PCs killing PCs -- sometimes is good fun.

[Quasqueton]

I love reading anecdotes from others' games on this forum. One such thread sparked a couple memories for me from my gaming years, and I thought I'd like to hear if others have had the fun of this experience:

PCs killing PCs (for good reasons).

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One of my most satisfying memories on this subject was when we were playing a modern-setting game. This one Player was always hogging the spotlight and doing only what he wanted to do, other Players be damned. It was so bad that the whole group was pissed. During one adventure, when we were investigating a badguy hideout, things came to a head.

There were 6 of us Players. The obnoxious Player riled everyone up to the point of violence, and the other four PCs chased his PC down a hallway and through some rooms. I stayed put, thinking this was a very bad time and place for a inter-party fight. Unfortunately, my fellow PCs couldn't catch or hit him with their weapons, but they did chase him right into a badguy ambush. The offending PC ran right through the ambush, bullets flying all over the place. The pursuing PCs pulled up short of the ambush and cursed him for getting away from them.

My character heard the shouts and gunfire through the walls of the building, and realized the route the bad PC was taking could be a circle back to the front door. So I took a position in front of what I suspected to be a door he would come through, pulled my large revolver, and pointed it at the door.

A few moments later, the door swung open, and there stood the bad PC, wounded and panting. BOOM!

All the other Players at the game table cheered, and that bad Player (eventually) "left" the group.

************

Do you have any good stories on an adventuring party executing its own?

Quasqueton

 

[EricNoah]

Planescape game ... a PC is turned evil through a curse (mummy touch). I found an ideal time to work this into the campaign, and so the evil PC lures the rest of the PCs into a trap, where evil PC and bad NPC's minions battle the good PCs. Basically everyone died. Good, good fun -- there was never such a good end to a campaign. (But it wouldn't have been fun if it was a big group of PCs ganging up on another out of spiteful real-life feelings.)

 

[Nifft]

As a segue between different characters for a player, I helped by Magic Jaring the old PC, who surprised the rest of the party by busting out a can of Necromantic butt-kicking. (The posessed PC was a Monk, so the spellcasting was quite a shock.)

-- N

 

[ErichDragon]

I was running a Mechwarrior campaign. The PCs had a small (2 company) mercenary unit and were working for a fringe power (Canopis maybe?).

Anyway the rightful ruler of the planet had a nasty son and daughter who didn't want to wait for papa to kick it before taking power. The daughter seduced the PC leader of the unit and the son made friends/partners with another PC who had a shady, criminal past. When the coup went down the PCs in the unit were split as to which side to support. The commander and the criminal went with the siblings and 3 other PCs stayed loyal to the King. We spent a couple of hours while both PC groups tried to persuade the various NPCs of the unit to join them. I had the two faction leaders role-play and then finally roll for each NPC. They had modifiers for how they had treated them in the past and each NPCs own personality. The commander had better character stats, but was kind of a jerk to his subordinates at previous times in the campaign. The other group didn't have the social skills but had treated the NPCs fairly in the past.

The unit ended up splitting almost exactly in half. Of course I had the outcome of the coup-de-tat depend on a small unit action between the two groups. The unit commander ended up stuck in a level one lake. (Gyro and bad piloting skill wouldn't let him exit the water). He was blasting away with both PPCs of his Warhammer while the opposing group lit him up. He ended up dying through a cockpit hit. It was a blast to roleplay as well as play out on the battlefield.

 

[Storminator]

Should have seen us at Pirate Cat's Paranoia game at GenCon.

20 player deaths (I think 18 were PvP) in two hours...

PS

 

[astralpwka]

In a new game (2nd ed), we were all 1st level characters. I was playing a dwarf fighter. The person destined to die was playing a necromancer. He was really mopey and morose because he had recently broken up with his girlfriend, and the necromancer was totally charged with the negativity going on in his life, and lacked any desire for teamwork. So I kept asking him, why's he with the group if he's not interested? This degenerated into character threats, ending in my dwarve's axe removing his head. Nice starting game. I wonder where that guy is now...

Second story... second edition again... we had a player that was very obnoxious. But he was the brother of one of our main players, so we couldn't just kill the obnoxious player. He also had a ring of regeneration, so the DM was getting frustrated with the player's crazy moves that should have killed him every time. The DM was really out to get this guy, and it ended with him turned to stone and then shattered, with the DM standing on the table shouting "Regenerate that!!!"

 

[Quasqueton]

(But it wouldn't have been fun if it was a big group of PCs ganging up on another out of spiteful real-life feelings.)

Our (PC's) anger was over the offending *PC's* in-game personailty and actions. The fact that the *Player* didn't care that his character was disruptive and undermining, is what got him cold-shouldered from the game group by the other Players.

Sometimes a PC's personality is a direct reflection of the Player. In bad cases, the PC and Player both need to leave (sometime with the PC's death).

(My story was from about 10 years ago.)

Edit: Sometimes the PCs ganging up and killing another PC is the only way to get the point across to the other Player and the DM.

Quasqueton

 

[Henry]

I have never played an RPG where Player vs. Player conflict resulted in a good time being had - Paranoia and Assassin notwithstanding...

Kill every NPC the DM introduces, including the little old lady, the one-legged poddle, and the town guards - but PvP stuff pushes ALL of my bad-buttons.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Our Planescape game taught me one thing. You should NEVER have a CN Wild Mage and a LN Holy Champion of Law in the same party. No good can come of this.... ever.

 

[guedo79]

Kill every NPC the DM introduces, including the little old lady, the one-legged poddle, and the town guards - but PvP stuff pushes ALL of my bad-buttons.

If any PC in my group killed a poor one legged poddle, I.. I don't think I'd be resposible for my actions.

ok. maybe not.



I was the DM the campaign AO-kitty is talking about. The Wild Mage and LN Holy Champion never never got along. It would be like if a LG Paladin traveled with a LE PC. I pushed things forward in the plot and ended up with the two pitted against each other. The mage lost simply by chance, no real shock there.