share you stories here! what caused it?
Did You Ever Have a Group Disintegrate and Start Killing Each Other?
- Thread starter joethelawyer
- Start date
I've had it happen a few times in the past thirty years and it has happened a couple of times to groups I've played with as well.
Outside the obvious "OMG, we're working for different sides!" set-up, the actual reason tends to be a gradual build up of tension between players caused by different play styles, competitive nature, or differing preferred gaming focus.
Typically, the in-game trigger event can be almost anything that exposes the tension: a treasure split negotiation, an argument as to tactics to pursue, or the revelation of a character secret in the game world.
My most memorable blow-out occurred in a CHAMPIONS game when the two time-travelling superheroes ended up in a time war attempting to eliminate each other before the final confrontation began. They both lost as they removed each other from the time stream. That blow-out was caused by one hero's unsavory relationships coming to light just before the climatic combat with the supervillian team in the adventure.
Quite frequently, when I was in high school and we were playing Gamma World. Usually, it was over a fight over whose mutant character was the most powerful, and therefore would be the party leader. Mutant PC would fight mutant PC, often to the death, and replacement mutant PCs had a hard time not carrying over grudges from previous slain characters.
Still, we had fun.
Johnathan
Still, we had fun.
Johnathan
Drowbane
First Post
CHAMPIONS - after months of play, the heroes face off against the BBEG... Magneto.
Magneto offers to share power with those of us who would join him. Party fractures on the spot.
Near-TPK.... only survivor "The Black Paladin" (his superhero name should've been our first clue) who sided with Magneto.
My PC started the fight by stepping up and offering my hand to Magneto (as if to shake) and declaring that "I'm game". Of course I didn't have enough into my life-draining attack to drop such a powerful NPC... so I got slaughtered within the next few rounds.
Magneto offers to share power with those of us who would join him. Party fractures on the spot.
Near-TPK.... only survivor "The Black Paladin" (his superhero name should've been our first clue) who sided with Magneto.
My PC started the fight by stepping up and offering my hand to Magneto (as if to shake) and declaring that "I'm game". Of course I didn't have enough into my life-draining attack to drop such a powerful NPC... so I got slaughtered within the next few rounds.
Echohawk
Shirokinukatsukami fan
Disintegrate and then Start Killing Each Other?
No.
Start Killing Each Other and then Disintegrate?
Yes.
Keefe the Thief
Hero
Only in Shadowrun, leading to one of my most cherished rules of gaming: "Guns and adolescense dont match."
RefinedBean
First Post
Well, yeah. Who hasn't played Paranoia?
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
They often kill each other but the groups rarely disintegrate. (the number in brackets after each entry indicates about how many times it has occurred in my 7-month-old campaign)
And when they're not killing each other (5), they're feeding each other Love Potions on the sly (2), hitting each other with spells and effects (10+), selling each other into slavery (2), putting each other in compromising positions while asleep (3), or just swinging fists at each other (25+)...and laughing themselves silly the whole time!
Occasionally, an adventure rears its ugly head just long enough for the party to wave at it and tell it to go away....
Lanefan
And when they're not killing each other (5), they're feeding each other Love Potions on the sly (2), hitting each other with spells and effects (10+), selling each other into slavery (2), putting each other in compromising positions while asleep (3), or just swinging fists at each other (25+)...and laughing themselves silly the whole time!
Occasionally, an adventure rears its ugly head just long enough for the party to wave at it and tell it to go away....
Lanefan
Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
I played in an evil-alignment game once which ended with mass-inter-party-death.
IIRC, my Halfling Guildmaster was driven irrevocably insane by the city-wide ritual that the Cleric of Madness and his pseudonatural-mummy-compaion had cooked up; the Red Wizard was cut off from the Weave, got his power back, and summoned a horde of demons; & the swordmage got in contact with various holy temples, told them what was going on, and managed to engineer a bunch of angels turning up as well.
It was a blast to play in, but frankly, I wouldn't want to do it again.
IIRC, my Halfling Guildmaster was driven irrevocably insane by the city-wide ritual that the Cleric of Madness and his pseudonatural-mummy-compaion had cooked up; the Red Wizard was cut off from the Weave, got his power back, and summoned a horde of demons; & the swordmage got in contact with various holy temples, told them what was going on, and managed to engineer a bunch of angels turning up as well.
It was a blast to play in, but frankly, I wouldn't want to do it again.
We had the party disintegrate, though the player group was solid as ever.
Basically, in a campaign where we had all avowed that we'd all play characters neutral on the Good-Evil axis, a couple decided to slip in some Evil. A couple others decided to slip in some Good.
There was one gnome on each side of this divide (well one svirfneblin, and one surface gnome). Out of respect for gnomishness, they chose not to go after each other. They each had a "champion" (the champions were not aware of their role in all this), and the gnomes began pranking each other's champion.
As you can guess, things eventually got out of hand. Only the two gnomes survived. And neither one of them ever did anything actually lethal. We then went on to another campaign, having agreed that the evil thing wasn't so grand for us.
Basically, in a campaign where we had all avowed that we'd all play characters neutral on the Good-Evil axis, a couple decided to slip in some Evil. A couple others decided to slip in some Good.
There was one gnome on each side of this divide (well one svirfneblin, and one surface gnome). Out of respect for gnomishness, they chose not to go after each other. They each had a "champion" (the champions were not aware of their role in all this), and the gnomes began pranking each other's champion.
As you can guess, things eventually got out of hand. Only the two gnomes survived. And neither one of them ever did anything actually lethal. We then went on to another campaign, having agreed that the evil thing wasn't so grand for us.
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