Assassin's Creed as a D&D campaign

[Markn]

So AC2 just came out. Picked it up for 2 reasons. 1 - I like the game, 2 - I've been to Venice and seeing it in a game is pretty cool. I can say I stood on that exact spot in the game.

I've been thinking since the first game that part of the story would be great for a D&D campaign.

The templars could be replaced with a secretive group within the church of Bahamut making for a perfect story for any Avenger character or NPC. The assassins, not sure yet.

But the premise would be that the PCs would spot an assassin in the first adventure. Perhaps they are hired by the church of Bahamut to bring the perpatrator to justice. After all, Bahamut is good, assassins are bad.

For a time, the PCs are always playing catch-up. Assassins happen and it looks like innocent murder with the church providing cover ups and red herrings to fool the PCs. Eventually, details begin to emerge. Each victim had his vices, much like the Creed targets, though maybe not as blatant.

As the campaign progresses, they discover the 2 secret societies, one wanting to control the population, the church of Bahamut (much like the Kingpriest from Dragonlance), the other wanting to protect the freedoms of individuals. By the end of the Heroic tier, the PCs have an understanding of the 2 societies and having supported the church up to this point now have to make a major decision. Support the church, who publicly is good and just, but privately has become to big for its britches or switch to the assassins side and have a blow to their reputation since they now support the "villainous" side in the publics opinion.

The Paragon tier could escalate things, with both sides trying to gain an advantage over the other side. All the while, the PCs need to keep everything on the hush hush as neither side wants this war to be public knowledge.

In the epic tier things escalate, the church of Bahamut, sees a way for a full victory and the PCs must stop them before its too late (much like the game).

These ideas could easily spin into a lot of different areas. Does the higher ups in the church know of the secret organization? If not, once they find out, what do they do about it? If so, has this been thier plan all along?

With proper NPC details, this could be a fantastic campaign that is rich with interesting decision points, deep plot, difficult decisions and amzaing set piece encounters and even NPCs with powerful monologues.

What do you think? Would that be something that would interest you?

 

[PoorHobo]

What do you think? Would that be something that would interest you?

Not in the way you've presented it. Also I think given a choice I think most players would try and help clean up the church and expose their corruption rather than side with assassins. It may not play out in game the way its playing out in your head right now.

Also, I would not want to be dealing with this in Epic tier. Mid paragon at most, is where it should end. It would be kind of depressing to be 3 levels away from being a demigod and still unable to deal with some assassins and some corrupt church officials.

It sound like a few great high end heroic/low end paragon adventures, but not a campaign.

 

[Markn]

Fair enough. It's only a seed at this point and needs a lot of work.

Probably the biggest change that needs to be done, is that the church isn't corrupt, that is just the way it is.

Those familiar with dragonlance, should recognize a lot of similarities between the Kingpriest of DL and the 'control' that the church of Bahamut wishes to have in my concept.

In fact, in Dragonlance, Paladine is Bahamut, though SOME of the tenets may be different, it is still similar enough. Those not familiar with DL, the Kingpriest was a LG ruler that took it upon himself to "protect" the masses. At first, it was like any other kingdom. But over time, he issued edicts that severely limited peoples freedom in order to save them from corruption and have a good, just and pure land. Magic, as one such example, was banned because it was wild, chaotic, untrusted and plenty of evil people were associated with it. So, he outlawed it. He issued more and more edicts believing it was very important to do this and in his mind he had a pure and just goal. Eventually, he had tight controls on his people. This was accepted by the masses though there were always whispers of something not being right. This concept would be very good for a Points of Light setting. A large area, say a kingdom could have such a case exist and the rest of the world wouldn't know of it.

My point is, the church doesn't have to be corrupt. And removing that from the initial seed would make things more interesting - particularly because the players themselves, in the beginning will already be blind to those same concepts because Bahamut is a LG god, so then in their mind, the assassins MUST be evil. As the realization dawns on the players, that could be a key point in the campaign.

In the end, the Kingpriest even challenged the gods. A madman of that nature is no small feat to take down, what with complete military support and control and claiming he is doing the will of Bahamut to back him up. Stopping someone from challenging/killing the gods sounds pretty epic to me.

Ideas are still floating around in my head. I just think the 2 AC games have tremendous depth. Lots of little hints, hooks, very interesting characters with plenty of moral ambiguity that could make for something fantastic if done right.

BTW, welcome to the boards!

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I also have the second game - if I were setting it up as a campaign I would use a background similar to AC2's, where the PC's would be tied to one group, without knowing its true purpose until later. As you put it, the PC's are outsiders looking in; they need to be directly involved and given a reason to join up with the good guys.

I do think that its a really good example of conspiracy/intrigue writing that would work very well for a D&D campaign.

 

[Markn]

That's good advice Kid!

I haven't actually started the game yet, I think I will get to it tonight. This past week I've had to balance DMing duties, with the birth of my second kid (a son, giving me a boy and a girl now - hooray!). I've been dying to play and just haven't had time.

I'll keep the background idea in mind!