Party Conflict

[Quickbeam]

We've had interparty strife in our playing group, but never any savage attacks conducted by one PC against another. I think it's only realistic that folks who spend so much time together are gonna grate on each other's nerves from time to time -- especially those who are likely to be from very diverse backgrounds, races, and motivations. I just wouldn't let some good roleplaying carry over into outright party chaos and murder.

The occasional debate or argument over how to handle a specific situation is fine. Anything beyond that puts the gaming environment at risk.

 

[Sniktch]

There is always a certain degree of inter-party strife in my games. The guys start to chafe against each other and bickering no matter what, but I think it enhances our game. We do have the occasional PC who is really an assassin infiltrating the group, etc, but its not so common that we get sick of it.

Just enough to keep the paranoia level high and keep the game interesting and fun.

 

[ced1106]

what others do about inter party conflicts?

Didn't happen often, but if it got out of hand, a monster with lots of hit dice would mysteriously show up. That quieted things quickly.

Of course, the annoying parties are the ones when one guy makes a suicidal move and the others, in the spirit of group harmony, do likewise. But that's another thread.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Henry]

Our just-started Forgotten Realms campaign just ended recently because one of our players (who is 25) plays a duplicitous evil little ****** ****** very, very well.

He played an 11-year old wizard (!) who had been corrupted by an artifact. In just three sessions, he went from short littel moppet who cried when faced by wolves, to being something not unlike Zulkir Szass Tamm the Lich in a child's shell.

In short, we had to surround him, jump him, and beat him up before he could get a spell off and kill us all. (He was only 2nd level, as were we all, but the artifact gave him much more power than that.)

Later, we thought him freed and nonpossessed. Later, he took advantage of us and standed us in hostile territory.

Fortunately, we have no hard feelings, as it is only a game, but I wanted to wring the scrawny little *****'s neck until his little pre-adolescent blood vessels popped.

Anyone who can evoke this from me, after only three sessions, is a very good player indeed.

 

[Voadam]

It is not necessarily bad, but it changes the style of a game.

I played in a game where I was the only good character in a party that was half evil half neutral and one evil character who was significantly more powerful than me became my nemesis. It was nerve wracking because even though I was sort of the group leader giving the group direction and guiding the group on where to go I had to rely upon bluffs a lot.

In a vampire game I play in the party is afraid my brujah diablerist is going to lose it whenever provoked and eat half the party.

I've also played in a game where there was no party conflict allowed as a base rule and that went fine, even with mixed party alignments.

In my campaign that I run, anything goes and it is an evil group, and there have been a couple of PC on PC assasinations in the past.

 

[clark411]

We've had player characters trying to kill eachother before. It really all started when the paladin tried to detect evil on the gnomish wizard (necromancer NE) who in turn, kept kicking him in the shins to break his concentration.

Strangely enough, the only casualty from that was the ranger, who fell to his death into a lava pool after chasing the little gnome through a dungeon. The gnome ran across a bridge made of little horizontal wall of force-like bricks, and when the ranger followed, the gnome scored a critical hit with his Xbow on the device which shut the bricks off.

I find innerparty conflict alright so long as it doesn't overly slow or stop the flow of the game. If 4 hours are spent bickering, it's not gaming- it's just bickering. Some conflict can be good however- my Cuthy cleric (LN) and the Cuthy paladin (LG) argue about Dogma.. and there's a rogue in the party who will probably be thieving behind our backs. Woe to him if he does so, as, knowing who we are (we're damn blatent about our beliefs) he will be making a conscious decision to get a big ol' bump on his head for his crimes.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I have to get all pendantic for a moment....

Inter-party conflict would be conflict between to separate parties.

Intra-party conflict would be conflict within a party...

It's just like intra-mural (within the walls) vs inter-mural (between the walls) sports in school...

OK, I'm done being pendantic for the time being...