Assessing the Assassin (OOC)

Sounds good to me. What information do you guys want to find out before we start our job? I'm more for discovering more about the assassin or their contractor, but any sort of information would be good.

While the text gave 'Many would pay well to know who their target is' as the objective, that is just an example, we can change the information you need to find to be about the assassin, or who hired them... or 'anything you can find out', though some information will have higher value than other. Or those pieces of information may be what you need to find the actual answer (they could still be valuable to some, though).

The free Downtime Activity can be used to find where to start, but if you have ideas about that it can be used for anything related to the operation.

I think that objective is fine (finding out who the target is). We could start gathering information about the assassin, as I'm assuming we only know him because of his fame. So first of all we should try to find out who he actually was, what kind of people he used to kill, what kind of employers he used to have... so that we can infer if there's some common ground that may help to figure out who this new victim is.

You could start by looking into rumors about this assassin.
If you do, is that the Job/Score or is it just how you start with your Downtime Activity?
The Downtime could be to Acquire a resource with more reliable rumors (maybe a person, or a stack of newspaper clippings, or something). Maybe you need an asset of some type in order to gain access to someone who knows or has something you can use?
But it might be easier to model it as a Long-Term Project, a clock that you start to fill with this activity, but can also advance through your actions in the fiction.

For me, the Job is finding out who the target is. Once we have that info, we go back to Amancio, who will generously pay us. Whether that takes a single Job/Score, or if it becomes a Long Term Project, I guess we'll find out by playing.

Rumours are a good place to start ,and probably our Spider is the most suited for that job. :)

Could be. As the 'leader' of the detective agency... um originator of the Crew, that makes some sense, though everyone can be involved in the fiction.

Well... they could Help, some more dice always helps. :) But, yes, it is done. If it comes to it we can flash back to having them waiting outside to come in and save your ass.

If this is a Long-Term Project Downtime Activity (which is the only one that makes sense since the file does not really fit the other examples of 'Assets'), then a 1-3 means 1 Tick on the Clock, which, if it is just to gather rumors, is probably a 4-Clock, but could also be 6-Clocks on who the assassin is, or who their prior clients were.
You can Spend 1 Coin to bump up the result, but --unless time is a factor, which it isn't really here-- it is mostly better to Spend that 1 Coin to get another Downtime Activity (DtA) which has the chance of giving you more segments, and can not give you less. Spending Coin to bump from a 6 to a Crit is the exception, that 2-segment boost can be more than the average from another Project roll.

If this was Gather Rumors then I will give you a snippet of information (one per segment) and you can tell me where you go next to follow up on it. Or you can have the single rumor direct you to a person who the files suggest can tell you more, if so you can say who this is, or I can make a random NPC. Remember we might be aiming to have them be in Nightmarket so they can be in your (undefined) Hunting Grounds, but that is up to you guys.

I'll go for gather rumors for that instant gratification.

You want a story about the assassin or rumors of a person who can tell you more? A person will give you forward movement, which could lead to all the stories you could ever want. If you go with the story/rumor option then someone will need to do a follow up DtA to move things along.
If you opt for the person, then decide if speaking to them is the first Job, or if they are an Asset you must Acquire for the Job. They will probably be a Tier 0 Asset or worse given that you are currently rolling 0 dice for Acquire, but that can be 1d in Nightmarket at the cost of 2 Stress. You will need to buy another DtA if you want to Acquire, you only have the one free one.

Everyone should answer.

Wow, I must admit I got a little bit lost there with so many rules, but in my opinion we should start simple. Let's get a single story/rumour and see what we can get from it. We can always try to find another person who could tell all stories about this guy afterwards, if this proves to be not enough.

A single story or single rumor does not mean a simple game, all the rules will still apply and there will be less story to carry us in between the rules. This bit was a bit rules-heavy, since we are starting out and need to discuss each aspect, but also because you had to choose between which start mechanics we were using (DtA or Engagement). It gets easier once we have done it a few times.

