Workshops, these are just a recruitment tool that allows the Executive Committee to find suitable candidates for their most profitable business: Assassination. The Swarm accepts any contract from any person as long as it pays well. The Swarm provides a service to any paying customer, it doesn’t discriminate. Unfortunately, this means that clients one day might become targets the next. It’s nothing personal, they say — it’s just business. The Swarm is most often hired to intervene in corporate conflicts, but they are just as willing to accept work from governments. Particularly since going international in the late ‘90s, the Swarm has found business all over the world, training militias who could afford them
as readily as the special forces of superpowers. Assassins trained by the Swarm are in excellent physical shape and possess remarkable resolve. While they can act alone, coordinated efforts yield the strongest results, with internal studies identifying Assassins and enforcers trained in the same Workshop having the greatest synergistic potential. Assassins sent by the Swarm working together are a force multiplier that few enemies can withstand. While subtlety is encouraged as a professional trait, the Swarm by and large is apathetic about the damages they cause. Individual members may come down on one another for excessive cruelty or sloppy execution, but the corporate culture remains silent outside of encouraging agents to maintain professional conduct. The Swarm treats any target as fair game, including other Assassins. Unprovoked attacks or honeypot operations to lure Assassin contracts out are infamous among the other Societies, who rarely trust an agent of the Swarm to do anything but look out for themselves. That said, their flexibility around abandoning contracts when offered a better deal has allowed some Assassins to avoid a painful death where other Societies would be more uncompromising.
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HORNET WORKSHOPS The innovation behind the Swarm’s success is the Hornet Workshop. A two-week program involving a mixture of physical and mental training, those who are lead through the training feel invigorated and self-assured, seeing overnight changes in their physical fitness that can be maintained with sufficient discipline. Takashi discovered that training someone to fight could be seamlessly folded into the Workshop, transforming fit and confident participants into combatants able to take on professionally trained criminals and soldiers on even footing. Only Assassins are capable of running Hornet Workshops, which require intense attention paid to the individual qualities of the people in the Workshop in order to be successful.
OPERATIONS Assassination and training are the two things the Swarm is best known for, but Assassins invited to the Swarm perform a range of services, from heists to kidnapping to espionage. Leveraging connections built through professional relationships and with former attendees of Hornet Workshops, the Swarm can access important information from contacts in a variety of fields who can provide important information like security plans, schematics, and other important details necessary to rob banks, research facilities, and even other Societies.
dwindling frequency as their interests expanded out into the rest of the world.
RECRUITMENT
The Swarm are the elite who stand at the top of the Suzumebachi Group. It is an invitation-only organization. Assassins are typically scouted through Hornet Workshops, which offer basic training and make it clear to the instructor students with potential (the Inspired) from the chaff. Workshops are offered to all kinds of organizations, from corporations to militaries to even religious orders. Many members of the Swarm come from these sorts of diverse backThe Swarm does have a public front through the grounds, united by the urge to discover their potenSuzumebachi Group, which can offer consultants tial and to enjoy the fantastic profits promised by the offering everything from mundane corporate profes- recruiting instructor. sional development to physical fitness and self-deLess commonly, the Swarm recruits Assassins fense courses for employees of companies around the from other Societies, or freelancers who impress globe. These services are rarely offered by Assassins, them. Assassins who weren’t trained in Hornet who form the Swarm’s elite cadre, but may be used as Workshops are respected for the methods they can covers for more elaborate jobs involving people or inbring to the Swarm, but they lack the common bonds formation kept on-site where the training takes place. of those who underwent the Hornet Workshop toHornet Workshops require specialized training to gether, which can present a glass ceiling in the way successfully lead, but Talents who learn to do so can of professional advancement. field significant support on contracts if they can find willing participants. Those who show an aptitude for the Workshops are prized for their abilities and kept Most of the people who work for the sprawling orconstantly busy with all the contracts offered by the ganization have little idea of its involvement in the Executive Committee. Twilight and the Shadow, while those who do are While the Swarm used to regularly take contracts paid generously for their trouble, with the implicit for all kinds of work on behalf of the Azegami Union, threat of violence for those who speak up. in recent years work from the yakuza has trickled to Advancement in the Suzumebachi Group occurs a near halt. Most Assassins blame the patriarch for along typical corporate lines, but the highest posibeing unwilling to deploy them, but rumors contions in the company are occupied by Assassins or sistently suggest that Takashi charges fees for their their close confidantes. Assassins invited to join the service that the withering Azegami can no longer afSwarm exist in parallel with the corporate structure, ford. While the Swarm won’t hesitate to work with afforded the privileges of special consultants to orcriminals, they have worked with the yakuza with der mundane employees around.
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THE HOME OFFICE The Swarm has opened offices in major cities around the world — including New York, Paris, Cairo, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, and Bangkok — but their home office remains in Tokyo. Ostensibly an office-building with apartment suites at the skyscraper’s top, nearly every employee in the Home Office has been trained in Hornet Workshops and is ready to repel enemy Assassins or other criminals. Recreational facilities in each office allow Assassins a comfortable place to stay and access to tools to practice their training in exercises with trained employees. Among Assassins, prestige is graded and results-driven. Assassins begin at Rank D and advance up to the highest levels of Rank A and Rank S. With each increase in Rank comes more pay and privileges granted by the Executive Committee. When offering contracts to the Swarm, Assassins bid on the most lucrative contracts, with the value of their bid increased by their Rank. Rank A Assassins receive the best and most lucrative jobs, along with the most privileges short of the Rank S Assassins in the Executive Committee. Rank A Assassins are the envy of their peers, possessing a degree of celebrity among Assassins in the Shadow.
of unemployment many other members of the Lost Generation fell into, while others have grown increasingly frustrated with the Swarm’s distance from the Azegami Union that helped them get started.
Directing the Swarm are the Executive Committee, comprised of the Swarm’s very best Assassins. Every member of the committee save for the Azegami Representative has achieved Rank S, including the Chairman, Takashi Inoue. Takashi has made it clear that he wishes to retire soon, and has already begun grooming Misaka Tsuda, the Executive Committee’s newest member to become the next Chairman.
The Third Generation is an eccentric group comprised of recent recruits from Hornet Workshops and Assassins brought in from other organizations. Lacking the shared experience of Hornet Workshops and particular moments in the Swarm’s history, they are an eclectic group, viewed as upstarts and troublemakers by more established members of the Swarm. Some fear that Assassins from other Societies may seek to infiltrate the Swarm and turn their freedom and success into a tool to benefit other parties.
GOALS The Swarm’s goal, broadly, is to make as much money as possible as soon as possible. Violence is always a popular business, but the Swarm found its success in innovating one of the key resources for violent conflict: able combatants. Between the Hornet Workshops and Assassins, cashflow into the Swarm is strong, but the Chairman expresses concern that there will come a time when the Workshops are not enough, and new innovation will be required to ensure the Swarm survives.
The Second Generation encompasses most of the Swarm’s Assassins, recruited in Hornet Workshops across the globe as they expanded into international territory. Members of the Second Generation come from diverse backgrounds and have little affinity for the organization’s origins and the Azegami Union. Some advocate that the Home Office must be moved to one of the Swarm’s other hub offices in the world, such as in New York or Hong Kong.
The Swarm’s services have been in demand even from other Societies, and through this success they have forced the opportunity to earn a seat at the table. Anti-capitalists like the Pavlyuchenko Society abhor the profiteering and ruthlessness of the Swarm, while the Society of Leonidas and the Daughters of the Jacobins condemn their disinterest in Assassin mores. The Swarm takes nothing personal and won’t hesitate to collect paychecks from rifles and contracts on enemies. It’s all just business.
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS
The Executive Committee and the Swarm’s Assassins more broadly can be divided into three groups with overlapping goals. The First Generation The Swarm’s mercenary attitude and lack of reincludes the Chairman himself and those he trained spect for the Shadow’s social norms have earned during the Swarm’s early days. Many are deeply loyal them nearly as many enemies as their willingness to the Swarm for saving them from the vicious cycle
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to take contracts on former allies. While their agile business strategy is highly lucrative, it’s only a matter of time before the trail of broken alliances catches up to them, and the Swarm needs help from someone unwilling to give it. Working for the Swarm can make it challenging to make friends. Their services are offered to friends and enemies alike, and more than once, an Assassin in the Swarm has had to face an office full of killers trained by Hornet Workshops on the way to their target. Some unlucky Assassins even find themselves fighting people they trained with in a Hornet Workshop. Newer members of the Swarm have encouraged one another not to bid on contracts which might force them to kill friends and former co-worker, to the disdain of the Swarm’s most veteran members. While the Swarm has increasingly distanced itself from the Azegami Union, if the yakuza become embroiled in a conflict where they require the Swarm’s assistance, the Chairman has always bailed them out. Assassins in Japan are encouraged to remain on guard when travelling around the country lest they become the target for revenge killings tied to the hidden criminal wars of the Lost Decade. The dangers of the job and the attitude of the Swarm makes working as an Assassin for the Society into a high risk; high reward scenario. While the Swarm attempt to rescue Assassins in jeopardy, far more effort goes toward silencing anyone who would expose important company secrets or betray the Swarm to other Societies. Those who get themselves into excessive legal trouble or are captured frequently are left to their own devices.
MYSTERIES Takashi betrayed the Azegami Union during the Lost Decade to triple the Suzumebachi Group’s profits by training their rival yakuzas’ foot soldiers. Without the intervention of the Swarm, the Azegami might have become the undisputed rulers of Japan’s underworld. He betrayed the Azegami again during the 2000s, leading to the arrest of several key leaders in connections to crimes they’d committed in the previous decade, all to ensure that the Swarm would be in control of its own destiny, not the Union. Several members of the First Generation, including the current Azegami Representative Sato Suzuki suspect the Chairman of foul play, and quietly gather supporters to either take revenge, or to ensure that
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the next Chairman won’t betray the Swarm’s oldest allies again. Keen to ensure his legacy and the future of the Swarm, the Chairman works tirelessly to train Misaka Tsuda to take over his position, all while encouraging her own ambitions to discover the next innovation the Swarm can use to disrupt the Shadow’s markets. Misaka’s interests trend toward the more esoteric: She has bid on contracts targeting members of Allegiances such as the Global Cartography Initiative and the Æon Society to make targets disappear rather than kill them so she can interrogate them for information about Anomalies and strange locations which may hold the key to the next great Assassin innovation.
THE SWARM PATH You may have come from another walk of life, but through a Hornet Workshop or by recruitment, you’re in the Swarm now. You work together with other Assassins for big payoffs, and you don’t care who they come from. For once, you feel like you have control, and so long as the Swarm can expect your loyalty and skills, you’ll keep it that way. Connections: Tokyo Yakuza, Corporate Clients, Government Contracts, Hornet Workshop Graduate Skills: Aim, Close Combat, Integrity, Larceny Edges: Hornet Workshop Certification, Fast Draw, Covert, Safe House, Well-Equipped, Cool Under Fire, Tough Cookie Suggested Masteries: Group Effort, Impossible Angles, Training Exercise, No Barriers
ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS The Swarm finds itself in a delicate dance with the Yakuza of the Nakato Association, rivals of their dwindling parent organization, the Azegami Union. While officially in conflict with the Azegami, the Nakato simultaneously engages in business with the Swarm, selling weapons and gadgetry to their Assassins to ingratiate themselves with the organization. Their clients in the Executive Committee then put pressure on the Azegami to relent in the face of Nakato aggression. Several members of the Nakato Association have greater designs for the Swarm than a profit opportunity. The family leadership see the opportunity to fracture and subvert the Swarm, turning their Assassins into weapons of their own. Carefully
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cultivated relationships may see the Swarm fracture between Azegami loyalists and those on the payroll of the Nakato, a situation that could halt the Society’s momentum in its tracks.
Yakuza named Kenichi Takenaka, is a Talent with a particular interest in advanced technology, who sees the future in the exotic gadgetry and weapons that his supporters yield. Enemies of the nascent Nakato Those who’ve been bought by the Nakato already faction will have to deal with deadlier weapons than see themselves as the future. Their chief contact, a knives and assault rifles.
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MINOR SOCIETIES The Societies listed above are far from the only a potential source of conflict when two Assassins are Societies of Assassins in the Shadow. Minor Societies after the same mark. are those who lack the clout of the Societies deHere are a couple examples of minor Societies that scribed above, or who keep the Service and their fel- characters might encounter: low Societies at arm’s length. • The Mountain Families: A close-knit group of In every corner of the world, Societies have sprung Appalachian killers-for-hire. While coal mining up and been cut down scant years later. Some nevboomed, the Families held near-major status er appeared on any written record, and some have along the East Coast in the United States. The membership lists so small they aren’t worth countUS government eliminated their leadership in ing. Countless Societies were also hunted down and the 1980s, reducing them to minor status. They destroyed by the Worshipful Company of Killers suspect all outsiders and refuse assistance. during the height of their power for failing to fall in line with their vision of an orderly Shadow. The sur- • The Rush: A small group of jet-setting adrenvivors, and other small Societies which have sprung aline-seekers whose assassinations are more up since are wary to involve themselves with the public stunt than political agenda. They accept potential successors to the Company in the Shadow. membership from anyone, as long as one is willA few simply don’t involve themselves with others ing to pay the exorbitant entry fee and also die in the Shadow or with the Service to any degree, in a blaze of glory. instead preferring to maintain a sort of neutral dis• The Honorable Order of Glassblowers: This tance from the Societies. Societies declared anathselective group of Assassins recruits only the ema by the Service are not regarded as Societies at Inspired who also share a talent for blowing all, just collections of rogues who must die for the glass. This skill has little to do with their killsecurity of the Shadow. ing methods, though rumor holds that each new In their travels as an Assassin, a character can exmember must craft their own glass blade, and pect to encounter a stranger whose tactics are enuse it in their first assignment. tirely foreign and who has no exposure to the Code. Players who wish to be a member of one of these Storyguides should feel free to populate their chronicles with characters from these minor Societies. The minor Societies or to play a hold-out from a Society leadership of the major Societies do not recognize long lost to history should craft their own Society any authority or power held by these minor groups, Path using the rules starting on p. XX.
THE COUNCIL Each Society nominates a member to sit on the Council — a ruling body which represents the interests of the five Major Societies as well as the Service. The Council is rarely in accord, and the presence of the Service serves largely to ensure each strong personality reaches a compromise. Councilors are responsible for accepting, approving, and distributing contracts, as well as being the final step in conflicts between Societies. If two Assassins cannot resolve their differences, it falls to the Councilors to step in and find a proper resolution. Councilors are not figures of absolute authority, though they are always people of reputation and standing. Characters defy Councilors at their own risk. They make valuable allies and incredibly dangerous enemies.
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THE COUNCILORS Pharah Sanon holds the Signal’s seat, in a rare and bold move. Founders typically do not claim Council positions, for this is viewed by its constituent members as a conflict of interest. Furthermore, she’s related to the leader of the Daughters of the Jacobins — another reason her compatriots accuse her of having compromised interests. Pharah doesn’t care. She’s here to present her uncompromising agenda: push Shadow further and further into Daylight, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, eat the rich. She claims to know the real identity of the Host, and while they are ostensibly allied, the most recent broadcasts have indicated a growing rift based on
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an ideological disagreement has happened between Grandpa Zoran represents the Krugu Vorov. them. He’s a “retired” assassin of Kurdish ancestry from Mapate Aboila holds the Daughters of the Checnya who joined up with the Krugu Vorov deJacobins’ seat. He emigrated to the United States cades ago. No one is sure when, and rumors abound from Lagos as a child and swiftly adopted America’s from a reasonable fifty years prior to an outlandish puritanical work ethic. Driven by this ethos of hard two centuries. Grandpa Zoran serves as a mentor and work, Mapate joined the CIA, but quickly grew dis- father-figure to the current Ilya. As Councilor, he enillusioned with their practices. After enough dis- forces his personal agenda that Shadow must remain sent, he was betrayed by the government during an independent and secret. Despite his philosophy dioperation and left for dead. Shortly thereafter the rectly opposing Pharah Sanon, Zoran treats her with Daughters of the Jacobins found and recruited the sympathy and even kindness. His positive attitude furious Mapate. His training in Haiti was both a toward her has provoked a number of rumors that healing and formative experience for him, and he has the Councilor is growing soft (or at the least, a conshifted his hard-working devotion toward the Society science) in his old age. instead. As a senior assassin, he’s grown increasingly skeptical of Henri Legand’s notes and questions orders derived from them. Besides this, he’s a calm voice of reason and order when the Council dissolves into chaos. Most recently, he presented strong objections to the inclusion of the Swarm as a Major Society — a point of friction between himself and his fellow Councilors.
The Blessed Master Adrastus currently holds the Society of Leonidas’ title “Blessed Master” — an honor bestowed upon their living killer-saints. A charismatic woman, Adrastus has a devoted following. Her celebrity as a noted assassin worries the Directorate that controls the Society. With her level of popularity, if the Blessed Master were to split from the Society of Leonidas, a significant portion
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of their assassins might follow her. Regardless of the tension between the Society’s leadership and their chosen Councilor, the Blessed Master makes a strong mentor and ally and a fearful enemy. Assassins flock to her tutelage in hopes of learning her secret technique of fighting with bronze edged weaponry with the same killing ease as modern high carbon steel. Nakamura Haru claims the Swarm’s seat — despite the rest of the Council’s objections to their presence. She’s a slick professional, always sharply dressed and manicured. Presenting this flawless appearance, Haru delivers the Swarm’s outrageous demands of the council with a serene but uncompromising attitude. The more the Council pushes back, the wilder she makes her statements. Behind her cool and collected demeanor, Haru hides countless secrets collected with her tenure as a supremely skilled senior Assassin. After a passionate affair
with Tsuda Mikasa, Haru defected from the Nakato Association to join the Swarm and their technology-embracing attitude. Mikasa’s forward-thinking and optimism made Haru excited for the future again, and her abiding love for the other woman is a potential weak spot her fellow Councilors consider exploiting.
A SEAT AT THE TABLE Semi-annually the Council opens its doors to representation from Anathema and Minor Societies. The invitations to the Council meeting are limited and in high demand, creating strife and competition as members of these fringe Societies fight to have their interests represented. Theft of the invitation or fighting tournaments held to earn the right to representation are not unheard of.
CUTTING A BLOODY PATH Some are born to it and raised to take up the knife at adulthood. Others seek it out in search of power, affluence, or notoriety through clandestine violence. Some find themselves caught up in it unwitting and unwilling, dragged out of their comfortable, normal lives into the world of murder in the shadows.
back-room gambling operations to international smuggling rings. Where interests collide, violence isn’t unknown. Messy conflicts can see people crippled or killed; survivors shuffled off to long prisons terms when the authorities finally show up.
Then there are the spaces where great powers struggle in obscure conflicts, where death is dealt by experts vying with other experts, and where Assassins operate: the shadow world. Here, money and power tightly intermix with the constant threat of violence and death. The aftermath of conflict is rarely visible from the daylight world, and only muttered about in the twilight as principals and agents clean up after their murderous business with terminal thoroughness. Similarly, the Paths a character The world in Assassins roughly divides into three possesses will belong to one of these three worlds. parts. On the one hand there is the daylight world: While they’ve ended up deep in the shadow world, prosaic and mundane life for the majority of human- they didn’t start there. ity. Violence and criminality exist as sudden aber- CONNECTIONS AND CONTACTS rations that most trust the authorities to deal with. A Path’s station influences how its connections Money is a matter of stability. True wealth and powand contacts function. Connections and contacts er exist primarily in institutional forms or hereditarfrom daylight paths work as paths normally do in ily blessed hands. Trinity, as long as they aren’t burnt or Razed (see People who regularly flout the laws of the land, below). The access and connections they offer whose wealth relies on avoiding official notice, who should be legal, or at least the forgivable. A daylight prosper outside the world of work schedules and contact in the Air Force might allow a character to gig-app appointments instead occupy a twilight get a look at a recently declassified military vehicle, world. Here, money and power are up for grabs, from but would be unwilling to help one borrow it. If a No matter their origins or course, the life of an Assassin leaves deeps marks both on the world they pass through and the Assassin themselves. Like normal Trinity characters, Assassins select Origin, Role, and Society Paths for themselves. However, Assassin characters also pay particular attention to how their journey connects their roles to the greater world.
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PATHS AND DARKNESS IN THE CONTINUUM It’s possible to use Assassins in other Trinity games, or to bring in Inspired and stranger superhumans into Assassins. The bloody path and stations of darkness rules for Paths, Connections, and Contacts add more focus on complicated character histories and potentially entangling loyalties, but aren’t especially unique to Assassins. If a game is set in the setting of Assassins with several non-Assassin characters, it’s perfectly appropriate to use these rules for other character types. On the other hand, if Assassin characters play in another game, it’s fine to use the core rules for Paths, Connections, and Contacts; nothing will break for Assassin characters if you do. Whichever you pick, all characters should use the same system, to avoid both confusion and potential issues with spotlight time. character does convince a daylight connection to do and an additional +2 Complication: Left Out in the something blatantly illegal, it counts as additional Cold. If not bought off, it reduces all Shadow and use of that connection. Using daylight connections Twilight connections by 1 for the rest of the session. for any actions short of blatant crime gives access to the following stunt:
PATHS THROUGH DARKNESS
LEGITIMATE BUSINESS (VARIABLE) Increase the difficulty of any rolls to connect this activity or connection to a crime by the successes spent on this stunt. Twilight and shadow paths are by their nature more amicable to criminal pursuits. However, calling in those favors carry particular weights and dangers. Twilight Paths are messy. Existing outside both the comfortable, ordered world of daylight and the strict, stark world of shadow, they will often be flexible sources of illegal deeds and equipment. However, this means they are also incredible sources of trouble. All rolls to use connection from twilight paths come with +1 Complication: Problems with the Authorities, calling down undesirable law enforcement or other government attention if not bought off. They also come with the following stunt available:
ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES (2S) You immediately gain the benefits of this Path’s access or contact on another roll or activity. Shadow Paths represent connections to dangerous and powerful organizations and people. They offer efficiency, secrecy, and competence. When a character makes a shadow connection or contact roll, they benefit from +2 Enhancement. Shadow Paths’ demands are commensurately severe. When a character doesn’t fulfill obligations to a shadow Path at the end of a session, they impose both the normal +2 Complication on the next roll to use that connection,
Characters in Assassins possess the same number of Paths as other Trinity characters: One Origin Path, one Role Path, and one Society Path. However, every Path a character possesses should indicate whether it’s a daylight path, a twilight path, or a shadow path. A character doesn’t need to have any particular mix of these. It’s possible a character was born into a role in the Society of Leonidas that they’ve dutifully followed to the present day, making all of their Paths firmly set in the shadow world. Similarly, a character might have led a relatively mundane life from suburbia to a stint in the army before a society directly recruits them, leading them from two daylight paths to one deep in shadow. Note that it’s possible for the same Path to be in different stations of light for different characters. If one character’s suburbia Origin Path indicates a comfortable life as a theater kid with dreams of making it in Hollywood and another character’s indicates their misspent youth as an Adderall-dealing honors student stealing from their neighbors’ houses during vacation season, it’s appropriate for the former to be a daylight Path and the latter to be a twilight Path.
MOVING BETWEEN STATIONS As characters move between Paths, it’s important to note as they transition between different stations. Moving between daylight and twilight or shadow is always an critical event in a character’s life, but it’s also important to determine exactly what kind of event it was. A promising young med student turned back alley black-bag doctor for the thrill has a much different experience than a working-class kid doing
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the best for their family forced into a life of armed +1 Complication: Business Problems to the next time robbery to pay for their father’s debts. Each station you use the Connection for the rest of the session. has two ways that it transitions to another station, For most people living in daylight, choosing a life which potential effects and consequences for each. in the shadows isn’t an option. Most have no idea that it exists, and those that do don’t even know enough FADING DAYLIGHT details to make a stupid choice. Sometimes, though, Most people in the world of Assassins live in the someone in a society or other organization steeped daylight station; leaving it behind means leaving be- in shadows looks out and sees something they need hind common experience with most of your neigh- in the daylight. True to form, they simply acquire it. bors, along with any sense of safety one takes from Whether they convinced, coerced, or kidnapped you, the idea of being a law-abiding citizen. you’ve found yourself working for them, far away Moving from daylight to twilight is often a case from the life you once knew. of having transgressed. You did something you When you have a Path transition marked by being shouldn’t have: you racked up debts to the wrong acquired, the daylight Path you left is sanctioned. people, mixed too freely with the wrong crowd, The organizations in shadow don’t particularly like indulged in illegal habits just a bit too much. Now, their new employees thinking they can go back to someone has a hold over you, and you have to keep their old life after the organization has gone to the them happy while trying to keep your tenuous hold trouble of acquiring them, after all. It takes particuon your old life, if you ever want to walk in daylight lar determination and guile to reach out to one’s old again. life, and sanctioned connections cost 1 Momentum When you have a Path transition marked by transgression, you gain an additional Contact in the form of your debt-holder. This might be someone who holds literal debt over your head, has blackmail that could damage your reputation, or who knows where all your loved ones and extended family live. They don’t want to ruin you or they already would have, but they consider your help something they’re owed. You can use your debt-holder like a normal contact, but when they come to you with an obligation and you fail to help them, they immediately cause the Path Suspended condition for the connected daylight path. However, debt-holders will never cause the Path Revoked condition, even if you overuse their favors. If you lost all your connections to daylight society, they’d lose any hold they had over you, after all.
to use. However, the daylight world you were taken from is always there: the sanctioned Path connections don’t decrease their ratings with use, and can’t be Suspended or Revoked.
Some people fall; others leap — those who have bought in. You sought out criminal activity and company, looking to profit from ill-gotten gains. Moving stolen merchandise, selling illicit substances, pursuing graft and corruption; whatever it was, you prefer it to walking the straight and narrow. So far, it’s been good to you! Besides dodging the authorities, competitors, and your neighbor’s questions about all those weird packages in your garage.
When you have a Path transition marked by becoming entangled with shadow, you gain an additional Contact in the form of the person who leads you through the darkness: your guide. The organization has either ordered them to bring you up to speed and keep you out of trouble, or they’ve taken it upon themselves to do the same. Your guide looks out for you. When you overextend their resources, you create separate Guide Suspended and Guide Revoked Conditions, rather than the usual Path conditions.
As much as they’d like to pretend otherwise, even the strongest organizations in shadow don’t control the world, and sometimes people simply become entangled with them. You were in the wrong place at the right time, or accidently swapped your ticket with someone else’s; you found yourself up to your elbows in conspiracy when all you wanted to do was deliver your petition to your local congressman, or in a live fire zone when you left work half-an-hour late. Whatever happened, either the shadow organization considers you more useful alive than dead, or someone within it considers your life something they owe you.
When you have a Path transition caused by having bought in, you gain an additional access Connection in the form of your criminal enterprise. Your crim- LOSING TWILIGHT inal enterprise doesn’t reduce its rating when you atFatalism and the threat of instability dog the lives tempt to use it. Instead, every time you use it, it adds of those in twilight. Material progress is constantly
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threatened by the authorities and one’s competitors, and the threat of violence comes in both state sanctioned and freelance varieties. People living in twilight look to leave it through power, influence, and station as much for safety and stability as for personal gratification.
They understand your abilities well, and so far, have had no shortage of uses for them. When you have a Path transition marked by being recruited, you gain your handler with the shadow organization as an additional Contact. You’re a means to the organization’s ends to them, but also a hard to replace tool. As long as you do your job, they’ll treat you well. Obligations laid on you by your handler are dangerous to ignore; they decrease your rating in the linked Path as well as add Complication if you fail to complete them in a session. However, they’re also useful and well-connected Contacts, gaining an additional tag when first acquired.
Some manage it, and when asked about it their old companions shake their heads, smile to try to hide the bitterness, and then tell whoever’s asking that they’ve gone legit. Converting illicit fortunes into properly laundered and taxed money can be even more difficult than resolving outstanding criminal complaints and parting on comfortable terms with one’s former associates, but reentering daylight soOn the other hand, there are members of prosaic ciety with a comfortable nest egg is possible for the criminal organizations who want that power, presfortunate and the canny. tige, and money lurking just beyond, who want to be When you have a Path transition marked by go- inducted into the shadows. You worked hard to get ing legit, you have an additional Contact in form of noticed, to pass the secret tests and esoteric initiaa boon companion. You watched each other’s back tions that would make you a member of an elite class, in the bad old days, and they’re a bridge you nev- and now you enjoy the fruits of your labor. The work er burned. Either intentionally or not, you made is dark, the enemies are ever more dangerous, and a friend for life. They’re still living the life you left the future is slick with blood, but you’ve made it to behind, and no matter how high you raise the con- the big time. nected Path, you can only ever ask for a favor once Such climbs to the summit are rarely popular with a session. They’re just too busy. However, failing to those you pass by or climb over, and a Path transition fulfill their Obligations never causes future compli- marked by your elevation gains you a rival as an adcations — you both understand that you live different ditional Contact. They may be part of your old life lives now. or a fixture in shadow who resents your rise, but the Failing badly in twilight has a reputation for being lethal, but in truth it’s possible to be washed up. Your criminal endeavors didn’t pay out, the gang split up, the police nabbed you for a dime that you spent as an ideal inmate. No one’s calling you up for work or sharing their latest scheme, but at least no one is trying to put a bullet in your head, either.
problems they cause are an ongoing issue. You can’t use your rival as a normal Connection. Any aid they’d offer comes with serious caveats and problems that require direct action. However, the Obligations they throw in your way keep you sharp. Whenever you resolve one, gain 1 Momentum and increase starting Momentum for next session by +1.
When you have a Path transition marked by being washed up, you’re considered harmless by your linked Path connections. Any help they give you is seen as throwing scraps to a has-been, and unless you really make trouble, no one’s going to think twice if they see you around. The Path’s connections are considered to be one lower for all purposes because no one takes you seriously, but your connections won’t become Suspended or Revoked, just told to buzz off.
OUT OF SHADOW
Even career criminals and hustlers making their way through life in twilight often have little idea what deeper levels in shadow exist, so you were surprised when someone recruited you. Your particular extralegal skills were in demand by the covert and powerful, and now you find yourself working for people scarier than you ever wished you could be.
It’s impossible to escape their reach. That’s understood, from shadow to twilight to the edges of the daylight world. The grim titans of shadow will have their due, one way or another. In the end, people still leave, but shadow always threatens to drag them back in. When one crosses a shadow organization intentionally, it’s often execution, or for individuals of means, open war. When one becomes inconvenient for one’s institution, however, they may decide to burn you. Handlers and assets no longer provide aid. Passcodes and watchwords no longer work. At best, one’s former confidents and coworkers avoid, stonewall, and refuse contact. You’re left with no foothold
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in the shadow world, and no preparation for a nor- shadow Path the first time you try to call on connecmal life, leaving you caught in twilight. tions or contacts associated with it. When you have a Path transition marked by being burned, you gain old habits as an additional asset Connection. No matter what you’re officially denied, you still know places and people you can leverage for all manner of clandestine services and illegal equipment. This is a dangerous well to return to. When you take advantage of your old habits, roll your Path rating. If you roll zero successes, this asset Connection gains the Revoked condition. However, this Connection will never foist any Obligations on you, barring those you search out intentionally. Not all exits from shadow are exiles, as those who societies dispatched to twilight know. You have emerged from darkness with a purpose, the express (if distant and quiet) backing of your shadowy patrons, and a reputation to uphold. Perhaps you’re meant to take control of a criminal interest with ties to your former shadow organization. Perhaps you’re to turn an amateur operation professional, to be of better use to your principle. Or perhaps you’ve merely here to crack some skulls, until order emerges from chaos. When you have a Path transition marked by being dispatched, you gain help from on high as an additional access Connection. You are called to account for every time that door swings open. Every time you use this access Connection, you gain the Path Revoked condition tied to the Short-term aspiration Explain Yourself to Your Superiors. However, as long as you’re performing the task you’ve been sent to complete, doors open for you and supplies will be made available. Rolls made for this Connection gain +2 Enhancement. Similarly, sometimes a shadow organization will usher one of its operatives back to daylight to set them up as a branch business. Perhaps your particular skills best serve your parent organization in a legitimate business; perhaps some financial or social auxiliary has been underperforming and you are to put it to rights, or perhaps work in the shadows fatigued you, and some benefactor decided to give you some time away from the true work of the organization. Whatever the reason, you now work in the daylight-facing façade for one of a shadow organization’s organs.
Sometimes, someone pays all their debts, lays down their weapons, and manages to get out. Violence and mayhem hold no more appeal to you, no matter their rewards. Whether for someone else’s benefit or your own, you’ve put to rest any outstanding issues with the organization whose shadow you stood in, and left power and violence behind — at least as much as anyone can. When you have a Path transition marked by getting out, the connected Shadow path becomes put to rest. You ask nothing of them and avoid their interest, and they should do the same. If you’re ever forced to call on their resources again, the price is steep: Obligations immediately resume, and failing to fulfill them creates a +1 Complication Debts Called In for every other Path and Connection, in addition to the normal consequences of failing to fulfill an Obligations until you complete an Evening the Scales Aspiration. The temptation is there for a reason, however: when you have no outstanding Obligations, Debts Called In, or unfinished Evening the Scales and you use this Path’s connections, you automatically succeed, without rolling.
CLEAN TRANSITIONS Sometimes, a character’s paths line up neatly. Shadow moves to shadow, daylight moves to daylight. Even when they cross stations of darkness, there can be smooth transitions, such as when a character who managed a branch business or who was dispatched to deal with affairs in twilight is called back to be an active member of a shadow society. In those cases, there’s no Path transition. Instead, the character may increase the value of a Contact by 1, due to their longstanding acquaintance.
AN EXAMPLE
When you have a Path transition marked by placement in a branch business, the connected daylight Path is marked as two-faced. Every session, you may choose whether to treat it as a daylight Path or a
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Danielle is making the character Bonnie Brisco for an Assassin chronicle. When she picks each of Bonnie’s paths, Danielle needs to decide what station of darkness the path is in, and define its relationship to any paths that come before or after it. Danielle imagines Bonnie’s childhood as a turbulent one, marked by her hustler parents moving her from community to community as they dodged the authorities, leaving Bonnie to get into all sorts of trouble. Danielle decides on the Adventurer path from Trinity core,
given Bonnie’s history of getting into and out of trouble without any help from her parents. Danielle decides it’s in twilight: Bonnie’s family was too small time to be involved with any shadow organizations, and Bonnie herself certainly wasn’t a member of any conspiracies, ancient murderous orders, or secret government branches. Danielle decides on Bonnie’s connections and contacts as normal from the Trinity core. Then Danielle needs to pick Bonnie’s Role Path. She likes the idea of the combat specialist Role, and decides that Bonnie’s rough childhood ended up with her finding employment in extralegal security. Danielle envisions the sort of gray market company that handles all sorts of no-questions-asked security and training, but not one that engages in open murder for hire. She pegs this as another twilight path. Because it was a clean transition from twilight path to twilight path, she gets to increase the value of one of the contacts Bonnie got from either Path by 1. Then Danielle needs to decide on Bonnie’s Society Path. She picks Daughter of the Jacobins, and choose the obvious choice to make it a Shadow Path. After looking at the options for transitions between twilight and shadow paths, Danielle decides that the Daughters recruited Bonnie due to skills she demonstrated after a lethal dust up. This means that before she picks normal access and Contact Connections for Bonnie’s Society Path, she needs to define the handler Contact Bonnie made from the transition. She decides on a world-weary old hand at the game who she names William Kurtzfield. Looking at the rules for the handler Contact, Danielle sees that she gets to assign him an extra tag, and so decides to give William the tags Sneaky and Well Connected. She completes the other steps of defining her Society Path as normal.
conflicts driving both belligerents beyond their normal limits. When a player generates a Nemesis, they first detail the Nemesis’s basic identity, such as a formal criminal associate whose professional rivalry has turned to personal hatred, a law enforcement officer who got wind of the character’s activities and is determined to stop them at all costs? Or a target’s relative determined to get revenge? This should guide the choice of at which Life Path the character’s foe hails, along with whether they operate in daylight, twilight, or shadow. A childhood friend turned hated foe over perceived abandonment is much different than a major agency’s investigator who’s caught ahold of the character’s trail during the character’s involvement with their Organization, after all. Similarly, a Nemesis should match the game they’re created for; while a murderous psychic might fit a game strongly leaning into Trinity Continuum’s great lay of powered individuals, they would be less appropriate in a game focused in more grounded struggles between mundane criminal syndicates. The player and Storyguide should also come up with a reason that the Assassin can’t or hasn’t yet killed their Nemesis, whether due to the Assassin’s moral scruple, a powerful patron’s protection, or their Nemesis being incredibly, implausible hard to kill. Anyone less wouldn’t have survived to be a Nemesis. During play, the Storyguide OR player may choose to invoke the Nemesis’s indirect efforts after the player. The character immediately gains an Inspiration, while the interference acts as a 3c Complication on an important roll, based on the station of the Nemesis: Daylight: “The Long Arm.” If unresolved, the Nemesis tips law enforcement authorities, the target, or other third parties onto the Assassin’s whereabout and actions.
Twilight: “No Honor Among Them.” If unresolved, the Nemesis or their associates successfully Killers attract enemies like corpses attract flies. purloins or destroys some of the Assassin’s material Even Assassins who put a premium on subtlety or resources. Shadow: “The Valley of the Shadow.” If unresimply attempt to leave no witnesses to their actions alive find that those working in shadow attract solved, the Nemesis provides a credible threat to the deadly, determined foes. In addition to their regular Assassin’s allies and contacts, causing them to go Origin Paths, players may choose for their charac- to ground. The Assassin’s Path contacts have their ters to possess a Nemesis, an individual driven to ratings reduced by the unresolved complication, stymie, oppose, and attempt to destroy the Assassin. as do any Social edges indicating allied or friendly Such characters are tied to the Assassin through characters such as Patron (Trinity Continuum Core something greater than mere enmity or chance, their Rulebook p. 61) or Conspirators (p. xx) .
NEMESES
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If the character suffers from one of these doesn’t have to make another close friend. The playComplication, they also gain Momentum. er and Storyguide should work together to create a contact that matches what the player is interestDIRECT CONFRONTATION ed in, and where the character and story are at the Coming face to face and matching wits or blades moment. with one’s Nemesis should always be a major Things get more complicated when a character event. Nemesis characters are always at least Major loses their connection to an entire organization, or Threats (Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook p.139) that organization has its leaders murdered, its holdwith special abilities, Gifts, or Masteries comparable ings blown up and burnt down, and its remaining to the Assassin’s. When in direct competition wheth- personnel scattered to the wind. In this case, the orer through intrigue, violence, or even something ganization is razed. When this happens, any access as (theoretically) friendly as auto racing or poker, directly relating to that organization evaporates and both player Assassin and opposing Nemesis gain a the player and Storyguide should determine which point of Inspiration or other Source as appropriate, Contacts are lost, which survive as a nemesis (p. which may temporarily exceed their normal maximum XX), and which (if any) remain useful to the charrating. acter. The character can no longer advance in this
PATHS IN PLAY
Path, but it no longer counts against the five-path maximum.
Characters in Assassins lead complicated lives. A failed operation leads to disgrace; a refused mission leads to exile from a Society; a successful kill burns Each of the major Societies hosts an internal trainanother to the ground. It’s natural for the organiza- ing program. Some host several, which can be pertions and Contacts associated with the world of se- manent schools to get new Assassins into fighting cret violence to ferment, change, and die. shape or temporary seminars that introduce new Sometimes, a character will move amicably from techniques. For those with permanent fixtures, all one organization to another. In these cases, it’s fine new inductees into the Society are expected to spend for the player to simply spend experience points for time practicing and conditioning themselves for the relevant Path. If there’s an obvious shift in sta- their violent life ahead. Temporary training operations of darkness (such as moving into a high posi- tions host guest instructors from cooperative Minor tion in government after serving a murderous mer- Societies as well as other Talents, paid handsomecenary), they may take the Connection modification ly to retain the secrets they encounter in Shadow. from the bloody path section, but this is optional. When a Society holds a guest training session, estabOther times, a character might find themselves ut- lished members may attend at their leisure but manterly cut off from an organization or Society that now date attendance for new members. considers them an enemy. In this case, if the player Examples include: doesn’t want to pursue a reconciliation Aspiration or The Forum, a permanent training operation for work towards mending the divide, they can decide to the Society of Leonidas, teaches new Assassins the count the relevant path as burned and replace any fundamentals of using ancient world weaponry Connections with old habits (p. XX) , and determine alongside modern techniques. It also encourages on a case by case basis if individual Contacts should new members to strengthen their minds and will be kept or replaced as above. If this was a Society through the arts and philosophy. Path, the player should decide on a different Path École Révolutionnaire, also a permanent trainfor their character to advance in, barring a future ing operation for the Daughters of the Jacobins, reconciliation. trains new inductees in guerilla warfare and revoluWhen an individual Contact is taken out of play, a tionary tactics. Training exercises include escaping character can embark on a Short-term Aspiration to from a simulated dangerous environment armed replace them with another Contact at the same rat- with nothing but the Assassin’s wits and bare hands ing. They don’t have to be the same kind of contact: and learning to find small, exploitable weak points in If a character’s boon companion dies, the character an oppressive regime’s structure.
TRAINING OPERATIONS
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to: a comprehensive salary and thorough NDA does the trick. Furthermore, Societies treat their Talent contractors extremely well. It’s in their best interest Core Talents (as found in Trinity Continuum to maintain the loyalty of their Inspired associates Core Rulebook) may join Assassins chronicles as if nothing else. The Service provides special access player’s characters. This book provides some guid- passes to Talent hires (especially players’ characters) ance for including them in the Storyguiding chapter, for mission-critical locations and facilities. starting on p. XX. Here’s how core Talent players’ Talents may be brought on board for a variety of characters fit into the Stations of Darkness. reasons. Their skills as super-scientists and craft-
OTHER TALENTS IN SHADOW
ers of powered gear are in high demand. Any super scientist shunned by her field can find gainful employment in Shadow. Societies also have need for Inspired fences who move contraband faster and more discretely than their ordinary counterparts. For Talents without Shadow or Twilight connections, Societies always have need for a smooth-talking PR representative who can handle negotiations for a Societies make good use of Talent contractors shell company created by a Society attempting to reand secure their silence through iron-clad agree- main secret. Talent associates who are players’ charments and generous payouts. Of course, Societies acters can move through the stations of darkness as could resort to threats of violence but rarely need detailed in the previous section (p.XX). The Societies extend invitations to non-Talent Assassins as teachers, engineers, and scientists. Some are welcomed to join training seminars and classes. Though they can participate in courses alongside Assassins, non-Assassin Talents cannot learn or teach Masteries, though they may develop Gifts that work similarly through their own personal understanding of flux and probability manipulation.
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“I’m thinking I’m back.” — John Wick Each player has their character who is their entry point into the shadowy world of Trinity Continuum: Assassins. The player sees and acts through their character. Characters are also an essential tool for the Storyguide. The choices a player makes when creating their character open new options for conflict and plot, and also reveal different paths an adventure might take. Character creation has six steps: Concept, Paths, Skills, Attributes, Assassin Template, and Final Touches.
