Hit List

[MortalPlague]

So I'm going to be running a 48-hour 4th Edition marathon game. My players have voiced the opinion that they would enjoy playing miscreants, which leaves me with the challenge to put together a world that can survive and cater to their depredations.

Basically, the world will be a small slice of mainland coast, with a number of small islands. There will be a kingdom operating here, low renaissance style (with the occasional pistol or clockwork device, but largely swords and bows and magic). There will also be a few bandit groups, some pirates, and notably, a wide-reaching and very powerful thieves guild overseeing the region.

My players will need quest hooks. So I figure a simple and easy way to do it is to provide them with a list of targets with rewards on their heads. For good characters, it's a wanted list. They'd be tracking down dangerous beasts and criminals. For these rogues, they'll have a list of people the thieves guild wants removed. People who haven't paid their debts, soldiers who don't take bribes, nobles who haven't paid their protection money, and more.

This thread is for brainstorming. Who are some interesting people I could put out a 'hit' on? Ideally, I want a number of people who would make for a unique and interesting mission; for instance, a candlemaker's shop would have lots of hot wax available, and could certainly be a fire hazard. Perhaps a noblewoman is guarded by clockwork constructs, created by her hired tinker (who can be bribed to sabotage his constructs)?

Got any ideas?

 

[Twichyboy]

A Pirate captain with a particularly mutinous crew,
Placing a hit on an assassin always leads to interesting conflicts

 

[Hand of Evil]

• The Tax Man - Its the tax man...maybe he is bad, maybe he is good but he is in the way
• The Stooly - loose lips sink ships and some time people die for talking
• The Map Maker - Knows to much about too much, can't have that
• The Forger - Same as the map maker
• The Drunk - He was in the wrong place at the wrong time
• The One Armed Man - maybe it is the one legged man or the one eyed man but he has to go

 

[Cor_Malek]

Unauthorized hits on bank that's been paying for protection call for harsh treatment, especially since the trio that did this might be responsible for other similar hits. Guild informants know their city of origin, as well as covers of two of them. One, is a reverend, and the other a herdsman. Whereabouts of the third one are unknown (FYI - he's a city guard officer called Michael. Officer Michael Shepard). The trio knows the risks of freelancing, so originally they didn't know - and never tried to - almost anything about the others. As time passed, reverend and herdsman learnt some facts about each other, but nothing solid. The guard knows who his accomplices are, and he uses the knowledge to guard over the trio.
PC's should be able to pinpoint either the clergy or herdsman on their own, and he'd have some info on the other (if appropriate(v. high) intimidation or magical ways are applied). The third one will be a "mystery". If players get the shepherd theme, it'll be so easy, that they really shouldn't get any more clues (and 3-clues rule doesn't apply here, as this is not a choke, it's a bonus). Have a bounty set on each head separately, so if the PC's can't find last "bandit", they still finish the mission, just not for 100%.
Each of those three do this only for the thrill. They don't want to join guild, because they like what they do in their lives. Each spends their cash in different ways: the reverend aids the poor, dividing the cash between his church, a hospice and an orphanary. The sheep shepherd is also village Schultheiß, and he adds the loot to taxes this settlement pays, and he collects a lot less from other peasants (but since they don't know, he's universally despised as the "tax guy"). The guardsman uses his share in a number of ways: paying CI's (it's off the books anyway), donating it back to the city guard through a fictionary nobleman, and, well - hookers. Lot's of stress to burn. Either way the cash is long gone.
They all meet at new moon in an old chapel near the city, where they plan next hits.

Eh, I feel like a clergycide today: a cleric in X. This particular preacher went too far in his teachings to the mass. Particularly how we're all equal before gods. A few workers in the mills/cutyards/quarry have openly disobeyed superiors and they don't fear them as they used to. Make it look like an accident though - the last thing we need is to give those vermins a martyr.

A whore in X. Awhile back, when heir to the throne went to the brothel for the first time, everyone was quite relieved. It called for some extra care security-wise, but there's nothing more dangerous to the crown than a misplaced love when raison d'État is at stake, so it's good that boy can divide sex and love. Who'd suspect that the prince would fall in love with a hooker. She has to disappear, and do so silently. If you screw this one - you're on your own though.

Edit: back with more.

