I’ve recently got the game and I was intrigued by the Assassins crew special ability “No Traces”. I really liked the idea of playing a game where you try and be as stealthy as possible, with only your contacts and other crews you ran into knowing of your existence and involvement.
However when I looked at the Shadows crew type it didn’t have any sort of similar ability which seemed strange to me as that is the crew type that I would picture as being fully hidden or at least on par with Assassins.
Does anyone have any insight into a design decision for this and what are people’s thoughts in just giving the “No Traces” ability to the Shadows?
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I don’t know about the design choice. I guess one of the reasons is that it was uncecessary to repeat abilities in several crews’ description.
What I know is that any Crew is perfectly allowed to take any ability from any other type of crew. And that’s by design (that’s what the “Veteran” slots are for on the crew’s playbooks).
So if you want a Shadows crew with “No Traces”, go for it.
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Like A_B says, it’s fine to just let them take an ability from another crew sheet. I do agree that it feels more Shadows-y than Assassin-y to me, but maybe John was just feeling shorter on Assassin abilities?
No Traces is definitely a reasonable choice for Shadows to pick up as a Veteran ability, but I think that the way Shadows tend to do business does lead them to have a bigger “footprint” (louder "footfall?) than most Assassins will.
After completing a job, Assassins need to report back to their client, but they don’t have any financial or practical reason to talk to anyone else about it. If they’re short on clients they might need to brag about their past kills to attract attention, but if business is steady, they can be very private about each individual job. Some Shadows scores might work that way, (Sabotage; paid Espionage for a client) but Shadows who engage in Burglary or freelance Espionage will end up in possession of valuable goods and intel. In order to actually get paid, they need to sell their ill-gotten-gains, which can make extreme secrecy untenable to maintain.
Assassins has the extra advantage that if they execute an “Accident” or “Disappearance” successfully, people outside the crew might not realize that any crime was committed at all, while Shadow jobs usually do leave a victim out there wondering who done it.
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