Animus

ANIMUS—just the name strikes fear into the hearts of princes. Some think them no more than a group of thugs who extort money out of noble families with lurid tales of murder. Others have lost priceless artefacts and sensitive documents, only to have ANIMUS auction them to the highest bidder. A few have found friends and family members dead, despite thick walls and attentive guards, only to hear that ANIMUS claims responsibility.

In truth, ANIMUS is all of these things and none at the same time. Formed by an alliance of the thieves guilds in Venice, Florence, Turin, and Milan, ANIMUS soon started stealing secrets as well as riches. With a range of secrets, a network of runners and riders who can get information from one city to another faster than anyone else, and a thoroughly pragmatic attitude towards the use of assassination to effect social change, ANIMUS is a shadowy faction that fancies itself the power behind the throne, using its spies and assassins to place the right people in the right places.

ANIMUS would have it easy, were it not for other shadowy factions. As far as anyone knows, the Midnight Hand are Satanists, sowing murder and chaos in the name of their dark lord. Hrefn steal and kill to ease the way for their own members to take the reins of power, shaping the world in their image. And every city-state has merchant-princes who want power for themselves. Some retain the services of ANIMUS, or a local competitor, while others keep their spies in-house.

ANIMUS is:

• The first BLACK SEVEN genre pack. Each genre pack tailors the rules to best suit a given set of inspirations. For ANIMUS, that’s the genre of spies, assassins, and thieves in the warring city-states of Renaissance Europe.

• 13 pages of new rules and tweaks to make BLACK SEVEN play more like Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and Thief: The Dark Project.

• Creative Commons licensed, so one purchase feeds the gaming needs of a whole group. If you like it and got it for free, I hope you buy it.

• Multiformat, including the rules and a sample adventure in PDF, ePub, and Kindle format, and a host of PDF reference sheets—including a business-card sized Agent Record.

Requires a copy of BLACK SEVEN to use.