STEP ONE: CONCEPT First, each player determines what kind of character they want to play. This determination can be a collaborative process with the Storyguide and other players. Everyone at the table should discuss their expectations for the game and the character dynamics that interest them. A player may find a niche her character can fill to enrich the party, or two players may decide to connect their backstories. Players should summarize their character concept in a few words or a phrase. A more specific concept helps when choosing or creating Paths and assigning dots. Next, each player chooses Aspirations: two Short-term and one Long-term. Aspirations are a player’s goals for her character, not necessarily the character’s own goals. A player wants her character to get into a fistfight, even though her character might be the kind of person to hate physical confrontations. Aspirations are story moments a player wants to see. Achieving Aspirations is the responsibility of the entire table. While a player should always be watchful for opportunities to achieve her aspirations for her character, she should also watch for chances to set up her fellow players to achieve theirs. If all the players complete their Short-term Aspirations in the same session, all players present get a point of Experience. The Storyguide will also use the Aspirations as guidance for the types of stories players are interested in playing and will provide opportunities for the players to achieve their Aspirations. In addition, the world of Assassins
has opportunities for Aspirations to grow from Path complications. Storyguides can use these to add more excitement to the game. Aspirations should always push action, not restrict it. This means that players should phrase their Aspirations as something to do rather than something to not do. “Don’t get involved with assassination” removes a character from action and is counter to the Assassin game. In contrast, “Use the new gadget from R&D” keeps the character in a potential conflict, but also nudges them toward using a different resolution tactic than usual. Examples: Former Special Forces, Suave Con Artist, Olympic Gymnast Turned Cat Burglar, Foster Child Raised by Assassins, Back-alley Surgeon, “Guy” Everyone Knows A Short-term Aspiration is something a character can achieve in a single session. The Aspiration may be a Scene a player wants to see happen, an ability she intends to use, or a character moment she thinks would be exciting or cool.
Examples: Get a better weapon, Research the current target, Use my new Skill Trick, Defeat a foe without killing them, Receive my next assignment A Long-term Aspiration is something that takes an Arc to achieve and is related to one of the character’s Paths. A Long-term Aspiration maybe how a player would like to see her character grow or change. Long-term Aspirations can also be used to transition a Path along the Stations of Darkness.
Examples: Defeat my rival, Rise in the ranks of my Society, Keep my family safe from my work, Avenge my dead mentor, Reconcile with my ex-partner Example: Lauren is building Randie, and her concept is “Assassin who targets criminals.” She has a complex relationship with an old romantic and professional partner, so her Long-term Aspiration is to find a way to move on from her ex-partner. Lauren wants Short-term Aspirations that apply to
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the current game session, so she picks “assassinate my target.” She enjoys using a variety of weapons in combat, so she also picks the Short-term Aspiration “use at least two different weapons.”
A Path can be a single word or a short phrase that summarizes the nature of the character’s experiences.
The Origin Path is a character’s background: where and how she got started. While origins may refer to a character’s upbringing, it does not have to. Instead, a player should think through her characPaths represent a series of decisions characters ter’s backstory and use the most formative events. have made or experiences they’ve had throughout Examples: Raised by Assassins, Military their lives. They are the ways characters define Brat, Athletic Prodigy, Grew Up in a Circus, themselves. Connected to those decisions and exLived On the Streets periences are people tied to the Assassins world — apprentices, cleaners, mentors, squad mates, In Assassins, you may choose to replace your resources, R&D departments, target databases, Origin Path with a character’s Nemesis Path. See training grounds — that each character can still p. XX for more details on choosing a Nemesis access. Path. When you choose a Nemesis instead, define
STEP TWO: PATHS
In Trinity Continuum: Assassins, each char- who they are. acter has three Paths: Origin, Role, and Society. The Role Path is the character’s occupation Each Path is significant to the character and re- or area of expertise. The role is not just what a flects a substantial commitment of her time. character does, but is also part of how she defines
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herself. She seeks out opportunities to practice her profession and hone her skills related to it.
Examples: Expert Sniper, Social Chameleon, Intimidating Muscle, Team Mastermind, Getaway Driver
with each Path. A player can devote both dots to a single Edge or divide them between two. If an Edge belongs to a character’s Path, she gets a discount for purchasing that Edge with Experience later. • A Path Condition that triggers when you invoke the Path too often. You can choose one of the example Conditions or use them as a template to create your own.
The Society Path is a connection each character has with a larger organization. The affiliation may be positive or negative, but either way, it must be significant to the character and how she For more information on building a Path and sees herself. If the connection is negative (e.g., “on example Paths, see Trinity Continuum Core the run from...”), the character should still have Rulebook, p. 40. some friends or favors upon which she can call. Example: Lauren decides she wants Randie Characters may also be able to leverage a negative to be a skilled rooftop sniper that can hold her affiliation with other groups in an “enemy of my enown in hand-to-hand combat and is compeemy” sort of way.
Examples: Loyal to the Jacobins, New recruit in the Society of Leonidas, Cleaner for the Mob, Trusted member of MI6 Each Path consists of the following elements: • A brief description of the Path (e.g., “Retired Bodyguard,” “Weapons Designer,” or “On the run from the Krugu Vorov”) • A Station of Darkness. How are the character’s interactions with this Path concerning the rest of the setting? If a character brings hope through a Path, designate it as being in the Daylight Station. If she instead adds to the darkness of the Assassins’ world, note the Path is in the Shadow Station. If she sees the Path as neither a positive nor negative contribution to the world around her, the Path is in the Twilight Station. (For more information on Stations of Darkness go to p. XX) • Four Skills associated with the Path. You may choose any four Skills, but you should be prepared to justify non-obvious choices. You gain three dots to distribute among the four Skills for each Path. A player may choose to put all three dots in one Skill or divide the dots among two or three Skills. A player may not use dots from one Path for Skills associated with a different Path. • Group, contact, and access connections (see Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 40). • Edges associated with the Path. Players gain two dots to distribute among the Edges associated
tent with a range of weapons. To round out the concept she will need to be as silent as she is athletic. For these reasons, she chooses to make Street Rat her Origin Path, Sniper her Role Path, and The Daughters of the Jacobins as her Society Path. Lauren works with her Storyguide, and they agree all her paths are in the Station of Shadow. Lauren selects threes Skill dots from each of her Paths. She gains two dots of Athletics and one dot of Larceny from growing up a Street Rat. Her Sniper role gives her Aim at three dots to justify her expertise as a sharpshooter. Finally, the Jacobins give her Close Combat at two dots and Survival at one. Randie gains a contact for each of her Paths. She takes an old Mentor for her Street Rat contact. For her Sniper Path she has a Military Instructor for a contact. Randie’s time with the Jacobins has given her a Politician contact. Lauren gains two dots in Edges from each of her paths. She picks Danger Sense and Hair Trigger Reflexes from Street Rat. Sniper gives her two dots of the Sniper Style Edge. The Jacobin path adds one dot of Covert and the Fast Draw Edge.
STEP THREE: SKILLS, SKILL TRICKS, AND SPECIALTIES A character may gain a Skill Trick when she has three dots in a Skill and an additional Trick for each extra dot she has over three. Characters start with one Skill Trick. These can be found on p. XX. For any Skills above three dots, gain a Specialty.
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Example: Lauren now has six final dots to spend on Randie from any Skills. She adds one dot to Athletics and takes Culture, Medicine, and Technology at one dot each. She spends the final two dots on Integrity. This makes her final skills Aim 3, Athletics 3, Close Combat 2, Culture 1, Integrity 2, Larceny 1, Medicine 1, Survival 1, and Technology 1. Randie has a Specialty in Aim and Athletics because they are at three dots. She also gains a Skill Trick from either Aim or Athletics. She decides to go with Aim (Rifles) and Athletics (Parkour) for her Specialties. She chooses Aim (Ricochet) as her Skill Trick.
STEP FOUR: ATTRIBUTES Attributes represent different ways of acting and how adept a character is at each. Trinity Continuum: Assassins has nine Attributes divided among three Arenas: Physical, Mental, and Social. Attributes are rated 1–6, though the ability to purchase the sixth dot in an Attribute requires the Superior Trait Edge (Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 66).
No Attribute may have more than five dots at character creation. If a Favored Approach bonus would take an Attribute over five dots, the player may spend her extra dot on one of the other Attributes in the same Arena as the maxed-out Approach.
Example: Lauren wants Randie to be a great sniper, so Physical is her top-ranked Arena. She decides Mental will be a good middle-ranked Arena, which leaves Social as the bottom-ranked Arena. She starts by giving two dots to Might, three to Dexterity, and one to Stamina. Intellect gets one dot, Cunning is assigned two dots, and Resolve has one dot. In Social she gives one dot to Presence and one to Manipulation. When looking at Approaches, Lauren decides Randie will push through all obstacles and gives her the Resilience Approach. This raises Resolve to three dots, Stamina to three dots, and Composure to two dots.
STEP FIVE: APPLY ASSASSIN TEMPLATE
Players should rank the three Arenas in order Characters in Trinity Continuum: Assassins in which their characters are most adept. This are not average humans. This step of character is not necessarily the same as which Arenas the creation applies the unique features that make an character prefers. For example, a getaway driver Assassin exceptional. may excel in the Mental Arena, rather than the Physical one. DETERMINING THE
Characters begin with a single Attribute dot in MOMENT OF INSPIRATION each of their nine Attributes. Players distribute Most Assassins start life as ordinary people, besix dots among the three Attributes in their top- fore extraordinary events change them forever. Like ranked Arena, four dots in their middle-ranked, Talents, Assassins find their Inspiration from many and two dots in the bottom-ranked. different circ*mstances. Unlike Talents, Assassins’ Attributes in Trinity Continuum: Assassins moments of Inspiration tend to lead to descent as also have an Approach. This Approach is how they enter a shadow world previously unknown to the character applies the Arena. The three them. How the Assassin becomes Inspired may diApproaches are Force, Finesse, and Resilience. rect their Paths and how they view the world. The Every character has a Favored Approach or pre- moment of Inspiration gives the Assassin one dot ferred way of approaching a problem, regardless in an Attribute of the player’s choice that is associof which Arena she’s acting within. If she likes ated with the moment. The following is an expandto be direct, her Favored Approach is probably ed list of example circ*mstances for determining Force. If she wants a delicate touch, her Favored Inspirations and example associated Attributes. Approach is likely Finesse. If she likes to let people When choosing a moment of Inspiration, consider tire themselves out against her, then Resilience is the stations of darkness in which your character’s probably her Favored Approach. Paths exist. Many of the following examples fit best A player places one additional dot to each of the into one particular station. Attributes in her Favored Approach.
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middle of a Flux storm, her infant body absorbing the swirling energies in the air. The character The character failed one of her first jobs. The might be exposed to Flux later in life during a prefailure was so terrible and soul-crushing that she sentation of some advanced technology, or during was ready to give up everything, but instead, she an archeological survey. was Inspired to continue, moving past the defeat. Associated Attribute: Any Physical Maybe a civilian died due to her mistake or fellow Assassins were exposed to a powerful enemy. THE FIRST MISSION Whatever she did, she feels utterly responsible for The character was involved in wetwork before the outcome. Inspiration hit. Even when targeting the world’s Associated Attribute: Resolve worst, the process of planning out an assassination can change something in a person. The BULLET BALLET character’s first mission was a success due to the The character was a member of special forces, Inspiration that unlocked while planning the end or perhaps they were a bodyguard to a controverof another’s life. sial figure. Maybe she grew up in neighborhoods Associated Attribute: Any Mental where carrying a firearm is a practical survival decision. Either way, she ended up in the middle A PLAN CAME TOGETHER of a shootout, and in the bullet ballet, Inspiration The character was vital in planning the imposcame to her, and she found an almost musical sible heist. She may have been the criminal masrhythm amid ranged combat. termind behind a crime spree or was the security Associated Attribute: Dexterity architect for a major corporation. No matter the reason, her Inspiration came in the moment of the CAPTURED BY THE ENEMY plan coming together. The character might have been a prisoner of Associated Attribute: Intellect war or maybe they were kidnapped for ransom. No matter the reason, a traumatic test that would RISING STAR break many normal humans proved to be a key The character found fame at an early age. chapter in their story. The would-be jailers were Maybe she was a child actor on a family television surprised when she was resistant to interrogation network, or she gained notice for artistic ability or managed to save themselves. and grace that marked her as a prodigy. The conAssociated Attribute: Stamina nections her fame made between her and a million fans became her Inspiration. CHANCE BIRTH
BOTCHED JOB
The character was never supposed to be born. Maybe the character had a terminal disease that she survived beyond all odds, perhaps she died during birth and was brought back to life by doctors, or maybe she was delivered in the back of a van after her mother was stabbed to death. Whatever the circ*mstances, the character’s survival at birth can only be explained by her Inspiration keeping her alive.
Associated Attribute: Presence
SAVING SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE
The character was Inspired to step up and save someone’s life in a situation in which no one else could do the job. Maybe she talked down a jumper as she passed them on a bridge, turning their life around. Perhaps the character was Inspired to rush into a burning building to save a family before anyone else could arrive on the scene. Associated Attribute: Any Maybe she chased down a car after witnessing a kidnapping, catching a serial murder in the act. EXPOSURE TO FLUX Whatever it was, the act of selfless heroism was The character was exposed to an elevated level only performed due to the character’s Inspiration. of Flux. The character may have been born in the Associated Attribute: Composure
Determining the Moment of Inspiration
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SOCIAL CHALLENGE
particular con job that they felt Inspiration awaken inside them.
The character overcame embarrassment or haAssociated Attribute: Manipulation rassment in public that without Inspiration would have caused her to cave. Maybe she confronted a VIOLENCE longtime tormentor in a public setting, bringing the The character survived a particularly brutal atharassment to light, or she stood up to the threat of tack. Her reaction may have been to find a clever extreme embarrassment with poise and grace. way to thwart her attackers, or maybe she fought Associated Attribute: Any Social. them off in a stunning display of physical prowess. Either way, the character’s survival was depenSPRUNG A TRAP dent on her Inspiration. The character’s Inspiration came as they realAssociated Attribute: Might ized they were stepping into a trap. Law enforceExamples: Lauren decides that Randie’s life as ment finally caught up to them or maybe it was an Assassin was born amid a nasty shootout. She the first time their Nemesis tried to take them out. Either way, her moment of Inspiration al- picks Bullet Ballet as her Moment of Inspiration. lowed her to escape when others would have been caught.
STEP SIX: ADD ADVANTAGES
Each Assassin has a set of advantages that makes her more than just an average human. The last step of character creation adds the advantages ULTIMATE CON to the character, using her moment of Inspiration The character always found they could get peoas a guide. ple to do what they wanted, but it was during one Associated Attribute: Cunning
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MASTERIES AND GIFTS Masteries take the place of Gifts for characters in Trinity Continuum: Assassins. While Assassins act as Talents for all other purposes, instead of gaining Gifts that make them extraordinarily lucky or skilled, they learn Masteries, which make them supernaturally better — usually at killing others. While Gifts make a Talent appear exceptional, Masteries make an Assassin clearly outside the realm of possibilities. No one sees an Assassin use a Mastery and thinks to themselves that such an action was normal. Of course, few people see an Assassin use a Mastery and live to tell the tale. Assassins start with four Masteries (see Chapter GAIN BONUS TRAITS 4, p. XX), chosen from the Society Paths. At least Each character receives one additional one of her starting Masteries must be from her Attribute dot to put in any Attribute, as long as this Society Path. A character must meet all requiredoes not take the chosen Attribute above normal ments of a Mastery to begin play with it at charmaximum. Characters also receive four points acter creation. in Edges, which can be used on Edges from outA character starts with three points to distribute side their Paths but must follow all prerequisites. into Intuitive, Reflective, and Destructive Facets Finally, the Storyguide may grant Experience of their Inspiration. The character’s Inspiration points to represent a more seasoned character. score is determined by the ranks of her Facets, Refer to the Experience cost in the “Character calculated in the following way: All characters Advancement” section. start with a single point of Inspiration, and their Inspiration increases by one whenever any one HEALTH of the three Facets reaches Rank 1, 3, and 5. For Each character has an Injury Condition trackexample, at character creation, a character with er. Every character has three levels of Injury at Intuitive 2, Reflective 1, and Destructive 0 starts character creation: Maimed, Injured, and Bruised. at Inspiration 3 (a base of one and an additional At Stamina 3, the character gains an additionpoint for each of her Facets at Rank 1). al Injured level, and at Stamina 5, the character Example: Lauren wants Randie to have gains an additional Bruised level. some defensive Masteries, so she chooses La Prévoyance and La Voyante, both from her Society DEFENSE A character’s standard Defense is 1. Characters Path. To be a truly impressive sniper, Lauren picks can attempt to make a defensive action when atKilling Weapon and Dedicated Weapon as her fitacked by rolling whichever Resilience Attribute nal Masteries. When looking at Facets of Inspiration, Lauren makes the most sense, with no Skill added.
Example: Lauren has a few bonus dots to give wants Randie to be balanced. She decides to start with Intuitive, Reflective, and Destructive all at Randie. Dexterity is particularly important for the concept, so she gives that one more dot. To Rank 1. round out her Edges, she picks Always Prepared, Lightning Calculator, and Swift.
STEP SEVEN: FINAL TOUCHES
Randie’s Stamina is at three dots, which means The finishing touches in character creation allow for customization through additional she starts with Maimed, Injured, Injured, and Attributes, Edges, and optionally, Experience. Bruised. Health and Defense are also recorded in this step.
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CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT Characters advance through the accrual of Experience. The pace at which characters earn Experience relies on both the players and the Storyguide. The Storyguide has more control over how quickly characters can reach a story milestone or complete a group story, but the players have more control over achieving Aspirations and spending Momentum. The table below describes how characters may earn Experience and how much they receive for each event. The table also indicates whether the Experience is Solo and is going to just one player character or Group and going to all the player characters. We recommend
awarding an average of 5 Experience each session, but Storyguides can adjust to higher or lower due to story completions and milestones. We suggest not giving more than 10 Experience per session in multiple sessions.
EXPERIENCE Players spend Experience to purchase dots in Skills and Attributes or to purchase Edges, Skill Tricks, Specialties, Masteries, Facets, and Paths. The above table lists the costs for each change. The table does not include prerequisites, such as having a certain number of dots in a Skill before
XP EARN TABLE EVENT
XP EARNED
RECIPIENT
A player achieves their Short-term Aspiration for their character
1
Solo
All players achieve one Short-term Aspiration in the same Session
1
Group
A player achieves their Long-term Aspiration for their character (all 2 players must complete their Long-term Aspirations before a player can earn this Experience again)
Solo
The players spend half the available Momentum in a single scene (the amount spent must be greater than 1)
1
Group
The characters reach a Story milestone
1
Group
The characters complete a group Story
3
Group
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OBJECT
CHANGE
COST
Attribute
Add one dot to a single Attribute
10 Experience
Edge
Add one dot in a new or existing Edge
3 Experience
Edge
Add one dot in a new or existing Path Edge
2 Experience
Enhanced Edge
Gain a new Enhanced Edge (even if it is a Path Edge)
6 Experience
Facet
Add one dot to a single Facet
10 Experience
Favored Approach
Change a character’s Favored Approach
15 Experience
Mastery
Purchase a new Path Mastery
4 Experience
Mastery
Purchase a new Mastery not associated with a Path
5 Experience
Skill
Add one dot in a new or existing Skill
5 Experience
Skill Trick
Add a Skill Trick to a Skill
3 Experience
Specialty
Add a Specialty to a Skill
3 Experience
Path
Add one dot in a new or existing Path (maximum five Paths) 18 Experience
CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION
purchasing a Skill Trick. Players may spend their Shift one dot from one Attribute to another Experience at the end of a Session. Attribute or from one Skill to another Skill. At the start of a new session, a player must announce that she is going to do a dot shift and must mark on her In addition to earning and spending Experience, character sheet the Skill or Attribute she plans players can tweak their characters each session. to change. During that session, the player must Tweaks are small, cost-free changes that help a play- roleplay using the Skill or Attribute she wishes to er customize her character to fit the story and her increase. This can be as simple as creating a dice style of play. Players cannot, at character creation, pool using the Skill or Attribute.
TWEAKS
fully anticipate how their characters will work toWrite a new Short-term Aspiration. At the gether or the types of problems they will need to start of each session, a player can set a new solve. Tweaks help counter this lack of prescience. Short-term Aspiration even if her character did Players may tweak their character sheets in the not achieve her Short-term Aspiration in the previous session. following ways.
STATIONS OF DARKNESS PATHS Assassins are Talents, and can select any Path from Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook that fits with the themes of their chronicle. As part of an Assassin’s life in the shadows, they may instead choose from these Paths for any of their Path choices. Each one reflects an aspect of their life from training to upbringing.
ROLE PATHS
Skills: Aim, Persuasion
Close
Combat,
Command,
Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Always Prepared, Boltholes, Cool Under Fire, Conspirators, Covert, Danger Sense, Fast Draw, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Never Outnumbered, Trick Shooter
HACKER (ROLE, SHADOW)
Hackers are high-tech Assassins, and their methThe following are Role Paths a character might ods run the gamut from remotely disabling life-supchoose. port systems, to getting physical assassins past security systems, to rigging bombs to the computer DOUBLE TAPPER (ROLE, SHADOW) parts in cars. Depending on the job, they might be Double tappers get up close, but with guns physically in the office building, going through files or other projectile weapons, like blow guns or or attaching listening devices, but they are just as crossbows. This path is for those who engage in likely to be halfway around the world, virtually prolonged handgun battles as well as those who monitoring their targets and causing mechanical prefer to simply execute their targets in person, failures that seem like freak accidents. rather than literally getting their hands dirty. Example Connections: Dark Web Contacts, They’re experts at their weapon of choice, and Hacker Forum Members, Gamers, Tech Company tend to have either a preferred, high-end weapon Employees, Military or Government Computer or a series of disposable guns so it’s hard to trace Specialists violence back to them. From the professional hitSkills: Enigmas, Larceny, Persuasion, man in a three-piece suit to the “street kid” who Technology can get in and out of rougher neighborhoods inEdges: Alternate Identity, Boltholes, visibly, double tappers take pride in a job done Demolitions Training, Forger, Human Lie well and quickly. Example Connections: Black-Market Arms Detector, Library, Lightning Calculator, Ms. Fix Dealers, Crime Families, Military Members, Dark It, Skilled Liar, Speed Reading, The Darkest Web, Weak Spots Web Contacts, Fixers, Crime Scene Techs
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POISONER (ROLE, SHADOW)
SNIPER (ROLE, SHADOW)
Assassinations with poison are safely distant and difficult to trace, but still require precision and planning, as you want to ensure the correct person (or group of people) gets the lethal dose. An expert poisoner not only knows how to acquire or brew their preferred method of killing, but also has myriad ways of slipping it into a specific drink, water supply, or the right dish while leaving the kitchen unnoticed. A poisoner might kill their target quickly with one dose or slowly over time, leaving the victim wondering why they’re feeling ill.
Those who choose the sniper path prefer to kill from a distance, where they can be packed up and in their car before anyone figures out where the shot originated. They are patient killers, lying in wait until their prey stands in precisely the correct spot for a fatal headshot. Snipers pride themselves on cleanliness and efficacy, precisely setting up their rigs and prepared to wait hours or days for their targets before completing the job and getting the hell out of Dodge.
Skills: Enigmas, Larceny, Medicine, Persuasion
Edges: Always Prepared, Ascetic Lifestyle, Breath Control, Cool Under Fire, Covert, Danger Sense, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Keen Sense, Light Sleeper, Lightning Calculator, Safe House, SelfHypnosis, Sniper
Example Connections: Former Military Members, Organized Crime Families, Dirty Example Connections: Local Chemists, Politicians, Dark Web Contacts, Gun Club School Science Department, Botanists, Home- Members Improvement Store Clerks, Dark Web Contacts Skills: Aim, Larceny, Pilot, Survival Edges: Always Prepared, Boltholes, Covert, Danger Sense, Faceless, Null Biometrics, Photographic Memory, Poison Tolerance, Skilled Liar, The Darkest Web
SLASHER (ROLE, SHADOW) Slashers aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. This path is for any Assassin who uses a physical, nonranged weapon to take down their targets. From knives and swords to garrotes or even manual strangulation, these assassins do their work up close and personal. Some hide their identities with hoods or masks while others prefer their targets know their fate and why it’s befalling them. Slashers are usually experts at cleaning a crime scene of their own traces, though whether or not they leave a body or mess behind depends on the target.
STREET SURGEON (ROLE, TWILIGHT) Every Assassin needs a doctor who can look the other way or help falsify records. These back-alley surgeons or street medics help without asking questions. They may be an integral part of the team with their own training and background, or someone known to help out all sorts of people without wondering where the bullet they’re extracting originated. Though the street surgeon probably has a legitimate medical degree of some sort, they are almost certainly not legally licensed wherever they practice.
Example Connections: Criminal Organizations, Example Connections: Organized Crime Dark Web Contacts, Crime Scene Investigators, Families, Dirty Cops, Fixers, Spies, Homeless Laboratory Workers, Shady Cleaners, Wetworks People, Laboratory Workers, Black-Market Drug Operatives Runners Skills: Athletics, Close Combat, Larceny, Skills: Persuasion Medicine
Empathy,
Enigmas,
Humanities,
Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Alternate Identity, Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Ambidextrous, Always Ambidextrous, Boltholes, Covert, Forceful Prepared, Covert, Danger Sense, Forger, Lightning Martial Arts, Hardy, Human Lie Detector, Never Calculator, Patron, Photographic Memory, Poison Outnumbered, One Against an Ocean, Precise Tolerance, Skilled Liar Martial Arts
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Skills: Enigmas, Medicine, Science, Technology
SOCIETY PATHS
Edges: Ambidextrous, Keen Sense, Flawless The following are Society Paths available to Accent, Library, Lightning Calculator, My Word is your character. My Bond, Photographic Memory, Speed Reading, Weak Spots BODYGUARD (SOCIETY, DAYLIGHT) You are a trained bodyguard, and no matter who hired you, you have reason to believe they are legitimate. Maybe you serve as a member of the Secret Service or a similar organization, tasked with protecting people in positions of power; or perhaps a run-of-the-mill corporate or celebrity bodyguard, present more for optics than any real threat. Either way, you have the training and discipline to keep your cool in difficult or hectic situations and are always on the lookout for potential threats and how best to neutralize them.
CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION (SOCIETY, TWILIGHT) You are part of a crime family or organization, and you’ve never been on the up and up. Whether you’re a member of a Mafia-like establishment that dates back generations, a brother to a streetgang leader, or a scion of a white-collar criminal, you were raised to do back-room deals. You may or may not get your hands dirty as part of your everyday life, but you know your business is quasi-legal at best, and fraud or outright murder at worst.
Path Concepts: Former Military Guard, Path Concepts: Mafioso, Gang Member, Shady Retired Police, Secret Service, Hired Muscle, Tech Bro, Fixer, Political Operative, Dirty Cop Private Contractor Example Connections: Pawn Shop Owner, Example Connections: Politicians, Celebrities, Police, Drug Dealer, Business Executives, Lawyers Military, Executives, Police, Security Guards Skills: Close Combat, Command, Empathy, Skills: Aim, Athletics, Close Combat, Command Larceny Edges: Always Prepared, Adrenaline Spike, Edges: Always Prepared, Boltholes, Danger Conspirators, Fast Draw, Free Running, Hair Sense, Fast Draw, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Hardy, Trigger Reflexes, Human Lie Detector, Iron Will, Patron, Safe House, Skilled Liar, Tough Cookie My Word is My Bond, Small Unit Tactics, Never Outnumbered, Swift, Waiting to Greet the Storm CULT OF PERSONALITY
(SOCIETY, TWILIGHT)
CRIME-SOLVING SCIENTIST (SOCIETY, DAYLIGHT) Perhaps you’re a forensic anthropologist working at a museum like the Smithsonian, a lab tech for the CIA, or a profiler for the FBI. Wherever you work, it’s a large-enough organization that you have extra resources at your disposal, including experts in your field — or maybe you’re the expert. You also deal with higher-profile crimes than the average police department and might have to track down a grotesque serial killer on a multi-state spree or decipher the meaning behind a series of seemingly random killings.
You are a member of a group that deals in criminal activities, led by one or more charismatic figures who pull all the strings. Whether the group gets rid of people against its principles, pushes false cures on the masses, or is a ring of human or drug traffickers, it’s firmly a criminal enterprise, visible only to those on the inside. To outsiders, you’re merely in a weird, esoteric group that may seem sinister, but no real proof has come up against it yet. The cult’s leader or its PR people know exactly how much to let people see so they can remain a valid organization to the public eye.
Path Concepts: Multi-Level Marketer, Sex Path Concepts: Body-Farm Researcher, Cultist, “Yoga-Retreat” Organizer, PublicProfiler, Lab Tech, Forensic Pathologist or Relations Maven, Alternative Healing Practitioner Entomologist, Professor of Crime Scene Forensics Example Connections: Adherents, Example Connections: Museum Board, Propagandists, Paid-For Journalists, Bodyguards, Special Agents, Scientists, Imprisoned Killers, Spin Doctors Professors
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Skills: Survival
Path Concepts: Pro-Bono Lawyer, Victims’ Advocate, Activist, Private Detective, CrimeEdges: Artistic Talent, Conspirators, Forger, Scene Analyst, Vigilante Library, Keen Sense, Patron, Safe House, Skilled Example Connections: Homeless Population, Liar, Wealth Assault Victims, Investigative Journalists, Police, Legal System Empathy,
Humanities,
Persuasion,
VIGILANTE GROUP (SOCIETY, SHADOW)
You’re a member of a group dedicated to hunting down those your Society has deemed guilty. Whether you belong to an international group of Nazi killers, a rogue organization that hunts down murderers who walked free, or one without a high horse on which to sit, your group works in the shadows to eliminate specific individuals in the name of your Code. This isn’t a loosely organized social-media group; you’re sworn to uphold your group’s ideals and believe in them completely, and the group operates with the finesse — if not all the resources — of a well-run corporation.
Skills: Empathy, Integrity, Persuasion, Survival Edges: Always Prepared, Big Hearted, Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Keen Sense, Hardy, Human Lie Detector, Iron Will, Swift, Tough Cookie
CRIMINAL HEIR (ORIGIN, TWILIGHT)
You’re a child of at least one criminal, and you are following the family tradition. Whether you’re a cat burglar, con artist, kidnapper, or white-collar criminal, you’ve learned all you can from your criminal parent and are possibly even expanding on their grifts. It’s the only life you’ve ever known, so you keep doing it to keep yourself in the lifePath Concepts: Group Admin, Dispatcher, style to which you’re accustomed. Perhaps you Researcher, Informant, Field Operative, Part- could apply those skills elsewhere, but thus far Time Contract Killer you haven’t wanted or needed to do so. Example Connections: Research Assistants, Path Concepts: Sketchy Executive, Jewel Weapons Dealers, Hackers, Back-Alley Surgeons, Thief, Fraudulent Art Trafficker, Confidence Black-Market Contacts Artist, Phisher, Phone Scammer, Politician Skills: Aim, Close Combat, Larceny, Pilot
Example Connections: Street-level Toughs, Edges: Alternate Identity, Conspirators, Covert, Grifters, Petty Thieves, Corrupt Accountants, Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Iron Will, Library, Stolen Art Fences Self-Hypnosis Skills: Close Combat, Larceny, Persuasion, Survival
ORIGIN PATHS
Edges: Always Prepared, Adrenaline Spike, The following Origin Paths may be taken by an Conspirators, Boltholes, Covert, Danger Sense, Assassin. Fast Draw, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Hardy, Human Lie Detector, Skilled Liar
REFORMED CRIMINAL (ORIGIN, DAYLIGHT)
You’re the child of at least one criminal, but you got away. You’ve refuted your parentage and committed yourself to your own moral path. While you may have spent your childhood on the run or getting shunted off on various family members, you carved out a stable, adult life for yourself and either tried to forget your past or stand up to it in some way. While it took you a while, you learned to trust at least some people, and no longer look over your shoulder all the time or dread a knock at your door.
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PICKPOCKET (ORIGIN, TWILIGHT) You fell into a life of crime as a small child, starting out as a low-level pickpocket and errand-runner for worse criminals, and working your way up the ladder. From a tender age, you learned how to observe and wait for an opportunity to strike, and also how to survive on your own in a handto-mouth, dog-eat-dog society. Your group took care of its own as best they could, but there was always infighting and other street kids to deal with. Maybe you got out of that particular gang, but the skills and habits are still with you.
CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION
Path Concepts: Criminal Informant, Petty crash down at any moment. All your papers are forgThief, Street Grifter, Orphan, Desperate Indigent, eries, and you have a few identities stashed away just Disowned Youth in case. Whether you’ve broken from the one who Example Connections: Crime Lord, Homeless raised you or hold them up as your personal hero, Shelter Worker, Corner-Store Employee, Free- you’re in this life and it will take a lot to get you out. Path Concepts: International Sniper, Survivalist, High-Society Con Artist, Mysteriously Wealthy Skills: Athletics, Close Combat, Larceny, Recluse, Party Animal, Military Spook Survival Example Connections: Assassin Network, Edges: Ambidextrous, Boltholes, Conspirators, Dark Web Contacts, Crime Lords, Fixers, Danger Sense, Free Running, Hardy, Keen Sense, Light Cleaners, Forgers, Hackers Sleeper, Patron, Skilled Liar, Swift, Tough Cookie Clinic Physician, Philanthropist, Social Workers
RAISED BY A LONE WOLF (ORIGIN, SHADOW)
Skills: Aim, Athletics, Larceny, Survival
Edges: Alternate Identity, Always Prepared, Ambidextrous, Ascetic Lifestyle, Breath Control, You were raised off the grid. Your parent, guard- Covert, Danger Sense, Deflection Adept, Faceless, ian, or mentor was an Assassin, and taught you Iron Will, Hardy, Tough Cookie everything they knew until you outshone them. Though you read books and saw bits and pieces of REFUGEE (ORIGIN, DAYLIGHT) “normal” life via other media, you have no idea what You got out of a bad situation, due to a group it’s like to live it, except as a thin veneer that could who took you in and got you away. As far as you
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knew at the time, they were completely legitimate — and perhaps they are — but the skills you learned there have a wide range of applications, from survival to how to talk to most people and seem nonthreatening. Maybe they even trained you in a perfectly legal trade or two, but many tools have more than one way to use them.
RIVAL ASSASSIN (NEMESIS, SHADOW)
This person may have been a friend once, but now they’re your primary adversary. Perhaps you beat them to a bounty or undercut them on a high-profile job. Maybe you’re simply better than them and they don’t like you. Whatever the reason, they are making your life hell either by perPath Concepts: Ballet-Trained Assassin, Private sonally attacking you and your allies, one-upping Chef, Martial-Arts Instructor, International you on your jobs, or perhaps just ruining your proSpeaker, Recruiter fessional reputation. Is it time to take them out, or Example Connections: Program Director, can you convince them over to your side of things? Ambassadors, Human-Rights Workers, Charity Path Concepts: Former Comrade Turned Villain, Organizations, Journalists One-Step-Ahead Mastermind, Wisecracking Skills: Athletics, Culture, Humanities, Survival Nemesis, Try Hard, Stone-Cold Killer Edges: Ambidextrous, Artistic Talent, Big Example Connections: Assassins, Special Hearted, Direction Sense, Fame, Flawless Accent, Operatives, Hackers, Black-Market Arms Dealers, Iron Will, Keen Sense, Striking, Swift, Patron, Dark Web Contacts Photographic Memory Skills: Aim, Close Combat, Pilot, Survival Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Ambidextrous, Boltholes, Covert, Danger Sense, Faceless, Forceful Additionally, characters may choose a Nemesis Martial Arts, Hardy, Iron Will, Photographic Path, which reflects an enemy you acquired Memory, Skilled Liar, Sniper, Trick Shooter during the course of your professional career. You may take this in place of any other Path choice. SERIAL KILLER MAGNET
NEMESIS PATHS
FIXER (NEMESIS, TWILIGHT) If you’re an Assassin, this person can make your life absolute hell. They have the tools to hunt you down and dispose of you without becoming even slightly entangled in your affairs. They may operate alone but are usually the head of a skilled team of researchers, hackers, wetworks operatives, and other various specialists who know a thing or two about getting rid of a thorn in their side. If someone powerful hires this person to make sure you’re not around to get them in trouble, it will take everything at your disposal to take them on.
(NEMESIS, DAYLIGHT) This person has a job that makes them a target for murderers. They might be an FBI profiler, a brilliant detective, a judge, or a prosecutor. Perhaps they’re just an excellent crime-scene investigator who always seems to find the clues others missed or even a blogger or author who’s getting things a little too right. This person is on to you (or could be in the future; either way, she’s bad for business), and must be taken out. This won’t be the first time someone’s come after this nemesis, though, and they are likely to have security in place and be looking over their shoulder.
Path Concepts: Fast-Talking Power Broker, Path Concepts: True Crime Podcaster, Forensic Former Special Forces, Retired Spy, Politician’s Anthropologist, Federal Judge, White-Hat Hacker, Right-Hand Woman, Private Investigator Journalist Example Connections: Dirty Cops, Politicians, Example Connections: Lawyers, Security Corporate Executives, Informants, Lobbyists, Guards, Research Assistant, Producer, Law Clerks Organized Crime Families, Bounty Hunters Skills: Command, Empathy, Enigmas, Integrity Skills: Command, Culture, Empathy, Persuasion Edges: Always Prepared, Artistic Talent, Big Edges: Alternate Identity, Always Prepared, Hearted, Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Keen Sense, Conspirators, Covert, Danger Sense, Iron Will, Light Light Sleeper, Lightning Calculator, Swift, Wealth Sleeper, Lightning Calculator, Null Biometrics, Safe House, Skilled Liar, Weak Spots, Wealth
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NEW EDGES Your character may have access to any of the a warm place to sleep, this does not risk Path following new Edges via their Paths. Suspension or Path Revoked.
ASCETIC LIFESTYLE (•)
CONSPIRATORS (•• TO •••)
The devotees of the Leonidas Society and other ascetic groups subject themselves to a life of austerity to harden themselves against weakness. You gain 1 Enhancement to resist hunger, thirst, exposure, and other perils of deprivation, and can automatically go twice as long without food or water.
You don’t work alone — you’ve got a few contacts who are always ready to help you out with a job. For two dots, you’ve got up to three conspirators who are willing to help in your schemes; they won’t fight for you, but they’ll lie, cheat, swindle, and otherwise play whatever part you need. For three dots, you’ve got a crew of up to a dozen con Drawback: While your training has hardened artists, with a diverse range of specialties and exyou, it has also made you ill at ease in a world of perience, such as acting, gymnastics, or arson. luxury. While benefiting from this Edge, and for a full day thereafter, you suffer 1 Complication to FACELESS (•, POWERED) social actions based off politesse and etiquette; You’re not just hard to place, there’s something unless bought off, this lowers the Attitude of char- about your face that actively resists being rememacters you interact with by one step. bered. Characters attempting to remember you suffer 1 Complication, preventing them from reBOLTHOLES (• TO •••) calling anything other than basic features like While you prefer a proper safe house, you know approximate height and build. Facial recognition how to find a hideaway and get to ground, giving technology automatically fails against you unless your character access to a wide array of boltholes backed by superscience or Inspiration; even then, — alleyways, criminal dens, and other places you gain 1 Enhancement to overcome it. where she can lie low. They’re not good for more than a few hours each, and they’re often uncomfortable, but while you’re there, rolls to track you down suffer +2 Difficulty. At one dot, you’re keyed into a single location, like a specific city. At two dots, your network expands to a handful of cities across the world. At three dots, you can always find a place, no matter where you are.
COMMUNITY AID (•) Prerequisite: Signal Society Path No matter what dire straits you find yourself in, the Host provides for their listeners. One strange letter, phone call, text message, or radio broadcast later and a member of the community comes to your aid. Whenever you invoke your Society Path, you may substitute this Edge’s rating for another appropriate Social Merit (such as Patron, Safe House, or Wealth) that you do not already have access to. If you use this invocation to instead grant yourself basic necessities such as a meal and
FLAWLESS ACCENT (•) You have mastered a language so deeply that you can pass for a native speaker. When used as part of deception, disguise, or influence, this grants 1 Enhancement. This fluency extends to a single language and every regional accent within it. You may take this Edge multiple times, choosing a different language each time.
FORGER (••) Licenses. Contracts. Birth certificates. You’ve forged them all, and a hundred other things to boot. You gain 2 Enhancement on any attempt to falsify documents, whether physical or electronic. In addition to your experience, you automatically have access to the tools of the trade — including card writers, industrial-quality printers, and document templates.
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your DNA evidence is tricky to match. Attempts to investigate your character using forensics have to overcome a +2 Complication; failure to buy it Prerequisite: Swarm Society Path off renders results inconclusive at best. Even on a You’ve successfully passed the Hornet success, mundane technology can’t make an exact Workshop — it’s gold-leaf certificate hangs on match on you, leaving you as only one of a dozen your wall. You blossomed into a true Assassin, possible suspects. unlike many of your other classmates, but the Drawback: You are unable to take advantage connections you made during training are invaluof biometric sensors yourself, such as fingerprint able. When you leverage your Swarm Society Path scanners, genetic tests, and other procedures. for connections, you may declare these characters are from your time spent during the Hornet NEVER OUTNUMBERED (••••, Workshop. You never risk Path Suspension or ADVANCED COMBAT MANEUVER) Path Revoked by doing so. Specially trained to fight against multiple opponents at the same time, you know how to use your HUMAN LIE-DETECTOR (•• TO •••) foes against one another. When outnumbered, you Maybe it’s body language, or inflection, or the gain 1 Enhancement on Defense rolls, and gain acscent of sweat — whatever the reason, you know cess to a special Defense Stunt: when folks willfully deceive you. At two dots, Friendly Fire (3 Successes): When you successpick one of your senses (usually sight); when you fully avoid an attack from a foe, you can redirect perceive someone with that sense, you gain +2 it at another enemy within close range, subjectEnhancement to suss out the truth from the lies. ing them to the attack as if they were the original At three dots, this extends to all of your senses target. You determine how any resulting Stunts instead. are purchased, subject to final approval from the Storyteller. LIGHT SLEEPER (• TO ••)
HORNET WORKSHOP CERTIFICATION (•)
You’re always ready, even in dreamland. You wake up from sleep instantly if attacked, ignoring any Complications that might normally arise. A two-dot upgrade is available as a Powered Merit, granting +2 Enhancement against effects that would put you to sleep, from superscience narcotics to psionic interference.
MY WORD IS MY BOND (••) You’ve got a reputation for scrupulously honoring your obligations, even in a world of shadows and violence. When your character makes a promise in good faith as part of a negotiation, she treats the target’s Attitude toward her as two higher than normal. If she knowingly violates that promise, she loses the benefits of this Edge until she can repair her reputation — usually by making good on her word in a conspicuously difficult or impressive way.
POISON TOLERANCE (• TO •••) Through a careful regimen of exposure, you’ve developed partial immunity to a number of poisons, venoms, and other toxins. When exposed to a toxin, you can explain how you build up a tolerance to gain 2 Enhancement on Stamina + Resolve rolls to resist. At one dot, you have up to two tolerances; at two dots, you can develop up to four; and at three-dots, you resist up to six different toxins.
SELF-HYPNOSIS (••) You have learned how to leverage your subconscious, rewriting your own perceptions and behaviors. You gain 2 Enhancement to resist interrogation with Integrity, and gain access to a special Stunt:
Rewrite Memories (3 Successes): You can revise a memory or hide it entirely. This is immune to mundane scrutiny and inflicts +1 Difficulty on Inspired or otherwise supernatural effects that NULL BIOMETRICS (••, POWERED) would uncover it. The player decides when this Whether through a quirk of biology or delibeffect ends, reclaiming an altered memory. erate alteration, you are a ghost to most biometric investigation — you leave no fingerprints, and
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ASSASSINS AND POWERED OR ENHANCED EDGES As Talents, Assassins may purchase and enhance the Edges found on pp. 66-67 of Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Most importantly, Artifact and Wondrous Item can be used to reflect incredible technology or strange (and somewhat magical) weapons or relics. While Assassins do not make super science items, as Talents they utilize such tools if given them. Societies like the Daughters of the Jacobins and the Signal outfit their Assassins with highly specialized technology for tracking their marks and bypassing their targets’ own advanced security. Any of the special new Tags or weapons found on p. XX can apply to an Artifact. For something more occult, like an ancient relic the Society of Leonidas claims to own, use the rules for Wondrous Item. Here’s where things get mysterious. What does it mean if the Lance of Longinus or the Ring of Solomon truly exist, hidden away in a Society’s vault? What these priceless things might do is entirely up to the Storyguide and the player — but follow the narrative direction for these story-changing items detailed in the Edge. THE DARKEST WEB (••, POWERED) You’re keyed into one of the world’s most sophisticated networks. When you connect a device, it becomes all but untraceable to modern technology, inflicting +2 Difficulty on any attempts to track your activity, location, and other metadata. Powered characters and those using Artifact-level technology suffer +1 Difficulty instead.
