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Better idea.

Assassination attempt is attempted AT the tournament by one of the combatants. Boss Battle ensues while the heroes move to stop the person responsible.

I had originally meant that the assassination would be 'during' the tournament, if not exactly right in the middle of a match so to speak. The situation would put most all PCs on the defensive in contrast to the other proposed ideas, but regardless, any of those work.

If there's anything I've learned from years of wasting my life doing combat-oriented RPs, it's that people hate being put in a passive or defensive situation.

By making the assassin a combatant, it serves a few logical purposes.

1) It allows them to get close to their target, without the need for stealth.

2) They can do so with all of their weapons intact.

3) They can do so publicly to cause an uproar and chaos within the city, and cause people to think that their government isn't as stable as they might believe.

4) It allows any players in the tournament to instantly band together to stop it from happening (Boss Battle against the assassin), which forges them into a team instantaneously, and the combat that follows allows them to show off what they can do.

Ultimately all those things are why I suggested it in the way that I did. By separating the combatants from the assassination, as in your suggestion Keid, you effectively alienate them from the actual plot, and then force them to deal with a lousy situation. In effect, it's like punishing them for being "the main characters." Main characters are supposed to be in the thick of things. It's why they're the main characters. Your style might be good later on down the line for some other plot development, but for the initial event, it doesn't make much sense to alienate them. Let the heroes be heroes, and quickly in the beginning.

The kidnapping after the fact might be alright, however, by kidnapping the person, they'd have to be able to accomplish the same goal as killing the king, otherwise why do it, you know?

It's easier to kill than kidnap.

Duly noted.

However at least only so far as point number 4 goes though, the situation strongly encourages/allows PCs only with a particularly personality: courageous, lawful, and with a forward way of thinking, and alienates the possibility for major characters who's first instinct might not be to jump into the fray (Jali's character Mirian for instance). In a survival scenario, there's room for a creativity that can be expressed from multiple approaches, and it also allows more flexibility of ethical decisions that might otherwise immediately ostracize a character when everyone's focused on doing only "good."



Not necessarily. In the situation I created, adepts under attack would be drawn to one another, like you might see in a story about a zombie apocalypse. Any 'group' that survives the chaotic streets of Ankohl here would be very strongly bonded together as a result, even after the danger is past.

That said, I do understand that the conditions and thus the required effort and creativity on the part of the PCs, in the situation I've painted might be somewhat... demanding, so if more people prefer Ryugi's idea, I won't oppose it any further. Though, at this point, I'm working under the assumption that each group will have at least one 'crew' member from among us and I trust any of you present would be able to operate within this story and bring together the other PCs through it. Perhaps consider it a challenge to do so if you wish.

Jennyss: A killed character can still have an important impact on a story though, be it a legacy, a curse, or to create a motive for action on any number of cases by any number of people depending on the relationship with the deceased. Leonardo Decaprio's wife in Inception as an extreme example.

In our case, a kidnapping would likely fit better into Ryugi's scenario, giving protagonists further purpose and goal in chasing after the core events in Ankhol, but far less chaos on the streets, and the protagonists far less likely to have to deal with much on the streets anyway if government recognizes their heroic attempt to save the king (or perhaps misconstrue it as aiding the kidnapper though either way there's less to do with the city's average citizens). In contrast a murder would be more appropriate in the situation I proposed, as it maximizes the grudge of the people against the protagonists, and thus intensifies the whole scenario.

I think this is getting complicated too. What's going on here again?

There I go, making things more complicated than they need to be.

Anyway, i'm working on a short story that should hopefully help illustrate the technology since that seemed to be a problem before.

Changed some things to complete or Complete/WIP on the list.