pugbutter

[Question] - How Would You Roleplay As An Assassin or Thief/Rogue

This is an excellent guide on the matter. But to summarize what undoubtedly is a long article and an even longer leap down the rabbit-hole (this person has tons of interesting pieces):

• Good assassins blend in. Uniforms are a bad idea. Also a bad idea is to look like you're up to no good; so no hoods, no masks, no knives strapped to your boots and bracers.
  
  • Hoods are designed for inclement weather, so wear them only when it's raining, snowing, much too hot or much too cold.
  • It may seem like a good idea to cover your face, but wearing a mask lets people know that you're trying to cover your face. Immediately it raises suspicion. If you must wear a mask, have a good alias; maybe you're a leper, or a burn victim. Maybe you're attending a masquerade.
• Use generic weaponry and equipment. A super-speshul one-of-a-kind hundred-year-old ultra mega awesome sword just makes you easier to identify.
• Fight to win, not to look cool. This means no backflips. It also means no long gloating speeches.
• Throwing knives don't actually kill people; at best they're distractions. Bows aren't very good for long-distance sniping; they were fired in volleys, and archers learned how to shoot at distances, not at precise targets. (Fifty meters, a hundred meters and so on.) If you really want to be a medieval sniper then you'll want a decent crossbow instead.
• Most assassins and hitmen are hired to whack cheating spouses, asshole bosses, and other small-time lowlifes. Don't always play an Agent 47 or a Corvo Attano, killing enormously powerful fat-cat politicians.
• Reputations are a bad thing. Avoid having one.

𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸 𝕆𝔽 𝕍𝕀ℕ𝔻𝔼ℝ𝕍𝔸𝕃𝕃 (Fantasy, World Building, Mid-High Casual)

If you all have questions, I'm free to answer whenever

@Mag Lev

I wish to play a non-Vigilant role. Will this be allowed? Your "Who Are You?" prompt seems to imply that every player-character will be in the Order. (I sent you a PM about this.)

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Edit: Pugbutters next post in the ic thread has dialogue from Rhysdar. I fully sanction this, as we worked on it together.

@Mercenary5

That we did.

In the future any posts written by @Mercenary5 (edit: or @Fyre Unholy) which inflict autohit/godmod upon my character have my explicit written consent, unless argued otherwise by myself.

𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸 𝕆𝔽 𝕍𝕀ℕ𝔻𝔼ℝ𝕍𝔸𝕃𝕃 (Fantasy, World Building, Mid-High Casual)

I really hope it's either "none" or minimal. Though if there is prevalent magic, it would have to fit the tone of the setting, so I bet it will be gritty and visceral as hell. Like the Tzimisces' Vicissitude magic in the OWoD lore, or something Lovecraftian.

𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸 𝕆𝔽 𝕍𝕀ℕ𝔻𝔼ℝ𝕍𝔸𝕃𝕃 (Fantasy, World Building, Mid-High Casual)

Haha, that is great. I thought the idea ended up sounding more like the Witcher series. I actually have played the Banner Saga before but I never thought about it like that.

@Mag Lev

Of course your plot is straight out of Dragon Age so far (The Breach et cetera), but it reminds me of Banner Saga because of what you mentioned as a lack of heroes: the gods are dead, the sun is dead, the only thing left to do is scavenge. Even Rook is only looking out for his own tribe, prioritized before the morals and ethics of the old world. He kills and steals where necessary.

I'm so hyped for this.

𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸 𝕆𝔽 𝕍𝕀ℕ𝔻𝔼ℝ𝕍𝔸𝕃𝕃 (Fantasy, World Building, Mid-High Casual)

Is it too early to say that this looks fucking amazing? Already it reeks of Banner Saga and Berserk, and I love me some depressing existential fantasy.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Though lacking the padded footsteps of a burglar and the tender touch of a lockpick, Gütta fancied himself nonetheless as rather a discreet man, urging his body and mind into the inviting embrace of that warm friend, laziness, with the graceful finesse of a dancer. Every morning began, when he could help it, with a large beer by the bedside, clean and bitter, flowing from the pot's belly to his; and with the chamberpot thence filled, the bright teeth (straight and strong like merlons) thence polished, the weathered modesty thence clothed, he moved toward the mess hall. He had mastered the art of his gait. Should he stoop too low, dragging his heels along the coarse stones as if touched by malaise, he would elicit pity from other knights; too tall, too straight of spine, too proud of bosom, and he would swim in their haughty contempt. Nay, he had totally seized his anonymity, strolling through the halls and seeming to the negligent eye as mundane as can be. Ergo no men put themselves forward as obstacles in his quest for meat and gravy, and other hearty stuffs to sit like lead in his gut and appease the throbbing heat in his skull. If I put so much effort into actually working, thought he, I would own this damned place!

Alas, like any fine liquor, too much laziness churns up into the stomach a true sickness, seeming to seep ere long even into man's very soul. After he broke his fast, having received no orders from his lieutenants, nor any urgent business around the bailey, Gütta set himself on the course of any bored soldier: he went out into the cloister, and he trained. Any who frequented this place knew his routine, if but in passing; a rope tied around the torso of a tree, looped around a high branch, and then weighted down at the end with a round wooden bull's-eye, served as his personal orc, troll, or brigand, its shape shifting to match his daily whimsy. Already sporting the scars of knife and arrowhead, this lump of lumber thus was his victim when flesh, blood and bone were not available. As for standing targets, the scapegoats for his axe and his sword were simpler still: plain wooden stakes dressed in rags, plugged up with straw, and to stop their viscera from spilling out preemptively, cinched tight at the hems.

Like hunting dogs locked up in their cages, bladders bursting but fangs much too dry, for hours the mercenary gnawed restlessly at his figurative bone, resting frequently to curse the sun and turn his face from it, for his face seared at his nerves with the residues of too much tipple. Where the boisterous stone pillars and walls would bite at his sword, denting and nicking and rolling the fickle steel, rather the ash and elm and cedar accepted from Gütta their wounds and scars. Thus was his average day spent, when he was not to march a road and dig a latrine (the two true duties of war): stabbing with the awlpike, hooking with the axe and beak, rushing in with the shimmering naked sword, against foes of wood and straw. Inert as they were, nevertheless they oiled his wits and honed his talents.

And indeed, this was a day like any other. When the explosion reverberated through the stones of the keep, and whistled sharply through the air, he had propped his back against a buttress as to rest, and let the sweat dry from his brow. The mercenary turned toward the noise only by instinct, his heart startled into a quicker tempo. When he saw that no shrapnel soared toward him, and that no smoke shuffled listlessly heavenward, he realized the mishap, one of countless, surely was innocuous, and no reason whatever for further alarm. Those children sure like to show off, he pondered, his irritation tickling at his brain like a delicate morning mist.

He wondered when supper would be ready, and when the heavens' mercy would strip the ache from his eyeballs.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@pugbutter - That's near the entrance, yeah?

@harinezumikouken

It would be the yard in the middle of the building, enclosed on all sides by walls, doors, and walkways; something like this in effect.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

At Candeln, most everyone is at the kitchen, right?

@harinezumikouken

Cloister/courtyard here.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Oh right accepted.

@VitaVitaAR

Thanks. As per your request, the images in his Equipment hider now have URLs. They can be clicked to lead to their respective Wikipedia articles.