PC's Killing PC's

[Black Omega]

Originally posted by
Lethal weapons should never be drawn unless you are prepared to seriously hurt or kill someone -- and your opponent, if he has any sense at all, will treat you as if you are thus prepared, even if you are not. [/B]

Truth. I have had a heated discussion come up in a Hero System game I ran because one character drew a rapier and stabbed an NPC in the belly. When other PC's got annoyed, he tried to say "I only stabbed her with a sword, I wasn't trying to kill her!"

I'm generally against PC's killing PC's but I would not prevent it from happening. In my game two PC's have dueled once already and there's a rematch looming in their future. Another PC has evil contacts that if revealed would be serious trouble. But the PC's are generally intelligent enough not to reveal the information that would get them into fights.

 

[DiFier]

I've never delt with PC vs. PC death In one of my games. I've had examples where it could have happened. but didn't because one of the parties (me) didn't go through with it so that the game could continue. (IE I didn't act in charachter and have my PC attack the other PC)

Basically We are in a somewhat evil campaign. With My charachter being the most good as a neutral Bard. The others were a lawful evil cleric a caotic evil teifling rogue/sorecer and a caotic evil Rogue. The teifling keeps scaring away the NPC we need to talk to by Yelling at them (sometimes from across the room), asking them where the evil god is. Where is name I forget? They are so afraid of the evil god that just hearing his name throws them into a panic and they scream and run off. The party, who realistically should not be working together, warns him that he isn't helping eventualy we seem to convince him to let us (the bard and cleric) to do the talking.

at some point My charachter and his charachter get into an argument on what to do next. I want to visit the church and talk to the local cleric because we gathered information and he seems to know a bit about the cult of this god. The Teifling wants to go down to the dock to look for clues, the evil god is an aquatic god. I notice that the church is on the way to the docks and convince the party that we should stop at the church on the way to the docks. When we enter the church and the cleric starts walking toward us the teifling runs forward and at the top of his lungs yells, "WHERE IS NAME I FORGET?" The local cleric runs. The teifling says something like "Well I guess he didn't know anything lets go to the docks."

I so wanted to fire an arrow into his back. But I didn't We took a break. I cooled down. We finished that session. We played for one session after that. and then stopped.

now that teifling is my roomate (wasn't at the time) we haven't played D&D together since. We did play a shadowrun game that I GMed but he didn't have the chaotic evil crutch to lean on (I disagree with his definition of chaotic evil) pluss I told everyone that team work was important in this and anyone who wondered away from the group (which he had a tendency to do) would easily die (For any SR players out there I was running the Renraku arcology shut down begining on the day it shut down with the players being renraku highschool students.)

I seem to notice a theme. Usually one PC is stealing from, secretly trying to kill, purposly sabatoging, continuously bad mouthing one or more members of the party. They can do it because they are "playing in charachter" but when the rest of the party finds out, gets peeved ect. and acts In charachter the original player gets peeved.

sound to me like durath's friend has a similar personality to my roommate. he like to be in control, the center of attention and likes pushing people's buttons. thinks he's (or really want to be) the alpha dog. I get along with my roomate fine casue I could care less if he's the center of attenton, I am rarely competitave. I'm rather mello.

As for the group who had one PC pay another PC to kill off a charachter that's terrible. and if your charachter's back ground is that he's suposed to kill one or more member of teh party you should expect to die. And I think the DM should be given a few lashes.

Oh well just my 2 . . . dollars.

J

P.S. it sounds like the Halfling rogue vs. Barbarian was an oops by the barbarian. and a he'll back down by the hafling.

 

[jester47]

If its the players playing the characters and not bringing somthing else to the table, then hey, I say its AOK.

However, I do not think that they would use lethal force in such a situation. I would suggest that the Barbarian hits for subdual with his fist. Since the rogue gets an attack of opportunity against the Barbarian, he is fighting with fists also. So in essence it would be a fist fight. If the Barb can drop the thief in two blowswith a greatsword, he most likely would win a fistfight.

Aaron.

 

[Gnarlo]

There have been a number of brawls and fisticuffs, but no actual PC-committed deaths in any of my campaigns. I think a large part of this is the work each player puts into their character and the respect every other player gives to that amount of work and how they would feel if their character was killed by another PC. Another part of it is the fear I think we all have that it would eventually lead to out of game hard feelings unless we were very, very careful.

I've also never played an evils campaign, and generally my groups have been good at coming up with reasons to be together and cooperate. So, while I certainly don't "forbid" it, it's just never come up. Too many risks of hard feelings and disappointment.

 

[Kilmore]

Another thing to be aware of is that pulling out a greatsword and hacking the guy you walked into the tavern with in half is a little different than mowing down relatively anonymous orcs in a dungeon. You might have to worry about what passes for law in the town with the bar. Don't forget about in-game penalties for murder.

 

[frankthedm]

With D&D, I follow this approach as well.

With other games, it depends on what I'm going for. One of the best scenarios that I've ever run was John Tynes' In Media Res, a Call of Cthulhu scenario where the PCs are all escaped convicts. The way the characters are set up, some sort of PC vs. PC conflict is almost inevitable -- and it works prefectly.

My players LOVED that scenario!


Just like the playtest, one of the players [my group's ADD gamer, not AD&D btw] went for the gun and got impaled by the bullet. I made it up to him later by letting him run one of the Hunters coming home. One of the group was still wearing his 'criminally insane' character badge next week.

 

[molonel]

"You know, just because they're evil, doesn't mean they have to be greedy. Especially greedily stupid."

Here here! I've been playing in an evil campaign for over 18 months now, and we work together better than most good groups I've seen. Lawful Evil and Neutral Evil work well together, if they have the same goals.

Chaotic Evil is another matter, though.

 

[Ravellion]

Truth. I have had a heated discussion come up in a Hero System game I ran because one character drew a rapier and stabbed an NPC in the belly. When other PC's got annoyed, he tried to say "I only stabbed her with a sword, I wasn't trying to kill her!"

Reminds me of some American tourists in Europe not taking muggers seriously enough because they don't have guns. A knife implanted deep in your abdomen is still not a good thing.

Rav

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

In my experience pc killing pc is never taken lightly or good naturedly.

I will stop the session there and then and read the riot act. To me it is an act of session vandalism and someone is going to lose their character, if not 2 people.

I've let it happen previously, to disastrous effect and never again.

 

[Pharaxes]

Yes, it has happened in our group but never in a D&D game. Always in a White Wolf game, I would be surprised if there were more then two PC's left at the end of the campaign. It's always the same people too, that play the "evil" characters. But that's what makes those games so darn interesting.