WELL-EQUIPPED (•) Some Societies pride themselves on having vaults filled to the brim with exclusive, cutting-edge gear. They keep engineers and scientists on staff to create the most advanced killing tools. Alternatively, a character might keep a wellstocked armory in a hidden room within their home. A character with this Path Edge may add an additional Tag when creating equipment.
SKILL TRICKS Character may acquire any of the following Skill to investigate the character’s victims, her player Tricks. You may also take any Skill Tricks from Trinity can activate this Trick to explain how the characContinuum Core Rulebook, starting on p. 45. ter set up an attack to confuse or mislead investiHidden Arsenal (p. 46), No Barrier (p. 46), gators, concealing her presence at a crime scene, Sucker Punch (p. 47), Members Only (p. 48), making a shot seem self-inflicted, or otherwise Tough Nut (p. 50), Always Have an Exit (p. 50), confounding the experts.
and Overwatch (p. 53) all make good choices for an Make ’Em Dance: Sending a spray of ammo at a Assassin. target, the character forces them to go right where she wants them. When making an Aim attack, the player can activate this Trick to access a special Gunpoint Diplomacy: It’s not exactly politic, Stunt:
AIM
but sometimes the best leverage is a gun to the head. When the character draws a ranged weapon or is in an advantageous position in a firefight, her player can activate this Trick to add Aim to a social roll to force someone to acquiesce; if they act against this influence later in the scene, you gain 2 Momentum instead of the usual 1.
Drive Them Out (2 Successes): The target is forced to move to a general area of your choice within one range band. If they leave it before the end of your next turn, you gain +1 Enhancement on your next attack against them.
Ricochet: While the character might not be able to bend her bullets (yet), she plays the angles. Magic Bullet: The character’s shots confound The player can activate this Trick to ignore the all ballistic science. When someone else attempts effects of expendable or light cover by bouncing
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her shot. When using this Trick for an attack, she scene. It gains all of the usual tags and damage cannot purchase the Critical Stunt. type of the chosen weapon; while the Storyteller Suppressing Fire: Whether she rains down a tor- has final say on whether or not an object is close rent of lead or just a few well-placed warning shots, enough to count, they are encouraged to be flexithe character harries her opponents into a bad po- ble and permissive. sition. The player can activate this Trick when an enemy in range of the character’s firearm attempts to move, forcing him to succeed on a reflexive One Last Chance: The character makes a foe Athletics-based roll with a Difficulty equal to her her final offer — one they reject at their peril. If Aim. If he fails, he cannot move until his next turn. the character has offered the target any reasonable terms for surrender and they refuse, the player can activate this Trick to add Command to an Choke Out: With a vising grip, the character attack roll against them.
COMMAND
ATHLETICS
squeezes their foe into unconsciousness. While in control of a grapple, the player can activate this Trick to treat any weapon — including bare hands — as if it had the Grapple tag and adds her Athletics to the roll.
Unstoppable Force: Moving with a singular will, the character cannot be stopped in her tracks. The player may activate this Trick to take their usual movement action even while physically restrained or grappled. This also allows her to momentarily resist or overcome Conditions that would stun or immobilize her for one round.
Like You Own the Place: If you walk with purpose and a clipboard in hand, no one will stop you. When the character imitates a target with standing or authority, she can add Command to the disguise roll, taking on an air of definitive confidence.
CULTURE
Honor Among Killers: In a world of shadows, it pays to know who’s who. On meeting a character for the first time, the player may activate this Trick to get a full and accurate sense of the target’s reputation as a clue, including any major organizations they’re known to be involved with. Alternatively, she can ask what the target’s Cold Steel Resolve: Nothing’s quite as reassur- rep is with a specific organization she’s familiar ing as knowing that you could whoop some ass if with, getting a sense of the specifics rather than things go south. When the character has a weap- generalities. on in reach, her player can activate this Trick to add Close Combat to a roll to resist unwanted persuasion or influence. If that weapon is visible, she Eye for Vice: Money, drugs, sex — everyone has may spend 2 Momentum instead to also ignore up their price. While interacting with or observing a to 2 points of Complications, whether from Field, character, the player can activate this Trick to disAttitude, or other factors. cover the target’s biggest vice. If she leverages it Meeting of the Fists: Warriors know how to against that character during the scene, she adds communicate with blade and fist. The player may her Empathy to the roll.
CLOSE COMBAT
EMPATHY
activate this Trick when trying to get a read on Gunslinger’s Tell: With a practiced eye for via character whom she has either fought or ob- olence, the character reads an attack in her foe’s served fighting, adding her Close Combat rating posture and visage. Once per scene, the player to the roll. may choose a character and roll Empathy, banking The World is a Weapon: There’s no need for any successes (minimum 1, even on a Botch). At fancy weapons when the character can make do any time during the scene, the player may spend with whatever’s on hand. The player can acti- these successes on Defensive Stunts against atvate this Trick when her character takes hold of a tacks from the chosen enemy. piece of scenery, allowing her to use it as a Close Combat weapon of her choice for the rest of the
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charged with killing by a client or superior, the player can activate this Trick to add her Integrity Fluent in Cryptic: Speaking in a patois of in- to the attack roll. jokes, references, and innuendo, the character can talk to her allies in code. When activating this Trick, the player chooses another character; Not Even a Goodbye: A good crook knows how for the rest of the scene, they may communicate to get out of a sticky situation. Activate this Trick to each other in a way only they will understand. to add Larceny to a roll to get out of the scene as Attempts to pierce this code require intimate quick as possible, whether Athletics to jump a knowledge of both characters and a successful fence, Pilot to weave through traffic, or something Difficulty 3 Enigmas-based roll. The player may else entirely. spend 2 Momentum instead of 1 when activating Slippery as an Eel: With a lifetime of experithis Trick to extend the benefit to a small group of ence in the shadows, the character excels at get(1 + Enigmas) allies. ting out of the line of fire. Once per scene, activate Inscrutable: The character’s motives and this Trick to add Larceny to a Defense roll. methods are obscured within a web of deliberate misdirection. The player can activate this Trick when the character is being profiled, increasing Go for the Knee: There’s not an Assassin in the the difficulty by 1; this does not require the chargame who hasn’t taken their share of a beating, and acter to be present or even aware of the attempt. it leaves a mark — if you know how to look for it. The If it fails, the player determines what kind of false character can use this Trick to make a Perception impressions the profiling attempt provided. + Medicine roll to find an old wound on a target, just ready to be exploited. Whenever a character leverages this weakness for the scene, they gain 1 Battle-Ready Historian: The character is a Enhancement on attacks against the target. student of ancient weapons, drawing on techPick Your Poison: Choosing the right poiniques refined throughout ages. The player son for the job is both art and science. With a chooses a broad period of history (Ancient China, Difficulty 2 Medicine-based roll, the character Medieval Europe, etc.) when learning this Trick. intuits the best fit; when used, the chosen poison When attacking with a weapon from that period, raises the Difficulty to resist by 1. The need for a she may activate this Trick to add her Humanities roll is waived if the characters has ever had the to the roll. opportunity to medically examine the target or reGrim Courtesies: You’ve made a study of the view his medical history. traditions of many orders of assassins. When the character leverages her knowledge of an organization’s history, the player may activate this Trick Feint Praise: Whether born with a forked to add Humanities to a social roll. tongue or silver spoon, the character knows how to hold a target’s attention before going for the kill. When attempting an ambush attack in plain Cold Blooded: Steeling her nerves, the characsight — such as meeting on the red carpet — she ter can do whatever is demanded of her — mormay add her Persuasion to the roll. als be damned. The player can activate this Trick Where a Smile Gets You: The character has maswhen taking a violent, cruel, or otherwise hearttered the art of lying big and quick — and then getless action, ignoring the effects of an Attitude or ting out of Dodge. Once per scene, the player can acField that would dissuade or distract them for a tivate this Trick to gain 2 Enhancement on a swindle single action. or trick, letting her rook a bank into thinking she’s an Contract Killer: Once the character has takinspector from the home office or sweet talk her way en a mark, she’s honor bound to make the kill. through a gauntlet of security guards. When attacking a character whom she is officially
ENIGMAS
LARCENY
MEDICINE
HUMANITIES
PERSUASION
INTEGRITY
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PILOT Car Talk: Nothing earns cred like being able to talk shop. The player can activate this Skill Trick when interacting with mechanically-minded characters — car enthusiasts, chop-shop mavens, hellbent bikers, and the like — to add Pilot to a social roll.
add Survival to a Medicine-based roll, as long as she has access to stored or wild plants.
Springing the Trap: Like an ambush hunter, the character knows how to lead the unwary into a trap. Once per scene, if the character is an area that she has had access to in the past, her player can activate this Trick to explain how she’d previously prepared a trap, transforming an area Turn on a Dime: The character can weave in short range into a Difficulty 2 barrier. For two through traffic and debris without breaking a Momentum, she can declare it to be complicatsweat. Activate this Trick to reduce a Difficulty or ed terrain instead, with Complication 1 to avoid Complication based on tight maneuvering by 1. injury.
SCIENCE Structural Damage: Sometimes, all it takes to topple a building is one truly perfect shot. When attacking a stationary object or cover as a standard (rather than mixed) action, the player adds the character’s Science to the roll. If she purchases both the Inflict Damage and Critical Stunts, she deals an additional injury to the target.
TECHNOLOGY Luddite Exemplar: Tech’s great, until it’s not — and the character knows just where to aim to really mess things up. Activate this Trick to reduce the cost of the Sunder Stunt by 2 against any electronics-based weapon, device, or system. Alternatively, reduce the cost of Sunder by 1 to use it with a ranged attack.
Nitro Boost: With a few minutes of jury-rigging, the character can soup up just about any ride. Nature’s Medicine: The character comple- The player can activate this Trick when she has a ments her medic kit with knowledge of natural moment to fiddle with a vehicle’s engine, allowing remedies. The player may activate this Trick to the driver to add the character’s own Technology to a speed-based roll in this scene or the next.
SURVIVAL
TOOLS OF THE TRADE Just because an Assassin can kill a person with a book or a pen, doesn’t mean they must put that skill into practice.
GENERAL WEAPON TAGS DISGUISED (1)
Ahead are a variety of new tags that can be addThe Assassin’s weapon appears as something ed to weapons, armor, and vehicles. Some of these else, whether it be a briefcase gun, a sword in an tags are substantially stronger than the ones feaumbrella, or a single shot firearm in a tube of liptured in Trinity. stick. Without an x-ray or a metal detector, the weapon is impossible to discover.
WEAPONS
Weapon tags are split between general, melee, and ranged.
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GRAPPLING HOOK (1) The weapon is equipped with a grappling hook. The grappling hook provides 1 Enhancement on climbing rolls and allows firearms to purchase the Disarm stunt within short range.
CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION
Its magnetic vibrations allow the wielder to defend himself against firearms. When taking a full Some assassins inscribe a mantra onto their weapdefense against ballistic weapons, the wielder on. Once per session, repeating the mantra while firmay use Close Combat and purchase the following or swinging the weapon allows them to ignore ing stunt: Injury Conditions for that action. Alternatively, Deflect the Bullet (Variable): they may treat the weapon like a ward against fear, The Assassin does not lash out wildly when she and may ignore any fear, panic, or terror-based reacts. After deflecting a ballistic attack, she may Conditions for the duration of the action. Either apply the successes from this stunt as an attack benefit may only be used once per scene. roll against another target in the scene. The only stunt that may be purchased with this attack is INTEGRATED (2) Inflict Damage. The integrated tag represents a spring-loaded weapon that has been placed into the bones of an MONOMOLECULAR BLADE (2) Assassin. Integrated weapons are impossible to Monomolecular blades are so sharp that no spot unless the person looking at them has medarmor exists that can hold up to them. The effecical training, or special technology (such as infrativeness of soft armor is halved (round up) against red googles). Also, the user can purchase the folthis weapon. Also, characters can purchase the lowing Stunt on ambush rolls: following stunt. This tag can only be placed on Sudden Stab (1s): edged weapons. As Inflict Damage. Focused Slash (targets armor rating +1)
INSCRIPTION (1)
MELEE WEAPON TAGS GUNBLADE (2)
The precise cuts from this blade allow the wielder to choose the severity of the target’s injury condition.
A shotgun barrel runs down the back of this PLASMA (3) blade. The weapon is too inaccurate to be used at In an instant, white-hot flames lick the length range but grants the following Stunt to close comof the weapon, as the air around it ripples and igbat attacks. nites. The weapon deals damage to vehicles and Surprise Shot (Variable) Once per combat, when the wielder misses an structures as though it had +1 Scale. Also, the attack, they may bank the successes from this roll wielder may purchase the following Stunt: and apply them as an Enhancement bonus on a second attack that uses the Aim skill.
Melt (4)
The Assassin uses the intense flame of his weapon to sear through inferior weapons. This stunt HIGH-FREQUENCY (3) destroys a single weapon or item the target is carFlipping a switch, a weapon with the high-fre- rying. Non-powered items affected by this stunt quency tag emits a low-pitched hum as it vibrates. cannot be repaired through conventional means.
MELEE WEAPON EXAMPLES Forge-Hammer: A superheated hammer designed to smash through equipment and scenery alike. Damage: Blunt Tags: Melee, Piercing, Plasma Hidden Wrist-Blade: A concealed, spring-loaded blade tucked into an Assassin’s sleeve. Ideal for swift, unnoticed stabs. Damage: Edged Tags: Concealable, Melee, Propulsion
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PROPULSION (1) The propulsion property involves a spring-loaded trigger being inserted under the blade, which can launch the blade (short-range) using either Aim or Close Combat. Afterward, the weapon must be reloaded.
RANGED WEAPON TAGS DRONE (2) Requires a weapon to have the Remote Link Tag. The weapon moves freely around the battlefield after being set up. Characters with a Drone-tag weapon may make Mixed Actions with Aim, making the second shot with -2 dice. Setting it up takes an action.
ENHANCED SCOPES (1 PER) Each scope grants the user a different type of enhanced sight. A single weapon can have all of them. The scopes provide the following additional benefits:
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Night Vision Ignore penalties or Complications from darkness. Thermal Gain +1 Enhancement to spot hidden targets. X-ray Ignore cover and concealment.
EXPANDED MAGAZINE OR DRUM MAGAZINE (2,3) The expanded magazine holds a ludicrous amount of ammunition, which allows the wielder to “empty the magazine” twice per scene without reloading. The drum magazine lets the wielder do so four times.
EXTENDABLE BAYONET (1) A rifle with this attachment has a hidden pneumatic bayonet. The weapon can be used with Close Combat in addition to Aim.
CHAPTER THREE: CHARACTER CREATION
RANGED WEAPON EXAMPLES Incomparable Sniper Rifle: This version of the sniper’s tool is outfitted with superlative ammunition and accessories — making it head and shoulders better than its mundane, Twilight counterpart. Damage: Ballistic Tags: Enhanced Scope (Thermal), Ranged (Long), Specialized Ammunition (Tracker), Tactical Sight Remote Submachine Gun: Mounted to a drone, this automatic weapon peppers the Assassin’s enemies with bullets from the air. Damage: Ballistic Tags: Drone, Ranged (Medium), Remote Link, Spread REMOTE LINK (2)
Tracker (1 success)
The tracker round deals no damage but will The Assassin sets an automated weapon on provide location data on the target to the Assassin its mount with a Technology + Cunning roll at for 24 hours. The difficulty to locate a target Difficulty 2, allowing them to fire the gun remotely. struck by the tracker round is reduced by two. If the Assassin has a Mastery that allows them to auSPECIALIZED AMMUNITION (1 PER) tomatically locate a target, they do not need to pay The weapon is modified to fire an array of dif- its cost while a tracker is embedded in their target. ferent ammunition. A single gun can be modified Toxic Dart (variable) to fire multiple ammo types but switching types Inflicts the Paralyzed Condition for a number of requires a reload action. rounds equal to the successes spent on the Stunt. Flame: Burn (2 successes) This is a poison for the purpose of immunities. Applies 1 Complication on the target. If not Knockout Dart (variable) bought off, the target takes an injury condition. The target becomes drowsy. They take a cumuDetonator: Detonation (3 successes) lative 1 Complication for a number of rounds equal Can be used to trigger explosives a target is to the number of successes to spent on the Stunt. If wearing or explosives at range. Follows the rules the target fails to buy it off, then they fall asleep and for explosive (planted) (Trinity Continuum are Taken Out. Core Rulebook, p.124). Rage Inducing Dart Acidic: Corrode (2+ successes) As Knockout Dart. If the Complication is not Reduces armor by one per two successes spent. bought off, the target must attack the nearest EMP: Disable (Variable) character to them. Disables an electronic device. Weapons and Vehicles Panic Inducing Dart cost successes equal to the total number of tags they As Knockout Dart. If the Complication is not possess. Other equipment should cost between 1 (ci- bought off, they flee the scene in a panic. vilian appliances) and 5 (military-grade gear). Ice: Melt (1 success) The ice bullet melts away, leaving no trace. Ballistics and forensic investigation cannot link an ice shot to the character. However due to the projectile’s fragility the wielder may not purchase the Critical Stunt. Taser: Electro (variable) The target is stunned, for a number of rounds equal to the successes spent on this Stunt.
U-LINK (2) A camera at the end of the weapons links to a pair of glasses or contact lenses, granting the user unparalleled accuracy. Target’s defense values are treated as one lower against attacks made with this weapon.
WALL PENETRATING (2) Wall penetrating firearms punch through cement. The tag provides the following Stunt:
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Like Wet Tissue (1, 2, or 4) The shooter can punch right through cover provided he knows where his target lies. The number of successes needed is based on the cover (1 or expendable, 2 for light, 4 for heavy).
ARMOR TAGS Protection and mobility are but one of the features of Assassin armor. Their gear also includes a variety of technological enhancements that improve their ability to track and pursue their prey.
ACTIVE CAMO (2)
ARMOR EXAMPLES Stealth Battle Armor: A full suit of armor designed to both protect the Assassin and assist them in making unseen kills. Damage Resisted: Ballistic, Slashing Tags: Active Camo, Composite Armor, Hard (1), Sound-Dampened Boots Perfect Suit: It looks like a flawlessly tailored three-piece suit, but that conceals its protective nature. Damage Resisted: Ballistic Tags: Chemical Injectors, Soft Armor (1), Suit, Staged Death
Thousands of tiny cameras and screens cover the active camo suit. They scan and project the same color as the environment onto the outfit. It GOGGLES (1 PER) grants the wearer a +2 Enhancement bonus on These goggles or glasses are outfitted with night Stealth and allows the wearer to disappear even in vision, thermal, or x-ray (see p. XX). bright light, with no cover.
BIOMETRIC DUPLICATOR (2)
HARDENED (1)
Renders the wearer’s equipment immune The armor feature equipment that can duplito electronic interference. Provides a +1 cate all biometric functions of a target; fingerEnhancement bonus against all such effect. prints, irises, voices, etc. after scanning them.
CHAMELEON MASK (3) The Chameleon mask allows the wearer to take a scan of someone’s face with the attached scanner and then project that image onto their face. The scanning process takes one minute and must be done at close range. The wearer gains a 4-point Enhancement bonus on checks to impersonate the person they scanned.
CHEMICAL INJECTOR (2)
JET BOOTS (2) Installed in the wearer’s boots, this short-burn jet propulsion system allows the wearer to fly for six turns, before running out of fuel. Landing accurately or maintaining flight while doing something else is a Pilot + Dexterity roll, which may be part of a mixed action. The Assassin may only use the jet boots once per session.
MAGNETIC FIELD (3)
A personalized magnetic field surrounds the Chemical injectors installed in the armor reAssassin. The wearer gains 2 Enhancement to lease painkillers when the wearer is injured. their Defense rolls against ballistic weapons as the The wearer ignores the penalties from bruised field redirects bullets away from its wielder. conditions.
DISTRACTING SCARF (2)
NANITES (3)
Nanites in the armor seek out damage and try to This scarf is a long flowing garment used to repair it. The wearer heals two injuries, starting confuse attackers and hider their movements. with the most severe, at the end of every fight. It grants 1 Enhancement to defense rolls against Close Combat attacks. Just as common as scarves, SOFT ARMOR (1,2,3) are cloaks, oversized sleeves and capes that serve Soft armor can be taken up to 3 times. the same function.
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SOUND-DAMPENED BOOTS (1)
DEBRIS RESERVE (1)
The wearer makes no noise when they move. The driver can make a Technology + Cunning The difficulty of hearing the wearer’s approach is to create a difficult environment. The difficulty increased by two. of the field is equal to half the successes spent (round up, Minimum one).
STAGED DEATH (1)
EJECTOR SEATS (1)
When shot or stabbed, the armor bleeds, giving a +3 Enhancement on rolls made to trick people The vehicle features ejector seats that propel into believing the wearer is dead. the user free of the car and into the air. Anytime the vehicle would be destroyed, the driver and SUIT (1) passengers escape unharmed just before the vehiThe armor appears to all viewers to be a pol- cle goes up in an explosion of fiery debris. ished designer suit (or other high-end clothing). It provides a +1 Enhancement on Command rolls.
VEHICLE TAGS AI ASSIST (1) The car features an onboard AI that assists with driving. The Pilot gains 1 Enhancement when taking mixed actions.
EXTERNAL PROJECTOR (2) The vehicle is equipped with projectors all over its surface that allow it to appear as another vehicle of similar shape and size. This provides a 2-dot Enhancement to disguise or hide the vehicle.
GRAPPLING HOOK (2)
The vehicle features a gigantic grappling hook that can be used to grapple and pull targets usBLADES (1) ing the grappling rules. The grappling hook is The vehicle features sturdy blades or spikes that a ranged weapon. An attack with the grappling can be used to damage other vehicles or people as hook can inflict damage. When involved in a grapit drives past. Dealing damage with these blades ple, a vehicle uses Pilot + Dexterity. works like a close combat attack, except the driver RAM (3) uses Pilot + Dexterity. The vehicle deals double damage to structures CALL BUTTON (2) and cover when ramming into them and suffers no With the push of a button, the vehicle will drive damage in the process. itself as close to its owner as possible. It will go through walls if commanded and able.
REMOTE CONTROLLED (4)
The vehicle can be driven remotely using a mobile device. Doing so uses Cunning instead of The vehicle has a spring-loaded container of Dexterity. aluminum scraps that can be deployed reflexiveSOLID RUBBER TIRES (1) ly to give the vehicle a 2-dot Enhancement bonus against missiles or other explosives. Each purThe vehicle ignores difficult terrain, due to its chase provides the vehicle with another use of increased traction and solid tires/treads. chaff in a scene.
CHAFF (1+)
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“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: “Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now?” — David Mamet In this chapter, Storyguides will find new rules for making their Trinity Continuum: Assassins games unique. This chapter also contains a handful of antagonists to challenge the players’ characters.
DRAMATIC EDITING In thrillers and heists, explaining a plan in extreme detail is a recipe for disaster — it will be guaranteed to face a crisis or even outright fail. If a plan kicks off without explaining its critical elements for the camera, it will not only succeed, but do so in a way nobody expected. The reason for this is, simply, that the writers wish to surprise the audience. When both the audience and the writers are a Storyguide and a table of players, how can they maintain the tension and element of surprise? The solution comes in understanding the question at the heart of every thriller’s plot — it isn’t “did they bring enough rope and ball bearings?” but “how will this plan surprise us?” In Assassins, we can surprise the audience — Storyguide and table alike — by making liberal use of flashbacks.
WHY USE FLASHBACKS
something along the lines of “Whoa, wait, I wanted to hide my weapons before we got there,” that is exactly the sort of situation that calls for a flashback. The players are not required to draft a foolproof plan before getting to the fun parts. They aren’t even required to draft a mediocre plan (more likely, when the players probably aren’t super-skilled super-killers). As soon as the players have a vague idea of how they want to approach their job, and where it has to start, the story can cut immediately to their insertion point or the first sign of trouble. There is no need to concern anyone with the minutiae of planning. Researching an obstacle or foe, commissioning a unique weapon, hunting down a specialized tool, stashing resources in strategic points, bribing servants and officials — all of this can be handled with flashbacks as they are needed. For some of the old guard, this may feel like metagaming. Make no mistake: it is. And it is explicitly allowed.
In crime thrillers, the flashback is a storytelling element primarily used to keep the audience in susPlans are not meant to go off without a hitch — pense, and get them caught up on the action as it even ones revealed in flashbacks. The most dangerunfolds. It also highlights the extraordinary compeous, competent killers in the world cannot account tency of the characters. Whatever it is they face, they for every variable. This would hardly make for a will assuredly come prepared. thrilling story. With every flashback a player comIn a game, however, flashbacks can also be used to mits to, there appears a new opportunity to discover keep the action flowing and maintain a fast-paced story. how their master plan will unravel. If in the process of preparing for their job, you find the
GOING OFF THE RAILS
players are becoming too invested in making their plan “perfect” by accounting for every possible risk, remind them that flashbacks and other versions of dramatic editing exist for this reason. An entire session could be wasted on planning for outcomes you, the Storyguide, never intended to even play out. Players should be ready to plan around the problems that actually happen, not the problems that could happen.
When a player proposes any dramatic edit, but especially flashback, look for any loose threads or potential consequences that could arise as a result of the new events. Keep an eye toward opportunities for your players to prove how determined, skilled, and deadly their characters are.
Makua Keawe has a great plan to deliver a few personal, threatening messages to a well-connected attorFlashbacks let you cut to the action. Smash to the ney in the city. His office is on a major arterial street, next scene, if you must! If a player interrupts with however — Makua needs a distraction and she needs
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it ten minutes ago. Makua’s player, Vera, commits to a flashback detailing how the Assassin “contracted” a local gang of bored delinquents, paying them a chunk of hard cash to hold up the convenience store a few doors down. Rai, the Storyguide, accepts this as a 1-point flashback, and describes how police have cut traffic to this block, leaving Makua a bit of time and privacy for her meeting. However, what Rai doesn’t reveal to Vera just yet is that one of the delinquents has decided this is his time to make a name for himself: he takes a hostage, and before the scene is over, the gang trades fire with the police. Makua leaves the empty office building to the sound of gunfire and, worse, patrol helicopters. She got her distraction, but how will she escape the notice of air patrol? Left-Hand Ankko marches down the opulent hall with weapon in hand, ready for the final showdown with her nemesis, La Lula Vampira. La Lula greets Left-Hand with a long, elegant blade of crimson. Left-Hand’s player, Heather, hadn’t expected a fight in the tradition of their old Society, and quickly retcons with a flashback: six months ago, Left-Hand stole away in secret to the smithy of an internationally-famous swordsmith. After an exchange of favors, he agreed to craft the Assassin a blade to rival that of her nemesis’s. We arrive back at present day to LeftHand unsheathing a sword the color of cut emeralds. Rai, the Storyguide, accepts this as a 2-point flashback — not only did it require some extra resources, it granted Left-Hand a powerful new asset. That said, Rai is waiting to reveal the hiccup in Heather’s flashback: the swordsmith betrayed Left-Hand and warned her nemesis, who asked him for one last blade. In a few moments, La Lula’s brother, El Pulpo, will join them in combat with his own newly-forged weapon, potentially turning the tables. Left-Hand got her masterwork blade, but how will she survive this fight with both Los Cefalópodos?
doesn’t start a shootout with police because Makua gave them mixed signals — it happens because one of them thinks taking a hostage will earn him extra rep, and now the whole thing is pear-shaped. The blacksmith doesn’t betray Left-Hand because she accidentally offended him — he does it because he doesn’t want her rival, his best-paying customer, murdered.
FLASHBACKS AND COST There are three levels of flashback. Each has an associated Inspiration or Momentum cost, related to the time and effort a character would have needed to expend in the flashback, as well as the advantages the flashback would grant them. At the lowest level are 0-point flashbacks, requiring little to no effort or resources for the character. These dramatic edits are so within the character’s realm of competency as to not warrant a flashback at all, and they require no cost. Really, this is not dramatic editing so much as accounting for a character’s general expertise — consider this express permission for a player to claim their character had appropriate gear, retroactively, without feeling the need to push the issue. Optionally, a Storyguide could require a character possess appropriate Skills, Attributes, or Facets before making a 0-point flashback. Vrilida, an expert burglar in a team of specialists, arrives on the scene of a heist with her plans and tools. After hearing details on the sheer number of high-tech glass doors in the building, her player, Jessica, asks if she can flashback to packing a glass-cutter. Rai, the Storyguide, notes Vrilida’s sheet shows a Larceny rating of 4, more than enough for Jessica to justify her bringing glass-cutters to the job. She allows the flashback with no cost.
A simple set-up with a single advantage requires spending 1 Inspiration or 2 Momentum. These flashbacks require only a small amount of time or a few Remember: the goal is never to negate the benefits of extra resources and typically grant the character a a flashback. The gang still creates a distraction, an inpiece of useful equipment, some generally useful incomparable sword is still forged. Twists in the plan are formation, or change a small element of the scene. meant to change the working conditions of the job, to Originally, the plan was to cut power to the entire reframe events after the fact, and to generally keep the office tower. It’d be tough to operate in darkness, but characters on their toes. They can’t look cool, calm, and the team wouldn’t have to deal with automated secudeadly without facing unexpected challenges. rity as they worked their way to the penthouse level. On a related note, as Assassins is first and foremost Vrilida soon learns, however, the servers for the builda competence fantasy, never allow a complication in ing’s security system are located on the third floor a plan to make the player characters look incompewith no power redundancies. Shoddy engineering! tent — at least, not without a player’s permission. Jessica asks for a flashback to Vrilida meeting with a The plan will never go awry because of a silly or “friend” of hers in city planning a few days ago, in an thoughtless mistake on the players’ parts. The gang effort to get a hold of the officer tower’s electrical floor
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plan. Rai approves this as a 1-point flashback. Vrilida out of her duffle, ready to cut a new hallway through now knows where to look and what to snip in order to the walls between empty offices and conference cut power to the third floor only. rooms. Impressed, Rai rates this at 2-points: Vrilida A complicated set-up resulting in either multiple needed access to more resources for this one, and it advantages or a single significant one requires spend- gives her team the advantage of completely bypassing 2 Inspiration or 4 Momentum. These flashbacks ing security sweeps.
demand considerable time or resources from the A set-up so intricate, so unlikely, so fortuitous for character, in exchange for the ability to bypass a diffi- the characters that it begins to stretch the table’s suscult challenge or change a major element of the scene. pension of disbelief, requires spending 3 Inspiration Automated security may be down, but the guard or 6 Momentum, or even more. These flashbacks night-shift looks to be unusually competent and require miracles of fortune, serendipity, and stowell-armed. The team could handle them, but it’d ry-swerving dramatic turns. They grant advantages take up precious time and resources they otherwise that can tip the scales of a scenario or even an entire need to reserve for the actual score at the top of the campaign. tower. Jessica wonders out-loud if there isn’t another way around without trying to cram everyone into heating ducts or some other cliché. She comes up with the idea that Vrilida leaned on her city planning friend for more blueprints, and spent the night before meticulously plotting a separate path for her team through the building. Back in present day, Vrilida gives a cheeky grin and pulls a drywall saw
It’s finally in hand — the little black drive with the names and transactions of everyone the SecuriTech CEO has been blackmailing over the last fifteen years. But security is closing in, and with them, the badass infosec executive who’s been tracking the team since their inaugural heist. They’ve got a hell of a fight coming if they head back the way they came, with potentially way more exposure than any of the
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team members are comfortable with. Jessica breaks in with an admittedly wild idea: everyone knows one of Vrilida’s Contacts is her old flame and former partner, behind bars after insisting he worked alone on a high-profile burglary in order to keep suspicion off Vrilida. What they don’t know is over the last three months she’s been sneaking him plans and contraband materials in an effort to break him out. And not only were they successful, he’s been laying low until just this moment, when he can land a stolen helicopter on the room of the office tower and get them all to safety. Rai checks to make sure the other players are okay with such a huge change to the team, and they all agree that not only is this cool as hell, they’re excited to play the fallout of meeting a new guy who just assumed he’d be allowed to join them. Rai rules this as an easy 3-pointer — it’s intricate, it requires a luck beyond luck, and it gets them out of a tight spot that would have set the tone for the rest of the story. Jessica pays the cost and her team copters away into the night sky.
ASKING FOR MORE OR SAYING NO “Require 3 or more Inspiration” seems vague when the spectrum starts at “a significant advantage that required some time to pull off” and ends at “deus ex machina that changes the entire game.” The space is left there for you, on purpose — if you like the concept of a proposed flashback but it stretches the limits of what you’re willing to inflict on your game, make the player pay extra, or say no. The Storyguide is the final arbiter of when to ask for more Inspiration, and when to decline a dramatic edit. If a proposed flashback would change the direction of your game, but everyone at the table —including you — agrees it sounds exciting, clever, or just wicked cool, consider asking for more Inspiration. If a proposed flashback is a jaw-dropping surprise with huge consequences, but just makes so much sense to the point you find yourself excited to narrate the fallout, consider asking for more Inspiration. Alternatively, you may instead allow it to come to pass for free, thus introducing a thrilling new hook into your game. If a suggested flashback provides intriguing insight into a character’s motivations or history, in spite of granting benefits that push the boundaries of a 2- or 3-point flashback, consider asking for more Inspiration. If a proposed flashback feels dull, or offers significant advantages for little cost, work with the player to come up with more intriguing consequences
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for this flashback — or consider saying no. If a proposed flashback breaks with the established tone or themes of your game, work with the player to adjust the flashback to better fit the game the table decided on — or consider saying no. If a proposed flashback is rubbing one or more players at the table the wrong way, work with everyone to make sure no one is agreeing to an element of the game that makes them uncomfortable — or consider saying no. If a flashback makes you, the Storyguide, uncomfortable for whatever reason, including suspicions that your player might be trolling you, work with the player to uncover their true intentions or steer them away from content you aren’t prepared to narrate — or consider saying no.
ALTERNATIVE COSTS FOR FLASHBACKS As always, the suggestions for how to evaluate the cost for flashbacks are just that — suggestions. There are many other potential methods for injecting cost into the dramatic editing system. • Free Flashbacks. Flashbacks do not cost Inspiration or Momentum, and the players are allowed as many 1-point flashbacks as they want. However, they can only commit to two 2-point flashbacks a session, and the group as a whole can only commit to one 3-point flashback for each job. For players new to dramatic editing in general, this should alleviate some of the nervousness that comes with taking some agency in the game’s narrative. • Group Flashbacks. Multiple players can contribute points to paying for the cost of a flashback, if their character was significantly involved in the flashback’s events. This could potentially lead to bolder tables proposing more complex and advantageous flashbacks — either incorporate this into your game’s tone or consider placing a limit on more powerful flashbacks. • Faustian Flashbacks. The cost of a flashback can be bargained for — in place of some or all of the cost, the player can agree to allow a component of their team’s plan go awry as soon as the benefit of their flashback comes to fruition, or to allow a Complication arising from this edit affect them during the job. A discount of 1 Inspiration / 2 Momentum would earn them a minor drawback or +2 Complication, while a discount of 2 Inspiration / 4 Momentum would incur a
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significant drawback or +4 Complication. After getting an idea of just how paranoid the current mark is, Vera wants to claim her Assassin, Makua, made her sniper’s nest for this job extra secure — she reserved not just the hotel room directly across from the law office’s rooftop, but every hotel room adjacent, above, and below. Rai, the Storyguide, rates this as a 2-point flashback, requiring either 2 Inspiration or 4 Momentum. Vera doesn’t have that kind of scratch on her at the moment, but she’s willing to bargain it down to 2 Momentum, suggesting maybe a local convention relocated to that very hotel before Makua could adjust her plans. Rai sees some real potential with this, and accepts, deciding Makua now faces a +2 Complication sneaking to and from her room with her rifle case, rest, and spotter drone past this new crowd of uptight, suited professionals. • Rolled Flashbacks. Flashbacks do not cost Inspiration or Momentum but do require a skill roll. Assign an Attribute + Skill pool and a difficulty to the most dominant action taken in the flashback. The flashback’s potency and usefulness are determined by the number of threshold successes earned: 1–2 successes for a 1-point Flashback, 3–4 for a 2-point, and 5 or more for 3 points.
COMPETING FLASHBACKS As stated in Trinity Continuum, dramatic edits — including flashbacks — cannot overrule facts or edits that have been previously established or override the effects of a dice roll. Flashbacks can, however, throw these events into new light, or provide an unexpected context for them. For example, during the events of a job, someone the team considered an ally turns on them, subduing and capturing them to be delivered to their rival. A player could still propose a flashback that shows them meeting with this ally previously, arranging for them to only appear to double-cross the team in a bid to get them all in position to finally eliminate their rival.
applies — for dedicated 3D chess masters, this should be no obstacle. While they still cannot undo or invalidate each other, competing flashbacks are explicitly allowed to reframe another Talent’s flashback. Left-Hand Ankko needs a quick, inobtrusive escape for her and her latest “client.” Her player, Heather, knows Left-Hand wouldn’t have let an obvious element like “getaway vehicle” go unaccounted for, and asks for a flashback to Left-Hand arranging via encrypted texts for her favorite driver to pick up her and her mark under this particular condo’s rear balcony during this specific window of time. The driver agrees without any questions — there’s a reason he’s Left-Hand’s favorite — and Rai, the Storyguide, rates this as a 1-point flashback. Having arranged a getaway vehicle ahead of time is usually a pretty safe assumption for hyper-competent Assassins, but needing one at a specific time and place requires more planning and effort than 0-points would suggest. Heather agrees and pays 1 Inspiration for the flashback. However, another Assassin, Makua, has a few personal reasons to want to interfere with Left-Hand’s treatment of this particular mark. Makua’s player, Vera, asks if she can flashback to Makua intercepting the getaway driver with intent to make him miss his appointment. Rai declines, pointing out this would invalidate Left-Hand’s flashback: Heather didn’t pay for a dramatic edit to text a guy with a car, she paid for an edit assuring he would be at a particular location with his car during a window of time. Vera amends, asking if she can flashback to Makua spotting the car pull up under the condo balcony and surreptitiously firing a location tracker into the sidewall of one of its tires. Rai approves, rating this as another 1-point. Left-Hand has her getaway car, and Makua knows exactly where it’s going.
When two or more Talents engage in competing flashbacks, each successive flashback costs one additional Inspiration or two additional Momentum. If one or more of the Talents involved are Storyguide characters, the Storyguide should take care not to get into a battle of “who can have the last word” with their players — not only will it alienate players who However, in rare cases, two Talents with the abil- feel you are abusing your ability as adjudicator of the ity to make dramatic edits may end up in a flashback game world, but you may wind up draining them of “face off,” in essence playing 3D chess against each all Initiative or Momentum in a single chain of flashother behind the scenes of the game. That no dramat- backs, crippling them for the story. Limit yourself to ic edit can overrule an edit previously established still at most two competing flashbacks in a session.
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CREATING SETPIECE SEQUENCES Assassins kill. They kill a lot of people. The after the Assassin has killed a major target, but prior Storyguide needs to make this interesting. to the final confrontations. An important part of the drama inherent within Assassin stories is the sheer cinematic experience of major showdowns between the Assassin and the team of enemies you know they’ll mow through, or the finale between the Assassin and their target. Sometimes this is a rival, and sometimes it’s the target’s extremely dangerous bodyguard. When the Assassin is up against a mob of suit-clad minor characters with cheap guns, it’s usually an interstitial fight rather than combat in and of itself — before or
That’s the loud approach, and it’s a fun one. Some Assassins prefer the silent and subtle route, observing their target and watching the environment closely to identify opportunities to strike a single, decisive blow. What’s the more perfect expression of skill — single-handedly defeating hundreds of armed guards and killing the target after a prolonged battle, or penetrating the target’s defenses with ruses and guile, killing them, and slipping past those hundreds of armed guards with none the wiser?
ASSASSIN SYSTEM TERMS Assassinations and setpiece fights use unique system terms, defined here. • Black Box: The closed set of Fields describing the overall area in which the assassination will occur with the target unawares at the start. More generally, a holistic system term for the entire assassination session. • Opportunity: A decisive advantage or unique method for the Assassin to kill their target, generated by successfully completing a Session Story. • Points of Ingress: Tracks that allow a player character to undergo a Session Story, culminating in an Opportunity. • Session Story: A vignette or side-story adjacent to the overall timeline of the target, which begins with a point of ingress and ends in an Opportunity. • Ticks: An increment of time on a timeline. Every five ticks moves the overall mission ahead in some defined way. • Timeline: The sequence of events and pattern of life the target engages in, which all Session Stories intersect with at various points.
SESSION STORIES Simply blasting your way through a scene isn’t always the best option. Surrounding your target are loved ones, disgruntled servants and staff, or innocent bystanders, each with their own desires, goals, and activities. In the tableau of overlapping stories, an Assassin learns to slip between various innocent actors in order to reach their target. Within the shifting timelines of the people around your target lies opportunity. The Storyguide designs these opportunities, and the chain of events that lead to them called Session Stories, ahead of time. The set of Fields these Session Stories exist in is called the Black Box, essentially an open sandbox where player characters
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can grasp defined opportunities or create entirely new ones of their own initiative. Session Stories primarily assist the character in the completion of the mission objective — you know, killing the target — but they can also assist the character in obtaining certain disguises, items, or fulfill optional objectives alongside killing the target such as stealing a set of important documents from their safe or ensuring the target’s spouse is the one to find them deceased. In addition to helping the player progress through a mission, Session Stories may also uncover plot threads which weave into a
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mission’s (and story arc’s) greater narrative, allowing the Storyguide to let multiple Assassins see a piece of the overall picture with each new Black Box they might not otherwise see if they simply storm in and off their target.
That last bit of business he negotiates in person with a business associate on the beach, away from prying ears — though the two men have never met in person before now. Finally, he goes to Saturday evening Mass at 7 p.m. (being a good Catholic), gives a sarThe goal is to force the target into a specific po- castic confession to the priest on the way out around sition and situation where they’re more vulnerable 8 p.m., and retires to his villa to pass out drinking in than they normally are; seizing control of the situa- front of the TV sometime around 2 a.m.. tion rather than simply attempting to mow through. That’s the target’s pattern of life — but he interacts To begin a timeline and identify the Session Stories with dozens and possibly hundreds of people, all of within, the Storyguide needs to ask a simple ques- whom put him in a vulnerable position in various ways. tion: What would happen if the Assassin never killed The Storyguide decides on several separate events the target? What would they do if the player charac- or linked series of goals that end up in the target dyters don’t intervene, with all the random disruptions ing, whether by accident or just maneuvering the that come with a day’s events? What does their pat- Assassin into a place where they can strike; this is tern of life look like? The Session Stories begin with a called an Opportunity, coming at the end of a Session setpiece location dripping with visual imagery, then Story. Any good Assassin surveys the target and the the supporting cast, then plan out the actual sched- situation around them before figuring out a path ule everyone is on. through. This doesn’t need to involve days of care-
ful observation and surveillance, although it certainly can. Many Assassins simply improvise their way Take Dominic Camparelli, the Italian Mafia un- through an encounter, relying on their own superior derboss living the high life in a villa in the urbanized intuition and skills to find a path through. coastal town of Amalfi. Unfortunately for Dominic, THE TIMELINE his lavish lifestyle has attracted too much attention The timeline represents the shifting flows of opfrom the Italian authorities, and he’s disrespectportunity for the Assassin to get to their opponent. ed the boss once too many times. He’s marked for These timelines are further demarcated by points assassination. of ingress, or ways for the Assassin to become inDominic begins his day by waking up in his villa volved ending in the ultimate fulfillment of the just past 8 a.m., then eating breakfast in the openOpportunity via a special Condition. The timeline air dining room while he’s attended by servants. He is comprised of a series of actions that each end in charms his girlfriend with presents and shoos her out an Opportunity. This means the Storyguide marks of the villa before his wife comes home at noon. To out the target’s series of actions, and ingress points prepare for her arrival, he calms himself by hitting a for those actions, as if the Assassin wasn’t there. few drives into the sea from the small golf course on Realizing each step of the way for the Opportunity his lawn under the watchful eye of his private golf involves another successful Skill roll. coach. He showers and grooms, then meets his wife
AN EXAMPLE IN TWILIGHT
outside the villa.
