The Gild

Gild

• cover thinly with gold
• give a specious or false brilliance to
• (archaic spelling of guild) an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal

I recently rewatched the Ocean's 11 trilogy, a series I greatly enjoy. I've also been playing Hitman: World of Assassination. These two things have me thinking some dangerous (read: actionable) game design thoughts. 

One of the things I love about this latest iteration of the Hitman series is how (eventually) there becomes this hyper competent, high tech, clandestine service dedicated to the decimation of oppressive forces. It's all the bombast and Borne film aesthetics of the American military, but with the expressed purpose of combating the status quo rather than perpetuating it.

It's not 100% politically unproblematic. There's still plenty of hand waving and simplification of complex issues, but an effort is being made.

The Ocean's movies are just, well, fun. I love a heist movie. I love watching people solve problems and do the thing they're best at. 

There's a lot of actionable game design stuff in those movies. Each character has a specialty, but they're all kinda good at everything, specifically at things we've already seen on screen. A character becomes a good pickpocket after another character already shows some sleight of hand. Characters can appear near other characters exactly when they are needed. Contacts can come out of the blue, across multiple jobs, right when they are needed. An enemy's strength becomes their weakness.

The Hitman games have a killer (heh) and simple graphic design that evokes cleanliness, corporate professionalism, government bureaucracy, ruthless efficiency. Perfect for an RPG made by someone who is still working on their graphic design skills.

Once upon a time there were people with debts to pay, and communities they want to help but can't. And then one day they found this... facility. It's foundations are ancient, but there's glass walls, huge display screens, vaults full of gadgets, and a complete database of confidence tricks, rich marks, and all their strengths and weaknesses. Maybe it's all overgrown, or never completed, or it's full of dead bodies.

On a single computer monitor is a simple phrase, proceeded by a winking command line cursor,

"Welcome to The Gild."

What do you do?