A popular spikeball player has got to go. He's won when he was supposed to lose, important people lost a lot of money on this bet. More importantly, guild can't afford to lose credibility over someone like that. This one is supposed to serve as na example, so go wild on this one - the more spectacular the better.
Hidden info - if PC's cripple the player instead of killing them, the mobsters will be mad, and surprised at first, but then will be much, much happier, doubling PC's bounty. "A cadaver scares once. He'll be a walking example. Well, not actually walking, but you get my drift."

There's a serial killer in X, and mob wants him down, fast. Damn coppers think it's a mobwar and they hit the business hard - it has to stop. Kill him, scare him away, throw the coppers on right track - doesn't matter. But do it quick.
The killer strangles his victims and cuts their tongues out. If PC's choose to help guard to get on his trail, they'll be able to copy his emo, and any citizen killed in this fashion will be thought to be this killer's victim.

There's a gnome called Bellon d'Aefr (I'd appreciate keeping the name ;-) ) who's found a way to mix some mundane ingredients like charcoal and sulfur to emulate effect of powerful fire-spells. The wizards don't take that too kindly and they want the gnome and his discovery to disappear, but they don't want to do it directly, as it would glorify him too much. He's just a mere artisan after all!

There's a young, zealous cleric who thinks that he saw a nobleman rape a nun. He needs to understand that he didn't see nuthin'. If there's no other way, he should trip and fall (fatally), but this should be a very low profile job either way.

 

[fba827]

the (former) member who thinks(thought) he can(could) skim the extortion money. Of course the guild does not like theft from its own!
(If not skimming money, even just trying to break out on his own and setup shop would be stealing territory, which is just as bad as stealing money).

Or, similar idea, rival gang trying to setup in the same area. Got to take them out before they think they can move in!

Or, again, similar idea, trying to expand territory for the guild requires stealing territory from a neighboring guild, thus, assassinations within that neighbor guild in order to expand self guild's turf.

* People who know too much (from being connected or sources at one time or another)
* People who saw too much (commoners who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time)
* People who don't pay up (got to teach them a lesson and set an example) -- though, in this case, it is probably family of the person who doesn't pay up rather than the person himself
* the guild leader wants his own #2 taken out due to paranoia of a coup (or just as a game to test the PCs skills and loyalties).

 

[MortalPlague]

...rival gang trying to setup in the same area...

I like this one a lot. I think I'm going to expand on that to make it more than just a 'hit' mission; more a plot the PCs can choose to involve themselves in.

* the guild leader wants his own #2 taken out due to paranoia of a coup (or just as a game to test the PCs skills and loyalties).

Now that's just classic evil. I think this would be a great mission as a reward for completing a few successful hits, with an appropriately large reward. Maybe one of the PCs becomes the #2? Give them power and influence, that sort of thing.

Unauthorized hits on bank...

These are some excellent suggestions! I really appreciate the detail here, too. I'll certainly be appropriating some of them.

A Pirate captain with a particularly mutinous crew,
Placing a hit on an assassin always leads to interesting conflicts

Very true. I do love pirates, and assassin vs assassin makes for some great battles.

• The Tax Man - Its the tax man...maybe he is bad, maybe he is good but he is in the way
• The Stooly - loose lips sink ships and some time people die for talking
• The Map Maker - Knows to much about too much, can't have that
• The Forger - Same as the map maker
• The Drunk - He was in the wrong place at the wrong time
• The One Armed Man - maybe it is the one legged man or the one eyed man but he has to go

Awesome list! I think the one-armed man is a must, especially if he's replaced it with something badass.

 

[thedearhunter]

Ive been doing things like this is my campaign recently. A sandbox approach allows them to pursue targets at their pace and leisure.

Another cool thing i did was to give them a target, but they had no idea where within a city he was. They had to investigate, gain clues, etc, simply to find out that he was seen conversing with a Thieves Guild Liutenant. So they track the Lt. down, then torture or interrogate him(The Lt. also happened to be the Guildmasters protege). When he revealed where their target was, they arrived only to find that he was being hidden by one of the PC's superiors. This led to a cool RP scene, and then much more.

I guess what im saying is that it can be very rewarding to have to complete a number of tasks to take out a target, rather than just walking into their home and shanking them.