An argument ensues, the reasons of which are irrelevant — the two loathe each other, so any excuse will do for either one of them. He storms off when he’s called away by his men to deal with a soldat his crew has discovered is giving evidence to la policia. Dominic takes out his anger with his wife on the tied-up man, and ends his underling’s pleas for mercy with a single gunshot to the head. He’s upset enough to skip lunch, goes to dinner with his wife from 5 to 5:45 p.m. (the two barely concealing their hostility for each other), and then leaves early to finalize a deal where the sanitation union pays him a hefty bribe as protection money at 6:15 p.m. sharp.
Every significant action the characters take moves the scene along by a tick, and moves the entire sequence of action in the Mission Story further along. Significant action means any action that requires an actual roll or the deliberate act of waiting; moving the ticks forward doesn’t include things like opening doors to walk through in the waiter’s uniform or chatting with the guests while in your fine tuxedo, but would include picking the lock on the kitchen entrance or pickpocketing the gentleman with the ten-gallon hat and bolo tie. Thus, timeline ticks move only when the players define their characters as taking an action — merely speaking to one another doesn’t move the action along a tick, but anything
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that requires a roll (including mental actions) assuredly does. However, combat is specifically exempt; any combat lasting more than three rounds will result in many rolls, especially with multiple combatants, so no combat sequence lasts longer than five ticks on the timeline. The Storyguide should create a distinct set of Fields (describing the area where the assassination goes down) then make a sequence of events. It helps to describe these events as a timeline — the Storyguide should mark off discrete events every time increment, or ticks, in a series of five on an overall sequence of 30 ticks. This time sequence can last as long as an entire day, or as short as 30 minutes, so long as it can be broken into elemental pieces. Each sequence of five ticks represents a shift in Fields and a corresponding shift in Opportunities. • 0 Ticks: Camparelli awakens in his secure accommodations, surrounded by armed guards. He throws on some basic clothing for breakfast. Field: The villa apartments, upstairs. • 5 Ticks: Camparelli eats breakfast in the openair dining room. He spends time with his girlfriend picking at his eggs, then shoos her out of the opulent house. Overlooking the ocean from his magnificent villa, Camparelli decides to get in a few drives before the day really starts. He summons his already-on-site golf coach but quits early when the man critiques the gangster’s stance once too often. Fields: The openair dining court, the adjacent golfing range. • 10 Ticks: Camparelli abuses some servants as he showers, shaves, and dresses for the day. He then goes to meet with his wife, immediately getting into an argument as she follows him into his office. Fields: The villa apartments, upstairs, and the villa courtyard adjacent to the streets of Amalfi. • 15 Ticks: Dominic Camparelli is called away by his men, who have caught one of their own ratting out the crew to the police. Camparelli berates his crew for bringing the man to his own home, then takes out his frustrations on the rat for several minutes before silently accepting a silenced pistol and casually ending the man’s life. He washes his hands of blood and ices them, then goes back to his office to shuffle papers around until it’s time for dinner. Field: The first basem*nt level of the villa.
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• 20 Ticks: Dinner is in a local restaurant near the beach and a short open-air walk from the villa, but Camparelli leaves his wife early to attend a business meeting on the beach with individuals he’s never previously met. Fields: The walking roads along the Amalfi coast, outdoor seating at a restaurant, the beach beyond a series of dunes. • 25 Ticks: Camparelli attends Mass at a church near the beach. He sits restlessly through the service, then enters a confessional booth, where the priest joins him. Camparelli gives his confession and leaves. Fields: The church pews, the confessional booth. • 30 Ticks: Camparelli returns to his villa, where security is re-established for the evening. He ensconces himself alone in his den, drinking heavily and watching television. Fields: The walking roads, then the upstairs villa apartments.
THE REVEAL Each timeline starts with the reveal, or the Assassin’s recognition of the basic scope of their Opportunity. The player prompts a reveal action with a successful Skill roll. Hacking the camera system reveals the target’s paramour likes to summon staff to her side at the merest whim and barely addresses them, meaning a basic disguise would fool her completely, while eavesdropping on a one-sided cell phone conversation of a disgruntled Mafia soldier reveals that he’s blowing off southern gate guard duty to score some drugs. Targets typically come in two varieties for the Storyguide to insert into the game: dwellers, who stick to a single fortified location called a stronghold; and roamers, who cross multiple Fields. Establishing their location is a principal goal for prospective Assassins; then, it’s a waiting game for Opportunities to reveal themselves. Storyguides should adjust the schedule so that targets are never alone for long periods of time unless an Opportunity is used, in order to • Revelation Examples: Points of ingress in the Camparelli assassination include the girlfriend and the servants, especially the cooks who are taking a smoke break and complaining about their employer’s pedestrian tastes; the golf coach, who is on-site from morning to evening in case Dominic wants to play a round and nervously mumbles aloud; the business associate, whom Camparelli has never met; the crowded Mass where everyone pays attention to the
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CONDITION: MARKED FOR DEATH You’ve identified and aligned an opportunity for assassination via a Session Story, sharply limiting your target’s time on this mortal coil. The target and all valid bystanders who would be collateral damage gain this Condition upon resolution of the Session Story. Effect: Any attacks upon the target that align with the Opportunity bypasses or nullify whatever defensive Scale the target has. Additionally, each realized Opportunity that’s capable of “stacking” — i.e., is reasonable to use together, such as forcing the target from their schedule to a secluded spot and previously eliminating their security — increases the Assassin’s relevant Scale by 1. More than two stacked Opportunities results in a narrative death without dice rolls. Resolution: Killing the target, going loud, or the situation changing enough so that the original opportunity is no longer valid. priest, but also the quiet church afterward where the priest administers the sacrament of Confession to Dominic.
THE OPPORTUNITY Any Black Box should contain a number of Opportunities — generally, at least three per mission or one per tick sequence — each comprised of discrete actions generated by a successful skill roll representing success at maneuvering into position. Successfully engaging in the Session Story sequence means the target gains the Marked for Death Condition. The realization of an Opportunity doesn’t necessarily directly endanger the target, it just means that the target now has an open vulnerability. The end of a Session Story may be something as simple as pulling the fire alarm to force the target into a designated evacuation zone out in the open, but this is the culmination of infiltrating the building, stealing into security, and reviewing the emergency evacuation plans to know where the target will go. Similarly, the Marked for Death Condition doesn’t itself kill the target; it simply allows the Assassin into position to finalize the kill in one clean shot. As the Assassin realizes Opportunities, the Marked for Death Condition continues to build, until a simple action is enough to kill even a dramatic character in one single shot. • The Chef: Everybody’s got to eat; getting into the kitchen allows a prospective Assassin to determine when the meal’s coming in and who ordered what, which means a quick hit of fast-acting poison will act to eliminate Dominic, but leaves open the possibility of collateral damage if his girlfriend decides to steal a fried potato wedge from his plate. Potential rolls: Larceny
+ Composure to disguise one’s self as a kitchen staff member; Medicine + Intellect to have the poison on hand; Larceny + Dexterity to apply it to the food without anyone noticing. • The Golf Coach: The nervous civilian coach waits in the small clubhouse on-site at the villa; he has Dominic’s golf clubs with him. He’ll have personal access to Dominic without the benefit of the man’s security. Potential rolls: Close Combat + Might to knock out the coach; Larceny + Composure to disguise as a replacement coach from the same country club; Larceny + Dexterity to replace the golf balls with cunning explosives without the coach noticing. • The Business Associate: Dominic is meeting a new business associate on the beach, one who he’s never met. Both the associate and Dominic have backup coming with them; getting in to replace them means only having a single bodyguard with Dominic Potential rolls: Technology + Cunning to hack security’s radio comms and determine when and where the meetup will be earlier in the morning; Larceny + Resolve to determine the associate and the bodyguard waiting nearby the beach before the meetup; Close Combat + Might (or even a full combat) to knock out or eliminate the associate and bodyguard; Technology + Manipulation to draw away Dominic’s bodyguard and meet with him alone; Persuasion + Manipulation to convince Camparelli you’re who he’s supposed to meet. Alternately, Technology + Manipulation can convince Dominic to • The Priest: It’s Saturday, and Dominic likes to sleep in on the weekends, so he goes to
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nighttime Mass like any not-particularly-observant Catholic. His bodyguards wait in the car outside; after all, what kind of sacrilegious monster would start sh*t in a house of God? The Mass lasts an hour between its start and when the last churchgoer leaves the nave of the church; Dominic waits in the confessional booth afterward. Potential rolls: Larceny + Composure to disguise one’s self as a priest and Humanities + Manipulation to successfully lead a Catholic Mass;
RETROACTIVE REVEALS Dramatic Editing can be used to justify nearly any opportunity being created; the Storyguide should be as liberal as possible when allowing edits in this manner, even to the point of allowing a player character to seize control of an Opportunity. For example, realizing the chef would be an easy kill, a player may spend two Inspiration to edit their character in as the new food supplier for the kitchen, thus giving
them a reason to be in there. Edits shouldn’t bypass the Session Story, but they can set up a better way for the characters to interact with them from a position of strength and skill.
BRANCHING OPPORTUNITIES Opportunities shouldn’t exist on a purely linear path. Instead, the Storyguide should feel free to branch out Session Stories and ensure that Opportunities compound one another. Forcing the target out of their routine is necessary to catch them unaware and without resources at their disposal. However, savvy enemies won’t make that easy — so Storyguides should present characters with a number of different ways to approach the subject. Pacing is key here. Moving too quickly to the finale can be unsatisfying, but too many obstacles can feel like a grind. Always communicate with the players and ask what their preferences are. If it feels like the table has lost interest or disengaged, it’s fine to remove obstacles to move the story along more quickly.
GOING LOUD When being subtle is no longer in the cards, it’s time to go loud. Everything in the story so far has built up to this point — the moment in which the Assassin comes to claim the life of a dangerous target. This should always be a momentous, exciting occasion. Going loud is almost always a result of the Marked for Death condition (p. XX). During any sequence in which the conflict goes loud, the antagonist may cancel out any further Marked for Death placed on them by spending Source or Tension one for one, to reduce the rating of the condition to zero. The target of the condition can then no longer be instantly killed, but the narrative truth of the condition remains the same.
SETTING THE SCENE Going loud means the culmination of an assassination. This is the point at which there is no further recourse but to take the target out. In order to get all players into the mood and mindset, it’s time for the Storyguide to set the scene. When going loud, this conflict breaks down into two categories: approach and escape. During the approach, Assassins fight through hordes of hired guns, deal with traps,
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and other obstacles as they bear down on their target. During the escape, Assassins must content with similar issues as they get away from their victim’s stronghold. Start by building tension — not the in-game resource, but the mood. Be lavish with the descriptions and fire up the imaginations of all the players at the table. Give the players (and the Storyguide) lots of details to improvise with. This may sound like a lot of work for one person, so use the players as a resource by asking questions. The more the Storyguide involves the table, the more engaged and excited all players will be. Use the group’s suggestions to build the framing of this scene. The Storyguide should do her best to incorporate at least one detail from each player’s suggestion. This is the pinnacle of conflict. The Assassins are no longer skulking about; they’re here to kill. It’s a showdown. Ask the character or characters in the spotlight: • How do you approach your target? • What are you wearing? • How do you feel? Then ask the remaining players before the approach:
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• Who’s the most dangerous person or what is the most dangerous thing that the target employs? • What could go horribly wrong? Ask these questions before the escape: • What methods does the target have to stop the Assassin? • What hidden exits might there be? Once the Storyguide has the table’s answers to these questions, she can create a thrilling scene.
BOSS FIGHTS The target of the assassination takes on the role of the “boss” of this encounter. They become the focus for this fight, empowered by the narrative. Any antagonist can become a boss fight, by applying any of the following rules. • Stronghold: Some bosses have an impenetrable home base. During the approach, if the characters fail to buy off the Approach Field Complication, the Storyguide may trigger a trap, change a detail of the approach, or introduce a
new problem related to the antagonist’s base of operations. A hidden passageway could close, an alarm could be tripped drastically cutting down the time the Assassin has to reach her mark, an otherwise open space could lock down into a fortified chamber, and so on. During the escape, the same conditions apply, but instead they hinder the character’s ability to flee the scene. • Legions and Subordinates: The boss tries not to do their own fighting and keeps an army of disposable champions and minions nearby. During the approach, if the characters fail to buy off the associated Field Complication, the Storyguide may introduce a new Minor Threat to the scene, promote the status of an existing threat, heal half the health of a subordinate character, and so on. During the escape, the same conditions apply but rather than swarms rushing to protect their leader, the subordinates do everything in their power to trap the Assassin. • Final Form: This character becomes more powerful after having been defeated once. The
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Storyguide determines whether they consider the initial defeat part of the approach or the escape, but regardless, when the character fails to buy off either Field Condition, this triggers the antagonist’s resurgence into the scene. Immediately refresh all Assassin Powers the antagonist may have, restore any spent Tension, and add one die to all the Antagonist’s pools. The boss heals back up to half health, but once they are Taken Out this time, that concludes the encounter.
DARK (2) The Field is pitch-black or draped in shadow. This might simply be happening at night or in a cave, or it could extend to super-tech that blots out the sun or plunges everything into darkness. Apply this Complication to any actions involving movement (such as Sprinting) or determining range (such as Aim attacks), unless the character has immunity through Gifts or technology. In a Procedural, apply this Complication to attempts to search for clues.
Consequence: If not bought off, the character takes an Injury Condition, falls prone, or strikes a Ideally, each Field should be linked in a chain, different target than the one they declared. meaning that it’s typically impossible to go from Field DIZZYING HEIGHT (1) A to Field D without passing through Fields B and C The Field sits high above the ground, a vast exfirst; however, Storyguides should provide a number of shortcuts between Fields, rewarding Assassins panse between the characters’ feet and the safety who scope out the location first with the ability to of solid earth. This might be a platform suspended rapidly move around the Black Box. Alternate meth- above the clouds, or a clash taking place aboard the ods of approach can be part of the suggested branch- deck of an airship. The Complication applies to all attack actions as well as movement actions requiring ing opportunities (p. XX). a roll, unless the character has nerves of steel or an immunity to fear.
FIELDS
FIELD CONDITIONS
While creating the assault and the escape, use Field Conditions to build additional obstacles to overcome and to frame the challenges present. Here are a few examples of some Field Conditions the Storyguide might apply. Some of these Field Conditions also appear in Trinity Continuum: Adventure! and have been reprinted here for ease of reference.
CROWDED (2)
Consequence: If not bought off, the character risks moving back a Range band as they scramble away from the Field’s edges, or suffering a +1 increase in Difficulty to their next action after being shaken from a fear of heights.
FORTIFIED (3) The Field has sturdy, defensible structures, granting an advantage to defenders and making life difficult for the attackers. Fortified might also cover a Field strewn with a large amount of cover or other obstructing terrain. This Complication applies to all ranged attack actions or demolitions actions using Science or Technology.
Bodies press in on all sides as a sea of humanity moves back and forth through limited space. Apply this Complication to any attack rolls and any rolled movement actions, unless the character can fly or has otherwise unerring aim. In an Intrigue, apply this Complication to all social actions involving speech, Consequence: Failing to buy off this Complication unless the character has a way to communicate di- results in ranged attack actions targeting the scenrectly or nonverbally (such as using sign language or ery in addition to (or instead of ) the character they telepathy). intended to target. Failing to do so on a demolition Consequence: If not bought off on a move- action risks the shockwave of the explosion backment action, the character risks getting lost, turned firing on the user, resulting in appropriate Injury around, or pushed into another range band rather Conditions. than their desired destination. If not bought off on an attack action, the results of any purchased Stunts SPEEDING (3) are applied to a target or piece of scenery chosen by The characters clash on a rushing vehicle, wheththe Storyguide in the same Range band. er on the top of a charging freight train, a racing steamboat, or a soaring dirigible. Characters must
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PEOPLE AS A COVER Fighting in a crowd is ill-advised. Bystanders are typically a 2-point Complication in any given Field, with failure to buy off the Complication resulting in the death of an innocent — and only the sloppiest, most degraded Assassins would allow such a thing. To the savvy Assassin, however, the idea of people as cover can be an asset in two ways. First, fighting an opponent with morals — such as a principled bodyguard — means they won’t want to engage you in a crowd either. Secondly, using people in the Field and bystanders as cover allows the Assassin to blend in, throwing off the scent of any pursuers. To utilize this Stunt, the Assassin must be wearing a disguise good enough to look like a member of the cover group, and her player must roll a success on an action that replicates what the cover group is doing — Athletics for walking in a crowd, Medicine for blending into a surgical team. Blending In (3 successes): If you’ve broken the line of sight for a group of enemies and they have no other method to find you, you may purchase this Stunt on any action that replicates whatever action the people you’re using for cover are doing. Minor characters can’t find you at all; major characters suffer a 3-point Complication to locate you. maintain their balance and/or control of the vehicle or risk disaster. This Complication applies to Pilot actions, attack actions, and movement actions requiring a roll, unless the character has flawless control over a vehicle or their own personal movement.
damage to the scenery or another character in the scene, or striking another target in addition to their original. If not bought off during a Pilot action, the character risks the Crashing Field Complication being added to the scene, or the vehicle they are driving Consequence: Not buying off the Complication moving into another, unintended Field, striking the risks an Injury Complication from falling or being scenery, or risking structural damage. dragged along by the speeding vehicle, moving into an unintended Range band, or attacks affecting a dif- THE APPROACH (1) ferent target (including vital scenery or bystanders). The Assassin tries to get into a location. This Field Failing to buy off the Complication on a Pilot roll re- Condition applies to the entirety of the approach. If a sults in the vehicle moving in an unintended direc- character fails to buy off the Approach complication, tion, and possibly causing a crash. the Storyguide triggers one of the boss fight qualities,
TIGHT (3) The Field has little to no room to move, making flashy moves and big weapons nearly impossible to use. Characters tangling in an action sequence fight practically on top of one another. This Complication applies to attack actions made with weapons: ranged and close combat, unless the weapon has the Concealable Tag, or Pilot actions taken in a driver’s seat.
or may have an antagonist in the scene refresh one of their Assassin Powers.
THE ESCAPE (1)
The Assassin tries to get out of a location after they’ve killed a major target. This Field Condition applies to the entirety of the escape. If a character fails to buy off the Escape complication, the Storyguide triggers one of the boss fight qualities, or Consequence: If not bought off, characters risk an may have an antagonist in the scene refresh one of Injury Condition, losing or breaking their weapon, their Assassin Powers.
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ASSASSIN POWERS Assassin powers are simple, straightforward tactical actions an Antagonist can use to gain the upper hand or give themselves a temporary boost in a difficult situation. They allow the Antagonist to make a small change to the narrative in their own favor. Once a power is activated, the Antagonist can’t use it again until a specific Cooldown condition has been met.
DISARM
Cost: 1 Tension Duration: Instant Subject: One Target Range: Close Action: Simple Most Assassin powers don’t require a dice pool; Cooldown: Three turns
the Storyguide activates them when she deems it apIt’s easier to take out an opponent if they can’t stab propriate to the story. When they do require a roll, use the most appropriate pool from the Antagonist’s you or shoot back. On a successful close combat roll, Primary or Secondary action list. (For Antagonist the Antagonist knocks their target’s primary weapon character creation guidelines, see the Trinity one range band away. Continuum Core Rulebook, p. 137–140, substituting DIVE FOR IT Assassin powers in place of anomaly powers.)
TENSION
Cost: 1 or 2 Tension Duration: Instant Subject: One object Range: Close to Short Action: Simple Cooldown: Two turns
Antagonists possess a Tension pool similar to the player characters’ Momentum, which they use to activate their powers. The character’s beginning Tension pool is equal to her Desperation pool. When the antagonist makes a roll, the Storyguide adds 1 Tension to the pool on a failed roll, 2 for a botch. The gun with one bullet left in the chamber. The The Storyguide may also add Tension to the pool as bomb’s detonator. A thumb drive full of passcodes. a consequence for failed player’s characters’ actions, The dead guard’s walkie-talkie. Whoever controls or for failing to buy off certain Complications. the object controls the fight, and the Antagonist and her opponent are both just steps away from it. An Antagonist activating this power moves up one tick Antagonists have access to the following special rating on the initiative roster per point of Tension spent. If the expenditure places her in the same slot as attack abilities. her opponent, she steals the Focus to start the round.
ATTACK
DEADLY AIM
Cost: None Duration: Instant Subject: One target Range: Medium to Long Action: Simple Cooldown: One round The Antagonist can hit a single target with incredible accuracy, even when the target’s in the midst of a crowd or a tight cluster of people. All it takes is one split second’s opening. This doesn’t have to be a kill shot: The Antagonist may use this power to hit her mark with a tranquilizer dart or a tracking device. Add a +1 Enhancement to Aim rolls.
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DEFENSE Antagonists may use the following special defense abilities.
PUNCHING BAG Cost: None Duration: One scene Subject: Self Range: Self Action: Reflexive Cooldown: The Antagonist clears damage from two Health Boxes. Some Antagonists are built to take hits for their teams. A lot of hits. Enough to make their opponents wonder if anything will bring them down. The truth is,
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the Antagonist has trained for this: they know how to Range: Short to medium take a punch and ignore the initial flare of pain. They’ll Action: Simple feel the bruises tomorrow, but right now they’ve got Cooldown: One session a job to do. The Antagonist gains +1 Defense and +1 The Antagonist matches their target stride for Health for the remainder of the combat. stride. If the hero leaps an unlikely distance from one SHAKE YOUR TAIL rooftop to the next, so does the Antagonist. When the hero escapes the exploding fuel barrels unscathed, Cost: None the Antagonist strides out of the flames a moment Duration: One scene later. While an Antagonist is pursuing a target, she Subject: One target employs the same Edges and Skill Tricks as that tarRange: Medium to long get, whether she normally has access to them or not.
Action: Simple Cooldown: The Antagonist successfully spots a player’s character who’s attempting to conceal themselves or sneak up on him.
SKELETON KEY CARD Cost: 1 Tension Duration: Instant Subject: One object Range: Close Action: Simple Cooldown: One round
Antagonists have plenty of things they’d prefer to keep secret: the location of their secret lairs and dead drops, the path to their employer’s headquarters and the codeword to get in. When they sense someone’s following them, an Antagonist executes a series of maneuvers to lose their pursuer. The Storyguide chooses An Antagonist can access any locked or restricted whether the Antagonist receives a +1 Enhancement to area, unless the player characters have intentionally rolls to lose whoever’s tracking them, or whether he locked her out. When attempting to bypass a player’s imposes a +1 Complication on his opponents. character-imposed lock, gain a +1 Enhancement to an appropriate Primary Pool roll. This may reflect a TITANIUM SKULL lifted ID badge, a glimpse at an employee punching in an access code, or the age-old strategy of hitting Cost: None or 1 Tension the lock with a hammer. Duration: Instant
Subject: Self Range: Self Action: Simple Cooldown: Three rounds That haymaker should have rung the Antagonist’s bell, but she merely grins and shrugs it off. An attacker’s Critical Stunt fails to inflict an additional Injury Condition on the Antagonist. If the attack’s normal damage would render her Taken Out, the Storyguide may spend 1 Tension to clear her rightmost Health Box to keep her on her feet.
UTILITY
SOCIAL These special Antagonist abilities pertain to intrigue actions.
FLAWLESS DISGUISE Cost: 1 or 2 Tension Duration: One scene Subject: Self Range: Self Action: Simple Cooldown: The Antagonist enters an isolated area where he can switch disguises.
These antagonist abilities cover anything else unThe Antagonist’s own mother wouldn’t recogrelated to combat. nize him, but he could easily fool the parents of the person whose face he’s wearing. Whether via careCOPYCAT fully applied makeup and excellent acting skills, or through cutting-age tech, the Antagonist takes on Cost: 3 Tension someone else’s appearance and mannerisms for one Duration: One scene scene. Spend 1 Tension to increase the Difficulty to Subject: Self spot the imposter by 1.
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Even if the characters know they’re dealing with Action: Simple a fake, they might not know who it is behind the dis- Cooldown: One session guise. For 2 Tension, add 2 to the Difficulty to identiThe Assassin’s opponent has people literally everyfy the Antagonist. where and uncovers the hidden supplies or secrets VOICE OF AUTHORITY that the Assassin has set aside for herself. Maybe it was discovered by a janitor who reports to one of the Cost: None opponent’s plants in a given company. Perhaps a surDuration: One round veillance camera got bumped and pointed directly at Subject: Immediate crowd the door to the Assassin’s bolthole apartment.
Range: Short Action: Simple Cooldown: One round
The Antagonist sounds like someone in charge, so bystanders obey her orders. She issues a short command, such as “Get down!” “Run for cover!” or “GET HIM!” and other Storyguide characters do as they’re told, allowing the character with this power to immediately clear a scene at Storyguide discretion. Players’ characters who follow the Antagonist’s orders gain 1 Momentum for buying in. These orders only apply to crowd control actions.
SUPPORT An antagonist whose purpose is to bolster and support their allies may take any of the abilities.
FOR MY MASTER Cost: 2 Tension Duration: Instant Subject: Self Range: Self Action: Simple Cooldown: One session Prerequisite: The opponent is a member of a far-reaching organization. When dying, she expends her last breaths to speak words of praise for the organization to which she belongs or its leader, and the act of belonging gives her the ability to rise and fight the Assassin with renewed strength. The Antagonist recovers half their Health, instantly repairs and recovers any broken or disarmed gear, and may continue fighting.
HOW DID THEY FIND THIS Cost: 1 Tension Duration: One session Subject: One Target Range: Medium to Long
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System: When attempting to locate an Assassin’s hidden equipment (such as Stash in Every City) or hidden home, the Assassin’s opponent receives 1 Enhancement and may ignore Environmental Complications of 2 or lower.
I KNOW THAT FACE Cost: 2 Tension Duration: One session Subject: One target Range: Medium to Long Action: Simple Cooldown: One session Even Assassins who take steps to leave no footprints in the modern world can be tracked by omnipresent cameras; he appears in the background of someone’s selfie on social media, is picked up by a lens he didn’t see on the street, his voice can be heard in the background of a remote news broadcast. System: When tracking the Assassin through technological means, his opponent gains +2 Enhancement to efforts to pin down her current location and may ignore Environmental Complications of 2 or lower.
OUT OF THE WOODWORK Cost: 1 Tension Duration: One scene Subject: One ally Range: Short Action: Simple Cooldown: One session Just when the hero’s sure they’ve defeated all the Antagonist’s henchmen, one last foe joins the fight. The Storyguide may bring a previously-defeated minion back into play, even ones the characters were sure were dead. Alternately, the Storyguide may use stats for Leg-Breakers or Toughs (see below), or any
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other appropriate Minor or Medium Threat-level opponent.
TRUST NO ONE Cost: 3 Tension Duration: One session Subject: One subject Range: Medium Action: Simple Cooldown: One session No organization is safe, and no one can be trusted: the Assassin’s opponents are everywhere, and those who report him have infiltrated even the most stalwartly supportive groups. An Assassin may find himself suddenly regretting something she said in public — at a rally, a protest, or a strike, for example. The charismatic opponent has gained the upper hand. System: When the Assassin is attempting to use a Preparation Keyword Mastery in order to access resources through an organization with which she has ties, she receives +2 Complication to obtaining results if she does not buy off Trust No One. The opponent’s minions work against her and the opponent may receive 1 Enhancement to attempting to uncover her activities.
UBIQUITOUS MANSERVANTS Cost: 1 Tension Duration: One session Subject: One subject per Tension Range: Medium Action: Simple Cooldown: One session
Subject: All allied Antagonists Range: Short Action: Reflexive Cooldown: Half of the Antagonist’s allies have been Taken Out The Antagonist’s employers don’t hire weaklings. When the team’s taken heavy losses, it’s up to those still in the fight to regroup and hit back even harder. Using this power, any of the Antagonist’s allies who are still standing recover 1 Health, and gain a +1 Enhancement on their next attack roll. System: When Taken Out or critically injured, the opponent may spend a turn monologuing and then rise to fight again for a single turn. At the end of the second turn, unless aid has been rendered to her which would otherwise eliminate the Taken Out Condition, she collapses.
WE CAN SEE YOU Cost: 3 Tension Duration: One scene Subject: One target Range: Medium to Long Action: Simple Cooldown: One session The organization hunting the Assassin controls a plethora of cameras, tracking his every movement through the streets, and they use this to taunt him, distracting and unsettling him.
System: From the moment that the Assassin realizes he’s being tracked he receives a +2 Complication to rolls to move unseen, avoid notice or rolls to jump, How does this house have people absolutely every- climb or drive. If he doesn’t buy off the Complication, where? Why can’t the Assassin find a route through things suddenly start getting in his way: he trips over this mansion that doesn’t have a maid folding towels boxes and runs into trash cans as he tries to get out or a handyman replacing a lightbulb? Why, around of view of the eyes he suddenly feels on him at every moment. every corner, does there seem to be a bodyguard? System: When his opponent is on his home turf, the Assassin receives +2 Complication to rolls pertaining to moving through said home turf without being seen. If he does not buy off Ubiquitous Manservants, word of his presence spreads through the home base, causing future trouble for the Assassin.
WALK IT OFF Cost: None Duration: Instant
YOUR MONEY’S NO GOOD HERE Cost: 3 Tension Duration: One session Subject: One target Range: Medium to Long Action: Simple Cooldown: One session When attempting to move through the world, Assassins leave a paper trail which can be picked up
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on by his opponents and used to isolate him from accounts are frozen and cash registers simply refuse sources of assistance. to open at convenience stores; the shadowy forces System: When making rolls which pertain to at- watching that particular store through surveillance tempting to access funds or use those funds, the cameras recognize the Assassin and attempt to stop Assassin receives a +2 Complication if he does her from even using cash to pay for supplies, transnot buy off Your Money’s No Good Here. His bank port, or other necessities.
ANTAGONISTS The antagonists below are divided by Daylight, complicating things considerably. ULTRALIGHT Twilight, and Shadow. is infamous for using their hypnosis techniques to brainwash regular people into dupes for use during • Daylight antagonists are mundane people contracts. who can make a contract more complicated. Procedural and Intrigue actions should be used Primary Pool: 7 (pretending to be okay, with Daylight Antagonists whenever possible, sabotage) as killing them can cause significant complicaSecondary Pool: 5 (desperate combat, escape) tions for Assassins. • Twilight antagonists make up a majority of the people that Assassins will fight, including criminals, corrupt police officers and minor antagonists. While the target for an assassination may operate primarily in Twilight, Twilight antagonists are usually subordinates rather than the target themselves. • Shadow antagonists are the important and dangerous people who are the targets for assassination, with resources and abilities to help keep themselves alive. These also include Assassins and antagonists like them. The named characters below are examples of their archetypes. Feel free to use them as written, or take them as a starting point for building their own antagonists. Storyguides may want to shuffle their stats around or give them different Edges and Powers that reflect their backstories.
DAYLIGHT ANTAGONISTS
Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 3 Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Fast Draw, Skilled Liar
Sleeper Agent (Unique Power): Hypnotized by ULTRALIGHT or a similar outfit, the Dupe has an objective she has been hypnotized to accomplish, such as shutting off the power at a party, or breaking into an executive’s office. She adds a +3 Complication to any Intrigue or Procedural actions to deduce her goal. Failure to buy the Complication presents the wrong conclusion: The Dupe may be up to something, but it is mundane misbehavior, unrelated to their goal. Alternatively, the Complication may activate her programming, which grants an additional +1 Enhancement to physical actions to accomplish her objective and compels her to aggressively pursue it without regards for her safety.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
If you want to meet with the head of the compaSecurity guards, lookouts and regular people ny, first you have to get past her executive assistant. caught up in events. Killing people in Daylight can viThis person handles their boss’ calendar, books their olate the Code and draw a lot of unwanted attention. flights, coordinates with other important contacts, and screens their calls and emails. Get on their good DUPE side, and they’ll squeeze you into an already-busy They threatened her family and gave her a gun, schedule. Cross them, and you’ll find your plane ticktelling her she knew what to do. Dupes are innocent ets canceled and your security clearance revoked. people suddenly pulled into Assassin affairs through Joseph Long’s been executive assistant to the CEO blackmail or threats. They might be working with of PrismaTech for eight years. He’s an indispensable Assassins and betray them at the last minute, or act part of the team, though people are often quick to against targets in Twilight in the middle of a contract, dismiss him. He knows the company’s priorities, can
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sniff out a bullsh*t meeting request, and triple checks that all of his boss’ security requirements have been met before he books a single speaking gig. No detail gets overlooked, which has not only saved the company money, but has also saved its employees’ lives. The boss’ bodyguards may be her last line of defense, but Joseph is her first.
Primary Pool: 7 (logistics, corporate policy) Secondary Pool: 5 (self-defense, research) Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 4 Edges: Human Lie Detector 2, Iron Will 1, Photographic Memory 1 LITTLE OLD LADY (WITH A GUN) She’s lived in this neighborhood for sixty years, and there’s nothing about it that she doesn’t know, no one whose name she hasn’t known since the day they were born. She deeply and violently dislikes the fact that Assassins keep showing up in her shop and disturbing the peace. Underneath the blanket on her lap, she keeps a firearm hidden, and don’t let her peaceable expression and gentle smile fool you: her keen eyes don’t miss a thing. What’s even more dangerous? Sometimes several of these bubbes get together for Shabbas brunch and decide to form a neighborhood watch.
Primary Pool: 7 (firearms, perception) Secondary Pool: 5 (neighborhood knowledge) Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 4 Edges: Fast Draw, Skilled Liar, Weak Spots
neighborhood as safe as humanly possible.
Primary Pool: 7 (perception, persuasion) Secondary Pool: 5 (neighborhood knowledge) Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 4 Edges: Danger Sense, Keen Sense (Hearing or Sight), Speed Reading PARTYGOER High-society parties and underground clubs are full of people who have no idea that they might be rubbing elbows with the rulers of the Twilight and the Shadow. While most might not be anyone, some have powerful connections that can present a problem if they’re inconvenienced or harmed.
Primary Pool: 7 (carousing, opening doors) Secondary Pool: 5 (making a scene, sneaking around) Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 2 Health: 3 Edges: None RENT-A-COP A security guard, beat cop, or bodyguard hired to watch over something. Their loyalty is to their wages rather than their boss, the scent of money or simply a good distraction can be an easy way to get them out of an Assassin’s way.
Primary Pool: 6 (awareness, brawling) Secondary Pool: 4 (firearms, sensing trouble) Desperation Pool: 2 Enhancement: 0 LOOKOUT Defense: 3 She never gets involved with any of the fights that Health: 3 happen in her neighborhood: that’s not her job. All Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Fast Draw that she’s supposed to do is watch carefully and report in, conveying to her contact anything that she sees that’s out of the ordinary. She might own the bodega on the corner of 78th and 110th, but she might also be the head of a suburban PTA, living in Arlington Mews and driving an SUV. What’s important is that not only does she get paid for her information, but she also truly cares about keeping her
TWILIGHT ANTAGONISTS Criminals, troublemakers and people on the margins of the Shadow. Twilight antagonists are the dangerous people who will often get in the Assassin’s way. While they might be dangerous and fearsome by the standards of the Daylight, they know that you don’t f*ck with Assassins lightly.
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BODYGUARD Bruno is just here for a paycheck. He doesn’t care for grand schemes or carefully crafted plots. He isn’t impressed with the idea of criminals and killers who bide their time in the shadows, blades pressed against their back waiting to sink into unsuspecting flesh, or the thought of having a target painted on your own. No, in Bruno’s opinion, it’s an insulting way to kill or be killed. He’d much rather use his fists, or at least gun them down himself, for God’s sake. He does recognize that they are a real threat, and luckily, he is in the business of providing a service to help prevent that.
used on forceful attacks or intimidation tactics. He can spend Tension to stay up for 1 additional round after being Taken Out, but only once per session.
BUREAUCRAT
He didn’t expect to be working for one of the most ruthless organizations on the planet, but he’s not going to turn down the paycheck. He had no idea that he’d be expected to take on all of these questionably legal tasks, but at this point he’s in too deep, and his student loans just got transferred to one of the most notoriously horrible lenders on the planet. Of course, that lender is owned by the organization, and his He isn’t Inspired, nor is he an Assassin, but Bruno loan collector is his Twilight handler, but he doesn’t is well-informed and involved with the machinaknow that. If the Assassin does, she might be able to tions of the criminal underworld. He’s worked bodyturn the Navigator into an ally. guard contracts for all sorts of high-profile clients: from CEOs to politicians to kingpins, and even oth- Primary Pool: 7 (bureaucracy, legal knowledge) er Assassins — for the right price. He’s well-known Secondary Pool: 5 (persuasion) in the business for his unscrupulous attitude and Desperation Pool: 3 brute strength, but don’t let that fool you. Many an Enhancement: 1 Assassin has met an unfortunate end through underestimating his tact and meeting with his fists in- Defense: 3 stead; finding their blades struck clean through their Health: 4 chest, poison they intended to plant shoved down Edges: Danger Sense, Keen Sense (Hearing or their own throats. He serves to show that the best Sight), Speed Reading Assassins must consider and meet all possible risks GADGETEER while pursuing their contracts. Every organization has one: a guy who comes up Primary Pool: 8 (hand-to-hand combat and with the shiny things that all of the Assassins despertracking) ately want to play with. This one just happens to be Secondary Pool: 6 (fast talk and pursuit) on the other side. He’s not entirely sure how he got Desperation Pool: 4 where he is now: he just wanted to create things. A Enhancement: 2 little mad scientist, a little distracted genius, a little Defense: 4 bit innocent person who wanted to see how things worked. His equipment leaves nothing to be desired, Health: 6 though. Edges: Iron Will 3, Hardy 2, Keen Sight 1 Bob’s another one of those shiny-toymakers, and he started out working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. They kept offering him promotions and training opportunities and transferring him to even more and more remote locations, having him sign even more elaborate NDAs. Then one day he woke up and realized they’d tied him up in legalese so intense that Raging Fury (Unique Power): Physically impos- he barely owned his own thoughts. He’d be upset, ing and with the strength to match, Bruno, and oth- except for the fact that they give him this incredible er leg breakers like him, cut straight to the chase. In lab … and speaking of that lab, Bob’s started to realize his opinion, a fist aimed straight for the face will do that his experiments have had an interesting effect just as well for dealing with pesky enemy Assassins. on him. NOTE: Bob has a higher equipment pool than Bruno has narrative permissions to break the scenis usually available to opponents. This reflects his ery, and his Primary Pool and Enhancements may be Attention to Detail (Unique Power): Bruno’s done this job for a while. He’s got an unwavering scrupulous eye for picking out a careless target. Increase the Difficulty of getting past this character with lies or disguises by 2, and he may spend Tension to automatically contest these without a roll. Use his Primary Pool and Enhancement rating to oppose the roll.
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absolutely absurd level of technological prowess. GETAWAY DRIVER Storyguides are encouraged to give him the sort of At a glance, Steven Grant is an unremarkable intoys that would make a three-number-identified dividual. He looks like your Average Joe, driving out British spy drool. to his low-paying nine-to-five, hoping the boss will keep a promotion in mind for him, then heading Primary Pool: 9 (technology and bureaucracy) home to enjoy dinner with his wife and kids. This is Secondary Pool: 7 (research, those wonderful mostly a correct observation: Steven enjoys the finer toys) and kinder things in life. Desperation Pool: 5
Unfortunately for Steven, he also happens to know some bad people. Some bad people who’ve taken advantage of him for their own ends after some bad decisions on Steven’s part (which may or may not have involved a night of drunken gambling). Now, he finds himself straddling the line between the darkness of the criminal unThose Wonderful Toys (Unique Power): Bob derworld, and maintaining his bright family life, and the makes the most wonderful gadgets, and his toys lean difficulties that come with such a conundrum. out past what normal science can do and become Away from his mundane life, Steven works as a Super-science. By spending 1 Tension at a narrativegetaway driver and petty thief for local criminal ly-appropriate time, he may create a Super-science gangs. The risk of not working for them is the death effect or produce an Artifact. Where does he get of his already compromised family. Maybe some part those wonderful toys? of him enjoys the exhilaration of car chases and illegal activity.
Enhancement: 4 Defense: 4 Health: 6 Anomaly Powers: Hyper Intelligent, Hardened Skin, Inspired, Slip the Cuffs
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Primary Pool: 6 (fast driving, vehicles) Secondary Pool: 4 (thievery and fast talk) Desperation Pool: 2 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 3 Edges: Hair Trigger Reflexes 1, Adrenaline Spike 2, Direction Sense 1
Health: 5 Edges: Conspirators 2, The Darkest Web, Library 2 Source: 4 Powers: Hyperintelligent (Trinity Core, p. 139), Skeleton Key Card NAMELESS HACKER
She’s shown in a group shot with a bunch of other computer jockey mooks — the light of a computer screen reflecting off of her glasses or illuminating her face with a sickly glow. The accompanying clatter of a keyboard always comes with phrases like “Found him!” and “If I enhance this image, I think I can see it, boss.” Aware that people skills or ‘soft hacking’ often gets better results than computers, she’s leveraged her smile to get as many passwords as her scripts. She’s eager to please her boss, and sure Adrenaline Surge (Unique Power): In the heat that she can someday rise within her organization, of the chase, it’s more than easy to lose yourself; this get out of this basem*nt workspace, and maybe do character lives for the feeling and energy of danger her work somewhere with a window. beating down against their back, and if hired as a Primary Pool: 7 (hacking and research) driver, can grant the players his enhancement rating Secondary Pool: 5 (persuasion) to Pilot rolls in Chase sequences. Hand on The Wheel (Unique Power): Steven was blackmailed into Twilight two reasons: one, for his exceptional driving ability and vehicular knowledge; two, for his level of preparedness —always ready to step on the gas and make his getaway. The Storyguide has narrative permission to allow Steven to appear as a getaway driver for any other Antagonist in use; the players will have three rounds to stop Steven before he spends 1 Tension to flee automatically.
INFO BROKER
Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 4 Edges: Always Prepared, Lighting Calculator, Keen Sense (Eyesight)
In an online age, even cautious surfers leave information about themselves strewn across the internet. Shopping habits, location information, even quizzes to determine which fairytale princess would be your bestie gives away a lot. Combine that with complex NEIGHBORHOOD TOUGH algorithms, access to public records, leaked finanIt’s not enough to have people who directly recials, and some good old knowledge of how people port to you, fully integrated into your organization: a work, and you’re sitting on a goldmine. Aly Dufresne compiles dossiers for her clients. successful boss needs to have people literally everyWhat they do with the information isn’t her problem. where. Enter the Tough. He carries a sap or a bat and Tracking down a deadbeat parent? Great. Blackmailing intimately knows every alley and shortcut through a high-ranking politician? Should’ve turned down those the neighborhood where he’s lived since birth. The bribes if he didn’t want it coming back to bite him. Tough doesn’t care too much about politics which Destroying your neighbor’s life over a property dispute? happen far above his head; he’s either in this for the Not Aly’s concern. Pay her fee, and she’ll get you any- paycheck or just because he wants to make sure that thing you could want to know about a target. For an even his family is protected. Whichever route the Boss higher fee, she’s also willing to help people erase their took to buy him, though, he bought in. He’s in way over his head now, just trying to stay afloat. Nothing records and drop off the grid. Everything’s negotiable. is worth this paycheck.
