Does Your Group Abuse NPCs?

[Numion]

Hi!

Inspired by the different threads on evolution (or degeneration, according to some) of D&D.

When we started 1E AD&D (or really BD&D before that) a character sheet was a license to abuse the other inhabitants of the fantasy world. Anyone caught in public without a character sheet (namely, the NPCs) was open to humiliation by PCs.

Anyone who gave us lip (or just stared at us wrong) was beaten or worse. We approached villages like dungeons. Usually the DM would show us a map with numbered buildings when we got to one. Then it proceeded like this "I walk up to the house marked '1', and knock on the door". "A man in a nightgown opens it after a while". "I go for initiative".

Then we proceeded looting the village house by house. Sometimes the watch would interfere, of course, but that was just more bloodletting. In a bigger city we one time dug a lot of tunnels with a wand after we had bought a house. Then like vermin, we assaulted the houses from underground. Fun times.

NPCs were all free game. Pretty similar to KoDT, for example.

My first long lived character (played 1 year real time) met his demise in this manner, BTW. For whatever reason (ok, it was a cyclone and then a tribe of giants. Random encounters.) I was down on my HPs. I sought refuge in a village, and went to the largest building there. I was planning to ask for healing. A freaking Planetar opened the door - now I had no idea how tough those are. So instead of humbly asking for assistance, I arrogantly talk him down and demand healing. The Planetar was not impressed with my insults and threats and killed me. 13th level barbarian down the drain.

Then we switched to FWRP in early 1990s, and our gaming habits changed. Come 2000 and 3E, my players are mostly even too nice towards the NPCs. This has lot to do with us becoming older - not so much with editions, even though WFRP characters will die in abusing the commoners.

Has your group gone through similar phases? Do your PCs treat NPCs well, or is there a PC fraternity where they are above the rest and aren't afraid to flaunt their powers?

 

[diaglo]

the party of heroes beatup a one-legged, one-eyed old mang and killed his old dawg, Yeller.

 

[DragonLancer]

My players, for all their usual good gaming, do tend to see themselves as better than the NPC's and will strike first and ask questions later, if an NPC gets in their way - usually when they assault someone and the watch arrive to arrest them...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My players won't take no for an answer.

The heroes arrive at a merchan't buidling. They want to see a businessman. The secretary tells them he's not here. They don't believe her. No matter what she says, they won't believe her. It often ends with her calling for the watch, or them just waiting outside the business.

Worse, if she's telling the truth, they barge into the businessman's office and try to wait for him to come back. Of course, that's about the dumbest reason for calling in the Red Watch, but if that's what it takes, that's what happens.

If the businessman doesn't want to talk to them, too bad. They'll jump into his cart or tackle his horse if he tries to leave.

 

[Rothe]

Only once, have I seen this as in most campaign worlds I've played in their are laws in the villages and cities. Abusing the peasent is a right of the lord not some adventurer.

In the one instance I saw it, the PC bascially killed someone for looking at them funny. In this campaign they called that murder. City watch is called, PC kills some of them, now add resisting arrest and more murder. PC is eventually caught, I forget how, maybe a net or even muderous psycopaths need to sleep. Disarmed and heavily chained the PC is tried and sentenced to life. The prison was not a nice 20th century one. They fed the prisoners whenever they wished and it wasn't healthy food. No breaks outside, no bathrooms. The PC slowly deteriorated then one day was killed by giant rats that broke into the cell. This dingle berry did not come back.

 

[el-remmen]

Not since High School days. . .

 

[Stalker0]

Only once, have I seen this as in most campaign worlds I've played in their are laws in the villages and cities. Abusing the peasent is a right of the lord not some adventurer.

In the one instance I saw it, the PC bascially killed someone for looking at them funny. In this campaign they called that murder. City watch is called, PC kills some of them, now add resisting arrest and more murder. PC is eventually caught, I forget how, maybe a net or even muderous psycopaths need to sleep. Disarmed and heavily chained the PC is tried and sentenced to life. The prison was not a nice 20th century one. They fed the prisoners whenever they wished and it wasn't healthy food. No breaks outside, no bathrooms. The PC slowly deteriorated then one day was killed by giant rats that broke into the cell. This dingle berry did not come back.

I think this is the reason PCs abuse the law, in "most" cases (this one obviously being the exception) players know the DM is going to give them a chance to break out. So even if they get caught, it won't be forever.

 

[Harmon]

My characters do not know that they have a character sheet and the other people don’t so I play with that ideal in mind. To me its part of role-playing.

 

[Nomad4life]

I do not participate in games where the players can freely wander around and commit Stupid Evil acts without harsh consequences, either as a player or as a GM. I look down my nose from atop my high horse at such juvenile pageantry with a detached air of superiority.

And, I suspect that like everyone else who loathes NPC abuse as much as I do, I was one of the absolute worst offenders back in 1E! Back then, there wasn’t much difference to me between a goblin and a shopkeeper...

So, yes, I have been through similar phases as well. I’m not sure if this has to do with age, the system itself, or experience in RP though.

 

[Bardsandsages]

In my not so humble opinion, if the PCs are abusing the NPCs "just because they can" and getting away with it, that is poor GMing. I don't care if they are 15th level in a commoner town, they know they need to behave appropriately or their will be repricussions. If they are suppose to be a "good" or even nuetral party and start throwing their weight around because there are no NPCs high enough level to do anything about it, I have a special set of black percentile dice. Normally just picking them up is enough to get them to straighten up. But the dice mean there is a percentage chance their patron diety happens to be watching. I normally start low (like 1%, the gods are busy people). But each time I have to pick them up that percentage increases. And if the gods notice, I have no qualms about stripping paladins of their powers, cutting off divine spells from priests, or otherwise having the gods do whatever their portfolios would allow.

I use to game with one particular player who was really bad about this, though. He played a paladin, and thought because he was a paladin people HAD to do what he said or else. Even after losing his powers (twice) and going through atonement twice, he still didn't get the picture. One day I announced that there was a percentage chance that Bane was watching (FR campaign). I dropped a 01 on the dice. The character's patron finally abandoned him and he became a blackguard for Bane. He thought "Cool! I'm a blackguard!" Until I made him hand over the character sheet because the character was now an NPC hellbent on destroying the party.

Oddly, I never have this problem when I run evil campaigns. The party is always paranoid that their good-aligned adversaries will find their whereabouts and come attack them. So they rarely abuse NPCs in towns and cities.