There is no way I can see that a story/rumor will lead you to finishing the Job (or even really starting it), you will need to do another DtA to follow up on it before you can know where to Engage. Unless we want to do another DtA, I think I highly recommend we use this to find the next step, which could be a person who knows more, or a source of information (a diary stored in a museum, or something), something that can lead you to the Engagement Roll.

As per the rules: It is not my job to put a story in front of you, it is my job to have the world react to what your characters do. You guys need to take charge and drive the story, I can only offer advice.

What do you want to do?

Hmm, let's see. I don't see the patients at Freck's hospital holding any information about the assassin in a really credible/probable way.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we already know that the target is located at Nightmarket, right ? So, if Freck tried to make up a list of the most prominent personalities of the District, with infos gathered from newspapers and public records, could this count as a Gather Information to reduce the list of potential victims ?

That does seem like a bit of a stretch and convenient coincidence.
Do we know that? How?

You guys operate in Nightmarket, and you know people there, so it makes sense for you to start there when looking for more information, but that does not mean you have to stay in Nightmarket, or that the target has anything to do with Nightmarket. The mechanical benefits only apply to the Engagement Roll, though the fictional benefits (and downsides) or you Status apply throughout.

As I prompted in the RP:
"• Do you think you know who the assassin is targeting? Do you want to save them? Why?"
If you want to suggest that your character thinks the target is someone you know --someone from Nightmarket, as you say-- then you can have your character make that claim (to the Crew or just to themselves) and we can follow up on that. It will give us a direction (more of a direction than 'we were hired to find out') and may turn out to be true, or partially true.

Aight', I misunderstood that part then, sorry.

I could simply extend the list to all important persons in the city then, but that would just be extra tedious and not that useful. Could he make some research from newspapers and possibly the records from his hospital's morgue ? To see if he could find a pattern in the status of the previous victims and/or how they were killed. I'd think even without being sure that they were murdered by this specific assassin, there wouldn't be that many unresolved homicides among important people in the city.

Personally, I would also be interested in making this assassin in service -temporarily or exclusively- of the the Government, the Army or one of its important members, to get into this idea of "small spies delving into big political schemes". Not necessarily a grand conspiracy, but something that could lead into more dangerous/important situations without the crew really knowing. Maybe the assassin could also be part of a more powerful order ? It's not really thought-out ideas, just simple suggestions to see what you would think about that (and by "you" I mean everyone here !).

Yes. You can absolutely do that.
It would be another Downtime Activity though, so you would have to pay for it. Maybe keep that for confirming what you learn during the game.

Remember that this hospital of yours has no mechanical bearing on the game, it is not from your sheet and therefore not a resource you can call upon. It exists purely in the fiction, so you would need to have an in fiction reason for how you use it to help a Job.
This one can make sense. If you define it as catering to the rich types who would be assassinated, then that sorta means you are defining is as not catering to your expected down-and-out war veterans, and so on. It is no panacea.
So naive. So innocent. /shakeshead.
'Unresolved homicide' is considered 'natural causes' for these people. :)

Please Don't Edit posts to change their content.
I happened to glance back and see this new content, but that was just lucky. Nothing on this site gives me any hint that a whole block of text, containing important ideas was missed. Rather add a new post with the new information, that way we get notifications (email and on-site markers).
Now I start feeling worried that I may have missed other such edits.

Anyway: I would not be at all surprised to find that a 'master assassin' was also used by 'the government' or what passes for 'government'.

I think having the file lead into the Engagement roll is a good idea. How about a score to secure secret files that go into more details about the assassin? I imagine that some of the more important people in the city would have access to information that's not known outside of the elite circle.

If so, that sounds like:
• Stealth: Trespass unseen. Detail: The point of infiltration.
Who is it, and how do you plan to get in/gain access?

Feel free to use the Nightmarket Notable NPCs for the 'who' or Nightmarket Landmarks for a 'where', or to make a new NPC and tell us about them.

Sorry, forgot about that ^^'.
Anyway, maybe I should keep this "murder list" idea on the side for now, and look for another useful Downtime Activity meanwhile ?