Rejected: Assassinate Rulers

[Gildre]

Title: Allow Rulers to be killed

Summary:
I feel like there just isn't enough danger when in the rulers seat. You can basically do whatever you want without any real consequences. If you piss off your own people, they can protest you out. Sure, it is a very appropriate solution, but hardly a severe consequence. You can piss off the other realms, and they can destroy your realm, but you can just go to another realm. Heck you could even recreate your destroyed realm if you were good enough.

My point is that there is no paranoia which should accompany being a ruler. They can basically run around, doing whatever they want, without having to take any measures to safeguard themselves. It is silly. Ruler is the most coveted position in BM, with the most power. It should be accompanied by a likewise amount of accountability.

Details: Add a small chance that when an Infil assaults a Ruler, they can actually kill them.

Benefits:
1. Players will consider the position and what is required of it more instead of just "throwing their name in the hat".
2. Rulers who lead from the front, away from the protection of cities and militia guards, will have more respect. Those that don't can gather a cowardly reputation.
3. It would inject some life into the Infiltrator class. Since Infils can't kill anyone, they are pretty much just robbers and thieves. This would make the class MUCH more interesting for players to pursue.
4. Adds intrigue to politics. Player is negotiating too hard? Hire an assassin. Losing the war? Hire an assassin. Need to start a war? Hire an assassin on YOURSELF, and blame Realm X.
5. Adds the thrill of mortality like the Hero class, but offers an exit.

Downsides or Exploits: Obviously some players don't want to risk the life of their character, and shouldn't have to if they don't want to. However, just like the class of Hero, players choose to run for office. Additionally, since it would only be Infils who could kill Rulers, it would come down to a fight between two players who have both agreed to walk the mortality path. Therefore, neither are being exploited.

There is the possibility of Infils attacking rulers with reckless abandon, however due to a fairly low success rate, I don't imagine many would do it simply for the glory of it. It would need to be worthwhile in terms of gold.

[Anaris]

This has been proposed and rejected many times throughout the years...though the rejection has always been a little less firm than some.

I'm still going to say "no" to it, for the same reason as ever: Death in BattleMaster is, by design, rare and hard to have happen to you, especially without making an explicit choice that leads to it.

[Gildre]

Boom goes the dynamite...

Really thought I had the perfect, well crafted, air tight argument there.

Life goes on!

[Ketchum]

Scary... many my characters were and are Rulers at some stage of their careers.

I see there is one Loophole.

If a realm has 20 nobles, the infiltrator just need be smart and kill 20 nobles who become Ruler at one stage. Then poof the whole realm

[Gildre]

I had envisioned ruler assassination as the crème de la crème of Infil abilities. Figured there was basically no chance of success unless one was within the 80-100 bracket for skill, and even then it would be very difficult to pull off.

To do it 20 times over? You would have a better chance of winning the lottery and buying the game from Tom.

[Eduardo Almighty]

Or you wait for about 18 years in real life... it was the time some chars took to "die" (no worries, they just paused).

Infiltration is all about patience, after all.

[Chenier]

The ability would have been more workable if it involved auto title loss without actual death, imo.

[Gildre]

Yeah but that is pretty much already possible, no? If you schwack a ruler with a serious enough wound they will lose their title. I wanted to add more danger and excitement to being a ruler, rather than being fat and unconcerned.

Danger is my middle name after all.

[Chenier]

Yeah but that is pretty much already possible, no? If you schwack a ruler with a serious enough wound they will lose their title. I wanted to add more danger and excitement to being a ruler, rather than being fat and unconcerned.

Danger is my middle name after all.

The odds that a wound will cause a ruler to lose his position are pretty damn slim. The odds that the wound will then prevent him from getting re-elected are just about nil.

A "kidnap and fake death" option, that has a higher fail rate, but that automatically triggers new elections, would be a much more viable compromise to force a leadership change without going so far as to kill characters.

[Ketchum]

The odds that a wound will cause a ruler to lose his position are pretty damn slim. The odds that the wound will then prevent him from getting re-elected are just about nil.

A "kidnap and fake death" option, that has a higher fail rate, but that automatically triggers new elections, would be a much more viable compromise to force a leadership change without going so far as to kill characters.

As one of my characters who was Ruler who led the frontline in battles, there was 1 time he lost his Rulership due to his serious wound. He had been wounded lightly, seriously. I think there is a critical wound too.

Maybe what is a better workaround is "kidnap Ruler for ransom". Reminded me of the first Qin Dynasty in China where there are many Kingdoms around that time period, and Qin Emperor Shi Huang Ti before he become the first Emperor, he was being kidnapped and lived in Zhao Kingdom.