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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5021253" data-attributes="member: 8835">Thanks!  Bear in mind, my attention to detail of what you said is probably mininmal, no offense...[dislaimer]no offense intended to anybody with mental handicaps.  Seems like folks here get the joke at that the joke is NOT targeting mentally handicapped, just stupid player behaviors.  Let's let the joke be funny as is...[/diclaimer]Continuing the saga of Slicey, the kid gets to go where the kid wants to go, because he has frickin adamantium claws.  He's dangerous, well intentioned, but his choices aren't always safe.  And it is not a simple matter to lock him up.At that point, until you have a way to take out Slicey, you learn to live with Slicey.  Otherwise, you'll get more dead bodies than you planned.I'm not saying the OP's scenario played out like I said it did.  Well, actually I was, but whatever, I'm just carving out generalizations.  Like Slicey.Some time ago, I would have shared the OP's view.  The PCs did wrong, go nail them for it.  However, it occurred to me, that the level of severity to make a Slicey incident is fully the DM's decision.Just like real life, 2 dudes, do the same crime, one gets off, the other doesn't.  One's rich and has a good lawyer, the other doesn't.  A technicality gets found, or gets missed.When Slicey happens, it can derail your campaign.  I hate to use a railroad metaphor here, try to not to assume the worst.  It can ruin a good thing you got going.Say you've got a good party, on a quest to toss a ring in a volcano.  They stop off in a tavern on the way.  Somebody makes a short joke about hairy feet and a fight breaks out.  Somebody in the party goes all Slicey on a patron.  What do you do?  As a DM, you could escalate matters such that the party gets dead or imprisoned, quest ruined.  Or you could de-emphasize the event, such that it doesn't prevent the party from continuing the quest.I'm sure some sandboxxers in here will say that it's not the GM's job to decide, that it's all open to what the players do, but they're missing the key point.  The GM is the one deciding the severity of consequence.  Not the player.  The GM determines the nature of any reaction to a PC action.  Not the player.Here's a true story I heard last night over dinner with my neighbor.  His house is near the corner, and his kids were playing ball in the street (that's what folks do in some places).  This loud car with a teenager driving comes flying down one end, so he gets out there and stops the car.  He tells the kid to slow down if he ever comes through here again, 'cuz there's kids playing."The teenager retorts, "and what're you gonna do if I don't old man?"My neighbor replied, "I'll grab a hammer and throw it through your windshield if you do it again."The kid takes off, and some time later comes back the other way, just as fast.True to his word, he grabbed a hammer and tossed it.  He missed, hitting the hood of the car instead.  The kid stops and gets out yelling.The neighbor says to him, "I warned you not to speed in my neighborhood.  Now, let's call the constable..." He whips out his cell phone, calls them up and says, "A kid was speeding in my neighborhood, I warned him to slow down or I'd throw a hammer through his window.  I missed and hit his hood.  Would you send an officer over?"  A few minutes later the constable showed up, with a "Hi Jim", followed by a "Hi Bill."The kid starts ranting about what happened, and the officer cuts him short.  "Son, you were speeding around children and were warned.  You best not get caught doing it again.  Now get out of here."  And with that, the matter was dismissed.As a DM, you have remarkable leeway in deciding if a situation of attempted assualt (throwing a hammer at an occupied car) is going to be a serious crime or just deserts.Since part of the PC wish-fullfilment is to take out insufferable punks and crooked cops, this is part of the trope.  Since all PCs are Slicey, it's going to trend toward the lethal side.If you take a strong consequences approach, you're going to find that your campaign always turns the PCs into outlaws against the cops.If you turn a blind eye towards justice meted out Slicey style, your campaign will be less likely to end up with the PCs as outlaws.There is a big difference in player intent on the campaign they'd like to experience, when they get a little Slicey on a guy who starts a fight with them, than when they start chopping down civilians at the winter festival.</blockquote>

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