Player vs. Player

[shilsen]

Besides that I've heard of LG parties fireballing a hostage just to do raise dead on them later.

You mean the "adventurers formerly known as LG", I hope.

 

[Bagpuss]

You mean the "adventurers formerly known as LG", I hope.

Why would that be? The hostage is fine after the event and its just like they had a little nap.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

For a RL example, do you know the SOP if there's a hostage situation on Kirtland Air Force Base/Sandia National Labs? Step 1: Call in the marines. Step 2: Tell them to go into the building and shoot everybody. Step 3: Sort out the bodies.

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Doc: You have no idea what you're talking about. Do you have any idea how rare combat is in our games? Do you have any idea what it's like to play with bloody 150+ IQ programmer/physicist/mathmaticians at the table? I play with people who can out-think me any day of the week. One of our DM's favorite quote, "Did I mention I have no freaking clue what you guys are going to do next?"

The kind of D&D where the characters march neatly from one adventure to the next, trying to catch up with curly-moustache cookie-cutter villians taking hostages and always getting away, is not for us. We're sick of "you're the heroes who must save the world" plots. It's the ultimate cliche of the fantasy genre, and I'm starting to really despise it.

So you game with a bunch of guys who act like 12 year olds who get beat up at school all the time and thus have to take out their aggression at the gaming table. Is that the point you are trying to make?

Or are you trying to tell me that you game with people smarter than me (not sure how you determine that) and really smart people just have to act like s to make themselves feel better when they relax.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Why would that be? The hostage is fine after the event and its just like they had a little nap.

Well there is the pain and suffering from the death. Then there is the chance that for one reason or another they cannot be raised. Either cause they are in heaven and don't want to be or they are in hell and cannot get out.

So either way you have taken away some families loved one for no good reason as far as they are concerned.

Finally in lots of campaign worlds the God of Death and his clergy frown upon frivilous resurrection. One example is the very good book Book of the Righteous IIRC where anyone who is raised from the dead has to jump through some pretty hefty hoops after being brought back.

 

[Numion]

I hate playing or DMing with people like you. Do you know how annoying it is to try and DM this?

Example:

Big Bad Guy takes a poor peasant woman as a hostage and uses her body as a shield while threatening the party. Jerk party responce? Fireball him and her and laugh about it the whole time.

That is not playing a RPG to me. That is using pen and paper to play Diablo instead of using your computer and quite boring quite quickly.

I disagree. There are situations when you have to choose the lesser of two evils, and sometimes collateral damage is unavoidable. If only way to destroy the BBEG is to waste a commoner with him, it's acceptable for neutral characters, at least. The laughing bit is the 'jerk' part here.

If the only way to solve the scenario you set up (BBEG w/ hostage) is to save the commoner, I don't know if thats a good thing either. It's not railroading, but it's something close to that. A part of being a hero is to make sacrifices and hard decisions, and living with the consequences.

Playing Dieblo would be to do what you will without consequences. Playing D&D is to do what you will AND live with the consequences.

 

[Bagpuss]

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T

Well we agree on something.

 

[Mystic_23]

I'm really surprised at the answers here, my games have involved tons of pvp conflict, argument, backstealing, and deaths, and those are the most memorable games to me.

They were stealing each other's backs? Weird.

We've never had a whole lot of PvP stuff in our games. Mostly it comes down to either a disagreement that gets a little too intense (IC only...we've never had much of a problem with OOC stuff cropping up as far as I know), or due to a charm spell or such.

In regards to IC disagreements, it has come to a few blows, but it hasn't resulted in the death of party members.

 

[MerakSpielman]

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T

*SHRUG* That's what the people I know who work in weapons development there tell me. Essentially, if you're taken hostage, you are to consider youself "about to be dead." (Come to think of it, they probably don't use marines. Take to long to get 'em there.) At Sandia they develop, among other things, nuclear weapons. They can't let terrorists or anybody else have access, even for a few minutes. Plans could be downloaded and sent wirelessly anywhere in a matter of minutes. They don't treat it the same as they'd treat it if somebody takes hostages at the bank.

As for the comments about my group... well... read my "shiny new" story hour. All of it. Until you do, all your comments are not valid. If, after reading it, you still feel like you do, then come back here and keep talking trash. Consider it a personal challange, Doc.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

As for the comments about my group... well... read my "shiny new" story hour. All of it. Until you do, all your comments are not valid. If, after reading it, you still feel like you do, then come back here and keep talking trash. Consider it a personal challange, Doc.

I have a better idea. Read Wulf's Story Hour (link in sig) for PvP that was neither a campaign destroyer, nor borne out of a puerile "evil campaign."

Just the good guys doing what good guys sometimes have to do.

Wulf