RPGs and "Bodily Functions"

[Gentlegamer]

Is it a common, (spoken or unspoken), agreement between DMs and Players to leave peeing and pooping out of ambush plans?

In my 30 years of RPGing, I think it has only come up twice. Once, many years ago, in a Wild West genre game, the PCs planned and executed an ambush to capture a bad guy when he went to use the outhouse. I let it happen without comment because the action was to happen when the outlaw was on the way to the outhouse, not when he was in and using it.

Then about seven years ago, the PCs were coming up with ideas for an ambush, and one of the Players suggested they pull it off while the NPC was in the latrine. I interrupted this time and offered the agreement that if they avoided doing that to the NPCs, I'd keep the NPCs from doing it to their PCs. The Player who came up with the idea started to dismiss the agreement, but the other five Players argued him down and accepted the agreement.

Other than those two instances over 30 years of playing, it has been an unspoken agreement with all DMs and Players I've ever played with. How about you and your DMs and Players?

Bullgrit

The agreement you reached is an example of how a role-playing game is a social activity (as I've opined in other threads recently). A type of 'social contract' is formed about certain activities, strategies, and tactics to make the overall game better. Sometimes it takes the form of a type of 'brinksmanship' which is akin to the 'rules of fair play' (you don't do it to me, I won't do it to you).