Killing your best friend for treasure

[Iron_Chef]

The excuses were one after the other, made out of the game, just to make the DM stop looking at him like that. The slain NPC was not an uber-NPC or DM favorite, but the DM was, so far as any of us know, merely using him to test out the Warmage class from the Minis HB, and it seemed like he was just foisted onto the party as a "test drive". The PC and DM were best friends in real life for many years, so maybe the DM thought this was a personal revelation about his best buddy's character. Of course, to be fair, the DM had borrowed several thousand dollars from the player in question several years ago, and never attempted to really make good on it past the first $500. Maybe this was the player's subconscious revenge, telling his buddy what he'd do to him if he ever tried to screw him out of his money again?

Normally, we've played moderately evil sociopaths of one stripe or another, but we were trying to be heroes this time. Okay, not heroes so much as self-interested greedy Neutral mercs who loved the spotlight and wanted to "appear" somewhat heroic. It didn't take long for some of us to snap back into old habits (like sending diseased whores to infect rival gladiators with the icky itchies prior to a match so they would lose, thus winning a bet for their employer).

It was a Conan moment---the PC killing his best friend. IMO, Conan would have killed pretty much anybody who got between him and his cut of the treasure. In a dog eat dog low morals/high lethality world like the one we play in, maybe it wasn't so unusual an action to take... It's also a typical gangster "turning point" moment, where the gangster must decide between "easy street" and "doing what's right" (going back to being an underpaid, underappreciated "square"). Once most people have a taste of the high life, they react poorly to any attempt to return them to their former station and will do anything to stay on top. How else do you explain MTV's "NEWLYWEDS"?

 

[Nightfall]

How else do you explain MTV's "NEWLYWEDS"?

MTV's attempt to be "hip" and "cool" even though MTV2 is clearly the better channel. Not to mention it actually SHOWS MUSIC VIDEOS!!! OR at least live music. In any event, Newlyweds is just MTV's cry of desparation as the fact we have lost interest in reality. Or at least reality TV that doesn't make fun of itself.

 

[Dancer]

"It was a Conan moment---the PC killing his best friend. IMO, Conan would have killed pretty much anybody who got between him and his cut of the treasure."

I don't think you understand the Conan character that well. Maybe a rereading of the novels would help.

 

[Kemrain]

My GM recently cornered the other guy we play with (3 player games get interesting fast,) and informed him that his character's current course of action would place him firmly into NPC land. It's overcomplicated, but basically comes down to the character being in love with one of the Villans, and the possibility of selling out the other PC, and her family.

For the sake of not having to make a new character, and for any semblance of party unity, he's moving away from that direction, which is a good thing, too, because she doesn't love him back and will sacrifice him to a demon when he becomes less useful. As if he didn't know that, too...

However, even if he stops working with the Villaness, he'll still be an evil SoB who'd sell out his own father for profit if he could get away with it. My character isn't above killing witnesses, so she's not terribly Good herself. We're not playing an 'Evil' campaign, as much of a 'shades of grey' campaign, and as bad as we are, there are people out there that are so bad they make Us feel icky.

We're pretty evil, but as long as we're against the other evil people, we get to stay in PC Camp. We don't need to trust eachther, just work together.

It's all how you like to play, and I thank god it is that way.

- Kemrain the Bastard.