D&D 5E What does "murderhobo" mean to you?

[The Crimson Binome]

I can't speak for anyone else on this, but I am not one to make light of murder, and any sort of murderer is just about the worst kind of character that anyone could possibly play. Murder is bad.

To that end, a murderhobo (as I see it) is basically an evil wanderer who kills innocent people. The opposite of a murderhobo is a wandering hero, who only kills monsters (or at least, dangerous creatures which are not intelligent enough to be considered people).

A murderhobo campaign is (most likely) one where the players don't identify with their characters and, as such, have no qualms about killing innocent (albeit fictional) people. At least, that's how I see it. That's what comes to mind, when I hear the term.

 

[DemoMonkey]

The opposite of a murderhobo is a wandering hero, who only kills monsters (or at least, dangerous creatures which are not intelligent enough to be considered people).

So, never fighting Drow, Yuan-Ti, Cultists, Hobgoblins, or other creatures who may have posed no direct threat to the PCs until the PCs show up on their doorstep and slaughter them because they're evil?

 

[Caliban]

The opposite of a murderhobo is a wandering hero, who only kills monsters (or at least, dangerous creatures which are not intelligent enough to be considered people).

So, never fighting Drow, Yuan-Ti, Cultists, Hobgoblins, or other creatures who may have posed no direct threat to the PCs until the PCs show up on their doorstep and slaughter them because they're evil?

Who are you to judge them as "evil"? They are just adhering their own culturally acceptable behaviors. The Imperialist "Adventurers" only care about their so called crimes when they know there is gold and magic to be gained by invading their homes and slaughtering them!

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

So, never fighting Drow, Yuan-Ti, Cultists, Hobgoblins, or other creatures who may have posed no direct threat to the PCs until the PCs show up on their doorstep and slaughter them because they're evil?

But if the PCs ended up at their doorstep, someone probably sent them, and that means they posed a direct threat to other, more peaceful/weak beings that needed heroes to selflessly put themselves in danger to end that threat.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Your PC might be a Murderhobo If....

You claim you "don't believe in alignment", but you run your PC more stereotypically CE then the big bad the party is fighting.

You have ever used the phrase "DPR spreadsheet" and rogue in the same sentence.

Your PC has ever burned down an orphanage, because "everyone knows orphans have a lot of gold hidden away."

{Pathfinder edition} Your PC would take a feat that required killing two widows, an orphan, and drowning a sack of puppies for the sole benefit of getting +1 to your attack role against half-demon plant monsters. [Extra points if you argue on the Paizo forums that not only is this feat not evil, but is the goodest good of all].

Your PC is in a "healing/support class" but has never cast a beneficial spell (not even a cantrip) on another PC.

 

[Blue]

For me it was adventurers who wander around and kill things for stuff. But with a connotation that's all they do. Just randomly show up in adventures and kill things.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

So, never fighting Drow, Yuan-Ti, Cultists, Hobgoblins, or other creatures who may have posed no direct threat to the PCs until the PCs show up on their doorstep and slaughter them because they're evil?

That really depends on the nature of the game world. Is a Drow a person? If so, then killing it is wrong, unless it's necessary to protect yourself or others. If those cultists are murdering people in order to summon an evil god that will destroy the world, then they're fair game.

In my game world, a Goblin is a kind of demon.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Is a Drow a person?

For the sake of this discussion, we'll say yes. An evil person, one that does not pose an immediate threat but may, at some theoretical point in the future, pose one.

Kill them and take their stuff or not?

 

[SkidAce]

The term was always meant to be used facetiously. Players in RPGs tend to kill a lot of things as they wander the countryside. Murderhobo was a sarcastic descriptor of this core RPG trope. The further we get away from the origin of the term the easier it is to re-ascribe it to actions it did not originally apply.

quoted for truth.

 

[Caliban]

Is a Drow a person?

For the sake of this discussion, we'll say yes. An evil person, one that does not pose an immediate threat but may, at some theoretical point in the future, pose one.

Kill them and take their stuff or not?

Taken Adventurer: "If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

Grosse Pointe Blanke Adventurer: ""If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there."