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Alignment shift for intra-party murder?
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<blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 4658705" data-attributes="member: 44797"><p>Thank you to everyone for the opinions. That is precisely what I was looking for. I have a few replies, though I'm trying not to over-multiquote.</p><p></p><p>As a little bit of backstory, the game has players from age 10 to 40. This barbarian is run by a 10 year-old who is exploring power & manliness as most young boys do. This is the 2nd character he's made that has died, in just 7 sessions of game play.</p><p></p><p>His first character died after running ahead of the group, triggering a trap, running ahead again even though there was clear danger, and eventually being eaten by a land squid. There were no party members around to rescue him.</p><p></p><p>In addition, another player had previously engaged in a fist-fight with the cleric. The cleric had punched that player, for disappearing in a dungeon and reappearing in disguise as a drow. None of us could understand the logic of appearing as a drow -- the module was nothing drow-ish. None of us could understand the logic of applying <em>any</em> disguise in the first place. But anyway, the point is that the party has a history of:</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">cleric reprimanding</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">party fights</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">10 year-old's characters doing reckless things</li> </ol><p></p><p>The two girls who are playing are unimpressed by this boyish stuff. As you might imagine, they play the two characters that walked down the beach uninterested. In real life, they got up from the table and left to play a board game the moment the cleric & barbarian appeared at odds.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thanks for this. This is a clear distinction that was fuzzy for me.</p><p></p><p>In the end I decided that the attempted murder by the barbarian was just the younger crowd tiring of the older cleric player acting like a parent. Also, that kid comes to play a super-powerful warrior, something he is not in real life. I can see how he would react badly to anyone not treating his character as an awesome powerful adult who is capable and above reproach. So I kinda left his barbarian's alignment out of this.</p><p></p><p>However, he asked that his next character be a lawful good sorcerer. Aside from playing against type, I told him that if he plays anything good, I will no longer allow him to attack his own party.</p><p></p><p>As for the successful murder of the barbarian, I decided it was actually partly good, but only for meta-gamey reasons. I mean, it's good partly because the kid is overconfident to the point of detriment for the other players, and a little bit of "reign it in" might be in order. As for the characters themselves, their act of killing the barbarian can't be just a defense of the cleric, so I'd call it evil if I wasn't allowing some real-life player interaction to influence it.</p><p></p><p>However, the act of body disposal is the part I care about. I thought that was too much both for the players around the table as well as the characters in the game. It felt like chaos to me, so it's good to see you & others calling it that as well. One of the two characters was chaotic neutral, and I felt I could live with a chaotic neutral character doing what he did. But the other character had a neutral alignment, and I've just emailed him to let him know that he's now chaotic neutral too.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, thanks. That was what I hoped for, and got. I appreciate it from all.</p><p></p><p></p><p>OK. Intra. Got it. Title of the thread corrected.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I would say that's exactly what the kid was doing. It's not that he was role-playing a barbarian, it was that he was role-playing someone with strength and independence, and having that dream interrupted was insulting.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I started the game precisely for this stuff. I wanted the kids to be able to explore things in-game that they wouldn't normally do in real life. I'd rather someone learn restraint or cooperation from a game than from experiencing natural consequences in real life. So the 19 year-old ended up having his alignment shift (again... his previous Dragon Shaman shifted alignment and lost powers). The 10 year-old lost his character. (And in order to prevent character churn, I require new characters come in a level below the previous one, similar to the "price you'd pay" for doing a Raise Dead spell.)</p><p></p><p>What I hope is that they start picking up on how to do well in the world & flourish. It might not happen, though.</p><p></p><p>Also, I think the constant fighting is only partly their fault. The other part is that I've clearly not given them a decent nemesis to ally against. They're flailing around because I gave them a sandbox world to play in, dipping into modules as they come across them, when what they need is something with more railroading and pushed plot. So I'll have to get on that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aboyd, post: 4658705, member: 44797"] Thank you to everyone for the opinions. That is precisely what I was looking for. I have a few replies, though I'm trying not to over-multiquote. As a little bit of backstory, the game has players from age 10 to 40. This barbarian is run by a 10 year-old who is exploring power & manliness as most young boys do. This is the 2nd character he's made that has died, in just 7 sessions of game play. His first character died after running ahead of the group, triggering a trap, running ahead again even though there was clear danger, and eventually being eaten by a land squid. There were no party members around to rescue him. In addition, another player had previously engaged in a fist-fight with the cleric. The cleric had punched that player, for disappearing in a dungeon and reappearing in disguise as a drow. None of us could understand the logic of appearing as a drow -- the module was nothing drow-ish. None of us could understand the logic of applying [i]any[/i] disguise in the first place. But anyway, the point is that the party has a history of: [list=1] [*]cleric reprimanding [*]party fights [*]10 year-old's characters doing reckless things [/list] The two girls who are playing are unimpressed by this boyish stuff. As you might imagine, they play the two characters that walked down the beach uninterested. In real life, they got up from the table and left to play a board game the moment the cleric & barbarian appeared at odds. Thanks for this. This is a clear distinction that was fuzzy for me. In the end I decided that the attempted murder by the barbarian was just the younger crowd tiring of the older cleric player acting like a parent. Also, that kid comes to play a super-powerful warrior, something he is not in real life. I can see how he would react badly to anyone not treating his character as an awesome powerful adult who is capable and above reproach. So I kinda left his barbarian's alignment out of this. However, he asked that his next character be a lawful good sorcerer. Aside from playing against type, I told him that if he plays anything good, I will no longer allow him to attack his own party. As for the successful murder of the barbarian, I decided it was actually partly good, but only for meta-gamey reasons. I mean, it's good partly because the kid is overconfident to the point of detriment for the other players, and a little bit of "reign it in" might be in order. As for the characters themselves, their act of killing the barbarian can't be just a defense of the cleric, so I'd call it evil if I wasn't allowing some real-life player interaction to influence it. However, the act of body disposal is the part I care about. I thought that was too much both for the players around the table as well as the characters in the game. It felt like chaos to me, so it's good to see you & others calling it that as well. One of the two characters was chaotic neutral, and I felt I could live with a chaotic neutral character doing what he did. But the other character had a neutral alignment, and I've just emailed him to let him know that he's now chaotic neutral too. Yes, thanks. That was what I hoped for, and got. I appreciate it from all. OK. Intra. Got it. Title of the thread corrected. I would say that's exactly what the kid was doing. It's not that he was role-playing a barbarian, it was that he was role-playing someone with strength and independence, and having that dream interrupted was insulting. Anyway, I started the game precisely for this stuff. I wanted the kids to be able to explore things in-game that they wouldn't normally do in real life. I'd rather someone learn restraint or cooperation from a game than from experiencing natural consequences in real life. So the 19 year-old ended up having his alignment shift (again... his previous Dragon Shaman shifted alignment and lost powers). The 10 year-old lost his character. (And in order to prevent character churn, I require new characters come in a level below the previous one, similar to the "price you'd pay" for doing a Raise Dead spell.) What I hope is that they start picking up on how to do well in the world & flourish. It might not happen, though. Also, I think the constant fighting is only partly their fault. The other part is that I've clearly not given them a decent nemesis to ally against. They're flailing around because I gave them a sandbox world to play in, dipping into modules as they come across them, when what they need is something with more railroading and pushed plot. So I'll have to get on that. [/QUOTE]
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Alignment shift for intra-party murder?
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