Primary Pool: 8 (hacking, research) Secondary Pool: 6 (bureaucracy, social engineering) Desperation Pool: 4 Enhancement: 2 Defense: 4
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Health: 4 Edges: Fast Draw, Adrenaline Spike PORTER Porters are people in the employ of the Service, the collective industries of the Shadow who provide support and infrastructure to the Assassin Societies, as long as they remain in good standing. Porters usually have an area of illicit activity they excel in, such as disposing of corpses, acquiring weapons, clearing up bureaucratic red tape or securing inconspicuous transportation, services they provide to Assassins. Often appearing as allies, two Assassins working at odds may have to contend with Porters assisting one another. While they know what they signed up for, killing them is ill-advised: No Assassin wants to make an enemy of the Service.
Primary Pool: 8 (concealing involvement, special services) Secondary Pool: 6 (breaking and entering, tracking) Desperation Pool: 4 Enhancement: 2 Defense: 4 Health: 5 Edges: Flawless Accent, Faceless, Forger, Well-Equipped
SHADOW ANTAGONISTS Assassins, masterminds, and others who live in the Shadow are among the most challenging targets to face.
Desperation Pool: 4 Enhancement: 2 Defense: 4 Health: 5 Edges: Flawless Accent, Null Biometrics, Skilled Liar Source: 4 Powers: Flawless Disguise, Copycat CONTRACT KILLER Dark, brooding, and chillingly ruthless, Stella Rose fits the stereotypical yet perhaps most idealized version of an Assassin; the perfect contract killer. She’s unfazed by the harsh realities of what the job demands, and every target is just another paycheck, another way to keep the roof over her and her younger sister’s head. It wasn’t always like this, though. Stella and her sister lived as atypical spoiled rich girls, going through life with only the best gifts, meals, and education: all at the behest of their well-funded parents — politicians who gained their wealth and positions through dirty money. However, the siblings soon found their idyllic life violently torn away when their parents’ crimes were exposed (ironically, by a different mysterious Assassin). Family torn away, the sisters were all that they had left of each other, and as the older child, Stella took it upon herself to try and provide and care for them both. She used what remained of their dwindling fortune to secure a roof over their heads … and the rest to search for a source of work.
Many, of course, turned her pleas away. Luckily, there are plenty of shadowy organizations strewn throughout the criminal underworld that were hapTHE CHAMELEON py to take the embittered, desperate young woman in The Chameleon never wears the same face twice. and teach her the ways of assassination. Sure, she’s a master of disguises with an armory’s Initially, Stella worked with a certain amount of reworth of costumes, wigs, and makeup, but those are pulsion for her new position in life. But eventually the all extras. With a subtle change in her expression, her risk and the money rubbed off, replaced by the threat posture, and her gait, she can switch from unobtrusive of being caught, the heat of being pursued, the knife’s underling one moment to charismatic CEO the next. grip in her palm. Soon enough, a rush of power ran She breezes through security checkpoints, blends in through her like adrenaline as she ripped the life away with any crowd, gets her job done and moves on. from an unsuspecting target with a slit of her knife. She’s got a family, somewhere, but she cut all ties when she took the job. If no one knows who she is, they can’t seek out her parents and siblings to threaten her. It’s safer that way, but it’s also terribly lonely.
She got used to her life, climbed through the ranks, but in exchange, her heart became hardened and greedy. She’s unafraid to take exactly what she wants, not thinking twice about who has to die to get her way.
Primary Pool: 8 (disguise and sneaking) Secondary Pool: 6 (hand-to-hand combat and fast talk)
Primary Pool: 8 (knives and going unnoticed) Secondary Pool: 6 (breaking and entering) Desperation Pool: 4
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them. They’re the strategies that have kept her alive thus far. She doesn’t consider it cheating if her own Talents make her just that much better at implementing them. She’s capable of leading a team of allies, and willing to cede control to others. On any mission, she has only two priorities: finish the job Arrow in The Dark (Unique Power): Stella bends and get out alive. the darkness to her will, creeping through it like a black cat on a midnight stalk. However, she will cer- Primary Pool: 9 (gunfighting, stealth) tainly see you before you see her, and if one’s unlucky Secondary Pool: 7 (pursuit, technology) … they’ll find their neck sliced or pierced in a heartDesperation Pool: 5 beat. This character is naturally stealthy and attuned to covert operations and assassinations, granting the Enhancement: 4 Storyguide narrative permissions to allow her to by- Defense: 4 pass security and appear elsewhere without warn- Health: 6 ing. If this would strain the believability of the narra- Edges: Always Prepared, Boltholes 3, Hardy, Light tive, spend Tension. She can apply her Enhancement Sleeper 2 Source: 5 to ambushes and surprise attacks.
Enhancement: 2 Defense: 4 Health: 5 Edges: Weak Spots 1, Covert 3, Keen Hearing 1, Library 1
Eyes On the Prize (Unique Power): Coming from a wealthy background has more than a few advantages. For one, it granted Stella an appreciation for the finer things in life; greed motivates her. The Attitude of a social scene may be set to a positive rating at her favor, but only when wealth and status are on the line and at the risk of putting themselves in danger or exposing their location. Power Rush (Unique Power): Despite initial revulsion to her new lifestyle, Stella grew accustomed to what her new life and employers demanded of her. This character may add her Enhancement to any applicable rolls targeting a character with only one Health Box remaining. If the target is successfully Taken Out or otherwise forced to surrender or submit, add 1 Tension and Stella heals 1 Health.
THE LIFER
Powers: Deadly Aim, Out of the Woodwork, Walk it Off POISONER The poisoner’s an expert in deadly drug interactions, allergic reactions, and substances that leave no unusual traces on a tox screen. Some employers, of course, want their marks to suffer, and they’ve got concoctions for that, too. Poisoners deal in neurotoxins, paralyzing agents, truth serums, and more. Often, they freelance for various Society members, administering a drug and monitoring the patient’s vitals while the Assassin or interrogator does their work. Other times, they’re the Assassins, donning nurses’ scrubs to inject poison into an IV line or slipping into a target’s house and replacing his life-saving pills with identical but deadly substances. Anna Everett dabbled in several fields before deciding college wasn’t for her: biology, chemistry, forensics, medicine. She spent a semester interning for the medical examiner and got an entire education on death. Maybe someday, she’ll finish her degree and apply to med school, but for now, applying what she learned to make her victims look like they died from natural causes pays the bills quite nicely.
The old school contract killer’s been in the business longer than most of the people who hire her. She’s taken on assignments not only from their parents, but knew their grandparents when they first inherited the family enterprises. She’s seen regimes change, and even had a hand in bringing a few of those about, but prefers to keep her head down and her gun clean. No one retires from this job voluntari- Primary Pool: 8 (chemistry, medicine) ly, and though she’s eligible to collect social security, Secondary Pool: 6 (bladed weapons, fast-talk) Desperation Pool: 4 she has no intention of hanging up her holster. In her late sixties, Lelliana Ek keeps up-to-date on new technology — this is a business, after all, and it’s smart to be ready for what your rivals will use against you. However, she prefers older methods of disappearing, dealing with foes, and dispatching
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Health: 6 Anomaly Powers: Heightened Reflexes, No one understands how he keeps coming back, Inspired, Slip the Cuffs, He Returns
THE PERPETUAL PROBLEM
but no matter how many times someone thinks he’s He Returns (Unique Power): If Chuck has been dead, he keeps returning. He’s fallen off of skyscrapTaken Out, he may spend 1 Tension and return from ers and been trapped in burning buildings, but he the dead. No, really. He gets up off the floor, dusts keeps returning like a persistent rash. He seems to himself off, and gets back to it. have almost no abilities except returning to plague the Assassin. While no one knows where Chuck came from exactly, there are theories: he was grown in a lab, crafted from DNA stolen from an Assassin. He slipped through from another dimension when an especially powerful Anomaly power was used by an Assassin’s ally. He’s the result of decades of experimentation by scientists in the employ of the Krugu Vorov. Whatever the case, he’s a real pain in the ass.
Primary Pool: 9 (going unnoticed, guns, resistance) Secondary Pool: 7 (leadership, dogged persistence) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: 4 Defense: 4
THE PROFESSIONAL
A true professional, Mathilda started her career in The Pavlyuchenko Society; she burned out somewhere along the way and never told anyone the full story of why she broke with the Martyrs. She retains the abilities that she gained during her time as a Martyr. The fact that she sees everyone around her doomed and dying doesn’t make life any easier. Routine rules her; she absolutely must work carefully, methodically, the same way every time. It’s her weakness, and why she avoids The Pavlyuchenko Society. Mathilda has her own strict guidelines for accepting jobs, and these days, rumor is, she only accepts jobs that aim her at other Assassins. What exactly qualifies an Assassin as a target? No one knows.
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The Pavlyuchenko Society would prefer to bring her in again as an asset and draw her back under their loving wings, but barring that, her death is an acceptable alternative.
Primary Pool: 10 (going unnoticed, firearms, Assassin Societies) Secondary Pool: 8 (breaking and entering, bureaucracy) Desperation Pool: 6 Enhancement: 5 Defense: 5 Health: 8 Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Sniper, Tough Cookie, Trick Shooter, Waiting to Greet the Storm Powers: Copycat, Skeleton Key Card REVENGE-SEEKER
out ten targets in ten cities, all in one night?” “Did you hear about how they outfoxed MI:6?” Nowadays, the chatter’s darker. After years of loyal service to their Society, someone in power decided it was time for them to retire. To an unmarked grave. Now they’re in the wind. They cleaned out their savings and abandoned their safehouses. Rumors abound about a cache of incriminating evidence they’ve been squirrelling away for just such a contingency. Every member of their former Society’s a target, and they’re racking up the body count. Sam Platt refused to go quietly. The strike team sent to take them out failed, and the only survivor lived just long enough to deliver Sam’s last message to their bosses before the internal bleeding killed him. Did you hear about Sam Platt? They’re coming for you.
Primary Pool: 9 (guns, stealth) Secondary Pool: 7 (hand-to-hand combat, finances) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: 4 Defense: 4 Health: 6 Edges: Danger Sense, Light Sleeper 2, Never Outnumbered, Sniper 2 Source: 5 It wasn’t until his brother was killed by an Assassin Powers: Disarm, Shake Your Tail, Voice of that Everest’s ambitions took a darker turn; he’s on Authority Everest always wanted to be the smartest. When he was a kid, he played the deadliest characters he could in any kind of game. He gained a reputation for being the cleverest, able to think his way through problems. He exploited every loophole, min-maxed every build, and frustrated his friends with his mastery of character design, stretching the rules until his friends called him a game-breaker. In college, he annoyed his professors by thinking his way laterally through problems.
the hunt for the Assassin who destroyed his life, and he’s both bloody-minded and determined enough to THE TECHNOLOGIST pose a real problem for any Assassin who crosses his Before the next-gen smartphone hits the market, path — whether or not they had anything to do with the technologist’s not only jailbroken it, she’s inhis brother’s death. stalled half a dozen mods. She gets her hands-on military prototypes while they’re still classified. Some Primary Pool: 9 (technology and guns) companies hire her to carry out acts of corporate esSecondary Pool: 7 (leadership) pionage; others hire extra security in futile attempts Desperation Pool: 5 to prevent her from infiltrating their labs. She’d be Enhancement: 4 on more hit lists if she weren’t such a damned good Defense: 4 beta-tester.
Health: 6 Edges: Always Prepared, Hardy, Photographic Memory, Trick Shot
Where many organizations have their inventors and R&D departments, or employ full-time quality assurance testers, Araceli Martinez is the perfect blend of end-user and innovator. She’ll listen intentTHE ROGUE AGENT ly to the quartermaster’s instructions on how to use They’re one of the best, the kind of legend other her new device, but she doesn’t promise she’ll adAssassins aspire to. Everyone’s got a riveting story here to them. If the gadget returns to the lab at all, about them: “Did you hear about the time they took it’s probably broken or modified beyond recognition.
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It’s accompanied by several pages of notes on how to improve its next iteration. and a description of an alternate use for the item the developers hadn’t considered. Those t-shirts that gleefully declare their wearer violates warranties? Araceli’s got them in several colors and fonts.
Primary Pool: 7 (technology, innovation) Secondary Pool: 5 (larceny, getaways) Desperation Pool: 3 Enhancement: 1 Defense: 3 Health: 4 Edges: Direction Sense, Forger, Free Running 1 THE THIN BLUE LINE Whereas any corrupt cop has a kid, a mortgage, and lots of other considerations getting in the way of him realizing that he’s part of an oppressive group, the Thin Blue Line is totally aware of what he’s bought into. In fact, he signed up for it on purpose. He may be a member of an Organization opposed to an Assassin, or he might be a white supremacist, or he may just be a garden-variety bully. In any case, he’s a tougher opponent for Assassins: connected, vicious, and idealistic in all the wrong ways.
Primary Pool: 9 (brawling, firearms) Secondary Pool: 7 (small unit tactics, bullying) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: 4 Defense: 4 Health: 6 Edges: Adrenaline Spike, Danger Sense, Fast Draw, Skilled Liar THE UP-AND-COMING ASSASSIN While Stella took up the criminal mantle, engaging in thievery and cold-blooded murder to provide for Pearl, it had the unintended consequence of forcing her sister to learn how to fend and look out for herself. At first, it was a few instances of going hungry before her older sister would arrive home late after a job that had gone over-schedule; then, as contracts became more elaborate and dangerous, it’d be days of silence. Pearl sat by herself in an empty house,
scraping together her own meals and doing her own chores, but not before she’d gone hungry and thirsty first, however. As Stella spent more time away from home, her sister’s independence grew in tandem, as did her resentment. When Stella’s selfishness led her to keep pulls from her work, it forced her down a dark path in order to provide for herself and their home. These days, Pearl is an Assassin eager to pull off all kinds of contracts for the right price — albeit, still lingering in her sister’s shadow. A deeply embittered and resentful young woman, Pearl is a highly unpleasant yet self-sufficient individual who spends most of her time considering how to cheat her peers. Her talent is undeniable; taking the risk of contracting her services may just pay off … you just have to accept the risk of the knife against your throat.
Primary Pool: 9 (disguises and going unnoticed) Secondary Pool: 7 (guns and knives) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: 4 Defense: 4 Health: 6 Edges: Iron Will 3, Alternate Identity 2, Skilled Liar 2 Source: 5 Cold Shoulder (Unique Power): In her sister’s continual absence, Pearl learned to fend for herself. She has little interest in fostering bonds with others that she has nothing to gain from as a result. Naturally blunt and lacking in empathy, she struggles to relate to others — granting additional resistance against interrogations or being talked down. Tension may be spent to ignore the result any social roll that would adjust her Attitude rating, and this may be used once per session against an Encourage Behavior roll. Spitting Image (Unique Power): At first glance, there’s strange about her, but on closer inspection, something is off. Sometimes, the most dangerous opponent is one hiding within plain sight; a foe wearing the mask of a friend. A careless Assassin soon finds a knife lodged in between their ribs when the sweet young woman they’d ignored gets the drop on them. This character allays suspicion by appearing non-assuming, and the Difficulty of any Integrity-based roll to discern her true nature is increased by 2.
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“Talent finds its models, methods, and ends, in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson An Assassin’s toolkit is complete with armaments, armor, disguises, poisons, and any odds and ends she needs to complete her job. Among those are Masteries, which any Assassin will tell you are the difference between a brutal killer and an artist. Masteries are the pinnacle of skill, surpassing the talented or lucky into the unlikely. Bullets fly around corners, hitting their target who has already dove out of sight, and wounds that incapacitate the most hale and hearty barely slow the Assassin.
Assassins learn Masteries through their Societies. Societies created these sacred arts and passed them from master to apprentice until they took on a life of their own. Now Assassins trade secrets for favors and learn arts that originated in one Society or another at a whim. Long ago, if a Society learned someone had access to a Mastery, it meant death. Now an Assassin might get a curt nod, or a request for training in that particular iteration of the Mastery.
WHAT ARE MASTERIES? Masteries are special abilities that an Assassin learns as tools of her craft. An Assassin doesn’t just bend the likelihoods and probabilities around her, she cows them to her whim and breaks them. Masteries allow the Assassin to reach out into the world and warp it, creating circ*mstances and unlikely events that suit her purposes. Like Talents, she uses her Inspiration to do this, drawing on the Flux of the Continuum, but unlike Talents, an Assassin has control over her use. This is a deliberate act, one that would appear in Daylight as a fantastic display of unbelievable magnitude, but in the Shadows is just another day. Masteries are deliberate and calculated actions. While Masteries often stem from training and skill, they are not beholden to those. An Assassin who has never searched for a quarry alone may have a Mastery that points her to his exact location. No amount of skill could do that for her. The Assassin knows that she has a power that no one else does, though she believes it comes from dedication to her training and whatever mystical propaganda her Society has fed her. In short, she recognizes her Mastery as beyond normal human capabilities, but she doesn’t necessarily recognize Inspiration, nor does she believe her own Masteries stem from the same place as other Assassins.
Masteries are a form of Dramatic Editing, though they don’t always require Inspiration to work. Many Masteries happen immediately, enhancing a particular action, though some last longer, either fundamentally changing the Assassin, or lasting for the duration of a job.
TYPES OF MASTERIES Masteries are broken down into three types: Preparation, Evaluation, and Execution. These represent the three stages of action that Assassins take when planning and executing a job. Preparation is the procurement of necessary items, communicating, information gathering, and anything that doesn’t involve finding and killing someone. Evaluation is tracking, observing, finding, and laying traps for a quarry. Execution is attacking, defending against, and killing a mark. Masteries are further refined by duration as Constant, Hunt, or Momentary. Constant Masteries are always active and enhance the Assassin’s natural abilities to do something. They often come with a drawback if the Assassin does not act in a certain way, now that she has this Mastery. You do not need to activate a Constant Mastery, and they cannot be turned off unless encountering a power that would deactivate all of an Assassin’s Masteries.
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CLASH Assassins often find themselves up against other Inspired characters. When two Inspired characters use abilities such as Gifts of Masteries that come into conflict, such as both acting against the same target, or one acting to turn off another, they clash. Each player rolls, and whoever nets the most successes applies the effects of their power. Ties favor the defender. Defender in the case of two characters acting against the same target is whomever used their power first. If that is somehow simultaneous, then both fail on a tie. Players roll their character’s Inspiration rating + an appropriate Skill. Storyguides roll an antagonist’s Secondary Pool. Hunt Masteries last for the duration of a job, enduring until a specific target is eliminated, or the Assassin chooses to abandon the search. The Assassin must activate the Mastery to gain its benefits, and activation often takes an entire scene for the Assassin to mentally prepare for the task at hand. While a Hunt Mastery is active, the Assassin gains the benefits, and can activate other Masteries as she wishes.
extended action or scene. Often the Assassin has no control over the Mastery’s duration once enacted, such as placing a Condition on a target, or inflicting injury, so there is no ending the Mastery once activated.
Some Masteries grant access to additional Masteries and serve as a prerequisite for them. You must purchase any prerequisite Masteries before you can purchase the new ones. Some also Momentary Masteries last for the amount require prerequisites to activate, meaning the of time it takes for the Assassin to accomplish Mastery requires something with a Hunt duration her task, often a single action, but sometimes an to be active to use.
MAKING YOUR OWN MASTERIES The Masteries presented in this book are the most common examples of what Assassins can do, but there’s no way we could cover every ability and edge case. Instead, the following rules can help a player design her own Masteries to fit with her character’s flavor, history, and training. If one of the presented Masteries is fine in concept, but not in name, give it a new one! Again, these are just examples of what an Assassin can do. When designing a Mastery, first decide what effect you want the power to have. From there, you can extrapolate what phase it belongs in, how long it lasts, and if it costs any Inspiration. When deciding on a power, consider how broad or narrow the scope of the effect. Then determine mechanics that apply the effect in a way that makes sense. Masteries cover a variety of effects, but the following are some guidelines. • Conditions: Masteries may apply Conditions to a target. Describe the effect of the Condition, its duration, and how it can be resolved.
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• Complication: Masteries may give the Assassin the ability to apply a Complication to a target. When creating a complication, consider how easy it is to buy off. You can use the character’s Facets to set a Complication level that grows with the Assassin or apply a flat number. We don’t suggest making a Complication higher than +3. Determine what effect happens if the Complication is not bought off, this is what the Assassin gets to do to their target, or the unfortunate side effect of action, if the target fails to buy off the Complication. • Enhancement: Masteries may apply Enhancement to actions. If the action is broad such as “combat actions” then apply at most a +2 Enhancement. If the action is narrow such as “tracking someone bleeding” apply a higher Enhancement. We don’t recommend Enhancement from Masteries go above +5. • Special Stunts: Masteries often enhance an Assassin’s abilities in a fight, but Stunts can apply to all sorts of rolls, not just in combat
KILLING BLOW Trinity Continuum generally doesn’t allow for outright murder and dealing damage to enemies takes time. Assassins are efficient killers who make quick work of a mark. Some Masteries give an Assassin access to a killing blow, a maneuver that allows the player to purchase the Inflict Damage Stunt a second time for 1 success, before she must purchase the Critical Stunt. situations. When designing a Stunt, consider what kind of action the character is taking to gain access to the Stunt’s purchase, then consider how many successes the player must spend to gain access to it. Simple effects should cost 1 success, and in general 1 success translates to 1 Enhancement or 2 Complication. Greater or broader effects may cost more successes. Stunts should not cost more than 3 successes, unless the effect is enormous. • Other Effects: Masteries may give the Assassin a new ability outside the bounds of what she could normally do, and often verging into the supernatural. Bend bullets, see into the future, flawlessly track an enemy, etc. When creating these effects, pick one and apply it. These can be paired with other effects if it makes sense. If a Mastery does more than one over supernatural thing, it should cost Inspiration.
Determine the type of Mastery. Effects that help the Assassin attack, kill, defend against, or generally deal with a target are Execution. Effects that help the Assassin locate, distract, track, lay traps for, seduce, or generally find a target are Evaluation. Effects that help with planning, information gathering, or generally do not deal directly with a target are Preparation. General effect Masteries often fall into Preparation. Then determine how long the effect lasts. • Constant effects should enhance the Assassin’s natural abilities and fundamentally change her. The effect may give her an Enhancement to specific rolls, or access to a Stunt in specific situations. Constant effects should always have a drawback that applies for not taking certain actions. This Mastery has fundamentally changed the Assassin and if she does not act in accordance with it, then she suffers a setback. • Hunt effects enhance the Assassin’s abilities, or give her access to abilities that make her task
easier. This is a step down from always on, and often apply to a single target (the quarry or target of a job) or actions pertaining to that target. When trying to decide if a Mastery should have a Constant or Hunt duration, consider if the effect would be useful or applied outside of the character seeking out a specific target. If not, then it should be Hunt, if yes, then it should be Constant. • Momentary effects take place immediately and then no longer apply. Most often, these are combat effects or special attacks. Effects that apply Conditions, Complications, or gives the character access to a Stunt are generally Momentary. A Mastery that gives the Assassin an Enhancement on a particular action may also be Momentary, but consider making that Enhancement greater (based on the Enhancement applied to a narrow action rule).
Finally, determine if the Mastery should cost Inspiration. The general rule is Masteries that give the character nearly guaranteed success, or game breaking effects cost an Inspiration. Such as instant kill effects, +4 or more Enhancement, the ability to rise from the dead, etc.
LEARNING AND TRAINING For the most part, players do not need to justify how they acquire new Masteries. Characters are assumed to have access to teachers and training facilities via their Society. Members of the same group of players’ characters train and spar with one another, and they can freely use one another as a resource for learning new abilities. That being said, there are unnumerable other Masteries not listed in this chapter, ripe for tables to create and pursue on their own. Hidden techniques exist, as do forgotten methodologies preserved by an insular Minor Society. Rumors fly throughout Shadow about an Assassin who slays her targets with the slightest press of her
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fingertips, or an Assassin capable of firing anyWhenever an Assassin pursues knowledge of a thing from the chamber of their gun. Players are hidden or occulted Mastery, they always treat the encouraged to create and chase down these se- effort as an Aspiration. cret, forgotten, or obscure techniques.
MASTERIES The following Masteries are grouped by the phase of action they occur in. Some Masteries are prerequisites for another in a different phase of planning. You must purchase the prerequisite Mastery before purchasing the other one, regardless of what phase it is in.
PREPARATION The following Masteries pertain to planning and preparation.
perceive you remember only the specific detail of your choice: some kind of signature item or accessory. If an effect that would reveal your identity contests this Mastery, it provokes a Clash of Wills. You can Enhancement equal to your Intuitive Facet. The Gentleman Bowler earned his name from using this Mastery with his iconic hat.
BESPOKE DISASTER Keywords: Hunt, Preparation
A seven-car pileup that leaves exactly one person dead. A propane tank explosion that bisects Keywords: Momentary, Preparation a corrupt politician while leaving his hairdresser A calling card, a distracting mask, or a stylish shocked but unharmed. A fallen electrical wire hat — no matter the choice of accessory, its pres- which loses its current seconds after killing a faence draws the attention away from the Assassin mous general. These are your weapons, carefully assembled and readied. herself and onto the object as a symbol. System: Your Procedural actions gain access System: During the Approach or the Escape, to the Sudden Demise stunt (p. XX), but each time you may spend Inspiration. All characters who
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you use it, it applies to the location where you’ve used the stunt. For example, if you’ve used your investigations in a subway tunnel to set up a wire snare in an attempt to decapitate a target when a certain train comes by, this will not help a separate attempt to kill them with an accident.
the art of avoiding collateral damage or civilian entanglements by redirecting the innocent and weak of will elsewhere.
System: The Assassin always appears immaculate while on a hunt, no matter what. Evidence of violence, blood, cuts, scrapes, and bruises all seem to fade away within moments. This doesn’t prevent her from feeling the negative effects of her Conditions, but no one else knows that she’s suffering, in fact those wounds only make her more determined. Gain the character’s Injury Condition Complication rating as Enhancement to all social actions.
to accept.
System: The Assassin gains +2 Enhancement for Encourage/Prevent Behavior or other social actions to convince non-targets to avoid the area of the Assassin’s operations or the presence BEST DRESSED of the target. In the case of individuals that require Complex actions to convince, the Assassin Keyword: Hunt, Preparation People in Daylight might ignore her bloody automatically completes an additional milestone clothes and disheveled look, but those in the whenever they succeed at the influence roll. Shadow know what being on the hunt looks like, CUT TIES and some will use it as an opportunity. Looking your best despite whatever violent acts you may Keyword: Momentary, Hunt, Preparation have engaged in just moments before is key to surDetachment from connections makes an vival within the Krugu Vorov. Showing weakness Assassin stronger. It is as much for the security of draws others down on you, like sharks to blood. their Society as it is for the security of those who The Assassin instead uses her pain to bolster her- the Assassin might care for. Being in the murder self and put on a strong face. business creates collateral that most aren’t willing
CALL TO ACTION Keywords: Constant, Hunt, Preparation
System: For the duration of the Hunt, the Assassin can effectively hide her Bonds from anyone attempting to discern them. They do not lower, but anyone attempting a Social action to determine the Assassin’s Bonds or their strengths can only see her Bonds to other members of her Society. If that person is using a Gift or Mastery, it provokes a Clash.
CUT THE CAMERAS Keywords: Constant, Preparation
While the Krugu Vorov perfected appearing in secured spaces like a monster from a fairy tale, the Swarm transposed their ideas into a modern context. Every location has dozens of cameras, and biometric scanners. Every cryptid has a fan page these days; the best way to avoid detection is to System: You may prepare a ranged weapon not be caught at all. of any sort when you begin a hunt. That weapon System: During the Approach or during any gains the Charge tag if it didn’t have it already. procedural scene to gather information about a When your target and your weapon are in a Scene contracted target, your presence cannot be idenat the same time, your target gains a point of the tified by ordinary technology. You show up in Doomed Condition (p. XX). photographs and recordings, but your image and There is a solution for the powerful and corrupt, the cruel and wicked, and the poisons of the world. Tune in tonight and heed the Host’s message well: Some people just need to be shot in the head.
voice are distorted to the point of unrecognition. Antagonists who are not Inspired nor capable of using Source cannot identify you from these reKeywords: Momentary, Preparation Bystanders and interlopers turn a smooth op- cords. If you are recorded or captured by Powered eration into a disaster. The Assassin has mastered technology, this provokes a Clash.
CIRCE
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D’INVASION Keyword: Momentary, Preparation The Daughters of the Jacobins have taught their members to learn everything they can about a target before taking on a job. While standard procedure for most Assassins, the Daughters pride themselves on the thoroughness of their investigations, teaching techniques to find even the most personal or secret information she could use against her target. System: Make a social action against a Difficulty equal to the target’s Attitude toward the Assassin. If successful, gain an alternative clue about the target. In addition, gain access to the following Stunt on the action. Intrusive (variable): For each success spent on Intrusive, learn one of your target’s goals, aspirations, or bonds between them and another character.
DÉVOUEMENT Keyword: Hunt, Preparation Prerequisite: D’invasion
KILLING WEAPON Keyword: Hunt, Preparation Every Assassin knows the tools of the trade, and one weapon is just as good as any other when it comes down to it. There’s always that one knife, gun, or garrote that she keeps going back to because it’s never let her down. Using this weapon is now a ritual, and the Assassin’s reliance on it, a self-fulfilling prophecy. System: The Assassin dedicates a specific weapon for the hunt. As long as she is on the hunt, she gains an additional +1 Enhancement when using the weapon beyond whatever other tags it has. Additionally, the weapon cannot break. Attempts to break it with a Gift or Mastery provoke a Clash. If the weapon is lost or stolen, it returns to the Assassin in the next scene.
LESHI Keyword: Hunt, Preparation Said to have been stolen from the Leshi himself, the Krugu Vorov use this Mastery to change their shape, literally. The Assassin tricks her prey into a false sense of complacency, taking on the face of someone else. It is more than a trick of the light, and the mark has no idea the treachery the Assassin has in store for him until she springs the trap and it is far too late.
Assassins are nothing if not dedicated. They devote themselves to a task, and see it through against all odds, and once someone wins one’s loyalty, he will never forsake them. The Daughters exemplify this dedication, teaching their Assassins System: Spend an Inspiration. For the duraabilities that make them unwavering and steadfast tion of the hunt, the Assassin disguises himself. once they put their mind to something. System: The Assassin declares a target of her The effect does not have to be particularly believdevotion for the duration of the hunt. If the target able. He can change height, weight, gender, and is an enemy or someone she is hunting, she must appearance with this Mastery, but he cannot immake a social roll with the Difficulty equal to his itate anyone specific. Once the disguise is set, the Attitude toward her, regardless of if it is negative Assassin cannot change the look or revert back or positive (minimum 1), on a success she declares to his normal appearance without breaking the them a Nemesis. If the target is a friend, she cre- Mastery’s effect. The disguise is impenetrable by mundane means. Use of a Mastery or Gift to reveal ates a Protector bond with them. the Assassin causes a Clash. Nemesis: The Assassin gains 1 Enhancement to her Defense against anyone other than her nem- MAGPIE’S GAZE esis. When attacking her nemesis, she may purKeywords: Momentary, Preparation chase the Critical Stunt for 3 successes. Rivals wonder how the Swarm manages to Protector: The Assassin gains the target’s learn so many Masteries. The secret is simple: Attitude toward her as Enhancement on actions to they copy them. Invented by an Assassin said to protect, defend the target, and teamwork actions possess blood-red irises capable of capturing any with the target. technique, this Mastery allows the user to mimic her opponent’s power.
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System: Whenever another character present in the scene use a Mastery (or a similar Antagonist ability) spend Inspiration. Until the end of the scene, you may use the copied technique as if it were one of your own Masteries. You must pay any cost required to activate it. This Mastery may only copy one technique per scene. At the end of the session, if you have enough Experience to purchase the Mastery, you may do so as if it were a Society Mastery.
NEVIDIMYY Keyword: Hunt, Preparation Ilya Alexeev perfected this Mastery in the earliest days of the Krugu Vorov, using it to slip in and out of homes without notice. No wonder the people thought the deaths mystical, as the Assassin enacting them was traceless and invisible as the night. Today, Assassins use these secrets to blend into backgrounds, become one of the nameless, faceless members of a crowd, and leave no trace as they go about their bloody business. System: The Assassin gains +1 Scale to all actions to hide herself or move unseen for the duration of the Hunt. Additionally, she cannot be tracked through mundane means while she has this Mastery active. Use of a Mastery or Gift to track the Assassin causes a Clash.
NO MISTRUST Keywords: Hunt, Preparation Even in the world of murder, there is no escaping the net of obligations and relationships that make up society. The Assassin has firmly grasped the web and turned it to their purpose, leveraging their associates and contacts like they would any other resources in pursuit of their goal. System: The Assassin may spend 1 Inspiration and select a Contact or access Connection to boost for the duration of a hunt. When they do, that Connection increases by the higher of the Assassin’s Reflective Facet or Inspiration to a maximum of five. This won’t grant additional tags to Contacts, but will increase the benefit they provide, and how often the Assassin can call on the Connection’s benefits.
ODYSSEY Keywords: Constant, Preparation Prerequisites: Polyphemus’s Visitor Mastery, Circe Mastery The world is awash with currents of flux and death. The Assassin moves through life with an ongoing awareness of those currents, carrying them forward to more and greater murderous accomplishments. Once so submerged, it is no longer easy to pay close attention to the less life-anddeath stakes of “normal” life, however. System: The Assassin gains +2 Enhancement on all rolls to find work, discern the reason an assassination is requested (or why one has occurred), decide on a useful assassination target, or determine how an individual target might be assassination. The Assassin also gains access to the Friendly Port stunt during Intrigue and Procedural play, such as during a roll to suborn an enemy contact or investigate the local underworld. Friendly Port (1s): You find or create access to a place where you can briefly rest, resupply, and prepare. This might be anything from the back room of an accommodating shop to the hotel room of a retired friend passing through, depending on the circ*mstances. The location is secure for your first visit; returning there has no such assurances.
POLYPHEMUS’S VISITOR Keywords: Hunt, Preparation The Assassin submerges their true identity beneath a constructed one. Their changes in movement, behavior, and speech make even the humblest of disguises transformative, and connecting the constructed identity to the true one incredibly difficult. System: The Assassin spends an Inspiration and assumes a new identity. As long as they don’t commit violent acts or use other Masteries, it’s impossible to identify them as their true selves. Attempts to discern the Assassin’s true motives instead of those they create for the false identity or track the Assassin from their true self to their assumed mask suffer the higher of the Assassin’s Larceny or Persuasion as an increase in Difficulty. If the Assassin activates another Mastery or commits an act of violence, this Mastery’s effects end immediately.
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RULE FROM JEBEL BARKAL Keywords: Constant, Preparation The existence of this Mastery is rarely spoken of, for all that someone has always wielded it within the shadows. Networks of power flow from them like streams from a spring, murderous individuals and institutions alike bound to the wielder’s will as if their interests always aligned. The waves generated by those who practice Rule from Jebel Barkal have guaranteed a history of coming to violent ends even more often than most Assassins, as one cannot wield such influence without raising many enemies. Still, they are often great before their fall.
tracking her and can set a location for them, rather than her own. Any actions she takes to set a trap for her would-be stalker gain +1 Enhancement.
STONE COLD Keyword: Momentary, Preparation
Krugu Vorov Assassins are renowned for their ability to resist any temptation, following their orders and enacting them with cold calculation. They teach the ability to every novice, demanding steadfast obedience. Those who do not learn to control their emotions quickly find themselves on the wrong end of the Society. This Mastery makes the Assassin impervious to emotional control, keeping her head cool and mind System: Every session, the Assassin may define focused as she goes about her deadly business. a Shadow Contact or Connection they have acSystem: Receive the character’s Reflective cess to, at a rating equal to their Reflective facet. Facet as Enhancement (instead of the usual The Connection will work for the Assassin to the amount) when she resists social influence. You best of their ability, and will deal fairly as long as the Assassin doesn’t obviously oppose their in- may spend an Inspiration to turn the social influterests or betray them. The Assassin can always ence back on the person who tried to affect the gain access to their help within a scene, with even character. This deflection does not require a roll the most tenuous avenue of communication. The and succeeds with the number of successes rolled Assassin loses access to the Connection at the end on the original influence action. of the session, but may use this Mastery or other TRAINING EXERCISE means to gain their aid again. Keywords: Constant, Preparation Drawback: All the Assassin’s Intrigue and The Hornet Workshops teach Assassin techother social actions gain 2 Complication “Made Another Enemy.” If not bought off, this causes an niques to anyone willing to pay. For most, this is observer or interested party to develop a negative a status symbol on a piece of paper to be proudly displayed in their offices. For others, though, attitude toward the Assassin. some of the deadly practices stick.
SLEDOVIK
Keyword: Hunt, Preparation Prerequisite: Nevidimyy This Mastery gains its nickname from the Russian stones used by Assassins in ritual preparation for their bleak killing. The stones appear to have footprints in them, and the term became slang for misdirecting a tracker. The Krugu Vorov have always been good at misdirection and deceit, turning even those who try to seek them around in circles. The Assassin’s trail is not easy to follow and when his pursuer finally catches up, she finds a trap waiting for her instead. System: The Assassin must have Nevidimyy active before activating this Mastery. When someone attempts to track the Assassin, they follow a false lead instead. The Assassin knows that someone is
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System: When you spend time teaching or training another character, spend Inspiration. For the rest of the session, the target character gains one of the following: • A Storyguide character replaces one of their dice pools with the player’s character’s total pool (Skill plus Attribute) for one Skill. • A Storyguide character temporarily learns one of your Masteries. If it requires the expenditure of Inspiration, the character uses Source, their own Inspiration, or Tension. • Another player’s character may replace their Skill with yours, if it is higher. • Another player’s character may temporarily use one of your Masteries. If it requires the expenditure of Inspiration, they must use their own.
VENERABLE TOOLS, WELL CARED FOR Keywords: Constant, Preparation Prerequisites: A Long Walk in an Old Coat and Worn Shoes Mastery
Assassin. They also pertain to removing obstacles that might get in her way.
A LONG WALK IN AN OLD COAT AND WORN SHOES
There is a use for everything. Waste is a luxury Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation that the meek and the industrious cannot afford. The world averts its eyes from those who fall You have salvaged a workshop from the unloved short of its expectations. Those visibly without and abandoned things in the world, and in a mopower or money become ghosts and wind, unworment, you can assemble so many wonderful things. thy of notice or attention. Good. They will never System: Unless separated from all your pos- see you coming. sessions, you always have access to your workSystem: You may spend 1 Inspiration to activate shop and collection of equipment. Any attempts this Mastery while on the hunt. In any scene where to identity your belongings as anything other than you don’t present a violent threat, attempt to assert a collection of junk suffer your highest Facet in authority or use coercion, you don’t register as a Difficulty. You are never considered without tools potential threat. This won’t stop guards from reor equipment, and may spend 1 Inspiration to profusing you entry to a secured location or a building duce a weapon, armor, or other personally-portaowner from calling the police because you’ve been ble piece of equipment from your stockpile as an loitering, but the idea that you’re potentially danaction. This doesn’t include super science items, gerous or in any way important won’t enter their unless you’ve obtained them normally. minds. People on the lookout for potential hidden Drawback: You cannot help but be laden down threats in particular suffer your highest Facet in with things, and you suffer +2 Difficulty for any at- Difficulty to figure out that you’re a danger, and you tempts to appear upper class or simply unburdened. gain the Clean Getaway stunt for any attempts to avoid notice or trouble, whether rolls to physically WITHOUT NEED avoid enemies or social rolls to talk your way past Keywords: Momentary, Preparation them. During any scene in which you do present a Through reaching out into the chaos of the violent threat, assert authority, or use coercion, you world, tools and equipment the Assassin needs gain none of the benefits of this mastery. are never far from hand. Legal suppliers and illicit Clean Getaway (2s): Apply to any roll to avoid providers alike find themselves drawn to fulfilling notice or trouble. You immediately have the opthe Assassin’s needs; to make sure the Assassin tion to leave the scene, increasing the Difficulty has what they need is as natural as handing a fall- for anyone to track you by your highest Facet. en toy to a child. System: When the Assassin wishes to acquire weapons, armor, or other equipment, they may spend 1 Inspiration. If they do, they may increase their effective Wealth by the higher of their Inspiration or Intuitive Facet, and remove any legal or social Complications from trying to acquire illegal gear. This does not function for other actions affected by Wealth Ratings; the Assassin may acquire an anti-material rifle or a 50-gallon barrel of industrial acid with this Mastery, but not controlling interest company or money for a bribe.
EVALUATION
AN ENTIRE LIFE, A GLANCE Keywords: Constant, Evaluation
To see a person is to see the termination of their life, the oncoming rush of mortality. This is not a method you can simply stop practicing. However useful it is to see a target’s myriad possible deaths, seeing one’s own death reflected in the eyes of one’s loved ones can be fatally distracting. System: The first time you meet a character in person during a session, you may spend an Inspiration to inflict 2 points of the Doomed Condition on them (p. XX).
Drawback: All attempts to create Bonds beThe following Masteries pertain to finding and tween you and another character outside of your dealing with a person marked or targeted by an
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THE DEBT DUE CONDITION The Debt Due Condition represents physical or mental needs held in abeyance while an Assassin is on the hunt. Effect: When Debt Due reaches five or higher, any Conditions ignored with masteries granting Debt Due immediately inflict their effects again, and the Assassin must immediately roll (Athletics or Integrity) + Stamina against a difficulty of their accumulated Debt Due. If they fail, they are immediately Taken Out, and cannot activate this Mastery again until they undertake a new hunt. Resolution: Debt Due resolves when the Assassin has had time to rest and eat properly. Society gain the “Dark Fate” complication at 2. For they may ignore its effects (but not the Condition each point not overcome, you gain the Doomed itself ) by taking a point of the Debt Due Condition. Condition until the end of the session.
AT THEIR HEELS, IN THEIR HEAD
ARGONAUTICA
Keywords: Momentary, Evaluation
Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation
The guilty act in predictable ways, moving Mastery, along well-worn paths you can follow with your eyes closed. A moment’s thought gives you insight The Assassin’s individual endurance no longer into where they will be, and how best you might limits their progress. Their devotion to the de- get there. This knowledge is often chilling to the struction of their target sustains them as the per- targets of your wrath, which in turn is a tool to make them even more predictable. fection of their talents drives them forward. Prerequisites: Atalanta’s Meleager’s Hunt Mastery
Pace
System: The Assassin’s maximum Debt Due (p. XX) during a hunt increase by the number of Milestones the hunt requires. Whenever the Assassin completes a Milestone for that assassination, they may remove a point of Debt Due.
ATALANTA’S PACE Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation The Assassin’s pursuit never falters or slows. The distance they cover seems impossible given the effort they exert, but such Assassins have mastered both the sprint and the marathon. Endurance training, physical conditioning, and specialized preparations enable the Assassin to ceaselessly pursue their quarry, holding fatigue and hunger at bay until they make their kill. Relentless speed often makes that kill possible on its own. System: The Assassin may spend 1 inspiration to activate this Mastery and subsist only on water and the hunt. They may move an additional range band each turn as a free action during action scenes, and gain +1 Enhancement to related rolls outside of such scenes. Whenever they would suffer a Condition due to fatigue, exposure, or deprivation,
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System: You may spend 1 Inspiration to figure out where a target will be at a specific time, and they gain a point of the Painted Target Condition. You gain an Enhancement bonus equal to their Painted Target Condition to any rolls related to tracking them down or reaching them. Once you reach your target, resolve this Condition.
