Creamsteak
Explorer
I am having an issue in my campaign. A character that consistently plays what I feel is a chaotic neutral character (a character that only does jobs if he is told beforehand that he is going to be paid for it, and also prefers not to be ordered by people- which together is somewhat contradicting...) is making DM'ing hard on me.
I am considering banning all evil allignments and chaotic neutral in my campaign. This is why...
1) Generally all the PC's are good natured and want to be rewarded with treasures because they are doing good deads of their own accord. They generally would follow evil to the ends of the earth to swat it out of the way. I also want to hedge out characters that like to shake up the town a little by breaking doors, and bones, in order to forcefully get some kind of quest.
2) I find it easier to DM for lawful characters than chaotic. Hell, I would rather DM Lawful Evil and Nuetral Evil characters mixed in with a group of paladins than a chaotic neutral and chaotic evil pair... Chaotic good does not bother me, because the only times they should normally break the law, is to help someone or to protect themselves.
3) Chaotic Neutral is always used as an excuse for evil deeds like burning down an inn that turned you away in my PC's eyes.
4) I feel better to reward a hero for killing the orcs that were raiding the mining camp. This is often when I would give out what appears to the characters to be a huge amount of treasure. Often the PC's that are chaotic neutral start inquiring "when will you pay me" and generally when they start doing that... for some reason the treasure they recieve starts dropping.
5) For some reason the last campaign I ran lasted 6 months (which I believe is a long time to run a campaign when all your players are horny teenagers trying to be "rebels" every day of their lives) and that campaign did not have the "chaotic Neutral" guys involved.
6) Campaigns previous to that campaign and those that I am playing now are not lasting a full week. At least once someone starts a rules fight with me each time (always the chaotic neutral guy) and I always end up turning the campaign into "the town guards are following you with spears" while the characters run around.
7) I feel bad to "pay" the characters for doing jobs. I would rather they do things of their own accord and I reward them.
My Take on Allignment is listed below----------
Neutral: The Neutral characters of the world do a job because it rewards them and provides them with what they need and want. The man that is a blacksmith because it is a job and it will allow him to get by is neutral. Neutral characters work for their own good instead of working towards general good like a good character would. Neutral characters would go form a gold mining camp because they know gold is worth having for trade, but not because there is a need for gold in the world.
Good: The Good characters of the world do whatever jobs, duties, or other activities in order to help others and would leave their jobs in order to fill jobs that take precedence such as a blacksmith that hears of a nearby mining camp that is being constantly raided and stolen from and decides that he should go to the aid of the miners. Good characters are often “rewarded” by the people they help instead of working directly for their own gain. If the Blacksmith decided to become a miner they may mine iron because the world desperately needs iron for the wars being fought to protect his country.
Evil: The Evil characters of the world take what is necessary in order to survive, and often is willing to take more. The Evil character probably can’t stand to be a blacksmith… but would love to steal from the blacksmith or the miners. The Evil character probably works for their own personal gain, but are the only ones who would choose to take the gold from the miners instead of mining it themselves.
So I ask the most experienced of you: what should I do? Should I cut off some of the allignments?
Now keep in mind, that nothing is going to happen yet, I just want to get support for where I stand. I want to go into our next "gameday" with a little bit of support for my opinion from people ouside the game. I am 100% sure that our next gameday will not be an actual game. I am going to line all the players up and I am not going to talk to them as a DM. We are going to be on equal terms and will discuss what we want to do instead of me telling them what I want them to do.
Which brings up my bad habit as a DM... when I wear that halo over my head that says DM I tell them what is going on. When I don't wear the DM halo I ask them what should go on.
That is probably the only bad thing I do when I game, I actually run some very open ended games, I just have this thing where I tell them how it is and expect them to follow it. That is why my solution is to have this "discussion" day coming up soon.
I am considering banning all evil allignments and chaotic neutral in my campaign. This is why...
1) Generally all the PC's are good natured and want to be rewarded with treasures because they are doing good deads of their own accord. They generally would follow evil to the ends of the earth to swat it out of the way. I also want to hedge out characters that like to shake up the town a little by breaking doors, and bones, in order to forcefully get some kind of quest.
2) I find it easier to DM for lawful characters than chaotic. Hell, I would rather DM Lawful Evil and Nuetral Evil characters mixed in with a group of paladins than a chaotic neutral and chaotic evil pair... Chaotic good does not bother me, because the only times they should normally break the law, is to help someone or to protect themselves.
3) Chaotic Neutral is always used as an excuse for evil deeds like burning down an inn that turned you away in my PC's eyes.
4) I feel better to reward a hero for killing the orcs that were raiding the mining camp. This is often when I would give out what appears to the characters to be a huge amount of treasure. Often the PC's that are chaotic neutral start inquiring "when will you pay me" and generally when they start doing that... for some reason the treasure they recieve starts dropping.
5) For some reason the last campaign I ran lasted 6 months (which I believe is a long time to run a campaign when all your players are horny teenagers trying to be "rebels" every day of their lives) and that campaign did not have the "chaotic Neutral" guys involved.
6) Campaigns previous to that campaign and those that I am playing now are not lasting a full week. At least once someone starts a rules fight with me each time (always the chaotic neutral guy) and I always end up turning the campaign into "the town guards are following you with spears" while the characters run around.
7) I feel bad to "pay" the characters for doing jobs. I would rather they do things of their own accord and I reward them.
My Take on Allignment is listed below----------
Neutral: The Neutral characters of the world do a job because it rewards them and provides them with what they need and want. The man that is a blacksmith because it is a job and it will allow him to get by is neutral. Neutral characters work for their own good instead of working towards general good like a good character would. Neutral characters would go form a gold mining camp because they know gold is worth having for trade, but not because there is a need for gold in the world.
Good: The Good characters of the world do whatever jobs, duties, or other activities in order to help others and would leave their jobs in order to fill jobs that take precedence such as a blacksmith that hears of a nearby mining camp that is being constantly raided and stolen from and decides that he should go to the aid of the miners. Good characters are often “rewarded” by the people they help instead of working directly for their own gain. If the Blacksmith decided to become a miner they may mine iron because the world desperately needs iron for the wars being fought to protect his country.
Evil: The Evil characters of the world take what is necessary in order to survive, and often is willing to take more. The Evil character probably can’t stand to be a blacksmith… but would love to steal from the blacksmith or the miners. The Evil character probably works for their own personal gain, but are the only ones who would choose to take the gold from the miners instead of mining it themselves.
So I ask the most experienced of you: what should I do? Should I cut off some of the allignments?
Now keep in mind, that nothing is going to happen yet, I just want to get support for where I stand. I want to go into our next "gameday" with a little bit of support for my opinion from people ouside the game. I am 100% sure that our next gameday will not be an actual game. I am going to line all the players up and I am not going to talk to them as a DM. We are going to be on equal terms and will discuss what we want to do instead of me telling them what I want them to do.
Which brings up my bad habit as a DM... when I wear that halo over my head that says DM I tell them what is going on. When I don't wear the DM halo I ask them what should go on.
That is probably the only bad thing I do when I game, I actually run some very open ended games, I just have this thing where I tell them how it is and expect them to follow it. That is why my solution is to have this "discussion" day coming up soon.
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