The players talked about it. Two PCs - the instigator Alissa and the ex-pirate Xander - did it. (We already knew Xander was a ruthless individual. He didn't quit piracy because of moral qualms!)
Immoral player characters in RPGs
- Thread starter pemerton
- Start date
The events all took place on-world. The NPC capturers were exercising their jurisdiction to hold a trial. The PC disrupted that trial by blowing it up with her concealed grenade.
ccs
41st lv DM
I'm missing something here. How was it that Allissa's player got to establish that she hadn't been searched when captured?
Where the *** was she keeping that grenade that it wasn't easily found?
Or are grenades in traveler really easy to conceil/overlook?
Imo the blame in this situation lies with the GM.
If you let the captive keep a grenade, you should expect it to get used.....
Where the *** was she keeping that grenade that it wasn't easily found?
Or are grenades in traveler really easy to conceil/overlook?
Imo the blame in this situation lies with the GM.
If you let the captive keep a grenade, you should expect it to get used.....
In the previous session, when the capture occurred, I (as GM) had not mentioned anything about a search. In the session described in the OP, Alissa's player confirmed and reiterated this, and reminded everyone that she has a psionic talent that allows her to conceal things.
What blame?
Only if you accept the premise that the person's you've captured won't hesitate to murder to escape.
ccs
41st lv DM
Well, up in post 8 you seem upset about the use of the grenade & the results that followed.
My point is that if you'd done your job that previous session & had the NPCs act logically - searching the prisoners/removing weapons, etc - then this whole murder-by-grenade incident wouldn't have even occurred*.
Btw, did the other players believe that their characters weapons were still present?
*Unless of course the player attempted to & succeeded at using their psionic power. Then it's a different story.
Not necessarily. Sure throwing grenades at people is their standard use & really shouldn't come as a surprise. But I've been in plenty of games where players have used the resources available in all manner of creative & non-standard ways.
TwoSix
Uncomfortably diegetic
There's nothing about Traveller, as a game, that suggests to me that "villainous" actions are outside of the scope of play; so I don't think the players have violated any genre constraints. As long as the overall table vibe doesn't have the expectation of more heroic play, I don't think there's a problem.
Now, it may be that the remaining character's opposing moral viewpoints make it difficult for the players to create a compelling narrative around the PCs continuing to work together, which may require some party shakeup. But I think that's up to the players to decide.
Now, it may be that the remaining character's opposing moral viewpoints make it difficult for the players to create a compelling narrative around the PCs continuing to work together, which may require some party shakeup. But I think that's up to the players to decide.
A further complication in this respect concerns Leila Lo, the ladyfriend of Vincenzo, the PC owner of the group's starship. the research vessel St Christopher. Leila Loa was formerly the owner of said vessel and a lead figure (and chief medical participant) in a bioweapons conspiracy that the PCs shut down. In the process of bringing the conspiracy to an end, by destroying its main base on the world of Olyx, the PCs had abandoned their original ship - the Type Y Yacht Maybe <Not So> Lucky, which Vincenzo had won in a bet (part of the backstory that emerged from his PC creation process) - and taken possession of the St Christopher. In the denouement to those events, Vincenzo gambled with Leila for title to the St Christopher and won. She remained on board as sometime pilot, chief medical officer, and his romantic interest.
In game terms, Leila lives on Vincenzo's player's position sheet, together with his two main characters Vincenzo and Tony, and various other secondary characters including - until his untimely death by Alissa's grenade - Bobby "the robber". But as a secondary rather than primary character Leila lives in a grey zone between PC and NPC. A little like an AD&D-era henchman, I guess.
In that spirit, it recently turned out that Leila has not lost her taste for bioweapons experimentation. To quote again from the post quoted in the OP:
It is currently established, as part of the outcome of those events, that another of these grey zone characters, the one-time mercenary interrogator Mitch who hangs out with Xander and sits on the sheets of Xander and Roland's player, is in Leila's surgery. And it is presumed though not actually yet established that as part of Leila's ongoing experimentation Mitch has been implanted with alien spores that will transform her into an Alien or something similar.
The only character in the PCs' group who really cares about Bobby is his brother Johnny, who is employed by Vincenzo as a driver and bodyguard. But Johnny is himself a grey zone character and so unlikely to be an instigator of (eg) a revenge scenario against Alissa (as opposed to, say, a pawn in my GM's hands if Alissa does something that suggests an immediate revenge-type response from Johnny).
On the other hand, Xander is a primary PC, handy with a variety of melee and firearm attacks, and the only character with battle dress and a portable energy weapon (PGMP-13). If/when he works out that Leila is experimenting on Mitch, there is quite a degree of likelihood of some sort of party shake-up!
EDIT: In case it's not clear, I the GM was the participant who decided that Leila was experimenting with Aliens on board the St Christopher: (i) because otherwise what's the point of having Aliens in the game!; and (ii) to introduce a bit of action.
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I agree with others who have said that it all depends. The game, ultimately, is about the participants having a rewarding time together. My first order of business would be to make sure the players were on-board with this style of play. Does it still feel like a fun campaign to all of them? Can the PCs still generate dramatic stories that the players will find compelling? If so, no foul, game on! If not, I would have a frank discussion with the players to determine what we want out of the game and how to proceed to achieve that aesthetic goal.
A secondary consideration for me as GM would be thinking about how I've presented the setting. Sometimes players get into a murderhobo mentality where they assume that they will avoid consequences of their crimes simply because they are PCs. If I've presented a setting where a mysterious exploding ship like this would be carefully investigated (FAA, black box, etc.) and the culprits hunted down, then I would want to make sure that the players understand what sort of adventures are likely to come of this (maybe Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). If they were hoping to continue in a lighter "no big deal" style of game, then adjustments need to be made on one side or the other.
A secondary consideration for me as GM would be thinking about how I've presented the setting. Sometimes players get into a murderhobo mentality where they assume that they will avoid consequences of their crimes simply because they are PCs. If I've presented a setting where a mysterious exploding ship like this would be carefully investigated (FAA, black box, etc.) and the culprits hunted down, then I would want to make sure that the players understand what sort of adventures are likely to come of this (maybe Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). If they were hoping to continue in a lighter "no big deal" style of game, then adjustments need to be made on one side or the other.
