Then I'd go with either lost turns or trait losses (do you have traits?) A scar that lowers charisma, a blow that lowers intelligence, or even macro level repercussions like the populace losing faith in their leader, or being demoralized at their leader being harmed.

My first idea is like this: During the first *successful* assassination attempt you get a message "you got lucky and barely survived".

If you get wounded by a gunshot or knifewound to the chest (because of the failed assassination attempt), it'd put you out of commission and leave you bedridden for at least a week, which could result in your cabinet having increased in-fighting and the opposition groups getting emboldened in your absence, and your courts hurriedly passing laws that you would've otherwise blocked.

The result would be alot of actions that disrupt your rule and complicate your political goals that you have to invest time to undo or work around following your recovery.

A concrete result that directly affects gameplay.

During the second you "decided to show less in public" (and get a permanent penalty to something).

Perhaps your face gets disfigured? When William Seward (USA Secretary of State) had an assassination attempt on his life the same night President Lincoln was assassinated (as part of the same plot), Seward lived through it. The assassin, gun broken, jumped ontop of Seward while Seward was lying in bed, and stabbing him repeatedly in the face and neck. Because Seward had a metal brace over his face (recovering from a carriage accident a few days earlier), he wasn't killed, but his face had scarring for the rest of his life.

Or, when some group made an attempt to assassinate Viktor Yushchenko, the popular presidential candidate for Ukraine, they used poison. Recovering in the hospital, and later going on to win the election, Viktor Yushchenko's face became permanently discolored and creased with lines and indentations. [photo]

This could go two ways: It could cause you to lose your good looks which lowers your charisma and might, but you might also gain support appearing as a victim of your evil opponents' nefarious schemes.

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During the second you "decided to show less in public" (and get a permanent penalty to something).


Perhaps your face gets disfigured? When William Seward (USA Secretary of State) had an assassination attempt on his life the same night President Lincoln was assassinated (as part of the same plot), Seward lived through it. The assassin, gun broken, jumped ontop of Seward while Seward was lying in bed, and stabbing him repeatedly in the face and neck. Because Seward had a metal brace over his face (recovering from a carriage accident a few days earlier), he wasn't killed, but his face had scarring for the rest of his life.

Or, when some group made an attempt to assassinate Viktor Yushchenko, the popular presidential candidate for Ukraine, they used poison. Recovering in the hospital, and later going on to win the election, Viktor Yushchenko's face became permanently discolored and creased with lines and indentations. [photo]



This could go two ways: It could cause you to lose your good looks which lowers your charisma and might, but you might also gain support appearing as a victim of your evil opponents' nefarious schemes.

Or, if possible, you can even be mistaken for the bad guy.

In Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Emporer Palpatine (the bad guy) somehow had his face disfigured by using Force Lightning on a Jedi. He then turned around and said that the Jedi's attempt on his life left him deformed and scarred.

By the way, I support this idea. It adds so much more depth to the game.

I think of it like many obscure attack types in some RTS games. An assassination is a rare event which can be mostly protected against... if you pour the money and resources into it. So you can either keep your people happy and hope no lone weirdo attacks you, or be a tyrant and hire lots of guards and food tasters, etc. I like the idea of side-effects, e.g. an attempt can influence you physically and your people's views of you... as could surrounding yourself with guards and never going out in public.

Try checking out Crusader Kings 2

or Europa Universalis IV (or any other prequel in the series)

they have a nice assasination mechanic in which you die... the trick is to allow some way for the player to continue on playing even if he does get assasinated.

The player only stops playing when he does some really big mistake, or is really not paying attention to what he is doing...