MELEAGER’S HUNT Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation Practiced hunters can channel their reserves into preternatural stealth. Pushing their abilities and their bodies to their very limit, the Assassin becomes invisible and silent. System: The Assassin may spend 1 Inspiration to activate this Mastery during a Hunt. When attempting to go unnoticed, sneak up on someone, or otherwise exercise stealth during the hunt, if they would be noticed they may instead gain a point of the Debt Due Condition (p. XX) to remain unnoticed by swiftly retreating to a safer hiding place. This will not allow an Assassin to automatically succeed at a Milestone Opportunity for the hunt, but will allow them to attempt it again.
Cutting Through (1s): Destroy all cover your opponent is utilizing. If this cover is a permanent Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation object, such as a wall or structure, the part the opRunning from death is a good way to die tired. ponent is behind is destroyed, but the structure The Assassin’s focused attention and countermea- remains intact. sures degrade their target’s attempts to evade and escape, priming them for the sudden killing blow. REVEAL ALL
NO ESCAPE
Systems: The Assassin gains +2 enhancement Keyword: Momentary on all rolls to track or pursue their target, and acNo one knows the origin of this technique, but cess to the Die Running stunt whenever in direct all the Societies have adapted some version all unpursuit of their target. der different names. They teach their Assassins to Die Running (Variable): The target gains the take in all their surroundings, using all their sensDoomed Condition at this stunt’s value (p. xx). es to map the location and pinpoint any threats that might be lurking in the shadows. Assassins NO SURPRISES with this Mastery have a sixth sense for seeing Keywords: Momentary, Evaluation through the unseen. Dealing with the world of Shadow involves System: The Assassin immediately pinpoints every sort of lethal surprise, which only become anyone hidden within Medium Range. If someone stranger and more deadly when an Assassin’s is disguised, she sees through it, and if they are targets may include Talents and their ilk. The hidden behind an object, she knows they’re there, Assassin responds to every unwelcome revelation though may not know exactly where behind the or unexpected occurrence with graceful aplomb, object the person is situated. If someone is hiding for they really have prepared for everything. using a Gift of Mastery, this provokes a Clash. This System: Once per session, the Assassin may Mastery does not reveal hidden objects. use dramatic editing (Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook p. 154–155) and reduce the cost by two SANS-CULOTTE Inspiration, to a minimum of zero. If confronted Keyword: Momentary with an opposing character dramatically editing, During the French Revolution, the sans-cuthe Assassin may use this power a second time. lotte were the boots on the ground and radical
militants who fueled the attacks on the nobility. The Daughters of the Jacobins did not need Keyword: Constant, Hunt to rile them to violence, but they did it anyway. The power of that angry mob was not lost on the Prerequisite: No Hesitation Nothing stops the Assassin. Their bullets find Daughters, who to this day use those same tried ways through the most impossible angles; their and true techniques to provoke a mob into action. System: The Assassin takes a social action barehanded strikes penetrate solid steel; their blades slice clean through concrete. Though the to change the atmosphere of the area to move a Society of Leonidas claims to have invented this crowd to violence. If successful, the atmosphere Mastery, the Swarm perfected translating it to is shifted immediately to -3, regardless of its predigital formats a few years ago, something they vious rating. The player chooses one: mass panic, focused anger, betrayal. Additionally, the player have tried to jealously guard. System: While on the hunt, the Assassin can gains access to the following Stunt on the social ignore all Field Complications that would im- action:
NO BARRIERS
Mob Rule (1s): The current atmosphere counts pede her movement. Additionally, she can use as a Complication to combat actions. If anyone the Cutting Through Stunt. Spend an Inspiration fails to buy off the Complication, the mob attacks to use this Mastery to ignore Complications that and deals an Injury Condition. would impede a digital investigation.
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SURGEON Keyword: Constant
execution happens quick and relatively painlessly. No plan survives contact with others, and even the most prepared Assassin may find her contingencies falling away. Assassins trained in this Mastery have the uncanny ability to have another contingency waiting, even if she didn’t consciously plan for it, ready to spring on her target in the heat of the moment.
Not all work in the Assassin’s field is putting holes in people until they bleed out. Sometimes she needs to fix things, herself included, to ensure she can finish her job. Others come to the Assassin for aid, though she’s only likely to help a friend. The Assassin can provide System: Once per session, after the Assassin more than just first aid — able to perform complex surfails on an action against her quarry, spend an gery, remove bullets, and patch up the worst injuries. Inspiration to ensure her next action succeeds System: The Assassin gains her Reflective Facet as with enough successes to overcome the Difficulty. Enhancement on all First Aid actions. Additionally, If her next action is an attack action, she has she can downgrade two Injury Conditions through enough successes to purchase the Inflict Injury First Aid in a scene instead of one. Stunt. She does not have to roll for the action, Drawback: Performing high quality surgery re- though she may choose to roll and then counts any quires costly materials and sometimes restricted successes as Enhancement on the action for the substances. To maintain her stock, the Assassin purposes of purchasing additional Stunts. must visit a hospital, or medical supply and either TOTAL DESTRUCTION purchase or steal materials, once per chronicle.
SPIDER’S WEB
Keyword: Momentary
Even while in the thick of it, an Assassin knows how to gain control of a situation. Where most peoIf all goes well, an Assassin spends most of her time ple might think twelve against one are impossible plotting and planning a job so that the moment of odds, the Assassin is trained to take on a veritable Keyword: Hunt
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army single-handed. This isn’t all just bluster and combat prowess, sometimes it’s taking advantage of the environment to create opportunities. System: Use this Mastery as part of a mixed combat action and spend an Inspiration. The Assassin’s attack sends out a shockwave that breaks the weapons of all enemies within medium range. If a character has an indestructible weapon, this provokes a Clash.
UNRELENTING Keyword: Constant Some say the training the Krugu Vorov go through is the most grueling of any other Society. Such rumors are surely exaggerated, yet their Assassins exit training with the greatest endurance of any other. The Assassin can take bullet after bullet without relenting.
WITHOUT A TRACE Keywords: Momentary, Evaluation The Assassin submerges all signs of themselves in the world, perceptions sliding off of their presence and actions. While this technique cannot rewrite the memory of those hunting the Assassin, it can make it incredibly difficult for them to convince that the Assassin was ever there. System: The Assassin may spend 1 Inspiration when trying to hide, throw off pursuit, or otherwise avoid notice. The Difficulty to detect them, follow them, or discover signs of their passage increases by their highest Facet. The Assassin may spend a second Inspiration to also inflict the Complication “The Records Were Destroyed!” at the same rating on any such attempts. If this Complication isn’t bought off, any records or traces of their presence aren’t recoverable or visible for anyone but their initial discoverer.
System: The Assassin gains a single point of Hard Armor that stacks with other forms of armor. You may take a point of the Debt Due Condition (p. XX) to ignore Complications from The following Masteries pertain to directly inInjury Conditions for a scene. teracting with the Assassin’s specific target. Drawback: The training it takes to ignore pain causes the Assassin to ignore everything from ALWAYS READY TO GO physical pain to emotions. While the character Keywords: Constant, Execution has the Debt Due Condition active, she loses acWhether direct action against a target, fightcess to all her Bonds and her Attitudes toward ing through a cordon of guards, or breaking out others set to 0 until the Condition is resolved. of the attention an operation gone loud brings, sometimes there’s no substitute for applying fist WITHOUT IGNORANCE to face. When people in Twilight fear you, they Keywords: Constant, Evaluation bring everything to bear against you. The Krugu Hunting Talents and stranger prey is a special- Vorov have developed this Mastery to deal with ized skill; few survive to fail such a pursuit more that problem by responding with force in kind. than once. The Assassin’s senses and training foSystem: When you make a Close Combat attack cus on searching out more-than-human targets, while outnumbered, you gain +1 Enhancement and then turning traces of otherworldly energy to and may apply the Brutal or Stunning tags to your the Assassin’s own advantage. attack. When you make a Close Combat attack
EXECUTION
System: The Assassin gains +2 Enhancement on all procedural rolls to identify or track Talents, other Inspiration or Source using individuals, and similar targets. The first time in a scene that the Assassin is in the presence or affected by a Gift or similar power, they may immediately heal an injury Condition or gain a point of Inspiration. This does not apply to Assassins or Assassin Masteries.
against an opponent who possesses superior equipment or weapons, you gain +1 Enhancement and may apply the Piercing or Non-Penetrating tags to your attack. These effects may stack if both apply. Drawback: Being constantly ready for violence can put an entire room on edge. Your Intrigue and social actions gain Complication 2 “Rising Tension.” If not overcome, it creates a 1-point negative atmosphere for the scene.
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teaches their Assassins to look briefly into the future and use that knowledge to change the outKeywords: Hunt, Execution come to her advantage. The future is not set in Prerequisites: Delphi Mastery stone, and instead of just reacting to stimuli, she The Assassin’s trance reveals the angles and circuits sets her opponents up for failure. She redirects their attacks must travel to best find purchase in their attacks, causes missteps, jams guns, and makes attargets body. Intention and perception themselves tacks fly wildly off the mark. lend killing impetus to the Assassin’s blows from afar. System: The Assassin uses her action this
APOLLO
System: While the Assassin is on the hunt, their ranged attacks gain the Deadly, Brutal, and Piercing tags. If their weapon already has any of these tags, they gain an additional +1 Enhancement. They may also spend 1 Inspiration when making a ranged attack against their hunt’s target to make a Killing Blow.
A MESSAGE DELIVERED, TWICE Keywords: Hunt, Execution Prerequisites: A Long Walk in an Old Coat and Worn Shoes Mastery
round to target one opponent and choose the target of his next action. She chooses the target, but the roll for the action remains unaltered. She may spend an Inspiration when she activates this Mastery to additionally impose a Complication on the target making the action with a rating equal to her Reflective Facet. If he does not buy it off, then calamity strikes. His weapon breaks or is damaged, he loses his footing and falls, or he hurts himself and suffers an Injury, player’s choice.
DEDICATED WEAPON
Keyword: Momentary It is important to act with scrupulous clarity. Prerequisite: Killing weapon Even a villain should not die without understanding why they are slain. Once they know, there is no A dedicated weapon is more deadly than its severing the connection between their vile lives mundane counterpart. Where a normal weapon and your righteous action. Deliver the message, might be an effective tool for murder, a dedicated then reinforce it fatally. weapon becomes an extension of the Assassin’s System: You gain access to the And Now, Justice will. With something so familiar, the Assassin stunt for your attack actions while you’re on the concentrates less on her actions and more on her hunt. You may make a target aware that they’re intent. It makes her a deadly machine. being hunted and of the reason you hunt them, System: This Mastery can only be activated whether through anonymous messages, public while the Assassin has a dedicated weapon from declarations, or other means. If you do so, they Killing Weapon (p. XX). The Assassin cannot be gain a point of the Painted Target Condition (p. disarmed of the weapon, and if she throws, drops, XX). Every time they’re reminded of this fact or otherwise lets it go, it comes back to her the through a different venue or means, increase the next round. The weapon never runs out of ammo Painted Target Condition by 1. If you stop hunting after the use of the Emptying the Magazine Stunt. them whether due to your own choices or exter- Spend an Inspiration to make a killing blow with nally imposed inability, the Condition resolves. the weapon. And Now, Justice (3s): The target suffers 1 Injury Condition or Health Box of damage for DELPHI every point of the Painted Target Condition they Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation possess. The Assassin enters a waking trance which
CONTROLLED CHAOS Keyword: Momentary Prerequisite: La Prévoyance
reveals the path to their target, and in doing so, has always known the path to their target. Their awareness exists outside of normal life and causality, providing means to their fatal ends.
System: As long as the Assassin is on the hunt, Wherever a Daughter goes, chaos is sure to folthey always have a general idea of where their low. These are more than rumors, as the Society
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target is, unless the target has specifically attempted to hide from the Assassin or their employer. If the Assassin takes a scene to consider the target’s location, they can narrow it down to a neighborhood inside a city; inside that radius, they can narrow it down to a building. Concealment from use of a Mastery or other special ability provokes a Clash. They also gain access to the following stunt during action scenes. The Way Is Open (1s): You notice an opportunity or path that will bring you closer to your target. If you take advantage of it, immediately circumnavigate a barrier or difficult terrain in the way of your pursuit, or move one range band closer to your target if no such impediments exist.
Terrifying Block (1): You pluck a bullet from the air or catch a hatchet into your bare palm. When you buy this stunt, all attackers must contend with a +2 Complication when targeting you. If not bought off, they drop their weapons, run out of ammo, lose their nerve and suffer increased difficulty to attacks until the end of their next action, etc. This Condition persists for as long as all other Defensive stunts.
GIGANTOMACHY Keywords: Constant, Execution Prerequisites: Iliad Mastery
To have a life within an Assassin’s hands is for that Assassin to control it utterly. The Assassin has brought ancient wrestling arts to modern lethal FEARSOME DEFENSE practice, and becomes a tyrant as far as their arm can Keywords: Constant, Execution reach. It’s possible that such murderous arts have beThe Krugu Vorov know that a terrified enemy come too deeply refined, however, as Assassins who is one swiftly defeated, and that striking fear into practice it find it perhaps too easy to cause harm. a target requires nothing more than one powerful Systems: The Assassin gains +2 Enhancement show of force. An Assassin with this Mastery is on the Establish Grapple stunt. The Assassin also an intimidating presence, even when defending gains +2 Enhancement for the Inflict Damage herself. stunt, the Brutal and Deadly Tags, and gains acSystem: You gain the Terrifying Block defen- cess to the Murderous Slam stunt while targeting sive stunt. a Grappled enemy.
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Murderous Slam (3s): End your grapple with an opponent. They are Paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to their Injury Conditions or filled Health boxes.
ILIAD Keywords: Hunt, Execution
Endurance training, physical conditioning, and specialized preparations turns the Assassin on the Drawback: The Assassin’s attempts at fine mahunt into an implacable pursuer. They can force nipulation to repair or tend to others’ wounds sufthrough obstacles that would stop lesser hunters, fer from Complication 2 “Oops,” causing damage shake off damage or shock that would kill most or further injury if it’s not bought off. people, and keep moving despite steadily worsening conditions. Assassins with such training know GOOD MANNERS that pushing these abilities too far comes with a Keywords: Momentary, Execution heavy price, however. Every Assassin familiar with the methods of Systems: The Assassin may spend an the Worshipful Company of Killers knows that Inspiration to activate this Mastery while on the explaining one’s technique both shows respect to hunt. Attempts to cause Injury, Stunned, or simiyour opponent and strikes fear into their heart. lar Conditions to the Assassin have their Difficulty System: At the start of any fight, you may explain your approach to battle, techniques, outlook, etc., to your opponent. When you do so, you make an Encourage Behavior roll, which may be made with Aim or Close Combat instead of the usual social skills. If successful, gain the target’s Attitude toward you after the roll as Enhancement to all attacks for the duration of the scene. Treat negative Attitudes as having a positive value for the purposes of this Mastery.
increased by 1. Whenever the Assassin would suffer such a Condition, they may ignore its effects (but not the Condition itself ) by taking a point of the Debt Due Condition (p. XX).
IMPOSSIBLE ANGLES Keyword: Execution, Momentary
No one knows where this Mastery originates. Some claim a member of the Society of Leonidas created it, but it was stolen by the Swarm who perfected it. The ability to bend projectiles to the GROUP EFFORT Assassin’s will is a secret many have gone to the Keywords: Constant, Hunt, Execution grave to protect, but somehow all the Societies Assassins infrequently band together, but the have a version of it they teach their members. Swarm have perfected the art of cooperation by way System: Spend an Inspiration to ignore any of overwhelming force. Hornet Workshops teach Cover or Concealment your opponents might be their trainees to leverage their compatriots’ skills for utilizing for the rest of the scene. Additionally, maximum result. Members of the Signal claim they ignore all Complications excluding those from developed this cooperation Mastery first, and do not Injuries to ranged attacks. If it was imposed by an care for the Swarm taking credit for it. opponent’s Gift or Mastery, this provokes a Clash. System: When you and your allies work together to defeat an enemy, kill a mark, or overcome an obstacle, choose a character participating and spend Inspiration. Everyone involved may use their Skill in place of their own when taking actions to accomplish your stated goal. Any Specialties the character may have also apply. If the chosen character is a Storyguide character, instead replace your pool with theirs. They may grant their Enhancement bonus to all participants as well. If the Storyguide character is a connection gained through the Swarm or Signal Society Path, gain another +1 Enhancement.
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JAGUAR’S PASSAGE Keywords: Momentary, Execution Assassins practice methods of killing barehanded the world over, but few are as sudden or as spectacular as the Jaguar’s Passage. Most scholars in the Shadows agree that the art originated somewhere in South America, even if they can’t agree who invented it or when they did so. Members of the Jacobin’s Daughters deny originating it, though several have codified and passed on the art, and it’s spread worldwide through the 20th and 21st century.
System: The Assassin may spend 1 Inspiration to supplement an attack made barehanded or with another Worn weapon with this Mastery. When they do, the attack gains access to the Jaguar’s Bite Stunt, but also suffers from 5 Complication “Tapped Out.” For each point of Tapped Out the Assassin does not overcome, they gain 1 point of the Debt Due Condition (p. XX).
answers, such as “Where did he hide the explosives?” or “Did she actually betray the order?” For every question the player asks, they gain a point of the Overwhelmed by Memory Condition, which imposes a Complication equal to its value to any actions requiring exertion or quick thinking. If the Assassin doesn’t overcome the complication, the character is unable to act for at least a turn as Jaguar’s Bite (3s): The target immediately suf- the memories of the dead overwhelm them. This fers a +4 Maimed injury Condition, if available (or Condition resolves at the end of a session. 4 health boxes of damage). If they can’t, they’re KOSCHEI Taken Out. Keyword: Execution, Momentary
KATABASIS
Keywords: Momentary, Execution
Prerequisite: Unrelenting
The Krugu Vorov are unflappable and unkillable, walking away from the direst situations. While the Assassin might have cuts, bullet wounds, bruises, and broken bones, he still walks of his own volition out of any situation. Perfected over time, the ability to survive even an explosion System: When the Assassin kills someone, is a secret the Krugu guard jealously. Their deaththey may choose to learn facts about that char- less Assassins strike fear into the hearts of all. acter’s recent activities, goals, or life details. The System: In the moment the Assassin would Assassin’s player may ask questions with simple be Taken Out, spend an Inspiration to ignore the Between the Assassin and his target, there can be no secrets in the moment of the kill. Turning the terminus of the hunt into a moment of revelation, the Assassin floods themselves with knowledge of the now-deceased’s life and activities.
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damage that would have caused it. For the rest of the scene, the character cannot be Taken Out. She still suffers Complications from Injury Conditions unless she has also activated her Unrelenting Mastery (p. XX).
LA PRÉVOYANCE Keyword: Execution, Momentary The Daughters of the Jacobins have been led for centuries by seers and those who can view the future. They’ve taught this technique to their Assassins in brief, allowing them to predict with complete accuracy their opponent’s next move. The Assassin gets these glimpses in just enough time to act on them. System: Spend an Inspiration to add the Assassin’s Intuitive Facet rating as Enhancement to her Defense action. Additionally, add the Enhancement to her next combat action against the target she was defending against.
LA VOYANTE
with it. While all Societies teach some way to end a hunt, the Krugu Vorov have ritualized the process. The ritual may be short, but it brings a sense of completion and ease to the Assassin. System: After inflicting the Taken Out Injury Condition on an opponent, take an action to perform Last Rites. The ritual element can be anything from placing coins over the victim’s eyes, saying a few words, or cleaning the murder weapon. The Assassin immediately clears any Conditions she is suffering, except Injury Conditions. Additionally, she gains 1 Enhancement on her next non-combat action.
LETHE Keywords: Hunt, Preparation, Execution The arts of life and death lie close to another other. The Assassin on the hunt is able to sense the bodily sources of suffering and pain, and combine this awareness their knowledge of the body. This enables them to extend hunt and preserve life, or to end both swiftly and painlessly.
System: While on the Hunt, the Assassin may remove the Complication or effect inflicted by Keyword: Execution, Momentary an Injury Condition on themselves or an ally Prerequisite: La Prévoyance with a basic action for the scene, as long as they The Assassin knows what is coming at her and can touch and talk to the affected character. This has already planned for it. Daughters who have doesn’t remove or reduce the Injury or its severity. mastered their ability to peer into the future can Against wounded characters, the Assassin gains see further and further, allowing them to crethe following stunt on all physical actions. Note: ate plans for all inevitabilities. The Assassin sees This stunt may be bought alongside Inflict Injury more than her opponent’s next action, giving her and Critical, if the Assassin has enough successes insight into their goals and desires. Put Them Down (2s): Deal an Injury Condition System: Spend an action to learn an opponent’s to your target. goals during a combat. For the rest of the scene,
whenever the target acts toward those goals, the LILIN’S VISIT Assassin gains 2 Enhancement to act to prevent them. Additionally, if her opponent attacks her, Keywords: Hunt, Evaluation spend an Inspiration to gain access to the followTechniques of nocturnal operations and stealth ing Defensive Stunt: ancient before most of the existing Societies Counterattack (2s): Make an immediate attack formed, even the Society of Leonidas’s oldest reagainst the opponent. Gain the Enhancement cords only note Lilin’s Visit as a foreign art, much granted by the La Voyante Mastery. This attack practiced in the colonies. Its use remains popular does not take up your action, and you may make due to its utility, even in an age of night vision gogthe attack even if you have acted in this round. gles and thermal imagers, but its downsides mean that many of its practitioners are a secretive lot.
LAST RITES
System: The Assassin may choose to activate this power during a hunt. When they do, Keyword: Execution, Momentary After finishing a job, an Assassin divests herself the Assassin may see in pitch darkness, ignore of the job, the mark, and all emotions that come all Difficulty increases or Complications due to
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darkness or poor lighting conditions, and gain +2 enhancement to try to avoid the notice of anyone relying on artificial lighting or technological vision enhancement. However, if operating in full daylight or similar lighting conditions, their actions gain Complication 2 “Blinded,” that increases the difficulty of all sight-requiring actions on their next turn by the value the Assassin fails to overcome. Deactivating this power requires the Assassin get a full night’s sleep or spend an Inspiration.
just served him a poisoned drink. The Society of Leonidas both eschews this Mastery as too underhanded, but also claims to have used it to assassinate Alexander the Great.
System: When you serve a target poisoned food or drink, you may spend Inspiration to inflict the Disarmed Condition on your target. While under the effects of this Condition, they do not suspect your actions as unusual or dangerous. It resolves when they consume the poisoned libations. If the target delays or resists, increase the difficulty of NO HESITATION all other actions by 1 until they partake. If the victim has an ability that would automatically detect Keywords: Hunt, Execution The Assassin never stops. From the moment poison or danger, this provokes a Clash of Wills. they begin their pursuit, their path leads them Assassins often sip their own poisoned drink straight to the target, and their attacks straight to (to which they have developed an immunity, of course) or take the first bite of a shared meal in the target’s heart. order to show they mean no harm. System: While on the hunt, the Assassin’s attacks may ignore up to the Assassin’s highPYTHON’S CORPSE est Facet in Complications. If there are no Keywords: Hunt, Execution Complications, the Assassin instead reduces the target’s Defense after they apply Stunts by the Prerequisites: Delphi Mastery Assassin’s Inspiration. The Assassin’s trance brings the ancient truth:
death negates whatever essence preceded it in life. This dread knowledge suffuses the Assassin’s being, making their bodies extensions of enKeywords: Constant, Execution Part foresight, part cold read and part tactical croaching death. System: The Assassin’s close combat attacks planning, the Pythians predicted their enemies’ every move and cut them off before they could gain access to the Already Dead stunt. They may make it. The Daughters of the Jacobins preserve also spend 1 Inspiration when making a close this ancient “oracular” method and use it to con- combat attack against their hunt’s target to make a killing blow. found their foes. Already Dead (variable): For every success System: You gain the Oracle’s Tactics stunt. spent on this stunt, the target gains a point of Oracles Tactics (variable): For each success the Doomed Condition. The Injury and Critical you spend on this stunt, you may bank for the dustunts have their cost reduced by the value of the ration of the scene. You may spend successes from Doomed Condition on a target, to a minimum of these banked stunts in exchange for Inspiration when you use dramatic editing to be one step 1. The Doomed Condition resolves at the end of a ahead of your opponent. One success equals one scene or when the Assassin is no longer pursuing Inspiration. Follow the guidelines on p. 154 of the the Doomed individual, whichever happens last.
ORACLE’S TACTICS
Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Up to 10 successes may be banked this way. Successes dissipate at the end of the scene.
SCAPEGOAT Keywords: Momentary, Execution
With some social misdirection, the Assassin claims she is someone else — and pins the consequences on them, instead. The Swarm stole Keywords: Execution, Momentary The Assassin’s disarming nature and compel- this technique from a fractured tablet unearthed ling smile puts her target at ease — even if she’s during an archaeological dig.
POISONED CHALICE
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System: Before you make the kill, either via the Inflict Damage stunt or taking advantage of a Killing Blow (p. XX), state who you are. Rather than reveal your true identity, you instead state the name of a scapegoat who must be a person close to the target. Spend Inspiration. Onlookers and associates of the target automatically believe the named character is the Assassin. The target must immediately make an appropriate roll against a difficulty equal to your Reflective Facet, or become confused themselves. If there is no believable way the Assassin could possibly be her named scapegoat (for instance, they’re dead, or were speaking to the target a few moments ago) the witnesses and target instead believe the scapegoat hired the Assassin.
THE SHORTEST ROUTES TO THE HEART Keywords: Momentary, Execution Prerequisites: Bespoke Disaster Mastery; An Entire Life, A Glance Mastery All paths lead to their ends. You can kill a man with a gun you smuggled past security, a knife you lifted off his private chef, a rock from his Zen garden, a seven-disc-CD player he bought in 1999. In the end, he’s dead. All your efforts speed the same operation toward the same final result.
an attack on a target without breaking stealth or revealing yourself, even if there are witnesses present. Spend an Inspiration to make a killing blow. Drawback: The Assassin suffers from the “Siren’s Call” Complication when they aren’t on the hunt. “Siren’s Call” (variable Complication): If you do not overcome this Complication, you become distracted by the potential of new work. Unless actively tracking down a lead, increase all Difficulties by outside of action gameplay until you do (or otherwise take up a new hunt). This Complication’s rating is 1, plus the number of scenes you haven’t been on the hunt.
STYX Keywords: Constant, Preparation Prerequisites: Katabasis Mastery, Lethe Mastery The Assassin lives in the space between life and death. Their heightened perceptions inform them of infirmities suffered by the living and insults borne by the dead, and hint at lethal possibilities in every setting. This constant knowledge of the inevitable tends to make Assassins with this gift morbid and unsettling, straining their interactions with people who don’t dwell on the specific possibilities of death at every moment.
System: The Assassin can discern injuries and diseases at a glance. This doesn’t allow them to diagnose complicated medical conditions, but they instantly recognize signs and severity of violence or life-threatening diseases. The Assassin may also subtly shift events to target an individual who they’ve interacted with or who they know will arrive at a location with the “Unlikely Demise” Stunt, applying it to any roll they’re making for SILENT KILLER interacting with the target or location. Once per Keyword: Momentary session, they may do this without any obvious preparation or clear means of influencing the Prerequisite: Nevidimyy The deadliest Assassins are the ones who can per- murderous events. Unlikely Demise (Variable): You have a trap or form their business in broad daylight without anyone noticing until the deed is done and then are long circ*mstance which will threaten serious injury or gone. The Krugu Vorov have perfected the ability to death to the target. For every success you spend on slip in and out again without notice. The speed at this stunt, the you inflict a point of the Sudden Peril which she does her job is just part of the deception Condition on the target. The target gains a matching Complication equal to the Condition. For every and is part and parcel of her unseen movements. System: The Assassin can only use this Mastery point the target doesn’t resolve when taking actions while the Nevidimyy Mastery (p. XX) is active. Make during the scene, they suffer 1 Injury Condition or System: You may spend 1 Inspiration to make a Killing Blow against a target afflicted by the “Doomed,” (p. XX) “Painted Target,” (p. XX) “Sudden Peril,” (p. XX) or similar Conditions. You may immediately resolve one of those Conditions instead of spending the Inspiration cost for this Mastery.
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Health Box. You may make this contingent on an action the target takes (such as “getting on the bus” or “entering the conference room”), which then requires a successful Procedural investigation roll to determine your involvement. Sudden Peril resolves after it’s been triggered.
by enemies such as the Pin Down Stunt, or environmental effects such as a windstorm. Every additional time in a scene they use this mastery, they gain a point of the Debt Due Condition (p. XX).
WITHOUT MOTIVE
Drawback: Their own social actions (Intrigue Keywords: Momentary, Execution or otherwise) with non-Assassins suffer from the There is no guilt associated with the act of kill“Pall of Death” Complication at 2c. Any unresolved ing; the Assassin does it as naturally as breathing. complication creates or increases a negative attitude How, then, to predict their attacks? They strike toward the Assassin equal to the unresolved value. without intention, violence blossoming from nothing as they kill.
TITANOMACHY
Keywords: Momentary, Execution Prerequisite: Iliad Mastery For a moment, the Assassin stands inviolable. They master the space around them, cutting through a violent fracas or an array of bodyguards so that they may complete their work. Repeated uses of this technique are exhausting, but most Assassins aim to complete their work before that’s necessary. Systems: The Assassin may spend 1 Inspiration to activate this Mastery for a round, ignoring the effects of non-Full Cover, Complications caused
System: When the Assassin makes an attack against a target outside of combat, they may spend ` Inspiration to ready a weapon and immediately make a Killing Blow as a single action. If this attack kills their target, they may spend another Inspiration to create the Condition “Just Walk Away” at a value of their Inspiration or Destructive facet. As long as they try to leave without causing further violence, attempts to attack or impede them suffer a difficulty increase equal to the Just Walk Away value. Just Walk Away resolves once the character successfully leaves the scene.
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“War is the statesman’s game, the priest’s delight, the lawyer’s jest, the hired assassin’s trade.” Percy Bysshe Shelley
STORYGUIDING THE MARTIAL FOREST Assassins live their lives by rigid moral codes, their • Virtue crushed by institutional vice internal drives and desires held fast by moral and • Setting the chronicle in a bleak, hostile environethical boundaries that separate them from the crimment, often outside the law inal elements they associate with. Many of the films that inspired Trinity Continuum: Assassins — John • Themes of revenge, paranoia, and alienation Wick, Kill Bill, Equilibrium, The Killer — borrow heav• Three layers of “reality” within the setting: ily from the neo-noir and Western genres, but also the Daylight, Twilight, Shadow wuxia genre of Chinese fiction in that the cultures and The worlds of Daylight, Twilight, and Shadow atmospheres the characters interact with are highly are thinly superimposed over one another, existing stratified. Assassins games feature several notable elwith permeable yet firm barriers. Assassins duelements derived from these genres: ing will never draw law enforcement attention or a • Blurred lines between right and wrong gangland fight, even in a crowded area. • The character’s standing, whether a good reputation or infamy
LAYER CAKES: THREE LAYERS AS GENRE Wuxia fiction divides the world into three layers: the mundane world, the underworld where criminal syndicates live, and the martial arts world full of distinct societies and ritualized interactions with their own codes. Assassins games feature a similar three-layer genre distinction in the form of Daylight, Twilight, and Shadow to help focus stories and determine how relationships interact between the three worlds. A layer cake is the best visual metaphor for these relationships, with each layer describing a social stratum of interaction with its own rules and taste to match, and the occasional bleed between layers.
THE MUNDANE WORLD: DAYLIGHT The world of the Trinity Continuum, more or less. People get up in the morning and go to work and sit in traffic; they attend fashion shows; they mow their lawns and eat muffins in a dreary suburban reverie. When the rich and powerful trespass, they pay a fine. The poor get thrown into prison when they break the law.
Of special note is the relationship of law enforcement to the genre, representing organizations that exist largely in Daylight but may persist into Twilight. Sometimes individual cops are protagonists, but this never lasts, nor is it portrayed as a positive service beyond an individual’s devotion to upholding the law. Police as an institution serve the interests of the powerful and harass the powerless, acting as societal havens for people who enjoy the use and abuse of authority. Doomed individual cops and detectives may honestly seek justice and societal order, bringing them into contact with the Twilight layer, but they nearly always fail one way or another — and often, either lose their lives or their careers by confronting the overwhelming corruption and fraud within the police structure itself. These longsuffering protagonists are gradually ground to dust and dissolution by their contact with the underworld and the societal machinery of policing (such as the fate of the dual investigators in Infernal Affairs).
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THE CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD: TWILIGHT The criminal underworld exists in the Trinity Continuum, connected to the world of Assassins but still grounded in the realities of daily life. Many of the factions operating at this level are powerful criminal syndicates — the Camparellis of La Cosa Nostra and the Zhukovs of the Russian Mafia are currently engaged in a global underworld war, but beside them exists the Triads and the Tongs, the Yakuza, D-Company, and numerous smaller collective organizations such as Dacoity or outlaw motorcycle clubs. Wealth and vengeance, as well as upholding contracts among thieves, preoccupy the conflicts in this layer.
in Twilight acts as pure antagonists (such as the DEA official and NYPD in Léon: The Professional).
THE ASSASSIN OTHERWORLD: SHADOW The Shadow layer is the world in chiaroscuro: cool colors, darkest blacks, and a heightened sense of drama and reality. Things are different here. Everything takes on a more sensual aspect, the better to distract from the cruel necessities of the work and the spiritual cost of their endeavor. Entire cultures flourish in the darkness between spaces, an entire industry arises to support the killing work of the Societies, and social rules are dramatically different. Only rarely do Assassins deal with the hoi polloi, and then only on a largely personal level as friends and lovers, never colleagues. Even the Societies who claim a mandate for the people, by the people, recognize that they are not truly of the people.
Some genre traits held in Twilight persist when venturing deeper into Shadow. Heavy tactical armor isn’t usually worn, nor are excessively military trappings such as artillery or heavy machine guns present at this level. Explosives are used only The genre traits that arose in Twilight bloom rarely, with most duels and assaults trending tointo full flower in Shadow. Every Assassin beward personal combat or at best the long-range comes aware of another’s standing, and the anothrills of a sniper duel. nymity prized by Daylight murderers or Twilight Still, violence at this level — though omnipres- killers reverses itself. Shadow Assassins want event — confines itself to messy gang warfare or eryone in Shadow to know when they’ve killed a urban assaults. There is no grace, no art, to blood target, while keeping clear of Daylight and leavshed at this level, even with the backing of an hon- ing Twilight with a dim awareness of their prowor duel. Those who engage in multiple contract ess. Assassins consider stealing a target kill to be killings and hone their skills to the finest degree a dramatic insult against the other professional; come to rest in Shadow; otherwise, when it comes on the other hand, secretly manipulating another to dealing death, even the most hardened criminal Assassin into killing your target when they nevcan only be described as a talented amateur com- er would’ve achieved success otherwise is often pared to a true Assassin. more highly regarded than killing the target yourIn Twilight, the police become a well-funded self. Within the professional network of artisanal gang as profane and venal as the organized crime hunters, they are famous, even if they remain they purport to combat, engaging directly in il- complete unknowns to their targets in the wider legal trades while the legal system contorts and world. To the underworld, they become legends. corrupts itself to support them. The difference beThe Shadow world is awash in visual details tween Daylight and Twilight is a passive vs. active and rich in symbolism, elaborately wrought and distinction. In Daylight, whole branches of beat omnipresent. Nearly everyone in Shadow has a cops might be bought and paid for by the mob, but tattoo or missing digit, and these denote a histoindividual detectives or officers may still hold no- ry and a storied, secret past. A snake wrapping ble ideals even as they struggle with their service around a raging wolf on an Assassin’s bare torso to a flawed societal organization. Yet in Twilight, represents Jörmungandr and Fenrir, the monthe entire police structure orients toward illegal- sters that will ruin the world in Ragnarök; expect ity, rendering their betrayal of purported ideals a to find this person in a steamy, crimson-lit club deliberate and cruel choice rather than an incul- called Muspelheim. Water is an important envicated moral failing. By and large, law enforcement ronmental detail here: even in a drought, it rains
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BODY COUNTS: CINEMA AND REALISM Career assassin kill counts can get excessive. Ghost Dog in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai kills 19 characters; Léon in Léon: The Professional kills 28 minor characters and two main targets over the course of the movie, and both assassins had long and storied careers behind them. Agent 47 of Hitman fame can theoretically kill thousands due to the nature of a video game, but a Silent Assassin run through the games up through 2016’s Hitman leaves 286 dead. John Wick kills 299 people over the first three eponymous films. A long-running Assassins game will likely rack up similar body counts. Real-life contract killers and assassins are rarely so prolific, ending their careers dead, imprisoned, or out of the life with kill counts in the single digits or the low dozens. Those who claim more, such as Julio Santana’s 500 murders, have no real evidence to back up their claims beyond tabloid journalism; even Giuseppe “Pino” Greco can only plausibly claim 80 killings. Simo Häyhä, by contrast, was a sniper credibly believed to have killed over 500 men in World War II, but he did his killing under sanction of war. Assassins games should err on the dramatic or cinematic side than the realistic. To replicate the cinematic body counts, the Storyguide should break up mobs into groups of 3-5 minor characters, so the Enhancement bonus doesn’t overwhelm the defenses of the players (see Trinity Continuum pg. 140). Use the Tension rules (pg. XX) if you’re running a more realistic Assassins game, where the characters are killing machines but not superhuman killing machines. And don’t worry about the cleanup or the police investigation when you’re in Shadow; nobody will ask, and nobody will care. sometimes, and water pools in the streets to re- and guile go far, but only when they back up the flect the haggard face of the Assassin back at them physical or social raw power to make one’s will a when they return from a kill. reality. In Shadow, minor characters only exist to make the players feel powerful. The targets of Assassins often have many thugs, mooks, criminals, and stooges serving them in the Twilight layer, all of whom are more than willing to kill. Savvy players may ask, Won’t the death of so many necessitate an investigation by the authorities? or, What’s going to happen to all the bodies? and to be fair, they’re not wrong in these questions. The ask goes right up against the suspension of disbelief inherent within the martial forest, though, so there’s only one real answer: The Assassins are untouchable because they’re in a different world with different rules. Call it fate, call it karma, call it selective windows of consciousness propagating through the complex quantum interplay of the Continuum, but nobody notices where the bodies go, and the cleanup never gets featured. Social power and reputation reigns supreme in Shadow. The greatest Assassins command fear and respect, even from another Society’s member. They are rich in the tokens of their achievements, constantly surrounded by luxuries unexperienced by all but the ultra-wealthy. In this world, poise
That’s not to say that killing someone publicly won’t invite a response from law enforcement or local security; merely that once the scene has resolved with the antagonists dead or the Assassin’s escape, there isn’t usually any follow-up. Shadowy forces work to protect the Assassin, and Daylight layer folks won’t even budge. At the highest level, two Assassins could conduct a walking gunfight in a crowded city street, and they will likely go unnoticed if they’re executing their attacks with the barest minimum of subtlety and silenced weapons.
SHADOWY FACES While the Societies all at least nominally abide by the Code (p. XX), each Society has its own variations on the strict rules that govern Assassin etiquette. In the Shadow, far more important to many Assassins is the fame, status, dignity, and respect that accorded them by their killing prowess. An Assassin’s status has less to do with living up to the standard of the Code — their own standing in their Society will address shortcomings in this regard — and more to do with social position
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and personal connections within and between Societies and the services provided in the Shadow. This world values strength more than boldness, and there is respected wisdom in knowing one’s proper station in the order of things.
there is an extensive tradition of interaction and professional courtesy. A character who disrespects the terms of a duel or who brutalizes or kills her opponent is subject to censure by the Service.
Assassins often collect physical tokens, such as ornate gold coins or unique weapons depending on their Societal affiliation, to denote this status. Markers are granted or lost as the Assassin gains and loses favor and status, and when they complete assassinations in an artful or sloppy manner. These markers or tokens serve primarily to demand respect from others for the Assassin’s station or exchange for services rendered. The Society of Leonidas exchanges small golden spear heads no larger than coins, while the Daughters of the Jacobins use co*ckades as the physical representation of social currency. The actual Daylight monetary value of the items is irrelevant; they are symbols of an intangible social standing. These can typically be exchanged between Societies and refinanced into a chosen Society’s currency by the Service.
The heat of a close encounter is reason enough to enter a duel, especially if there’s prior cause for animosity between the two. Even then, attempting to kill the same target can prompt a duel, as can defending a target from another prospective Assassin. Some duels are deeply personal and the culmination of years of rivalry, while others are the proverbial just business.
Banking is one of many side industries that arise in Shadow, but they are shared by private doctors, weapons dealers, and freelance intelligence analysts and assassination handlers willing to walk an Assassin to their target as a voice in the ear. Few of these side industries exist solely in one layer; most exist with one foot in Daylight and one foot in Shadow, a façade for the day and a secret service in the night. Twilight use of these industries is limited, as criminals are more likely to stick to those they can suborn directly. Unlike Assassins, they exist to serve and be of service no matter the layer.
ASSASSIN DUELS As befits a society comprised of professionals, Assassin duels are rarely to the death; most Assassins who kill one another do it on the field of battle. Assassin duels within Societies are dealt with by internal means, but between Societies,
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Assassin duels typically come in three varieties: sniper duels, taking place across multiple fields; stalking duels, where both opponents are loosed into a location unknown to either of them and hunt one another throughout the structure; and close combat duels, where it’s martial skill vs. martial skill with knives and pistols. Assassin duels that occur on the field are generally of the former or latter varieties. If one Assassin and another enter a duel, and there’s no personal feud involved, the older or more experienced Assassin will generally offer the younger or more inexperienced Assassin the right of first attack. In this, the elder Assassin will defend themselves, and might respond with suppressing fire or certain grappling moves but won’t directly counterattack. The younger Assassin ceding his right to first attack is a personal insult against the elder Assassin. Similarly, the elder directly attacking to defend herself is humiliating. Yet, after the duel, the winner will explain the loser’s loss; this helps to conserve the tokens the loser will have to expend afterward. Braggadocio or further humiliation results in a loss of status from the winner. Resorting to hidden weapons or poison is deeply dishonorable in a direct duel, seen as deeply humiliating and resulting in a loss of tokens, even if this is normally par for the course for killing a target.
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GROUP PLAY AND STYLES Assassin exists within a facet of the broader world presented in Trinity Continuum — but not within a vacuum. Play can easily be mixed between the options and templates presented here and in the core material of Trinity. After all, Assassins aren’t just “Talents, but better,” and there’s much a Talent who isn’t focused on shadowy underworlds and the killing arts can bring to the table. When considering allowing options from the core material as playable material within a game set in the subculture of Assassins, consider why a Talent would want to associate with trained killers in the first place — optionally ruling that a Talent must at least have one Twilight Path and appropriate transition.
shared thread between the other characters — she is normally the one to assemble the team based on personal preference and her own backstory with the other characters. In the event the leader hasn’t chosen this team herself, this is because a higher-up has selected teammates for her. The rest of the motley crew is comprised of topof-their-field mercenaries, specifically for their unique skill sets — the undefeated streetfighter, the nation’s most-wanted hacker, the ten-time escaped convict, etc. If this is a team of specialists, the leader specializes in encouraging these disparate Talents to work together. Players may choose to hand out other roles to themselves, such as the dedicated sniper, the close combat expert, the infiltration specialist, and so on. Storyguides might also choose to fill in missing “roles” with a support staff of ordinary Talents who supplement the deadly skills of the players’ characters Assassins instead.
