Assassination Variant,
or "Beware the Ides of March"
Introduction
The Republic of Rome assassination rules have the
drawback that they are all or nothing, either the assassin
gets away with the deed or is caught, rarely is there anything
in between. Another difficulty is that the rule whereby the
Faction Leader must stand for trial is never used since players
simply avoid it by using the Faction Leader as the Assassin.
Thus, players may wish to ignore the existing Assassination
rules and adopt the following instead.
Rules
A player attempting an assassination rolls one colored and one
white die. Both are modified by Evil Omens if any exist.
An assassination is successful if the colored dr is 5-6.
An assassin is caught if the white dr is 1-3.
Caught assassins are killed. In addition, every senator in the assassin's faction loses 5 Influence and 1 Popularity.
Secret Bodyguard cards subtract 1 from both the colored and white dr's s well as triggering an additional white dr to see whether the assassin is caught.
Assassin cards add 1 to both the colored and white dr's as well as adding 1 to any additional Secret Bodyguard rolls.
There is no special prosecution of the Faction Leader.
This rule is being used by a pbem game at the Scott Harris site.
Rules
Before the start of the game, in particular, before any cards are dealt, secretly record
the following:
| Characteristics: | Points: |
| Doubles Popularity gains | 2 |
| Doubles Popularity losses | -1 |
| Extra Influence | 1 per point of Influence |
| Extra Loyalty | 1 per 3 points of Loyalty |
| Extra Military | 3 per point of Military |
| Extra Oratory | 2 per point of Oratory |
| Extra Popularity | 1 per point of Popularity |
| Revenue: | |
| Doubles all personal income | 3 |
| Extra income when faction leader | 1 per point of income |
| Good governor. Adds to development roll | 1 per point added |
| May claim one named concession once | 2 |
| Very corrupt governor. Doubles provincial income | 3 |
| Forum: | |
| Eunuch. Immune to seduction | 0.5 |
| Honorable. Immune to blackmail | 0.5 |
| Loyalty 00 for named contemporaneous statesman | -1 |
| Patrician. -5 to knight roll | -1 |
| Reactionary. -10 to knight roll | -2 |
| Persuasive. Extra points in persuading | 1 per point of plus |
| Plus to Knights roll | 1 per point of plus |
| Pure. Cannot gouge, blackmail, seduce or be corrupt | -1 |
| Demagogue. When HRAO, may perform Catiline Conspiracy once per game. | 3 |
| Senate: | |
| Assassinator. Adds 1 to all attempts. | 3 |
| Beady-eyed. Subtracts 3 from appeal roll | -1 |
| Cross-eyed. Subtracts 6 from appeal roll | -2 |
| Lucky. Subtracts from 1 from assassination attempts | 3 |
| Mob Orator | 2 |
| One free graft/turn | 2 |
| One free landbill proposal/turn | 2 |
| One free landbill veto/turn | 1 |
| One free mob violence/turn | 2 |
| One free murder of a tribune/turn | 2 |
| One free tribune/turn | 3 |
| War: | |
| D/S avoidance works when Master of Horse as well | 1 |
| Admiral. Extra Military in naval battles | 1 per point of Military |
| Avoid D/S result for named group of matching wars | 1 per 10 points of war |
| Avoid D/S result for named leader | 4 |
| Avoid D/S result for named war | 1 per 10 points of war |
| Creates 2 veterans in victory | 3 |
| Good lieutenant. Extra Military as Master of Horse | 1 per point of Military |
| Halves losses in combat | 3 |
| Leads charges. Draw double mortality chits | -1 |
| Plucky. Adds to Military when in province combat | 1 per point of Military |
| Poor diplomat. Always suffers "Ally Deserts" in combat | -1 |
| Totally uninspiring. Never creates veterans. | -1 |
| Turns D/S combat result into Unprosecuted | 2 |
| Uninspiring. Veterans only loyal on roll of 4-6. | -0.5 |
| Revolution: | |
| One free Influence peddling/turn | 6 |
| Transfer hidden red card to another player (not self) | 3 |
Thanks to Philip Vogt for originally suggesting this idea. For more variants, see Republic of Carthage.
Founding Fathers is a game in the same style set in early America