DM advice: Intra-Party Conflict?

[Gizzard]

Here's a simple situation that came up in my last game; I'd like some advice from other DMs about how to handle it.

I am playing Terror in Freeport and the last session was a notorious interlude from the module where characters may die irrevocably. One of our Rogues failed a couple saves in a row and was eliminated. I gave him a nearby NPC to play so that he wouldn't be bored for the rest of the session.

His first NPC act is to take the Everburning Torch from the unconcious Gnome Cleric. When the Gnome is healed a round later, he wants to know where his Torch is. Well, this should be funny since a couple people looted the fallen Gnome of useful items in the heat of combat. But now, the NPC refuses to give the Torch back and the Gnome suddenly declares that this odd behavior is a sign of Possession or association with evil. (The Gnome got jacked hard by trusting an erratically behaving NPC too much at the end of the previous session.) In any case, the situation goes from "zero" to "out of control" in just a few seconds - the Gnome draws a weapon and starts hammering the NPC who hammers back. I think about stopping the session, but there is still plenty of action going on elsewhere and I can't really break here. In the end the Gnome wins the fight.

The NPC wasn't a hugely developed character and he's not vital to the plot, but I'm not happy to have him taken out by two players getting stubborn and irrational. Both have some reason - the Gnome's player wrote me before this session and say that her character had been shocked by the previous betrayal and was going to take a hard line from now on. "No more Mr. Nice Gnome." And the dead Rogue's player has a history of bizarre play choices, so demanding to keep the Torch wasn't totally unusual for him. Still, a I now have a psychopathically paranoid Gnome and a blacksmith Commoner (follower of the God of Mercy!) who would rather die than give up a Torch which wasn't his in the first place. And the rest of the party, who generally ignored a fight to the death happening about 30' away from them.

So, what to do? I really want to discourage this level of intra-party conflict and I also want to discourage the idea that you can play an NPC any old way you want, even if it gets him killed. Should I have taken the NPC away as soon as the player began behaving erratically? Should there be any fallout from the Gnome's paranoid outburst?

 

[Mort]

Well here's my two cents:

This is one of those situations that depend heavily on your group and the individual players. That said, if you dislike intra-party conflict let the group know – specifically let them know that’s it is no fun for you as DM when this kind of thing occurs. Any player who doesn’t respect that, probably doesn’t belong in the group.

Did the player using the NPC know he was playing completely against character? If so, let the player know that if he behaves like this - no more NPC’s for him.

From your post, the gnomes player was just reacting to the situation – I don’t see (from the info provided) that he did anything completely out of character; but there should still be consequences for his actions (assuming there would be logical consequences – such as if another townsperson saw him).

How are the players feeling? Do they just want to forget the incident and move on or do they want to play it out? Assuming you can all agree – do one of those – because in the final analysis it’s all about having fun.

 

[Cedric]

Mort hit the high points...and did a dang good job of it.

I just wanted to add...no more npc's for whatshisname.

And watch the gnome so he doesn't turn into an NPC hater. Makes many plots hard to start off or manipulate if the gnome turns a deaf ear to every NPC.

Cedric