Chacters that hate other characters

[SemperJase]

Do you encourage characters to be mean, rude, arrogant, or condescending to each other. Or even more drastic, do you encourage characters to betray each other "in character"?

Recently I played in a campaign where one character's defining characteristic was his dislike of nearly every other character in the group.

Personally, I do not enjoy that kind of campaign and if I were DM (which I wasn't) I would discourage that type of play. The lines between characters and people blur to easily in that kind of interaction.

So, is it important to you to be able to play in that kind campaign?

 

[JoeGKushner]

I don't mind it if it crops up as something that happens in the game. I don't like vendettas taken out in the game, nor do I like it when a player abuses a situation or his innate power to bully others. THis isn't 4th grade.

 

[gamecat]

While I encourage conflict of ideals between chars, actual fighting will just bog your game down, so no, I don't like characters who hate each other.

 

[Limper]

I like PC hostilities.... makes running so much easier if all you need to do is sit back and referee.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't mind a certain amount of antagonism in the roleplaying, but I try to discourage it from actually extending to intra-party conflict.

Why? The game is for people to have fun, and I have never seen a group where everybody is having fun if the party is tearing itself apart. Invariably, someone's getting shafted by everyone else, or else the people who enjoy conflict are ruining it for the peope who don't.

I'm not saying it can't work, with the right group. Just that I've never in my entire life seen that group--and since I myself have much more fun when the party is at least somewhat harmonious, I rather doubt I ever will.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

I think it can work, so long as it's done specifically for in game reasons, with no meta involved.

For instance, my character was once more or less responsible for the death of another pc. It wasn't a hate thing, but it was done in character, and everyone was fine with it.

Peachy.

Then he made a new character built around the concept that he would hate my current character.

Not so peachy.

Three arrows in my back later, I was forced to kill his second character.

Later we went drinking and came to an agreement.

The moral = beer makes friends.

Hope that was helpful

-F

 

[clark411]

I tend to dislike conflict in parties unless there's something that justifies it. As Fem said, meta reasons simply aren't acceptible when it's ripping the group up.

In a long standing campaign we had a player who, no matter the character, had a NPCesque attitude that ranged from Indifference (let em bleed for all I care) to Unfriendly (I insult you no matter what you do). Every character was rude, abrasive, and sporting Shoulder Chip in his inventory box.

People who get their jollies off being jerky can go play elsewhere, afaic.

 

[ninjajester]

no fighting allowed in my groups. arguments are bound to happen every now and then, but when characters start stealing from each other and setting traps for each other and poisoning each other and fighting each other, i'm really not having any fun. i don't want to roleplay a group of people who are forced to get along out of necessity. that's what work is for. i want a group that has a history, or unique reasons to trust each other, or that consists of open minded characters.

on the other hand, tension is fine. insults and little pranks are ok. you can get some good role playing out of these things.

 

[Crothian]

I discourage it to a great degree. Arguements are okay if kept in character, but fighting is to much. THe purpose of the game is to have fun for everyone. In no case where fighting, ploting, and working aginst each other has been fun for everyone at the group.

 

[Eternalknight]

I don't encourage it, but I don't discourage it either. In fact, in the two years of 3rd edition I have probably have had three character deaths from lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be) rolls while two PC's have been fighting (rolling crits when fighting another character has a tendancy to happen in my group.) If I could do things over, I would discourage lethal combat between PC's, just as it tends to lead to bad feelings between the players.