The myriad games of the Assassin's Creed franchise span different eras of history, and these tabletop RPGs also allow players to act as roof-hopping assassins who kill their targets with wrist-mounted blades, in addition to providing the historical fantasy and political intrigue of Assassin's Creed. These games blur the lines between cyberpunk science fiction, conspiracy thriller, historical fantasy, and pulp adventure, and tabletop gamers interested in running RPG campaigns inspired by the Assassin's Creed setting will relish these systems. These games immerse players in fantastical versions of real-world history and give them mechanics for creating stealthy, stab-happy anti-heroes.
The Crusader Kingdoms of the Holy Land; over time, both Altaïr and Desmond learn more about the bitter rivalry between the Assassin's Brotherhood and the military order of the Knights Templar, presented in-game as facades for far more ancient conspiracies...
Not counting licensed spin-offs, there are currently 14 entries in the Assassin's Creed franchise, each focused on an increasingly complicated secret history of freedom-seeking Assassins (upholding the creed "Nothing is true, everything is permitted") fighting against control-seeking Templars over control of the Pieces of Eden – quasi-magical relics created by a long-lost civilization of pre-human beings. The main appeal of the villain-heavy Assassin's Creed franchise, besides its intricate parkour mechanics, fluid combat systems, and trick assassination scenarios, is how it empowers players to interact with famous events and peoples in the 12th century Crusader Kingdoms, Renaissance Italy, Pre-Revolutionary America, Ptolemaic Egypt, Ancient Greece, and more. For this reason, fans of the Assassin's Creed games will also enjoy the following tabletop RPGs – some of them set in fantastical versions of real-world history, others focused on the exploits of assassins and spies.
Schiavone Is A Great Assassin's Creed-Style Tabletop RPG
The tabletop RPG Schiavone is a simple swashbuckling fantasy roleplaying system inspired by Into The ODD and other "Old School Revival" RPGs. The setting of Schiavone (its English and French language rules both available for free on historical figures in Assassin's Creed 2. The simple, straightforward mechanics of Schiavone encourage swashbuckling drama and intrigue through a "Luck Point" mechanic where players can spend finite resources to improve the odds of their characters succeeding or add new details to the game's story.
TimeWatch Has Elements From Assassin's Creed
TimeWatch, a science-fiction time-travel adventure RPG, uses the mystery-solving rules of the GUMSHOE system to tell stories of Time Agents and their heroic struggles to maintain the continuity of human history against those who would alter it beyond recognition. Drawing heavy inspiration from narratives such as Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure or the Time Patrol books by Poul Anderson, TimeWatch, published by Assassin's Creed franchise, giving players and GMs the resources to create exciting adventures anchored in actual historical cultures and epochs. TimeWatch also has conflict rules for all the devious causality-breaking hijinks seen in time travel fiction, such as traveling back in time to help a past version of oneself, erasing enemies from the time stream by targeting their ancestors, accidentally/deliberately creating time paradoxes, etc.
Chronicles Of Darkness: Dark Eras I & II Fits Assassin's Creed's Theme
The Chronicles Of Darkness RPG game-line, a spiritual successor to the World of Darkness franchise, takes place in a modern horror/urban fantasy setting where supernatural creatures such as vampires, werewolves, changelings, and mages secretly live among - and sometimes prey upon - the mostly-unaware human population. The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras I and II are a pair of setting sourcebooks that let role-players tell stories in the past of the Chronicles Of Darkness setting, spicing up certain real-life historical eras and cultures with supernatural conspiracies and grim agendas. The To The Strongest setting, for instance, revolves around the adventures and rivalries of Mages and miracle-workers in Persia and Egypt post-Alexander The Great's death.
The Arthur's Britannia setting pits Romano-British vampires, Anglo-Saxon monster hunters, and Celtic changelings against each other during the final days of the Round Table and King Arthur's rule. The two rival factions of Mages in the To The Strongest setting - the transcendence-seeking Diamond Order and the oppression-worshiping Seers of the Throne - are particularly good stand-ins for the Assassins and Templars in the Assassin's Creed games. It may not be a perfect swap, but they work well.
Trinity Continuum: Assassins Is Like Modern-Day Assassin's Creed
Each of the three main game-lines of the Trinity Continuum tabletop RPG game franchise focus on the exploits of larger-than-life heroes to some degree; Adventure! is about two-fisted pulp adventure heroes from the early 20th century, Aberrant is about costumed superheroes and mutants in the 21st century, and Aeon is about psychic super-soldiers in a space opera future. Trinity Continuum: Assassins (currently available as a preview on Drivethru RPG) is a roleplaying game about contract killers, cutthroats, and other of a global criminal Underworld, who hone powerful assassination techniques, carry out missions to assassinate well-guarded targets, and immerse themselves in blood feuds and ionate vendettas. The core book for Trinity Continuum: Assassins contains rules for creating Assassin characters with subtle, probability-bending superpowers along with the secretive, slightly archaic Societies who them.
Trinity Continuum: Assassins draws heavy inspiration from the John Wick movies, the Hitman video games, and other franchises about implacable anti-heroes who dress nicely and mow down armies of enemies in order to complete their missions. The setting of Trinity Continuum: Assassins and other Trinity Continuum tabletop RPG games is also a good fit for the modern-day interludes in every Assassin's Creed video game, where modern-day Assassins have to decipher the secrets of their ancestors and deal with contemporary issues such as social media and mass surveillance.
Sources: Pelgrane Press, Drivethru RPG, itch.io