Assassination and politics

So, as it is right now, lords, kings and hero companions can't die. For a good reason I think. Even if there was only a small chance to kill them (even smaller than capturing them after battle) it would, with some "bad" luck make the game more or less unplayable very fast. 2 hours of play, bad luck and 6 lords left... Yeah wouldn't be very fun

However, I think some kind of option to send assassins on other lords (which could ruin your reputation if it fails or someone can understand it is you) or perhaps, like the quest available to provoke war with other nations where you go there attack caravans and such and then "accidently" drop an item from a nation so they will know who did it, perhaps a failed assassin attempt (on purpose) with another lord or nations sigil could affect how they react towars someone, or perhaps be a means of starting war betwen nations.
Also some option to perhaps kill kings with poison to take the throne would be a fun way to come into power as well? Perhaps by becoming good friends with him so no one would suspect it was you
It would be fun with more options like this, in the political areas of nobility and war

Assassinations? ONLY if it will require from player to THINK, not just click next buttons without even reading what they're doing...

I would very much like to be able to kill lords and kings. It is quite tiring to lug them about until someone pays their ransom, or to have another lord that hates you running around in your faction.

.113 said:

So, as it is right now, lords, kings and hero companions can't die. For a good reason I think. Even if there was only a small chance to kill them (even smaller than capturing them after battle) it would, with some "bad" luck make the game more or less unplayable very fast. 2 hours of play, bad luck and 6 lords left... Yeah wouldn't be very fun

However, I think some kind of option to send assassins on other lords (which could ruin your reputation if it fails or someone can understand it is you) or perhaps, like the quest available to provoke war with other nations where you go there attack caravans and such and then "accidently" drop an item from a nation so they will know who did it, perhaps a failed assassin attempt (on purpose) with another lord or nations sigil could affect how they react towars someone, or perhaps be a means of starting war betwen nations.
Also some option to perhaps kill kings with poison to take the throne would be a fun way to come into power as well? Perhaps by becoming good friends with him so no one would suspect it was you
It would be fun with more options like this, in the political areas of nobility and war

Click to expand...

Perhaps the problem of running out of Lords could be solved by each Lord having heirs or successors that appear in the game whenever a Lord dies.

Or letting the Lords breed and produce new Lords, but that's for another debate.


Letting Players RP as assassins would be cool, but I wonder how it can be implemented - Waltz into town and kill everyone as usual?

Having stealth features in the game could complicate things..

While killing off lords totally is a bad idea, an assassination attempt that gravely injure lords, prevent them (and their army) from joining campaign and deny them of next week's reinforcement and training is a nice touch. It's exactly how the player get assassinated. Assassination has 2 associated checks: Whether if it succeed, and whether they find out who sent the assassin.

On top of that, maybe lords will give you assassin quest. Get in lord's hall in disguise, smack the guy and his 2 guards in the face, and run

the problem with actually killing lords would be that it would become completely weird after the first few deaths. Since the relatives of most lords are already other lords, yes when you kill one lord his son would inherit his land, sure could work. However what about when you kill the son? ok his son takes over.. problem is that one, unless the first lord in this example is one of the grandpa lords, the son would be maybe around 10. Not fit for fighting. And even if he did. when you kill him, i mean... he couldnt have any children. Unless you wait around for, well lets say 5 years at least, in game..

This works in games like total war where one round is a few months or something (not quite sure haven't played it myself but have friends who do).. Then you can go through  a few relatives while playing.

But in a game like mount & blade where you can move around for half an hour if you want, and the longest quests have 90 days completion.. It's just not possible.

I do like the idea of sending assassins who cripple lords like Rephikul suggested. And like KuroiNekouPL said, yes an actual KILL of a lord would not be just clicking next. I'd like some kind of, either getting friends with the lord/king himself OR with his wife, sister or something like this. Perhaps even his possibly greedy heir (would only work on a few of course as some lords are more noble than others).
It should require a lot of planning, take some time to prepare and be somewhat complicated to complete as well. Something along the lines of the "meet the spy" quests where you have to ask for how to recognize the spy, and also remember it as it doesn't show in the quest log, but of course more advanced
Also the consequences of a failure should be dire. Perhaps a loss of reputation with ALL lords and countries (including your own). Perhaps even making a lot of them hostile towards you. Also a big loss of reknown and morale, unless you have bandits or something maybe. And succeed or not you would of course loose a lot of honour.

It still has to be somewhat simple to not take the focus of the rest of the game, but would be fun if implemented
I like the idea of becoming the kings closest friend, then have him assassinate and valiantly avenge your lost friend by taking the kingdom and declaring war on someone you blame
Or convincing a noble that his father is weak and that HE should have his lands, have him fight his own father and so on :p

Hmm, I might have a dark side in me :p I sometimes take the caravan guard quests and then tell them to wait somewhere and when they are attacked I save them i'm to slow to catch bandits otherwise :p