The ethics of assassination

>>54864639
Depends on the setting. Generally, it probably involves betraying your employer or fellow guild members in some way.

>>54864639
When murdering everyone is slower than word of mouth or unable to stop it, they'll have a very big problem on their hands. If whoever they've killed were important enough and/or the context surrounding the slaughter damning enough, they may well face an existential problem, with no allies to support them.

>>54864639
If their names are on the contract, it's not murder...

>>54864639
>What is a situation that a mercenary/bounty hunter/assassins guild might face that can't be solved with straight up murdering everyone?

Any situation that's about changing the politics of a regime, because everybody who isn't dead is just going to pick up the slack and countinue the system that will, now that the former top spots are theirs, be even more profitable to themselves.

>>54864639
>What is a situation that a mercenary/bounty hunter/assassins guild might face that can't be solved with straight up murdering everyone?

Any force stronger than a few chucklefucks with knives, like organized militia/police force. You can't murder anyone if they murder you first.

>>54864639
In my first setting, nation of mercenaries has three rules basically:
1) Don't kill each other.
2) Don't kill non-noble people openly, if nation isn't at war with population.
3) Don't do stupid assassinations which can lead to total poverty or some shit like world war. Local wars, feuds and kills\terracts to manipulate economy in their favour are okay.
4) Never deny contract for killing monsters if you have no active contracts, because monsters don't usually pay, but people do.
These rules are written with one thing in mind: all other nations are "herbivores", mercenary nation is "carnivore". This mindset can be described like mindset of farmer to crops - you give them time to grow and protect them from pests.
TL;DR
>Don't overkill because more people = more banter = more contracts

Second setting basically has cyber-magitech epoch, with mercenaries and private military companies blooming under corporation's and government's rains of money. However, there are ranking and some rules.
Rankings are:
Green mercs only: kill combatants, wreck property, steal shit. Not killing non-combatants or dealing with really dangerous shit, no selling weapons and drugs, no contraband.
Yellow mercs kill combatants, kill people if unsure of their status or if people are high-standing, yellows obviously do sabotages, contraband, sell drugs, weapons. But they don't sell really dangerous shit, don't support really wicked organizations.
Red mercs don't care. They kill anyone, do anything.
And then there are also Vigilantieri - noble mercenaries serving police. They usually are descendants of ancient headhunter lines, trained as hell and rich as fuck.
Main rule: you kill non APB person or noncombatant - wait until the police shut you down. Police is not swedish type. It's a full-fledged army, and special forces can provide hell of a ride.

>>54864639
Many reasons.

-Unless you're some sort of edgy anime superhuman, you can't just "nothing personnel" anyone who disagrees with you.
-You're CONTRACT killers. Which means you depend on people to bring you work. People are substantially less willing to hire a murderous psychopath (as opposed to professional psychopath).
-Code of ethics generally does wonders in any society. You become respectable and suddenly you have funding, allies, people in town guard willing to overlook some unimportant details...

>>54864639
>In my first setting, nation of mercenaries has three rules basically:

B-but anon, you listed four.

>>54868726
Forgot about monsterkilling.
By the way, if we'll turn anusmaneuvering on, they are really diverse society. Not "muh muslim lesbians" diverse, but rather "there are over thousand of little sects\tribes\schools with their cultures trying to banter, steal techniques and genocide each other if no one is watching".

>>54868412
This. A bountyhunter is a tool, like a knife or a sword is. If someone kills someone via bountyhunter, the hunter is innocent and didn't do it, like how a knife isn't guilty of stabbing.
A bounty hunter is still a man and can get charged and punished if he commits any crime outside of contract work.

This can get you a fun setting/nation where there's shitloads of paperwork and legal bounties working close with the government/police, with people that want the service having to pay extra taxes and provide credible proof of wanting someone wounded/dead. All this shit could be legal in this nation, and an armed society could be a polite society (only instead of guns, they have goons that are ready to do violence).

You'd also have different levels of bounty hunter guilds, from stary-eyed farmhands turned ruffians that are affordable to professional mage-hunters for the nobility.

You might want to look at the current USA bounty hunters which IIRC can't lawfully detain or wound people but can track them and call the cops on them. I dunno much, read it up, and this "bounty hunting" is legal.