[Adventure Workshop] Assassination of the Week

[SolemnGolem]

Another interesting issue is the "fate worse than death" scenario. Back in the 1990s, a Hong Kong businessman was the victim of an abduction ransom. Organized crime elements kidnapped his son, and held him for ransom. The Hong Kong businessman paid the ransom and got his son back, but he then tipped off the police about it.

Unfortunately for the gangsters, he tipped off the Chinese police, not the Hong Kong police... meaning that the ensuing police manhunt disregarded search and seizure privacy laws, regulations against use of force, and other democratic protections in the Hong Kong constitution. When the Chinese police caught up with the relevant criminals, they got a quick mainland Chinese criminal trial and summary executions across the board - instead of an appeals process and jail time in Hong Kong.

The businessman faced condemnation from human rights organizations because he could have chosen to report it to the Hong Kong authorities and the criminals would likely still be alive. Perhaps understandably, the businessman held that to be a low priority.

An interesting adventure idea could be to make your PCs choose between killing a mark, vs. turning him in to the authorities. Some criminals, especially those who have committed violent sex crimes (in particular those against children) may well prefer a quick death by the bullet rather than routine abuse at the hands of fellow inmates in a jail. The PCs now get to wrestle with the issue of whether they should dispense justice or leave it to the authorities... and whether their own form of justice would mean letting the criminal off "too lightly".

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

An interesting adventure idea could be to make your PCs choose between killing a mark, vs. turning him in to the authorities. Some criminals, especially those who have committed violent sex crimes (in particular those against children) may well prefer a quick death by the bullet rather than routine abuse at the hands of fellow inmates in a jail. The PCs now get to wrestle with the issue of whether they should dispense justice or leave it to the authorities... and whether their own form of justice would mean letting the criminal off "too lightly".

I'm not sure "PCs must be 100 point petty criminals and child molesters" is a good thing to put in an adventure.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I'm not sure "PCs must be 100 point petty criminals and child molesters" is a good thing to put in an adventure.

...Uh, I think it's quite clear from what you quoted that the person facing the 'fate worse than death' was the mark, not the PCs.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

...Uh, I think it's quite clear from what you quoted that the person facing the 'fate worse than death' was the mark, not the PCs.

Ah yes, I see that. I got it confused with the Chinese scenario in which the PCs would presumably be the criminals.

[Daeglan]

Another movie for inspiration would be Mr and Mrs Smith where Anjela Jolie and Brad Pitt are Assassins

You can turn the idea on end and make it about protecting the Victim.

[ajardoor]

Okay, so we've got ideas about the background of the hit.

Now what about the location where the PCs plan the hit to go down?

Say, for instance, the PCs are hired to kill the daughter of a very rich man. The rich man is currently serving a slap on the wrist prison sentence for accidently killing the daughter of the PC's current client when he was driving drunk. The client feels it's time to follow that old chestnut about any eye for an eye.

So where should they try to kill her?
How they kill her is up to PCs (it's a somewhat sandbox scenario).
What complications should arise?
What will the target be doing and how should she react to certain actions by the PCs?
What other NPCs are involved?

[roguebfl]

Big Game Hunt: The PC received a job, it can be something 'routine' but the point was not the job, but to flush them out...to be Hunted by Mr. Johnson's Clients...

[Captain-Captain]

There are few murder probloems which cannot be solved with a sufficint application of C4. If the PCs have to prove they killed the victim, this may be problematical.

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Big Game Hunt: The PC received a job, it can be something 'routine' but the point was not the job, but to flush them out...to be Hunted by Mr. Johnson's Clients...

More fun for groups that have been playing together for a while: use NPCs based on the player's past PCs as the target. Tweak slightly to ensure there will be some surprises. :D

[SolemnGolem]

The problem with C4 is you end up with so much collateral damage. Also, it's hard to pass the hit off as some sort of accident or other.

Regarding the question about killing the daughter - if you're going after a specific noncombatant, then subtlety may be better than brute force. After all, you're dealing with somebody not too savvy with the assassin's trade, who will presumably place herself more readily in a dangerous situation without realizing it.

Does the daughter like to frequent night clubs? Those are dimly-lit areas with lots of ambient masking noise. Although you might not get away with a suppressed pistol shot, you'd very likely get away with a quick one-sided struggle in the toilets with fiber wire, or outside near the garbage bins where the smokers go. Buy her a drink and slip her something even more dangerous than a roofie.

If she's coming home from a very late night social gathering in an altered state of mind, wait until she's passed out in bed (or in couch) and break into her place. This could be as simple as turning on the gas stove spigots and then leaving quietly after making sure all the windows are shut. If you need more certainty, fill a bathtub and dump her in and hold her under for a five-minute count.

The film Michael Clayton had a pretty interesting assassination. The mark had a number of prescription drugs, and the assassins cased his place and photographed all his drug bottles in his bathroom cabinet. Then they researched which ones could cause a lethal overdose. Ultimately, they crashed his place with a doorknock and a taser, then lifted him back into his own bathroom and gave him an overdose-strength injection of one feasible drug under his big toenail. A few scattered drug containers, and their work was done.