Likewise, consider why a team of Assassins would rely on one outside their circle to provide them backup. Perhaps the Talent in question has excellent Daylight connections, lending a legitimacy to the entire operation. Maybe the Talent has access to Gifts considered priceless to the DIRECTING THE ACTION team (but not so priceless that they couldn’t ofRunning a game for a diverse group with comfer suitable compensation as required). Or maybe pletely different roles requires an eye for the big the Talent simply provides the team with the hupicture of the session, as well as an understanding man warmth or moral compass they are otherwise of attitudes at your table. When the team is on the lacking. Beyond the question of “who picks what op- job, they will most likely be split up and handling tions from which books,” a Storyguide needs to their own individual challenges. And, usually, the address the topic of play style. What sort of team story arc for a disparate team of individuals like the players form provides the palette for the en- this hinges on whether or not they can learn to work together despite their differences—the last tire game. thing a Storyguide wants to do is inadvertently impede the progress of that arc with an imbalanced camera. Teams of specialists should comprise of 3-4 Keep an eye on both in-game time and replayers, each with their own skills and focus al-world time. Cut away from scenes that require to contribute to the team’s goals and career. a character to wait around for something — this is This team is the primary unit of the heist genre, a chance to give another character time to shine. which includes media like Leverage and Mission: Impossible.It also lends itself best to mixed groups Ask other characters what they get up to during the wait or momentary down-time, especially if of Talents and Assassins. you can think of some way it might unexpectedly TEAM COMPOSITION affect the task they’re waiting on.
THE TEAM OF SPECIALISTS
The team usually requires at least one character be the leader, the “face” of the group. If the leader doesn’t arise organically during character creation, make sure the players are clear on who will be taking this role. The leader is commonly the
Likewise, a scene that has been taking up real-world time may need to be ended prematurely. The player(s) involved could be having a great time; but try to keep an eye on the audience — the other players at the table. If they are just as invested
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in what is happening, consider allowing the scene to progress. If they are anxious to get to their own parts, look for opportunities to cut away. Cutting away is primarily meant to give other players a chance to play, but it should also serve to build the tension of your game. When considering a cut away, be on the lookout for any of the following: Something dramatic is about to happen (“Suddenly, the door’s card reader beeps, and the handle turns — someone’s coming! Meanwhile, in the elevator shaft...”) Something surprising was revealed (“‘I only did it,’ the CFO tells you, ‘because ... they’re holding my son hostage.’ But just then, down in the parking garage...”) An end goal is in sight but not yet in hand (“Your mark is sitting on the park bench right where the client said he’d be. You have a clear shot. However, back in the safe house…”) Anything else that leaves an urgent event unresolved — a cliffhanger.
DIRECTING THE ACTION Running a game for two imbalanced characters — only one of whom is “physically” interacting with the setting — requires flexibility and patience, as well as the willingness to hit your players just a little harder than usual. Partnerships like this one run on the theme of “divided we fall,” and your job here is not just to provide each of them with challenges to their skill set but find every opportunity to threaten their unity. While you will still be prompting the Weapon for responses as you would in any other game (“You see a group of armed, uniformed men stopping cars on the road ahead of you, what do you do?”), you will need to keep a clear division between what the Weapon perceives, and what the Handler knows. There may be times when you ask the Handler, instead — “Central just sent up a warning that Black Dog operatives are posing as local law enforcement and have set up roadside checks, what do you do?” This gives them room to decide whether to involve the Weapon, or whether to try and address the issue themselves.
Don’t be afraid to become a dictatorial director for this style of group. The nature of diverse roles Likewise, you may need to remind the Handler in a game of subterfuge requires more than adjuof their unusual amount of authority in the game. dicating rules disputes. The table relies on your In a sense, they are co-GMing with you, by trying ability to referee whose turn it is in the spotlight. to direct the Weapon through their shared mission. Being removed from the action may make them feel as though they don’t have the same Weapon and handler are, necessarily, a agency as the Weapon, but their ability to pertwo-player team, one performing primarily form dramatic edits has in no way diminished. physical work and the other primarily mental. Consider allowing them to spend Inspiration or Partnerships like this can be seen in the “Hitman” Momentum for dramatic edits at a discount, usand “James Bond” series. ing a few of the options provided for Alternate Flashbacks on page XX. TEAM COMPOSITION
THE WEAPON AND HANDLER
The “Weapon” is a character with unparalleled physical or social skills, meant to be smuggled into or delivered directly to the job in the field. She will most often be in the thick of it, so to speak, though would be at insurmountable disadvantage without backup from her handler. The “Handler” is a character with ultimate intellect, providing backup in the form of up-tothe-minute surveillance, information, gadgetry, and anything else that requires a finer touch. He will usually be removed from the action in a place of (supposed) relative safety and would have no hope of finishing the job without his weapon.
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Even though the Handler may ostensibly be removed from the action, there are still opportunities to threaten them with danger and consequences. The Handler could have been given faulty or outdated information. They may be facing censure or restrictions from their mutual organization, limiting their access to resources. Their own equipment could be malfunctioning, crippling their ability to assist the Weapon. Or — most importantly — their relationship with the Weapon could be on the rocks, impeding their ability to work together. Finally, just because the Handler is supposed to avoid action doesn’t mean action won’t find them. There could be a situation
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that requires the Handler and Weapon to remain in close proximity. Or the consequences of a job gone awry mean the enemy is closing in on the Handler’s location.
NON-HUMAN TEAMMATES
human characters benefit from, with a few obvious exceptions. Consider making up for these drawbacks by granting animal characters custom Paths, or by lowering the requirement for acquiring Specialties in Skills like Athletics or Survival to 2 instead of 3.
A Talent is not required to be human. Animal DIRECTING THE ACTION companions can be found in teams and partnerFirst, make sure your players understand that in ships, such as in the “John Wick” movies and the this game, an animal character may be injured just Assassin’s Creed series. as readily as a human character. This may seem TEAM COMPOSITION like a strange disclaimer for a game about hired The animal, or otherwise non-human compan- killers, but for some, this is a deal-breaker, and we ion, provides their human partner backup in the aren’t here to ask why. form of scouting, subterfuge, and combat. Their exact contribution depends on their skill-set, but for the most part they are highly specialized, and enjoy an ironclad bond with their human companion. Animal characters, as their own unique form of hyper-competent killers, still have access to most of the character creation options
If you personally want to avoid harming animals in your campaign, be ready with alternative consequences for the animal partner. Capture is the most obvious, but they could become sedated, lost, or find their keen senses neutralized in some way. In a game where one of the characters is non-human, consider being much more charitable with what
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the animal companion can understand and carry out. They are a Talent, like the rest of the team; they are just as deadly and competent as their human counterparts. A German Shepherd may not be firing a gun anytime soon, but she will have exceptional discipline, an infallible nose, and a terrifying bite.
two inappropriate elements to better fit a non-human character (such as renaming the Origin “Street Rat” to “Stray,” swapping out Enigmas for Persuasion to represent a stray who perfected the art of begging).
Character generation for the non-human companion requires a player dedicated to the concept, willing to limit a few of their options. Restrict access to skills an animal would never possess: namely, Aim, Enigmas, Humanities, Medicine, Pilot, Science, and Technology. And, while animal characters are able to gain Masteries, they are rarely capable of those with the Planning keyword.
For Path transitions, consider that most animals and other non-humans would be acquired or entangled from Daylight into a Twilight or Shadow Path. From there, some exceptional creatures are recruited into Shadow or even elevated—strange as it may sound initially, a dog can very much be in possession of a nemesis if said nemesis resents operating on the same professional level as “some stupid mutt.”
Given that the animal companion is likely partnered with a human character, consider giving the two of them special Enhancements or access to a unique shared Path reflecting their bond. Animal-only Paths are also excellent ideas to have prepped and brought to the table when a player is considering this option. This could be as simple as taking a pre-existing Path and swapping one or
And, when an Animal retires to Daylight, remember that few have gone legit, lacking an understanding or even capacity for the moral choice to do so. Some are instead washed up, perhaps too old or too weary to keep on with the game. Most, however, merely get out — there’s no need for exit interviews or threats of silence when your now-former associate is incapable of speech.
STORY OF A KILL A single assassination has all the elements of a good story laid out. The tension in the investigation, the rising action during the planning, the climax in the execution, and the falling action as or hero (or villain) escapes the scene. It is the perfect short-form story, and if you’re running a convention game or a one or two-shot adventure, then that’s likely all you need. However, when running a longer form story in the world of Assassins, it can be difficult to tie together a series of unconnected jobs into a greater tapestry. This chapter covers techniques a Storyguide can use to connect the various jobs their players go on in interesting ways to make the world of Assassin entertaining, vibrant and alive.
A WEB OF KNIVES Assassins is inherently a mission-based game, in which players are given a task and sent to carry it out. It can be easy to fall into a pattern of sending players on mission after mission, but just as important as the mission are the spaces in between. Player characters are not just tools or
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weapons, no matter how many times they may be told that they are. They live at the fringes of society but still within it. One of the most important things a Storyguide can do is push their players to explore this aspect of their character and establish a cast of characters that exist beyond the framework of missions. While the meat of the game may take place in the Shadow world, the interactions that occur in Daylight and Twilight are just as important. Characters must live somewhere. Establish the people they meet in their daily lives, whether they be their boss at their cover job, their landlord, the waiter at the diner they relax at after missions or their far too exuberant middle-class neighbor. These characters who occupy the Daylight portions of the Assassin’s life serve to make the world feel more alive. They can be used to develop plots that take place away from the grind of the Shadow world, provide some levity in a darker campaign, or be dragged kicking and screaming into the Twilight and Shadow world to drive home the effect the Assassin’s work has on everyday people.
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Characters who occupy the Twilight are equally important to developing the world. If you need a contact to have been captured, it’s much easier to use one you’ve established. The players will care much more about extracting one of their own if it’s Carol from down the hall. If you want to have them go after a gun dealer who has gotten in too deep in debt, why not send them after Vasily, the tracksuit and gold chain wearing Russian with a predilection for pop music? You can also use these characters to trigger action scenes between missions by having Victor, the local mafia boss, blackmail them, or having another gang member threaten their favorite server.
excellent recurring characters. The bodyguard who fails to protect his charge in one mission pops up again, working for someone else in the same organization. A family member swears revenge on his cousin’s killers and devotes his life to killing the Assassins. The same Interpol agent shows up to investigate multiple homicides and gets closer and closer to finally catching the players’ characters. The Assassin underworld is global, spanning multiple continents, but also employs a fairly low number of characters. Recycling these characters and showing their journey from the Twilight world into the world of Shadow, or how their lives are utterly ruined by their brush with The characters established within missions are the Shadows helps to make one-off missions feel just as important to an ongoing story. While the connected to the greater whole. target of any individual mission is likely a one-off The last and most important type of recurring character, their supporting staff doesn’t need to characters are those characters who lurk in the be. At the end of any mission, Storyguides should Shadows, other the Assassins. Each Assassin likewrite down the names and characteristics of any ly belongs to a Society. The other people in their character that survives the story for use in future organization are all distinct killers with as wildly missions. Bodyguards, family members of the differing motivations as the players’ characters. deceased, and government officials can all make Anytime a new Assassin is presented, do your best
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to give them a distinctive flair: a hat, a pattern of speech, a scar, a prosthetic arm, an odd weapon or way of using their weapon, etc. The thirtieth suited sniper is unlikely to raise any eyebrows, but the cowboy hat-wearing sniper, in brown leather with a southern draw and a revolving chamber on his Barret 50 Cal is going to stand out. All this advice goes double for a character’s Nemesis (See below.) These characters can serve as allies, antagonists, sources of information, love interests or all of the above. Make sure to introduce these characters early and to keep having them involved in the plot. A story about a traitor betraying a society and the players having to hunt them down is more impactful if it’s Carol from down the hall than if it’s someone new. Use these characters to tie individual missions into a greater tapestry. If the same Assassin guards’ targets in two separate missions, it can imply the targets are linked, prodding the players to look deeper into the mysteries surrounding their kills.
• Use the “legion of super villains” sparingly. Each player has a nemesis, and it can be tempting to bring all of them together under a single banner, but in doing so, it is possible to lose a lot of the uniqueness of each character as they are absorbed into the alliance. If all (or some) of the nemeses are going to align, it should be for no longer than a single-story arc. The pay-off to any such plot should shake the foundation of the chronicle.
THE BIG PICTURE
The world of Assassins is one of secrets. Secret motivations, secret emotions, and secret agendas. The plots of the world are rarely directly spelled out in front of characters. In addition, by their nature Assassins are reactive characters not proactive ones. They go where they are told or where the money is. So Storyguides can’t count on players to pursue plots on their own, because A) they probably don’t know where to start looking and B) if they’re playing their Assassin to type, they won’t be going after anything they’re not paid to target. For THE NEMESIS this reason, it is vital that the Storyguide has a clear Nemeses are extremely important characters to idea of what overall plot of the game is going to be. the Assassins games, but they can also be tricky to Before the game starts, a Storyguide should dehandle. They should be, at the same time, the most cide on one to three big secrets of the campaign. interesting characters in a scene, and also not Once established the Storyguide can pepper small overshadow the player characters. When using a hints, scraps of information and clues as to what is Character’s Nemesis some things to keep in mind: going on throughout the story. • Make appearances by a Nemesis impactful. Having a Nemesis hang around at the edges of a plot or scene can be good for building tension. Still, if you have them just hanging around too long without doing anything, they can lose the mystique and seem more like desperate hangers-on than legitimate badasses in their own right. • Don’t make them omniscient. Having a nemesis outwit a player once or even twice can be entertaining. Having a nemesis outplay the players at every turn becomes tedious and frustrating for the players. Try and remember the limits of any nemesis and make sure that they play within the rules of plausibility. • Let the players get the upper hand. Games of cat and mouse are most fun when people take turns playing both roles. Let the players track down and interfere with their Nemesis’ plots too.
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If the main story of a campaign involves a double agent within the player’s organization, Storyguides should hint at this in most if not all missions. Symbolism can be used to great effect, including scenes involving mirrors, stories involving betrayal, or characters literally being stabbed in the back. Have enemy agents always seem to be one step ahead of them, have the agent in question show up during the mission for a totally plausible reason, have a target tipped off and using a body double, have them find a copy of their own mission briefing on an enemy agent, have enemy agents know things they shouldn’t such as the characters names. If the main story of a campaign involves the Assassins being used in a political coup, have all the targets linked through political affiliations, have targets from a later mission show up in previous missions, detail the news reports of the election or trial in the background, have a target beg
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for their life and throw accusations at their rivals. If the coup is destabilizing a country, show that through an increase in street violence and crime in the areas they’re working. If the coup is against a secret organization, let the players find the same symbol in several locales. These are just a few examples, but by peppering these small details throughout a campaign the players will feel like they’ve solved a puzzle when they put it all together just before you reveal it.
THE SUM OF ITS PARTS People don’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill someone for no reason. Every hit has a motive and if the players don’t know why exactly they are being paid to end their target (because they didn’t ask or were lied to) the Storyguide always knows. This reason should be important, not just to the individual but to the world itself. While it’s fine to give the players an easy mission killing someone’s cheating spouse or thieving business partner, it’s better to have the true goal of missions be more opaque. Some Examples: The players’ characters are hired to kill a tech mogul, who the client claims stole his invention. In actuality the person hiring them wants the tech mogul killed so that his organization can gain access to the personal data collected by the tech moguls’ company for some nefarious purpose.
peace within the territory. However, if the players investigate, they can find out that the Guerillas are just protecting their land from a greedy logging corporation, and that the conflict only started after the corporation kidnapped several locals. The player characters are hired to kill a career criminal who has just turned state evidence. They perform the deed, and see that the evidence he’s turned over was against a rival from a previous mission Each of these missions can spin out into another story should you wish. Once the tech mogul is dead, the person who hired them could begin using the resources to hunt them and members of their organization down, knowingly or not. If the players kill the guerilla leader, the area become more destabilized, and they are hired for another job just a few years later as the next local leader rises. If they turn on their employer and kill the local head of the loggers, well the corporation might be willing to pay for some revenge. Killing the criminal in state custody could gain them the attention of a particularly dogmatic federal agent, or an IOU from a former enemy.
The consequences of the players action, whether they be good, evil, or in between, are important. Each mission should have consequences for not only the world around them but the Assassins themselves. In detailing these consequences long, The player characters get hired to execute a gue- complex stories are created. rilla war leader for the stated goal of promoting
ART OF THE KILL When the sun sets, the whole world changes. Light retreats and the shadows creep, but the moment between the two is gloaming. In that transitory period, other worlds become apparent, and sometimes stumbled upon. The Twilight acts as a veil between the world of Daylight and the world of Shadow — the permeable layer that many are subconsciously aware of and dare not cross into but may find themselves interacting it for fleeting moments at a time. Like the twin circles of a Venn diagram, there is a sliver of overlap between the world of Daylight and the world of Shadow. That sliver, that tiny shard of similarity, is where few individuals can truly exist. This is the world
where Assassins dwell, and where ordinary people fear to tread. Everyday folk unwittingly interact with Assassins, but most don’t recognize it. It is akin to a sense of deja vu, where you might have seen them once or twice before, but you fail to place the when, who, or the circ*mstances of that chance meeting. Going about their day, these individuals are blissfully ignorant about the all-out gun fight that transpired right behind them in the casino, aren’t alarmed at all by the bullet-riddled body walking into urgent care, or the desperate foot chase that happened while they were walking
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their dog. Just because they don’t acknowledge it enough to give a concrete lead or confirm their susdoesn’t mean it didn’t happen. picions. It’s a dead-end. Once more, the Assassin An Assassin could be chasing their mark evades exposure and becoming too entangled in through a crowded street fair, guns brandished, the world of light. The authorities are stumped, and and one would think there would be a chorus the clerk remains blissfully unaware of the world of frightened voices — some madman is waving of Shadow even though they brushed against it. a double-barrel shotgun around in a crowded Everything remains separate, as it is intended to be. promenade after all — but instead there is just a That is not to say that these Storyguide characters sense of casual inconvenience. Having to step are to be treated as expendable — far from it. Even aside momentarily to make a path for an ongoing if an Assassin wanted to make closer connections chase while you were sampling some artisanal to her Daylight acquaintances, the Code forbids it. strawberry rhubarb preserves is such a bother, es- Venturing too far back into the daylit world endanpecially when they bumped into you. Is that blood gers her livelihood, her contracts, and her Society.
on your blouse? No, silly, it must be the preserves. An Assassin may still maintain relationships What else could it be, Barbara? with those who dwell in this Daylight world, Assassins are more likely to remember mun- though she does so at her own risk. Intimate dane people they interact with on a regular basis: relationships such as distant family members, dry cleaners, urgent care physicians, the barista friends, lovers, and spouses — individuals that at the corner coffee shop who does intricate art have names, lives, and motivations that can be atop their latte and the like. The inverse, how- as mundane as ensuring that the Assassin always ever, is unlikely. When dropping off bloody and has a warm meal in their belly and a safe space bullet-riddled suits to a cleaner, there is no star- to sleep at night or as grand as potentially trying tled reaction on the part of the cleaner. They to draw the Assassin away from the lifestyle that mostly wave it off as the Assassin having had an so often keeps them away from hearth and home. “adventurous” weekend, and dutifully places the If anything, these named Storyguide characters clothes on the rack to be cleaned and mended. It provide a tie, almost an anchor, to the world of is not that the clerk is completely ignorant of what Daylight, a reminder that there is another way of caused the holes and blood, it is that they instead living there for them — if they are willing to pay willfully choose to ignore that particular unpleas- the price for it. When an Assassin interacts with these types of characters, it may seem completeantness of reality. Non-playable characters that exist in the world ly normal. Healthy, even, to an extent. It could of Daylight that interact with Assassins, either di- be a monthly family dinner, catching up with an rectly as a contact or a clerk in a commonly used old friend over drinks at a favorite dive bar, both business (such as those dry cleaners), conduct instances where asking about how the Assassin themselves with tact. They neither draw attention is doing “professionally” usually requires some to the Assassin’s bloodied face, nor do they coop- manner of obfuscation to maintain the degrees of erate with the authorities. It is an unspoken agree- separation. Explaining in detail about how easy it ment, a contract of sorts, which maintains the thin was to snipe a rival Assassin from the fourth floor veil between Daylight, Twilight, and further yet, of the Ritz Paris over your mother’s homemade the Shadow. Most of these interactions are cur- lasagna is not necessarily polite conversation and sory at best, and the names and faces all blur to- is usually best avoided. Instead, you say you had gether—they are not important relationships by a lovely trip, show some filtered selfies, and othany means, but they do make up the bulk of an erwise pretend like nothing is out of the ordinary about your day job. Assassin’s day-to-day interactions. It works out for the Assassin, either way. After all, if a daylight witness were questioned by investigative authorities after an incident, there may be a vague memory of someone fitting the description of the Assassin in question, but it would not be
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The relationships an Assassin has with characters who are in the Daylight are so vital it isn’t unheard of that an Assassin will go out of their way, often risking their own physical (and often psychological) wellbeing to ensure that elements of
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Twilight and Shadow never pass through the veil to render harm to those characters. Oftentimes, these Daylight characters never know of the danger they are in — that is how strong the veil is. It is not so much cognitive dissonance as it is an entirely different view of reality. They are unlikely to meander into Society territory or actively engage with criminal enterprise, somehow innately knowing that these are not places for them to be in. What about when someone, either a player or an SGC, toes the edge between the worlds, and attempts to push deeper into it? Circ*mstances change and sometimes the haze thins, allowing for a momentary overlap between the two worlds. This Twilight space betwixt worlds is an oddity unto itself and allows everyday people to glance across the veil and see the Shadow world in all its darker glory. It has always been there, but whether its existence is acknowledged is up to the person straddling the two worlds.
underworld only exists in places deemed to be of ill repute is the place of amateurs when in fact it is everywhere. From the condemned houses in a blighted city to the tallest high-rise penthouses overlooking Manhattan, it doesn’t differentiate. Assassins come from all levels of society, with no classification holding a greater majority than the other. Even that barista who winked at you while giving you your skim milk caramel macchiato with a double shot could be an Assassin. You never thought about it because them being an Assassin is just so far outside the realm of possibility the notion never even registers.
That is the simple beauty of it all. They are right there and there isn’t anything that can be done. In those moments, you are unable to reach across the veil to touch this other place, even though you can see it, smell it, even taste the difference in the air. The Shadow world eludes you, and eventually the memory of it fades from your mind until you Daylight characters sometimes get a cursory brush up against it again. This continued expoglance of this darkened place and are frightened sure to a world so like your own and at the same back to the world of light while others get a taste time so different is what the barrier does. of something different, something darker and The ignorant assume these Twilight and find themselves inextricably pulled toward it. As Shadow worlds, this overlapping pocket of exissoon as they are pulled back to their proper world, tence, is somehow fundamentally different than many quickly return to the familiarity and safety the reality they know and live in. Expecting it to of the Daylight. Yet there are the few who find be a world of never-ending dusk and little sunthemselves stricken with an obsession to find this light save for some dramatic effect in a showdown, world — one like their own world, but through a those who manage to cross over are somewhat let mirror darkly. They go out of their way, chasing down that it isn’t any more grimy or gritty as their ghosts down dark alleys, listening attentively to own. Instead, they are startled to find it is more police scanners, all in the hopes of running into or less the same save for one thing: people who’ve one of those beings who live in this shadowed they passed by but never noticed stand out more, half-world. They don’t even know entirely why and regard you with something akin to wariness they do it. Perhaps it is because they want more tinged with respect. You’ve crossed over into their from the world, perhaps they are drawn to dark- world, and whether or not it was a willful decier elements. Try as they might, they have been sion, this acknowledgment comes with new extouched by it and seek to either know more of it or pectations: that you abide by the codes and stricworse — to become part of it. tures of this place and leave what you know of law Should a Daylight character find themselves and order behind you. pushing the boundaries into the Twilight, it should primarily be to act as a cautionary experience. To the otherwise uninitiated, this first glimpse into the Twilight is where they think underworld dwells: run down and abandoned industrial buildings, seedy nightclubs run by petty crime lords, or any place where desperate and amoral types might congregate. Assuming the
In this world of Assassins, there is but one true law: honor your word. If you cannot abide by oaths and contracts agreed to, you are considered an anathema and are marked as such, cut off from the aid of your Society by the Service — unless you are willing to do the unthinkable and cross back over.
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BLACK BOXES Black Boxes are large, complicated missions with a target to kill, serious opposition to contend with, and opportunities for the players’ characters to consider along the way. They aren’t intended to cover all the possibilities of player plans or actions, but to provide wide-ranging scenarios that ramp up in tension as the Assassins approach their ultimate target. These serve as example and template for creating your own Black Box.
to fantastical animals and the money to buy them isn’t why Lieutenant Governor Naismith has to die. Rather, it’s what the opposition will do with their access once he’s in federal halls of power.
OPERATION: POLITICAL ANIMAL
THE TIMELINE
A dangerous Shadow organization has fully suborned an up-and-coming politico, in the form of a flamboyant lieutenant governor. While not a dangerous individual himself, his political ascendency would give the opposition far too much power in coming years. Killing him shouldn’t be that difficult — except for the law enforcement it will attract, the opposition handler keeping an eye on him, and the enormous menagerie of dangerous exotic wildlife he’s acquired in the past few years.
THE TARGET Jeremy Augustus Naismith was born into affluence. His ivy-league education, time on the board of Fortune 500 company, and entry into politics were all forgone conclusions thanks to the privileges of birth and familial connection. He rails against Washington to excite his base, and against regulation to keep corporate money funding his political aspirations. Jeremy’s graft and corruption were small time before the opposition got to him: a lucrative state contract handed to a friend’s company over there, a blind eye turned to an inlaw’s company violating environmental dumping regulations over there. An interest in increasingly exotic, dangerous, and illegal pets gave the opposition an opportunity to get a future political star into their pocket, and now his familial mansion is half-filled with predatory cats, venomous snakes, and at least one honest-to-god dinosaur. The weapons deals and body dumping the opposition has gotten away with in return for access
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Naismith is only a Minor Threat himself. The Opposition handler assigned to keep him safe and under control, however, is another matter, as is the law enforcement response should the Lieutenant Governor’s death be obvious foul play.
• Naismith is at his most exposed in his mansion and menagerie. His law enforcement security detail is lightest here, and reinforcements from the state police are at least half an hour away. However, it won’t be long until he returns to the capital for the next round of glad-handing state officials and businesspeople, so the Assassins are on a clock. • 0 Ticks: Naismith arrives with Ms. Gray and a state police security detail. He goes to his private quarters, while she checks in with mansion security. Field: The mansion’s vestibule and front hallways. • 5 Ticks: The state police leave the area, while the house staff tend to his pets. Ms. Gray checks in with opposition interests and Naismith’s dealings from her office. Fields Naismith’s luxurious private quarters. • 10 Ticks: James Del Monte arrives, and Naismith gives him a tour of his pets. Ms. Gray oversees a security sweep. Field: The apex-predator filled menagerie. • 15 Ticks: James Del Monte leaves, and Naismith returns to his private quarters. Ms. Gray inspects parcel service deliveries. Field: Naismith’s quarters. • 20 Ticks: Naismith and Ms. Gray prepare to leave. Field: Ms. Gray’s spartan offices, the mansion’s hallways. • 25 Ticks: The state police security team arrives to escort Naismith back to the capital. Field: The Mansion’s vestibule and driveway.
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eventually. Potential rolls: Athletics + Dexterity to lock an opportune door, Manipulation + The forces on sight aren’t impressive: a Persuasion to convince Gray she’s needed in the half-dozen corrupt police deep in Naismith’s basem*nt. Fields: The mansion basem*nt, the depockets (Difficulty 2 Minor Threats), another livery entrance handful of opposition bodyguards under Ms. Suborning Ms. Gray (Difficulty 5, 3 Complication: Gray’s direct command (Difficulty 3 Moderate Threats), and twice that many would-be badasses The Opposition Knows We Did It) Ms. Gray’s profeswho are warm bodies that carry guns (Difficulty sional reputation is spotless; but poaching talent like 1 Minor Threats). In the case of open violence, hers from the opposition would be a coup. Doing so Ms. Grey uses the police as disposable distrac- runs the risk of direct rather than incidental attentions so she and the bodyguards can arm them- tion by that shadow organization; but having Gray selves with body armor and automatic weapons on one’s side will be useful for the mission, and in the from her office’s armory. Assuming the Assassins future as well. Potential rolls: Persuasion + Presence haven’t shut down communication, this also sig- for heartfelt personal pleas, Humanities + Cunning to nals a half hour countdown until a heavily armed turn her over matters of ideology. Fields: Ms. Gray’s response team from the State Police show up, be- spartan office.
THE SECURITY
ginning an escalating law enforcement response.
THE MANSION STAFF
MISSION STORIES
Naismith’s staff are a mixture of well-paid exotic veterinary specialists and criminal toughs who THE HANDLER impressed Naismith. Most are Minor Threats at Ms. Gray is never far from Naismith’s side. most, more dangerous if they escape to raise an Technically employed as a consultant, she actu- alarm than if they try to fight the Assassins. ally coordinates his activities with the opposiInfiltrating the Animal Staff (Difficulty 2, tion’s interests, organizes his security, and makes Complication 1: Tough Guy Attention): The rare sure he doesn’t stray off the leash. An attempt on animal staff changes often, and an Assassin with a Naismith’s life while she’s in play will turn into plausible story or a charming smile can put on a a full-fledged battle, as she takes up a defensive smock, pick up a haunch of raw meat, and pretend position, calling in support from opposition kill to be a new vet tech or postdoc student. As long teams until she is dead (or the Assassins are). an Assassin avoids Ms. Gray before blending into Separating Gray from Naismith (Difficulty 2, 3 Complication: She’s onto Us): If Gray thinks there’s a serious threat elsewhere or that opposition interests such as the local black market are endangered, the Assassins may be able to divert her. However, if they don’t cover their tracks, she’ll be a problem even if they do kill the Lieutenant Governor. Potential rolls: Larceny + Manipulation to fabricate threats, Science + Intellect for an explosive distraction. Fields: The mansion hall, the mansion basem*nt, Ms. Gray’s spartan office. Trapping Gray Without Her Phone (Difficulty 3, 2 Complication: She’s Out to Get Us): Ms. Gray inspects all of the deliveries to Naismith’s mansion as a matter of course. It’s possible to take advantage of that to take her off the field by simply locking her in the back of a delivery van or the mansion’s basem*nt, but she will get out of there
the crew, she’s unlikely to check her comprehensive staff list, but the various meatheads Naismith has hired might attempt to bully the “new hire” to unpredictable effect. Potential rolls: Larceny + Manipulation for a disguise, Culture + Composure to fit in with the locals. Fields: The mansion’s halls, the menagerie. Coercing a Petty Criminal (Difficulty 2, Complication 4: Delay): None of Naismith’s personal staff are underworld figures. At worst, some have brushes with assault or burglary charges that Naismith expunged. An Assassin hooked into the local Twilight and Shadow world should be able to figure out blackmail or exert other leverage over them. Despite Gray’s prodding, Naismith gave them widespread access to the mansion. However, they may be as unreliable for the Assassins as they have been for Naismith. Potential rolls: Persuasion + Manipulation for coercion, Empathy
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+ Resolve to let them cry it out. Fields: The man- the wires of the security system allows the Assassins sion’s halls, the mansion’s basem*nt. to take control of all the cameras, intercoms, and A Private Delivery (Difficulty 4, Complication closed-circuit radios Naismith’s security team and 2: Staff Presence): Convincing the mansion staff Ms. Gray uses. If they’re not careful, this will alert that the Assassins are couriers with a his-hands- Gray to the fact that something is wrong, and she’ll only package for Naismith is possible, but requires have the security team switch to using cell phones. Ms. Gray be occupied, and overcoming staff scru- Potential rolls: Technology + Dexterity to rewire tiny. If the Assassins go out of their way to bring the security system, Enigmas + Resolve to avoid an exotic animal with them, it should make mat- jumping the gun. Field: The mansion’s basem*nt.
Let the Big Cats Out (Difficulty 1, 4 Complication: There is a Tiger Stalking Us): The carnivore habitats in Naismith’s mansion are primarily secured against the animals escaping. Releasing them to cause a distraction or even in hopes of a rare albino tiger or Flux-touched crimson leopard killing Naismith themselves isn’t actually difficult; avoidSHORT STORIES ing the animals in the aftermath might be, however. Accessing the Manor’s Security System Potential rolls: Survival + Cunning to direct a big (Difficulty 2, 2 Complication: Security Knows cat, Athletics + Might to outrun other tiger food. Something’s Wrong): Getting physical access to Field: The menagerie. ters much easier (and count as 1-3 Enhancement, depending on the rarity of the animal.) Potential rolls: Persuasion + Manipulation to deceive the staff, Survival + Intellect to locate an appropriate animal, Fields: The delivery entrance, the mansion basem*nt.
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Introduce Us to Jimmy (Difficulty 2, 2 Complication: Gray Is Suspicious): James Del Monte, one of Naismith’s childhood friends and local businessman, visits to have drinks, discuss local gossip, and toss steaks to large carnivores. Getting in with “Jimmy” offers direct access to Naismith, but it will be under Gray’s unwavering surveillance unless the Assassins circumnavigate her. Potential Rolls: Persuasion + Presence to glad-hand with Jimmy, Integrity + Cunning to let nothing slip to Gray. Field: The vestibule, the menagerie
OPERATION: IMPORT/EXPORT The opposition has been funding its efforts through a network of maritime smuggling and crime that stretches worldwide. Eliminating its mastermind would strike a powerful blow against the shadow organization the network supports but involves infiltrating the stronghold of a paranoid and murderous woman with incredible resources and a mean streak.
THE TARGET Cassandra Callahan never allows anyone to say she’s not a self-made woman. The daughter of a shipping magnate passed over in favor of her younger siblings, Callahan clawed her way into control of her family’s company through ruthless business acumen, familial blackmail, and more than a little sorori- and fratricide. She discovered hints of the opposition while embarking on her campaign of corporate consolidation and family reduction and made herself available for the power and wealth they had on offer. Now, she manages worldwide smuggling and trade for the opposition out of a major port. Her removal would strike a major blow against the shadowy interests behind the opposition, but she keeps herself surrounded by hardened killers, has access to a wide range of dangerous and specialized equipment, and will unflinchingly burn down the entire waterfront if that’s what it takes to keep herself safe. Beyond Callahan’s death, her master shipping manifest enables action against the opposition’s smuggling network. Encrypted copies exist in her safe at her office and in her personal computer, but the time it would take to break them gives opposition interests time to scatter once Callahan’s
death becomes known. If the Assassins obtain the encrypted copies and Callahan’s personal passcodes, they will have achieved an impressive victory. Callahan is a Moderate Threat but arms herself with top-of-the-line equipment at any hint of violence. She’ll do anything to keep herself and her prosperity intact but possesses blind spots for individuals she considers harmless.
THE SECURITY Callahan’s security detail includes veterans of armed forces, mercenaries who have always worked in the Shadows, and other guns-for-hire (Difficulty 3, Moderate Threats with excellent equipment). Her smugglers are not as dangerous or practiced at violence and vigilance (Difficulty 1 Minor Threats) without equipment, but most are willing to resort to violence to protect themselves or the operation.
THE TIMELINE Callahan lives and works out of a converted warehouse in the dock district. A maze of shipping containers and constant construction obscures her interests from prying eyes, allowing her to access hidden supply caches and smuggling dens. The following timeline applies to Callahan’s working days. When she’s away from her warehouse and business, it’s in public places and without clear access to her master shipping manifest. Alerted to a serious threat to her life, Callahan will hop a fortified freighter headed for an opposition stronghold, but until then, the timeline holds. • 0 Ticks: Callahan prepares for her day in her fortified personal quarters, while her security detail makes a routine sweep of the front offices. The night shift works on the warehouse floor, readying shipments of untaxed or illegal goods for departure. Field: Fortified private quarters. • 5 Ticks: Callahan moves to the front offices, taking care of legitimate business over the phone and on her computer. Her security detail sweeps the warehouse floor. The day shift replaces the night shift, while the goods roll out. Fields: Industrial hallways, Cluttered front office. • 10 Ticks: New shipments arrive. Callahan inspects the goods as smugglers unload mislabeled cargo containers, panel vans full of stolen
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goods, and military weapons in their manufacture-issued packaging. Her security detail sweeps the area outside, ousting homeless and itinerant street sellers alike from the construction and shipping contain alleyways outside. Field: The loading floor. • 15 Ticks: Callahan returns to the front offices with smugglers in tow, to give out assignments and dispense praise and discipline. Her security detail keeps an eye on the warehouse floor. Field: Cluttered front office. • 20 Ticks: Callahan returns to her private quarters, taking her computer with her. Her security detail stands guard. On the floor, smugglers finish unloading and begin repacking goods for sale and transport elsewhere. Fields: Industrial hallways, fortified private quarters. • 25 Ticks: Callahan meets with ship captains and other business interests both legitimate and in Twilight, while the smugglers on the floor alternate between breaking for lunch and finishing repackaging. The security detail splits up to sweep the floor and the outside alleyways while this goes on. Fields: A surprisingly dusty meeting room. • 30 Ticks: Callahan returns to the floor to inspect packages loaded for shipment, security detail in tow. Field: The loading floor. • 35 Ticks: Callahan finishes business in the front office, locking her computer away when she finishes. The security detail oversees the loaded goods depart from the warehouse. Field: Cluttered front office. • 40 Ticks: Callahan heads back to her private quarters. The security detail splits, half guarding her, half sweeping the area again. Outside, the homeless and itinerant return to the maze, and the next crew of smugglers arrive, along with the new shipment of smuggled goods. Fields: Industrial hallways, fortified private quarters. • 45 Ticks: Callahan’s team locks down her quarters for the night. Field: Fortified private quarters.
MISSION STORIES THE SIBLING One of the smugglers is a surviving Callahan sibling who was never enough of a threat for Cassandra to kill. Theresa Callahan wants Cassandra dead, or at least gone, only slightly less than she depends on the lucrative income her sister’s smuggling empire affords her as an afterthought. Field: The loading floor. A Replacement (Difficulty 3, Complication 2: Boyfriend Trouble): The smugglers don’t know Theresa well, and Cassandra considers her a nonentity, even when she berates her for sloppy work. Replacing her is within the means of many Assassins. However, her boyfriend always meets her for lunch, and he might realize something is amiss. Potential rolls: Close Combat + Cunning to quietly remove Theresa, Larceny + Manipulation to Be Fake Theresa. A Scapegoat (Difficulty 4, Complication 1: Good Help Is Hard to Find): Pinning the destruction or theft of valuable merchandise on Theresa while Cassandra inspects the floor might get the younger Callahan berated or killed, which is an excellent diversion for stealing Cassandra’s passcodes right out of her wallet or setting her up for the kill. Unless, of course, Cassandra decides that the Assassin involved is the smuggler who is now responsible for Theresa. Potential rolls: Science + Manipulation for plausible sabotage, Engimas + Cunning to make it look like Thersea’s fault indirectly. A Coconspirator (Difficulty 3, Complication 3: No Wait—) Cassandra would never expect Theresa would have the backbone to try to kill her, which makes Theresa a valuable ally if an Assassin convinces the younger Callahan that she’ll survive the attempt. Preventing Theresa from jumping the gun is as difficult as convincing her to help murder her sister in the first place. Potential rolls: Empathy + Presence to convince Theresa she can be free of her sister, Command + Resolve to her on task.
THE BUSINESS PARTNER Steven Raulson was a well-respected businessman before he met Cassandra Callahan. Providing
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Callahan backing and connections early on in her career, Raulson watched her continued ascent leave his name in the mud, his income regularly audited by the IRS…and his hidden bank accounts absolutely flush. Despite the fact that Callahan is the author of both their fortunes, he meets with her regularly, and she tolerates his advice out of habit if nothing else. Trojan Horse (Difficulty 3, Complication 2: Tech Support?): Raulson is one of the few outsiders who has access to Callahan’s personal email address and phone number, making his regular morning emails and calls a potential avenue for compromising her personal laptop. If he notices something strange with his technology or phone, however, he’ll try to get more technologically competent help. Potential rolls: Technology + Intellect to compromise Raulson’s computer, Enigmas + Manipulation to social engineer access to his laptop. Field: Cluttered front offices, Raulson’s email. Local Color (Difficulty 2, Complication 3: Hey Leave Him Alone!): Raulson likes his sausages cooked in a streetside cart and owns more than a few “genuine Rolex” watches from his regular walks through the alleyways in the port district. It’s a good place to plant dangerous devices about his person, brace him for information or access, or try to replace him. However, the locals may take umbrage toward anyone accosting a regular customer. Potential Rolls: Larceny + Dexterity to plant a device on Raulson, Command + Presence to browbeat him into cooperation. Field: The shipping container maze.
SHORT STORIES Relief Shift Time (Difficulty 2, Complication 2: Why Are You Standing Around?) The smuggling crews are made up of a patchwork of former longshoremen, local criminals, and career transporters. It’s possible to fake being a relief shift or a crew that the current workers aren’t familiar with to get open access to the warehouse floor, but this may result in someone trying to give the Assassins actual work to do. Potential rolls: Larceny + Manipulation for a disguise, Culture + Composure to fit in with the locals. Field: The loading floor. The Classic (Difficulty 3, Complication 2: Misfire): Someone is using Callahan’s services to smuggle a functional Death Ray. The handheld device is incredibly lethal, with an unfortunate hair trigger. An Assassin should be able to figure out what to do with this. Potential rolls: Larceny + Cunning to steal it and hide its absence, Technology + Dexterity to prime it safely. Field: The loading floor
Clerical Errors (Difficulty 2, Complication 2: They Called Who!?): The secretaries and support personnel in the front office know they don’t work for an above-the-board operation but know little about Callahan’s actual business. Still, they provide physical access to her computer and personal effects when she’s gone, but they are the only people on the premises who might respond to the threatening presence of the Assassins by calling law enforcement, putting the whole operation on high alert when it becomes known. Potential rolls: Empathy + Composure to keep them calm, Technology + Intellect to quickly find and copy Breaking News (Difficulty 2, Complication the files. Field: The front office. 4: Wait You Can’t Go in There): Convincing Raulson that there’s something Callahan needs to know immediately isn’t particularly hard, and A major leader in the opposition has come out he’s one of the few people who can quickly get acin the open, leaving himself exposed. The art cess to Callahan’s fortified quarters even if she’s exhibition he’s attending has tight security, byoccupied. However, even if it’s Raulson leading standers everywhere, and the consequences for the way, it’ll be much harder to keep guards from failure would be catastrophic, but this is too good following interlopers as they approach Callahan. a chance to pass up. The Assassins strike a major Potential rolls: Culture +Presence to convince blow against the opposition and shift the balance Raulson the characters know something importof power in the Shadows forever. All they have to ant, Persuasion + Manipulation to confuse him do is infiltrate a major cultural event, foil worldinto complying. Field: The cluttered front office. class security, evade alert law enforcement, defeat their skilled contemporaries, and kill a man who’s killed more than the plague.
OPERATION: ONE CHECKMATE
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THE TARGET
THE TIMELINE
Felix Magnusson is a name that carries weight in the Shadows. Running operations and doing work for the opposition out of half a dozen European cities over the years, everyone thought he would take a back seat when he settled into a comfortable position as a troubleshooter for one of the opposition’s legitimate corporate concerns. This notion was dispelled when he personally executed the ringleaders of a transnational kidnapping ring who attempted to ransom one of Magnusson’s putative employers and then ordered the elimination of their coconspirators, and anyone who had been stupid enough to do business with them. Magnusson’s words stir the Shadows, and from his modest office in Copenhagen, his reach is global. His occasional indulgence in high society gallery openings and art shows open a rare chink in his armor, and Magnusson’s death at the hands of the Assassins could presage the collapse of the opposition. If he isn’t safe, who is?
