A Little Help From My Friends: the Assistant Roles in Dark Metropolis

Dark Metropolis is deliberately an NPC-heavy game in which the players are the little fish in a big pond filled with sharks. We’ve made it clear from the start that player characters are unlikely to achieve certain roles in the city such as Hound, Priscus or Harpy (let alone the more powerful roles) because the game we are running is Low Court focused. However, we have set up the possibility of Assistant roles, where a player character has a direct line of influence to the people who hold the overarching roles of Hound, Priscus or Harpy. These are intended to be competitive and active roles that are what the player makes of them, but we realised they may be a little vague from the outside. So here are our ideas of what those roles entail and the potential opportunities they give.

If you still have questions about any of these roles, please e-mail the Shades of Norwich ST Team.

Minions: annoying and easily disposable

Assistant Harpy

The Murder of Harpies have busy unlives, and even with five of them (perhaps because of the five of them) assistants are valuable. There are multiple Assistant Harpies in the setting but one clearly stated opportunity for a PC to become one.

What are the duties of the Assistant Harpy? Reporting to the Harpies on what happens in the Low Court, since the Harpies only rarely have the time to turn up at Low Court gatherings. This would usually be done between gatherings, with a brief few sentences on anything you want to tell the Harpies (note that this does not have to be what actually happened, or can be biased, but also that your character is not the only source of information for the Harpies, so outright lies may be caught). From an OoC perspective, you can feed information and reports back to the Harpies by putting it at the beginning of your downtime. Be aware that they will no doubt have multiple sources to corroborate or deny particularly scandalous information, as they have their reputations to think about as well, so any outright falsehood is likely to be ignored in favour of more accurate information.

What opportunities does this role give me? The chance to shape what the Harpies, and therefore the High Court, hear about the Low Court events and characters. The Harpies do have their own agendas and choose how to use this information. It’s a good way of interacting with more social and political aspects of the game, as well. If you feed good information back to the Harpies and prove yourself to be a good agent, you may be able to gain Status in the city, or you can make sure the right people come to their attention.

How do I become Assistant Harpy? There is currently a PC Assistant Harpy, with the other roles held by NPC Assistants, so the best way would be for one of these positions to conveniently become empty. Of course, you could also prove yourself a better person for the job than either the PC or one of the NPCs and see how that goes.

Dead-eyed expression recommended but not a must

Assistant Hound

The Hounds of the city oversee a group of other Kindred who are enforcers of the Prince’s laws. There is currently one PC Hound’s Assistant and a number of other positions that help the Hounds (not all deputised in the same way as an Assistant) which are currently occupied by NPCs. They also maintain some other trusted teams to deal with specific matters, but these are often not publicised.

What are the duties of the Assistant Hound? Supporting the Hounds in their duties, reporting any disturbances or matters of interest to them, enforcing the Prince’s laws and investigating minor matters to see whether they’re worth the Hounds’ time. From an OoC perspective, you can feed anything back to the Hounds that you want them to know at the start of your downtime, and you will probably be given investigations and duties to carry out.

What opportunities does this role give me? A chance to interact with more investigative and physical aspects of the game. You’ll be an authority in investigations and potentially given limited deputy power to enforce the status quo (though overstepping bounds is potentially dangerous). While the credit for your work will probably go to the Hounds, they are known to reward loyalty. If you make a name for yourself as reliable and trustworthy, you may be able to gain Status in the city, or make a quick buck if you're corrupt.

How do I become Assistant Hound? Due to the size of the city, there’s a lot of potential for extra hands in the Hounds’ office, so you could investigate the support teams the Hounds use or prove your usefulness directly, to the Hounds or the current PC Assistant. Of course, it’s also a role that can have a high turnover during turbulent times...

Assistant Priscus

The Assistant Prisci have only recently been introduced. The Priscus Council is the other major power in the city besides the Prince - they appoint certain roles such as the Keeper of the Low Court and have a lot of sway, as they are supposed to be the voices of the clans in the city. The Assistant Prisci are not a Council but they act as aides and helpers to the Council, who are often too busy to deal with the Low Court directly.

What are the duties of the Assistant Priscus? Act as aide to your Priscus over minor matters, be the eyes and ears of your Priscus in the Low Court, bring any matters to the Priscus that your clan wishes to be escalated and keep the Priscus clued in on anything that urgently requires their attention (such as breaches of the laws by other clan members). The Assistant Prisci do not have regular meetings scheduled, though if players of the Assistant Prisci wish to discuss things, that is up to them. There may be rare occasions when a Priscus will tell an Assistant to go and sort out their clan mates or investigate a clan matter. From an OoC perspective, at the games you can talk to your clanmates and gather any thoughts, concerns or issues, and then anything you want to feed back to your Priscus should be at the start of your downtime. This does not need to be truthful, but blatant lies will likely be caught out - a heavy dose of spin is entirely acceptable.

What opportunities does this role give me? A chance to represent your clan in a more direct way, be the direct line to your Priscus and make sure the voices of often overlooked members of the clan (especially the Low Court) are heard. You will be more involved in the political and social aspects of the game, and can potentially influence NPCs or use your position to extort favours from them in return for passing things along. It would be a reasonable justification for buying Status 2 in your clan or possibly the city (though that may require more work).

How do I become an Assistant Priscus? The Assistants are voted in by the clan in the same way as the Prisci themselves, so the role does have to become vacant before you can step into it. If the role is vacant, we’d recommend talking to other PCs and NPCs to drum up support. From an OoC perspective, more weight is given to the votes of player characters, so it’s well worth using the games to build your platform.