Stalker of Kharash - Code of Conduct

[moritheil]

You, players, and I might have conflicting ideas about what's right and wrong, but the Exalted Deeds book ends all arguments, at least at my table. I've decided to stand by the published material.

Didn't you say earlier that you let him avoid taking a Vow because it would mess up his feat chain build?

Now, I wasn't planning on just handing him a list of rules he must follow. I was planning on having the brachyurus (and other mentors) explain these things to him in-game and through examples that we play through. For example, I could have the brachyurus show him a pack of displacer beasts hunting a herd of buffalo. Kragg would immediately desire to kill all the displacer beats, but why? Just to kill them? The displacers are trying to feed, like any predator, and killing the displacer beasts off would rob the nearby rocs of a potentially valuable food source. Sure, the rocs could eat the buffalo, but without the displacers, the buffalo population would explode and ruin the ecosystem. I could also show how a nearby pack of blink dogs keep the displacers in check, and therefore Kragg's bloodlust is not necessary, etc. etc. As a ranger, he should understand the need for a balanced ecosystem, and the displacer beast/blink dog dichotomy shouldn't be hard to swallow.

Your problem here is that you need to fix the mentality of not the character, but the player, and the player is viewing all this through a screen of detachment. Say you have a bunch of examples that perfectly prove your point: well, of course, it's your world, so your examples work. Nothing you say or do is likely to convince him of the inherent rightness of your take on morality.

Now, you might say that if it really is your world, he ought to play along, but I suspect the point is that given a choice, he wouldn't be playing in your world. Most RP is an agreement to at least try to honor the coherent rules of the world all the characters meet in; by shucking RP whenever it isn't convenient for him he has made it clear that he doesn't intend to honor anything. Furthermore, you have proven willing to bend over backwards to accomodate him. He - the player - does not feel threatened by any of this, and so pretty much rolls his eyes and says "Whatever" whenever you hit him with penalties. There is no respect, and you cannot change one who has no respect for you.

Given that you understand he's such a total narcissist and so on and so forth, my ultimate question to you is more basic: why do you associate with such a repellent human being, who lacks respect for you to the extent that he won't rein in his behavior even in a game?