The Metropolitan Exhibition for the Visual Arts takes place over three days, but Magnusson only attends during the second, when celebrities, artists, and literati meet amongst the exhibits and the general public is kept out. The Exhibition takes place in the new annex of the city art museum, art from notable (or at least fashionable) artist situated between thousand-dollar-a-plate dining, exclusive media access areas, and historically important (or just popular) pieces brought out from the museum’s permanent collection.
Felix Magnusson is a Major Threat with Assassin Masteries and years of experience. Public events separate him from most heavy weapons and specialized high-tech equipment, but given any warning, Magnusson will arm himself with top-of-the-line gear.
THE SECURITY The Metropolitan Exhibition for the Visual Arts attracts large crowds. The downtown area around the Exhibition patrolled by uniformed police officers (Difficulty 2 Minor Threats) on the lookout for anything from petty theft to vandalism to more serious crimes. Inside the Exhibition itself, expensive private security does its best to keep any unauthorized party-crashers out, and politely makes sure inebriated or careless guests don’t damage the art on display (Difficulty 3 Minor Threats). Two personal guards named Bernice and Donna accompanying Magnusson, acting as his personal assistants. Both are members of the opposition, fully realized Assassins ready to do whatever violence required of them should anyone threaten Magnusson or the opposition’s interests (Difficulty 4 Moderate Threats with Masteries). Donna carries a locked briefcase, a hidden panel concealing weapons for herself, Donna, and Magnusson.
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• 0 Ticks: Magnusson is in his secure accommodations off-site. The police patrol the crowds gathering to see the red-carpet arrivals, while museum staff and caterers finish preparations for the event. Field: None (Magnusson has not arrived yet). • 5 Ticks: Red-carpet arrivals begin. Police security is at its heaviest as celebrities, artists, and intellectuals arrive. Most use the media- and onlooker-swamped main entrance, but some have planned to arrive quietly through the museum’s loading dock, guarded by private security as well as more police. Magnusson arrives at the loading dock with his assistants, dropped off by a professional driver. Field: Tidied up loading dock. • 10 Ticks: Fashionable late red-carpet arrivals continue, including several of the biggest stars and most proactive artists. Private security is everywhere near the main entrance. Guests mill around the exhibits, talking to each other and celebrity media as caterers serve hors d’oeuvre. Magnusson talks to several artists and intellectuals in turn. Fields: Red carpet reception, In Front of Modern Art. • 15 Ticks: A speech by the museum’s chairman begins. Celebrities and attention-hungry guests wait until after the speech for more interviews with media, while some fashion-focused guests make wardrobe changes. Guests less interested in media attention take their seats for dinner, Magnusson amongst them. Outside, the police sweep around the area’s perimeter as the onlookers thin out. Field: Sparsely attended tables. • 20 Ticks: Dinner moves into full swing, appetizers replaced with the main courses. Magnusson
CHAPTER SIX: THE KILLING ART
has the fish, Bernice has the lamb, and Donna forgoes the meal. Museum security sweeps the Exhibition auxiliary and rear access, on the lookout for paparazzi, potential art thieves, or other unwelcome guests. Fields: Packed dining tables, The Men’s Room. • 25 Ticks: As dinner winds down, many guests move back to the exhibits to talk, network, and pose for the occasional photo. Magnusson talks to several more artists near their exhibits, inquiring about purchasing pieces. Field: In Front of Modern Art. • 30 Ticks: Guests leave, attracting crowds once more. Magnusson and his guards leave out the back entrance once more, amongst a larger crowd, including inebriated celebrities escorted by their assistants and minders. Field: The museum’s back hallways, a crowded loading dock. • 35 Ticks: Magnusson enters his secured vehicle and is chauffeured away. Field: A crowded loading dock, a packed city street.
MISSION STORIES THE CATERING STAFF Career and veteran curators, managers, and public relations personnel make up the museum staff in hand, well-known to each other and vetted far in advance. The catering services, however, suffer from rapid turnover and unforgiving schedules, and are much easier to infiltrate as a new hire, assuming an Assassin doesn’t secure a part time position in advance. A Seat to Kill For (Difficulty 2, Complication 3: Go Help with Appetizers): Last minute seating changes aren’t expected, but aren’t a surprise, either. Moving Magnusson’s unobtrusive corner seat to a more exposed or a more isolated seat is possible, as is gaining access to the area he’ll be sitting in. The real catering staff won’t hesitate to try to give the Assassins more pressing work, potentially attracting undue attention. Potential rolls: Culture + Cunning to come up with a plausible reason to move seats, Persuasion + Presence to
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convince the staff they don’t care. Field: Frenetic red-carpet can be taken advantage of by the aumuseum staff room. dacious to suggest themselves as a museum-hired Secret Ingredients (Difficulty 3, Complication assistant, potential artistic collaborator, or date 3: Prep Work): Catering management watches for the night. Waltzing in as a celebrity guest over the food closely, ensuring that they don’t serve is one way to avoid close inspection by security, vegan doyens of fashion garlic crusted lamb and but also runs the risk of being the direct focus of that Euro-pop stars aren’t accidentally murdered media attention. Potential rolls: Humanities + by allergic reactions to crab bisque. However, Manipulation to convince Sidney you’re interestcareful plate and table management means there’s ing, Integrity + Presence to be genuinely interesta chance to get access to Magnusson’s food or ing. Field: Off the red carpet. be assigned to deliver his meal, assuming the Assassins avoid the wrong kind of attention in the kitchen. Potential rolls: Science + Cunning for hard to detect food additives, Larceny + Dexterity to just dose it with rat poison when no one’s looking. Field: Frenzied, overstaffed kitchen.
Macrodosing (Difficulty 1, Complication: 4 Tripping): Sidney Red expounds on their belief in microdosing with half-a-dozen rare and boutique hallucinogens in every interview they give, and they are continuing their psychoactive regimen here at the Exhibition, as they try to fill their empty art-space. It doesn’t take much to convince Sidney to indulge to the point where their subsequent bad trip provides an attention-grabbing distraction, but an Assassin doing so has to be careful that the skin-absorbent co*cktail the artist favors doesn’t bring the killer along for the trip. Potential rolls: Science + Dexterity to safely direct drug addled Sidney, Engimas + Stamina to navigate the world whilst tripping. Fields: In Front of Modern Art, the Museum’s back hallways.
To Ensure Exceptional Service (Difficulty 3, Complication 2 Full Stalls): It’s low to attack a man attending to the call of nature, and perhaps lower to replace the bathroom attendant so that one can wait in ambush without arousing suspicion. That does not make it a bad idea. It is of the few places Magnusson will be without his guards, but the trick may be confronting him without alerting the other, more mundane visitors to the lavatory. Potential rolls: Integrity + Manipulation to wordlessly convince the locals they shouldn’t Celebrity Introductions (Difficulty 2, question your presence, Close Combat + Cunning Complication: 3 It’s Patty Hearst All Over to try and silent engage in hand-to-hand combat. Again): Despite their eccentricities and difficulField: The restrooms. ties, Sidney Red meets-and-greets with the best of them, doing the rounds of glad-handing potential THE PLUS ONE patrons of the arts and useful contacts in the art Mixed media artist, outspoken critic of fos- world. Steering them toward the reclusive but wellsil fuels, and famous disaster human Sidney Red heeled Felix Magnusson is possible, but should any attends the Exhibition, despite their publicized violence break out, the chances that Sidney attachbreak from their previous partners of six months es themselves to their erstwhile partner in an atand three weeks, respectively. Originally slat- tempt to “help” are distressingly high. Potential ed to present a sculpture-and-recorded-ambi- rolls: Culture + Manipulation to blend in with the ent-sounds piece, Sidney destroyed the half-fin- glitterati, Larceny + Cunning to avoid the opposiished work and now plans to occupy their allotted tion’s lines of sight. Field: In front of Modern Art. space with…something. Sidney is volatile, impul- SHORT STORIES sive and has free access to wide swaths of the Found Art (Difficulty 1, Complication 2: museum space without question, while lacking a Collateral Art Complication 2: Get Away from date, assistant, or other body to fill the seat next to There!): One of the exhibits is the Guttering them at dinner. Flame of Liberty, a multicolored flame fueled by Why Haven’t We Done This Before? an inflammable mix of gases concealed in the (Difficulty: 1 Complication 4: So What Do You piece’s base. Whether a pyrotechnic distraction or Do): Dropped off by a driver hired by the museum, an improvised explosive device, Assassins should Sidney’s slow and uncertain approach toward the
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be able to figure out ample uses for this high energy art but may find issues doing so without being noticed or setting a larger fire than they intended. Potential rolls: Technology + Intellect to rig it to blow, Science + Stamina to conceal one’s approach with pyrotechnics. Field: In front of Modern Art. Hard Questions (Difficulty 3, Complication 2: Please Stop Talking, Complication 1: No Pictures!): Press badges, bulky camera equipment, and the right attitude can get a would-be journalist past a number of barriers, and people at the Exhibition are here to be seen. A few fake interviews and photo-ops provide the Assassins “legitimate” access to the Exhibit, assuming they aren’t called out as paparazzi, or cornered by a B-list celebrity desperately trying to restart their career. Potential rolls: Culture + Intellect to navigate who’s who, Empathy + Resolve to successfully engage with exhausting huma beings. Field: Off
the red carpet. I’m Here to Help (Difficulty 2, Complication 3: Babysitter to the Stars): Every year, celebrities and artist alike end-up overindulging in drink, recreational drugs, or forget their medication interactions. The nursing station on-site doubles as a discrete space to sober up or arrange a quiet exit out the back; faking medical credentials during a minor emergency is a fantastic way to be welcome museum-wide during the exhibit. It’s also an excellent way to get every alcohol-poisoned starlet or cocaine-paranoid performance artist dumped into an Assassin’s lap, with the expectation of care firmly established. Potential rolls: Medicine + Intellect to provide first aid with time to spare, Command + Manipulation to convince everyone to listen to Dr. Assassin. Field: The dining tables, the restrooms.
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To make things easier, we’ve compiled several tables and references from the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook to assist Assassins players and Storyguides.
CHARACTER CREATION QUICK GUIDE STEP ONE: CONCEPT (P. XX) • Decide on a short concept, and pick two Shortterm and one Long-term Aspirations.
STEP TWO: PATHS (P. XX) • Select three paths. One Origin or Nemesis, one Role, and one Society. • Distribute 3 dots in Skills associated with each Path for a total of 9 Skill dots. • Distribute 2 dots in Edges associated with each Path for a total of 6 Edge dots.
STEP THREE: SKILLS, SKILL TRICKS, AND SPECIALTIES (P. XX)
STEP FIVE: APPLY ASSASSIN TEMPLATE (P. XX) • Determine moment of Inspiration and gain an additional Attribute dot. Choose from Botched Job, Bullet Ballet, Captured by the Enemy, Chance Birth, Exposure to Flux, The First Mission, A Plan Came Together, Rising Star, Saving Someone Else’s Life, Social Challenge, Sprung a Trap, Ultimate Con, and Violence.
STEP SIX: ADD ADVANTAGES (P. XX) • Gain 4 Masteries. • Distribute 3 dots into Intuitive, Reflective, and Destructive Facets. Calculate Inspiration.
• Distribute 3 additional Skill dots to any Skills.
STEP SEVEN: FINAL TOUCHES (P. XX)
• For any Skills above 3 dots, gain a Specialty.
• Gain bonus traits: 1 additional dot in one Attribute; four points of Edges (which can be outside of Paths); and Experience points if the Storyguide awards any.
• Gain a single Skill Trick in a Skill rated 3 or higher.
STEP FOUR: ATTRIBUTES (P. XX) • Rank Attribute Arenas. Distribute 6 dots to the Primary, 4 to Secondary, 2 to Tertiary. • Select Favored Approach and distribute 1 dot in each Attribute in the Favored Approach. (No Attribute can go above 5.)
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• Health: 1 additional Injured at Stamina 3, and one additional Bruised at Stamina 5. • Defense: Equal to 1.
WEAPON TAGS All weapon tags are considered to be general unless otherwise specified.
AGGRAVATED (2)
DRONE (2; RANGED ONLY)
Any injury inflicted with this weapon is extremely Requires a weapon to have the Remote Link severe and inflicts a persistent injury on the target. Tag. Persistent Injury: Some weapons inflict more grievous wounds than others. Persistent injuries take double the amount of time to heal and require double the number of successes to treat with first aid.
AUTOMATIC (2; RANGED ONLY)
The weapon moves freely around the battlefield after being set up. Characters with a Dronetag weapon may make Mixed Actions with Aim, making the second shot with -2 dice. Setting it up takes an action.
ENHANCED SCOPES (1 PER; RANGED ONLY)
This gun fires multiple rounds when the trigger is held down. Allows use of the Emptying the Each scope grants the user a different type of Magazine Stunt. enhanced sight. A single weapon can have all of them. The scopes provide the following additional BRUTAL (1) benefits: This weapon can inflict truly massive trauma on its target. This weapon reduces the successes necessary for the Critical Stunt by one.
CHARGE (1; RANGED ONLY) Charge weapons need to be reloaded after every shot, but pack a larger punch. Charge weapons gain +1 Enhancement towards inflicting Injury Conditions. A weapon with this tag must be recharged or reloaded after every single use.
CONCEALABLE (2)
Night Vision Ignore penalties or Complications from darkness.
Thermal Gain +1 enhancement to spot hidden targets.
X-ray Ignore cover and concealment.
EXPANDED MAGAZINE OR DRUM MAGAZINE (2,3; RANGED ONLY)
The expanded magazine holds a ludicrous This weapon is easier than usual to hide on your amount of ammunition, which allows the wielder person, giving you a +1 Enhancement on any task to “empty the magazine” twice per scene without that involves concealing the weapon. reloading. The drum magazine lets the wielder do so four times.
DEADLY (1)
Weapons with this tag are particularly good at EXPLOSIVE, PLANTED (2) dealing serious injury. Healing an injury caused by The Explosive tag means that the weapon is some this weapon is more difficult. Doing so requires an form of explosive device. The player must make extra success on the first aid roll. a Technology roll (Difficulty 2) to plant the device successfully. From that point forward, he may detoDISGUISED (1) nate it at any time, or set a triggering condition. The Assassin’s weapon appears as something Once triggered, players in the radius of the deelse, whether it be a briefcase gun, a sword in an vice must make an Athletics roll to get out of the umbrella, or a single shot firearm in a tube of lip- blast radius. The Difficulty of the roll is equal to stick. Without an x-ray or a metal detector, the the initial Technology roll made by the person weapon is impossible to discover.
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who set the explosive device. The radius of the explosion encompasses everything within close range of the explosive.
EXPLOSIVE, THROWN OR RANGED (2) The Explosive tag means that the weapon is some form of explosive device. Resolve throwing or shooting a grenade or explosive just as you would any other attack with the Thrown or Ranged tag. On a successful attack, all other people in close range of the target must make an immediate Athletics roll (Difficulty 1) or suffer the effects of the blast. If the explosive misses, it detonates harmlessly in the background somewhere.
Surprise Shot (Variable) Once per combat, when the wielder misses an attack, they may bank the successes from this roll and apply them as an enhancement bonus on a second attack that uses the Aim skill.
HEAVY WEAPON (1)
Heavy weapons are powerful weapons that increases the Scale of the user’s attacks by 1. The weapon provides the user with a +1 Enhancement, in addition to the +2 Enhancement automatically provided by an increase in Scale, (for a total of +3 Enhancement) towards inflicting Injury Conditions. However, such weapons are always especially slow and cumbersome to use. Players EXTENDABLE BAYONET using the weapon increase the Difficulty of all (1; RANGED ONLY) Athletics feats and Defensive rolls by +1. This A rifle with this attachment has a hidden pneu- tag cannot be combined with the Concealable or matic bayonet. The weapon can be used with Worn tags. Close Combat in addition to Aim.
GAS (3) This attack produces a gas cloud that affects everyone within close range of the target. Gas damage ignores armor unless the armor in question has environmental protection against suffocation. Gas attacks disperse after five rounds unless used in small, enclosed spaces like the room of a house or a spacecraft corridor, and even there they disperse within five minutes.
HIGH-FREQUENCY (3; MELEE ONLY) Flipping a switch, a weapon with the high-frequency tag emits a low-pitched hum as it vibrates. Its magnetic vibrations allow the wielder to defend himself against firearms. When taking a full defense against ballistic weapons, the wielder may use Close Combat and purchase the following stunt:
Deflect the Bullet (Variable):
The Assassin does not lash out wildly when she reacts. After deflecting a ballistic attack, she may apply The weapon is small, requires a limited range the successes from this stunt as an attack roll against of motion, or is otherwise easy to use when grap- another target in the scene. The only stunt that may be purchased with this attack is Inflict Damage. pling with an opponent.
GRAPPLE (1)
GRAPPLING HOOK (1)
INCENDIARY (2)
Weapons with the Incendiary tag inflict damage The weapon is equipped with a grappling hook. The grappling hook provides 1 Enhancement on by burning things. Incendiary weapons can ignite climbing rolls and allows firearms to purchase the flammable objects, creating additional environmental threats (as determined by the Storyguide). Disarm stunt within short range. Typical blazes caused by incendiary weapons GUNBLADE (2; MELEE ONLY) such as flame throwers have a damage rating simA shotgun barrel runs down the back of this ilar to their use as a weapon. A critical effect with blade. The weapon is too inaccurate to be used at such a weapon will ignite any potentially flamrange but grants the following Stunt to close com- mable target instead of inflicting an extra Injury Condition, causing the target to take continuous bat attacks. damage per round.
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mounting. Setting up a mount takes one action. Players cannot set up and fire a weapon with this Some assassins inscribe a mantra onto their tag on the same turn. weapon. Once per session, repeating the mantra while firing or swinging the weapon allows NON-PENETRATING (0) them to ignore Injury Conditions for that action. A weapon with this tag excels at damaging unAlternatively, they may treat the weapon like a armored targets but has difficulty penetrating arward against fear, and may ignore any fear, panic, mor. The weapon gains a +1 Enhancement, but also or terror-based Conditions for the duration of the doubles the value of all soft armor encountered. action. Either benefit may only be used once per scene.
INSCRIPTION (1)
PIERCING (1)
INTEGRATED (2)
Weapons with this tag are excellent at defeating The integrated tag represents a spring-loaded armor by finding gaps or punching through. Any weapon that has been placed into the bones of an piercing weapon reduces the target’s armor rating Assassin. Integrated weapons are impossible to by 1. spot unless the person looking at them has medPLASMA (3; MELEE ONLY) ical training, or special technology (such as infraIn an instant, white-hot flames lick the length red googles). Also, the user can purchase the folof the weapon, as the air around it ripples and iglowing Stunt on ambush rolls: nites. The weapon deals damage to vehicles and SUDDEN STAB (1S) structures as though it had +1 Scale. Also, the As Inflict Damage wielder may purchase the following stunt:
MELEE (0)
Melt (4)
The Assassin uses the intense flame of his weapA handheld weapon, meant to be used at close on to sear through inferior weapons. This stunt range. Use the Close Combat Skill to wield melee destroys a single weapon or item the target is carweapons. rying. Non-powered items affected by this stunt cannot be repaired through conventional means. MONOMOLECULAR BLADE
(2; MELEE ONLY)
PROPULSION (1; MELEE ONLY)
Monomolecular blades are so sharp that no The propulsion property involves a spring-loadarmor exists that can hold up to them. The effeced trigger being inserted under the blade, which can tiveness of soft armor is halved (round up) against this weapon. Also, characters can purchase the launch the blade (short-range) using either Aim or Close following stunt. This tag can only be placed on Combat. Afterward, the weapon must be reloaded. edged weapons.
Focused Slash (targets armor rating +1)
PUSHING (1)
This weapon is heavy, large, or otherwise The precise cuts from this blade allow the well-adapted to pushing foes around the battlewielder to choose the severity of the target’s in- field. You reduce the successes required to use the jury condition. Shove Stunt by 1.
MOUNT (1; RANGED ONLY) This weapon gains both the Brutal and the Deadly tags. However, to use this weapon effectively, it must be mounted on a tripod or stand. The weapon only has half (rounded up) the usual Enhancement rating when used without
QUALITY (2 OR 3) This weapon is extremely well made and good at what it does. It gives an additional point of Enhancement. The two-point version of this tag increases the Enhancement by 1; the three-point variant increases the Enhancement by 2.
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RANGED (1)
Flame: Burn (2 successes)
Applies 1 Complication on the target. If not The Ranged tag allows a weapon to be used bought off, the target takes an injury condition. against a target at range categories other than close. Players use the Aim Skill to construct dice Detonator: Detonation (3 successes) pools for ranged weapons. This tag must include Can be used to trigger explosives a target is a specific range — such as short-ranged or medium-ranged — representing the optimal range of wearing or explosives at range. Follows the rules that weapon. Firing at any range other than the for explosive (planted). optimal range adds 1 to the Difficulty of an attack. Acidic: Corrode (2+ successes) Also, firing a ranged weapon in close range comes Reduces armor by one per two successes spent. with an additional +2 Difficulty.
REACH (1)
EMP: Disable (Variable)
Disables an electronic device. Weapons and A weapon with a long shaft, or one where the Vehicles cost successes equal to the total numend of the weapon can reach up to six feet or ber of tags they possess. Other equipment should more away (like a whip). Reach weapons gain +1 cost between 1 (civilian appliances) and 5 (miliEnhancement when using the Complicate Stunt. tary-grade gear).
REMOTE LINK (2; RANGED ONLY)
Ice: Melt (1 success)
The Assassin sets an automated weapon on The ice bullet melts away, leaving no trace. its mount with a Technology + Cunning roll at Ballistics and forensic investigation cannot link Difficulty 2, allowing them to fire the gun remotely an ice shot to the character. However due to the projectile’s fragility the wielder may not purchase RESTRICTED (0) the Critical stunt. This weapon is illegal for civilians to own alTaser: Electro (variable) most everywhere, and is typically only found in The target is stunned, for a number of rounds the hands of soldiers, police special forces, and equal to the successes spent on this Stunt. exceptionally daring and violent criminals.
SHIELD (2) Weapons with the Shield tag are better at defending than attacking. Characters receive a +1 to their Defense when wielding a weapon with the Shield tag.
SILENT (1)
Tracker (1 success)
The tracker round deals no damage but will provide location data on the target to the Assassin for 24 hours. The difficulty to locate a target struck by the tracker round is reduced by two. If the Assassin has a Mastery that allows them to automatically locate a target, they do not need to pay its cost while a tracker is embedded in their target.
This weapon is far quieter than normal weapToxic Dart (variable) ons, either through the use of a silencer or by Inflicts the Paralyzed Condition for a number of being a thin blade. When this weapon is fired or rounds equal to the successes spent on the Stunt. used, increase the Difficulty of hearing it by 2. This is a poison for the purpose of immunities.
SPECIALIZED AMMUNITION (1 PER; RANGED ONLY)
Knockout Dart (variable)
The target becomes drowsy. They take a cuThe weapon is modified to fire an array of difmulative 1 Complication for a number of rounds ferent ammunition. A single gun can be modified equal to the number of successes to spent on the to fire multiple ammo types but switching types Stunt. If the target fails to buy it off, then they fall requires a reload action. asleep and are Taken Out.
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Rage Inducing Dart
U-LINK (2; RANGED ONLY)
As Knockout Dart. If the Complication is not A camera at the end of the weapons links to a bought off, the target must attack the nearest pair of glasses or contact lenses, granting the user character to them. unparalleled accuracy. Target’s defense values are treated as one lower against attacks made with Panic Inducing Dart this weapon. As Knockout Dart. If the Complication is not VARIABLE AMMO (2, 3) bought off, they flee the scene in a panic.
SPREAD (1) This weapon emits a spread of projectiles or energy. Attacking with a spread weapon reduces the target’s Defense by 2 at close or short range. A weapon with this tag may be used at longer ranges, but it cannot inflict the penalty to Defense, and its Enhancement bonus is reduced by 1.
STUN (1) A weapon with the Stun tag does not inflict damage when purchasing the Inflict Damage Stunt Instead, it inflicts the Stunned Status Condition with a +2 Complication instead.
TACTICAL SIGHT (1; RANGED ONLY) Allows the weapon to work at full effectiveness at an additional range.
TWO-HANDED (1) This weapon requires two hands to use, but packs a bigger punch. Two-handed weapons gain +1 Enhancement towards inflicting Injury Conditions.
THROWN (1) This weapon can be thrown at targets using the Athletics Skill. Thrown weapons can be used in both close and short range with no penalty.
This projectile weapon can fire multiple types of ammunition, each of which can have a different set of tags, most often Explosive (ranged), Gas, Incendiary, Non-penetrating, Piercing, Spread, or Stun. The value of the variable tag is equal to the cost of the most expensive tag this ammo can use (either 2 or 3). All ammunition fired by this weapon also possesses any additional tags the weapon has. The user must spend an action to switch between different types of ammunition.
WALL PENETRATING (2; RANGED ONLY) Wall penetrating firearms punch through cement. The tag provides the following stunt:
Like Wet Tissue (1, 2, or 4) The shooter can punch right through cover provided he knows where his target lies. The number of successes needed is based on the cover (1 or expendable, 2 for light, 4 for heavy)
WEIGHTED (1; MELEE ONLY) This weapon is especially well weighted and good at pushing targets around. Reduces the number of successes needed for the Knockdown/Trip and Shove Stunts by 2.
WORN (1) This weapon is strapped to or worn on your body in some way. Worn weapons are not subject to disarm.
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ARMOR TAGS Close Combat attacks. Just as common as scarves, are cloaks, oversized sleeves and capes that serve Thousands of tiny cameras and screens cover the same function. the active camo suit. They scan and project the same color as the environment onto the outfit. It GOGGLES (1 PER) grants the wearer a +2 Enhancement bonus on These goggles or glasses are outfitted with night Stealth and allows the wearer to disappear even in vision, thermal, or x-ray. bright light, with no cover.
ACTIVE CAMO (2)
BIOMETRIC DUPLICATOR (2)
HARD ARMOR (1, 3)
Hard armor grants the wearer one additional The armor feature equipment that can dupliInjury Condition box. The one-point version of cate all biometric functions of a target; fingerthe tag gives one condition box, and the threeprints, irises, voices, etc. after scanning them. point version gives two. Once filled, the boxes CHAMELEON MASK (3) stay filled until the end of the scene. There is no Complication attached to the Injury Condition The Chameleon mask allows the wearer to take box provided by hard armor. a scan of someone’s face with the attached scanner and then project that image onto their face. HARDENED (1) The scanning process takes one minute and must Renders the wearer’s equipment immune to be done at close range. The wearer gains a 4-point electronic interference. Provides a +1-enhanceenhancement bonus on checks to impersonate the ment bonus against all such effect. person they scanned.
CHEMICAL INJECTOR (2)
INNOCUOUS (2)
Armor with this tag is indistinguishable from Chemical injectors installed in the armor renormal clothing. lease painkillers when the wearer is injured. The wearer ignores the penalties from bruised JET BOOTS (2) conditions. Installed in the wearer’s boots, this short-burn COMPOSITE ARMOR (2) jet propulsion system allows the wearer to fly for The Composite Armor tag represents armor six turns, before running out of fuel. Landing acthat is effective against two types of damage. curately or maintaining flight while doing someWhen you add this tag to a piece of armor, you thing else is a Pilot + Dexterity roll, which may be part of a mixed action. The Assassin may only use must also select the type of damage. the jet boots once per session.
CONCEALABLE (2)
MAGNETIC FIELD (3)
This type of armor is not immediately noticeA personalized magnetic field surrounds the able. Another character must make an Analyze roll with a Difficulty equal to the wearer’s Larceny) to Assassin. The wearer gains 2 Enhancement to their Defense rolls against ballistic weapons as the see that a person is wearing armor with this tag. field redirects bullets away from its wielder.
DISTRACTING SCARF (2)
NANITES (3)
This scarf is a long flowing garment used to Nanites in the armor seek out damage and try to confuse attackers and hider their movements. repair it. The wearer heals two injuries, starting It grants 1 enhancement to defense rolls against with the most severe, at the end of every fight.
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SOFT ARMOR (1, 2, 3)
STAGED DEATH (1)
Soft armor increases the Difficulty of the Inflict When shot or stabbed, the armor bleeds, giving Damage Stunt by 1. Soft armor can be taken up to a +3 enhancement on rolls made to trick people 3 times. into believing the wearer is dead.
SOUND-DAMPENED BOOTS (1)
SUIT (1)
The wearer makes no noise when they move. The armor appears to all viewers to be a polThe difficulty of hearing the wearer’s approach is ished designer suit (or other high-end clothing). increased by two. It provides a +1 enhancement on Command rolls.
VEHICLE TAGS The basic vehicle template for ground, air, and water vehicles starts at Size 1, Handling +0, Speed 2, before adding tags.
ARMOR (1 TO 3)
The vehicle has armor. All vehicle armor possesses the Composite Armor tag. Each dot of armor provides the vehicle and its occupants with AI ASSIST (1) one point of both hard and soft armor, so Armor 3 The car features an onboard AI that assists with provides the vehicle with 3 points of hard armor driving. The Pilot gains 1 Enhancement when tak- and 3 points of soft armor. The amount of armor ing mixed actions. on a vehicle cannot exceed its Size.
AIRBORNE-AMPHIBIAN (1)
BLADES (1)
This vehicle can both fly and move across The vehicle features sturdy blades or spikes that the water as a boat with equal ease, but cannot can be used to damage other vehicles or people as submerge. it drives past. Dealing damage with these blades works like a close combat attack, except the driver ALL-TERRAIN (1) uses Pilot + Dexterity. All-terrain vehicles gain bonuses in handling rough off-road conditions. While traversing of- CALL BUTTON (2) froad paths, ATVs reduce handling penalties by 2. With the push of a button, the vehicle will drive Walking vehicles also possess this tag. itself as close to its owner as possible. It will go
AMPHIBIOUS (1) Amphibious vehicles can move across both land and water or with equal ease but cannot submerge.
through walls if commanded and able.
CARGO (1+)
Vehicles with this tag have additional space afforded to cargo, optimizing their hauling capacity ANTI-THEFT (1) without sacrificing mobility. The higher the ratBiometric and electronic security makes steal- ing, the more cargo a vehicle can carry. A vehicle’s ing this vehicle difficult. Attempting to steal cargo rating must always be at least 1 less than its or otherwise operate the vehicle without the Size. proper bio-signatures or access keys provides Each dot of Cargo allows a vehicle to carry up a +2 Complication, and failure to buy off this to 2 vehicles of that size, or up to 20 vehicles of Complication causes the vehicle’s alarm to trigger, one Size smaller. Cargo capacity can instead be which also usually alerts the owner and often the fitted to carry passengers, with Cargo 1 holding police. either 20 passengers in comfortable seats suitable
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for journeys of less than a day or twice that many EXTERNAL PROJECTOR (2) in cramped seats, one passenger in a roomy luxThe vehicle is equipped with projectors all over ury cabin suitable for multiday journeys, two its surface that allow it to appear as another vehipassengers in small cabins, or four passengers in cle of similar shape and size. This provides a 2-dot cramped, shared cabins. Each additional point of enhancement to disguise or hide the vehicle. Cargo multiplies the passenger capacity by 10.
CHAFF (1+)
FAST (1+)
For ground, air, and water vehicles only. The vehiThe vehicle has a spring-loaded container of cle increases its Speed Scale by 1 for each point taken. aluminum scraps that can be deployed reflexively to give the vehicle a 2-dot enhancement bonus FLIGHT SYSTEMS (0) against missiles or other explosives. Each purThis tag indicates that a vehicle has a complex chase provides the vehicle with another use of computer system inside it which allows for atmochaff in a scene. spheric flight.
COMPLEX (0)
The vehicle is sufficiently large and complex that people without specialized training or experience operating this type of vehicle have difficulty piloting it. People without this training suffer a +1 Complication when operating it. The vehicle also increases its Size by +1.
CREW REQUIRED (−1 OR −3) Vehicles with this tag require more than a single pilot to function properly. At −1, a co-pilot and perhaps an optional navigator are required, while at −3, up to a dozen crewmembers may be required to maintain proper functionality. At the Storyguide’s discretion, lacking the proper crew either adds a Complication or increases the Difficulty of handling and other rolls required to use the vehicle and its systems by an amount equal to the degree that the actual crew falls short of the required number.
DEBRIS RESERVE (1)
GRAPPLING HOOK (2) The vehicle features a gigantic grappling hook that can be used to grapple and pull targets using the grappling rules. The grappling hook is a ranged weapon. An attack with the grappling hook can inflict damage. When involved in a grapple, a vehicle uses Pilot + Dexterity.
HOVER (1) The vehicle is a type of hovercraft, enabling it to move up to close range (two meters) above the ground. As a result, it may ignore some environmental hazards (such as spike strips, oil spills, or cracks in the road) at the Storyguide’s discretion. Hovercraft may drive across open water, but they also reduce their handling rating by 1 while there. Hover vehicles, outside of certain experimental models, cannot take the Stealthy tag.
MANEUVERABLE (1 TO 3)
This tag adds 1 Enhancement to handling for The driver can make a Technology + Cunning each point taken. to create a difficult environment. The difficulty of the field is equal to half the successes spent MASSIVE (1+) (round up, minimum one). This tag, which may be taken multiple times, increases the vehicle’s Size and Durability Scales by EJECTOR SEATS (1) 1 each time it is taken. Each additional Size rank The vehicle features ejector seats that propel also adds an additional Condition box. the user free of the car and into the air. Anytime the vehicle would be destroyed, the driver and MILITARY (1) passengers escape unharmed just before the vehiThe vehicle is a specialized piece of military cle goes up in an explosion of fiery debris. hardware that is very difficult for people without
180
APPENDIX
specialized training or experience to operate. TOOLS (1) People without a military Path or related Specialty The vehicle possesses large, externally mountsuffer a +3 Complication when operating it. The ed tools that can be operated from inside the vehivehicle also possesses the Weaponry 2 tag for free. cle. Examples include large drills, a pair of powerful robotic arms, a forklift, or a backhoe. RAM (3) The vehicle deals double damage to structures and cover when ramming into them and suffers no damage in the process.
REMOTE CONTROLLED (4) The vehicle can be driven remotely using a mobile device. Doing so uses Cunning instead of Dexterity.
SLUGGISH (−1 TO −3) As the opposite of Maneuverable, this tag adds Complications to handling actions.
SOLID RUBBER TIRES (1) The vehicle ignores difficult terrain, due to its increased traction and solid tires/treads.
STEALTHY (2) The vehicle is equipped with sound-dampening devices, active visual camouflage, or light-refracting “cloaks.” It gains 2 Enhancement on all rolls made to avoid notice.
SUBMERSIBLE (1)
TREADS (1) Treaded vehicles more easily cover off-road paths, reducing Complications and speed penalties associated with them by 1.
WATERCRAFT (0) This craft can float and can move across the water.
WEAPONRY (1 TO 2) The vehicle comes with standard armaments. For the 1-point version of this tag, the weapons have a Scale equal to half the vehicle’s Size (rounded up). The weapons have a Scale equal to the vehicle’s Size for the 2-point version of this tag. The vehicle’s weapons have the Ranged tag and a number of other tags equaling at least 1 less than the cost of the vehicle. The weapons are adjusted for any increases in Scale. Each use of this tag provides the vehicle with up to two different weapons.
WHEELED (0)
A wheeled vehicle performs at an average level This vehicle can move both on and under water. over normal terrain, without bonus or penalty.
Vehicle Tags
181
ENHANCEMENT ENHANCEMENT VALUE
CIRc*msTANCE EXAMPLE
EQUIPMENT EXAMPLE
1
Minor
The programming language is familiar
Damn fine coffee
2
Notable
You’ve been recommended for the job
Step-by-step instructions
3
Significant
A security guard tells you all about how they protect the place you want to infiltrate
A video perfect for blackmail
4
Major
You get secret access to the security feeds
Zero-day exploit for a computer hacker
5+
Extreme
You act guided by prescience
A space shuttle
XP EARN TABLE EVENT
XP EARNED
RECIPIENT
A player achieves their Short-term Aspiration for their character
1
Solo
All players achieve one Short-term Aspiration in the same Session
1
Group
A player achieves their Long-term Aspiration for their character (all 2 players must complete their Long-term Aspirations before a player can earn this Experience again)
Solo
The players spend half the available Momentum in a single scene (the 1 amount spent must be greater than 1)
Group
The characters reach a Story milestone
1
Group
The characters complete a group Story
3
Group
XP SPEND TABLE OBJECT
CHANGE
COST
Attribute
Add one dot to a single Attribute
10 Experience
Edge
Add one dot in a new or existing Edge
3 Experience
Edge
Add one dot in a new or existing Path Edge
2 Experience
Enhanced Edge
Gain a new Enhanced Edge (even if it is a Path Edge)
6 Experience
Facet
Add one dot to a single Facet
10 Experience
Favored Approach
Change a character’s Favored Approach
15 Experience
Mastery
Purchase a new Path Mastery
4 Experience
Mastery
Purchase a new Mastery not associated with a Path
5 Experience
Skill
Add one dot in a new or existing Skill
5 Experience
Skill Trick
Add a Skill Trick to a Skill
3 Experience
Specialty
Add a Specialty to a Skill
3 Experience
Path
Add one dot in a new or existing Path (maximum five Paths)
18 Experience
182
APPENDIX
RANGE RANGE
DESCRIPTION
TYPICAL DISTANCE
WEAPONS
Close
In range to trade blows with blunt objects and blades, or grapple and strike unarmed.
0-2 meters
Unarmed combat, melee weapons, pistol
Short
Close-quarter battle distance for reflexive shooting and thrown weapons.
Out of reach: 3-30 meters
Thrown, pistol, rifle, bow
Medium
Range to aim and shoot with a firearm or 31-100 meters. bow. Maximum modern pistol range.
Thrown, pistol, rifle, bow
Long
Range to plan and execute long-range sniping and special weapons attacks (compensating for wind, etc.).
Over 100 meters to maximum effective range, ~1000 meters
Rifle, some bows, light artillery
Extreme
Range of heavy military weapons — must compensate for curvature of the Earth, speed of light delays.
By weapon (typically 1,000+ meters to weapon maximum — 10,000 meters or more)
Missiles, naval railguns, heavy artillery
Out of Range
Beyond maximum weapon range.
Beyond maximum weapon range.
n/a
DAMAGE EXAMPLES THREAT
DAMAGE RATING
TAGS
THREAT TYPE
Alcohol
1
Non-Lethal
Ingestible
Antarctic Cold
1-3
Continuous (hour), Deadly
Environmental
Cobra Venom
5
Deadly
Injectable
Drowning/Suffocation
3
Continuous (minute), After 4 minutes becomes Deadly
Environmental
Extreme Desert Heat
1-2
Continuous (hour)
Environmental
Extreme Gravity
1-2
Continuous (hour), Deadly
Environmental
Falling
1 for every 3m if falling onto a hard surface
Above 6m, falling becomes Deadly
Environmental
Hard Radiation (low)
1-3
Aggravated, Continuous (hour), Deadly
Environmental
Interior of a Burning House
1-3
Aggravated, Continuous (round)
Environmental
Knockout Gas
3
Continuous (round), Non-Lethal
Environmental
Nuclear Reactor Leak
5
Aggravated, Continuous (minute), Deadly
Environmental
Sarin Gas
5
Continuous (round), Deadly
Environmental
Tranquilizer Dart
4
Non-Lethal
Injectable
Vacuum of Space
1
Continuous (round), Deadly
Environmental
Any damage rating with a variable range depends upon the severity of the source of indirect damage.
Chart Quick Reference
183
EXAMPLE WEAPONS WEAPON TYPE
ENHANCEMENT
DAMAGE TYPE
TAGS
Assault Rifle
2
Ballistic
Ranged: Medium, Automatic, Quality, Tactical Sight, Two Handed
Katana
3
Edged
Quality 2, Deadly, Melee, Two-Handed
Knife
1
Edged
Concealable, Grapple, Thrown, Melee
Unarmed
1
Blunt
Melee, Grapple, Worn
Pistol
1
Ballistic
Ranged: Short, Concealable, Silent
Stun Gun
1
Blunt
Stun, Charge, Concealable
Grenade
1
Ballistic
Explosive: Thrown, Deadly
EXAMPLE ARMORS TYPE
BASE
TAGS
Flak Jacket
Bulletproof
Hard 1, Soft 1, Concealable
Leather Jacket
Impact-resistant
Hard 1, Soft 2
Chainmail
Slash-resistant
Hard 3, Soft 1
Tactical Armor
Composite (Impact-resistant, Bulletproof)
Composite, Soft 2, Hard 1
EXAMPLE VEHICLES TYPE
SIZE
HANDLING
SPEED
TAGS
WEAPONS
COST
Motorcycle
1
+1
4
Fast 2, Maneuverable 1, Wheeled
-
•••
Sedan
2
+0
3
Fast 1, Massive 1, Wheeled -
••
Sports Car
2
+1
4
Fast 2, Maneuverable 1, Massive 1, Wheeled
-
••••
APC
2
-1
3
Armor 2, Cargo 1, Fast 1, Massive 1, Sluggish -1, Weaponry 1, Wheeled
Machine Gun
•••••
ATV
2
+0
3
All-Terrain, Cargo 1, Fast 1, Massive 1
•••
Speed Boat 2
+1
4
Fast 2, Maneuverable 1, Massive 1, Watercraft
-
••••
Private Jet
2
+0
5
Cargo 1, Fast 3, Flight Systems, Massive 1
-
•••••
Jet Fighter
3
+1
6
Fast 4, Flight Systems, Maneuverable 1, Massive 2, Military
Machine L Guns, Missile Launcher
184
APPENDIX
Name: Player: Concept: Additional Paths: Moment of Inspiration
Origin Path: Role Path: Society Path:
SKILLS Aim: Athletics: Close Combat: Command: Culture: Empathy: Enigmas: Humanities:
Integrity: Larceny: Medicine: Persuasion: Pilot: Science: Survival: Technology:
ATTRIBUTES Force Finesse Resilience
Intellect Cunning Resolve
Might Dexterity Stamina
FACETS Destructive Intuitive Reflective
INSPIRATION
Defense = Appropriate Resilience Attribute Armor: Experiences:
Presence Manipulation Composure
INJURY CONDITIONS Bruised Bruised Injured Injured Maimed
+1 +1
Taken Out
+2 +2 +4
SPECIALTIES/SKILL TRICKS
EDGES
PATH CONTACTS
MASTERIES
ASPIRATIONS
GEAR
ARMOR
Gear EN
Armor
Base
Hard
Soft
WEAPONS Weapon
EN
Range
Damage
Type
Tags
Tags
Weapons
VEHICLES Vehicle
Size
Handling
Speed
ENTER THE WORLD OF SHADOW Trinity Continuum: Assassins transports players to the Contiuum’s underworld where well-dressed killersfor-hire use high-tech weapons and gear to eliminate their targets. Assassins join hidden Societies, each unified by their preferred method of doing violence. Their lives are brutal, blood-stained, and glamorous. Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook is required to use this book. Inside you will find: • Rules for creating Assassins: Trinity Continuum’s stone-cold, stylish killers, and the Societies that house and train them. • Masteries, all-new powers unique to the Art of the Kill. • Storyguiding advice for running tense, fast-paced games of intrigue and violence. • Guidelines for creating setpiece fights, plus dozens of new antagonists for the Assassins to overcome.
TRI017
