The social contract

[Greenfield]

I'm not so much thinking about combat stupidity. I think we've all had our "Adrenaline junkie" moments.

Imagine a player character who had a nasty habit of murdering merchants in town. Not all the time, but you could see it coming when he did.

"I'm going to the apothecary", for example. When the player says this, the rest of pretty much know that he'll find an excuse to be offended, give the guy a "Repent or die" ultimatum, and then kill him if he tries to run or calls for the guard.

We had one like that. When last that scenario started up, I asked the DM if my character had heard him say those fateful words, "I'm looking for the x shop", (where "x" can be any particular shop the PC has no normal interest in). The Dm agreed that my character had, and so my Bard went to the market square and began to play, to set up a distraction. I wanted as many of the guard down there as possible, away from wherever it was the other PC was going. I didn't know it would end in murder (it did) but I knew it was going to be trouble and I wanted to give him as good a chance at a getaway as I could, without actually being a direct party to the crime.

So then the PC was wanted, and was easily identifiable. He needed help getting out of town, and so we hid him and helped him escape justice.

It wasn't the first time, it won't be the last.

We weren't in trouble, not as a group nor as individuals (except for him), but we had to cut our in-town time short (which was a pain), and we might have gotten called in for questioning as known associates.

Yeah, we've got the juice to blast our way out if we have to, but society has this nasty way of noticing when there's a smoking crater where the police station used to be, and the world gets to be a far less friendly place after one or two of those, ya know?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

-A player of mine decided to play a Cleric/Dragon Disciple. This character's solution to all problems was to hit things with his club. He tried on purpose to play as slightly deranged. He would intimidate and threaten violence on villagers who were offset by the fact that he looked dragonlike. It was not surprising that this character eventually died and the rest of the party did not care. What was surprising was how long he lived in the first place.
He rolled up a new character, a Mindblade who was the old-childhood-friend-like-a-protective-older-brother to our female Psion. This character's personality was much more reasonable, and the game went on.

-Same player, had a Gnome Bard. The PC was actually a really well designed Bard. This player was going thru some frustrating IRL stuff and so he had his Gnome Bard jump off a ship in the ocean to drown himself, mostly as a cry for attention. I as the DM did not want to put up with the hassle of having him die so I had some NPC's rescue him. The next time (I forget what it was) he tried to commit suicide, everyone let him, all standing around and watching. The player ended up angry and left. He appologized later and everything was fine, bu that sort of thing.

-I made a Cat-style shifter PC with the plan of taking a new class every level. He was a (I forget the order he took each level) Druid/Barbarian/Warblade/Scout/Cleric/Duskblade before the campaign fizzled out. His personality was very "Oh Shiney!" and impulsive for all the entertaining reasons. Because he was entertaining the party would often rescue him from himself, but occasionally they wouldn't. Usually he'd hiss at someone who annoyed him and the Dread Necromancer would grab him by the collar and drag him away. This campaign was heavy Roleplay, considerably less "Rolling", and so we talked out of situations that mechanically should have lead to this character's death. Still resulted in quite a few lumps. Much Fun.

-I DMed a campaign where all the PC's started in prision, although they were all innocent. They opted to break out of prison, accidentally setting the place on fire in the process, and ended up fugitives. In this campaign, everything they ended up doing got them into more trouble, part because I DMed circumstances that way, in part because they were enjoying the fugitive twist. They ended up doing things they likely would not have put up with in other campaigns, but the "social contract" was probably the most firmly established in this campaign than any other.

-I played a Gnome Wizard who was NN who wouldn't stick his neck out for anyone, his own Raven familiar disliked him (mostly because the Raven had it's master's personality and wouldn't stick it's neck out for anyone, including master). Because he was the most powerful member of the party, he essentially got what he wanted, and the others depended on him more then he did of them. They helped him out because they needed him, not because they wanted him.

 

[Water Bob]

There's a sort of social contract among the PCs in most games I've played in.

In the simplest terms: Somebody's in trouble, you help them out.

What do you do when a PC does something far off the deep end, and expects your character to help cover for him?

What if it keeps on happening?

Roleplay the situation. If you're playing the problem PC's brother, then you'd probably want to help him out regardless. But, if you're a hardened mercenary that just met the fool a couple of days ago, then let the idiot fry in his own grease.

 

[Water Bob]

"I'm going to the apothecary", for example. When the player says this, the rest of pretty much know that he'll find an excuse to be offended, give the guy a "Repent or die" ultimatum, and then kill him if he tries to run or calls for the guard.

Alignment of the party?

Got a good cleric or, gods forbid, a paladin among you? A ranger?

You could easily bring that into play.

Even if you're playing a Lawful Evil group, the "Lawful" side likes to stay within the law to promote their type of evil and won't take well to these stupid attention getting situations.

Like the mob when a crew is pulling off high profile jobs, bringing down the heat on everyone. The mob will probably shut the crew down before the cops do.

But, even without a strong alignment element, how many people want to be associated with sociopath that murders every shop keeper he meets?

I'm sure you could find an appropriate (and correct) roleplay angle to stop this guy.

If I were DM, I'd take this aspect of the game and run with it, either by bringing down some bad attention to the party or maybe even turning it into a quest to help the sick PC.

And, the DM should be thinking about NPC relatives, too. These are merchants. What if a dead NPC's brother hires assassins to kill the PC doing the deed? Or, a stronger, higher level fighter comes knocking to challenge the PC to a street duel.

I always say, if you can, take a negative and turn it into a cool part of the game. With a little thought, the players and DM can do this.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Most of the DMs I've played under do let problematic PCs exist. Sometimes, the results are epic fun:

One of my most memorable PCs of all time was a 1ED Fighter named Bear. I made a deal with my DM- give me maxed out physical stats and all of his mental stats would be 6-7s. Bear was a gentle giant, he fought because he was trained to do so by those around him (what else was he going to do?). Despite his nature, though, he had hooked up with a manipulative thief who treated him well...in order to have the most loyal and dangerous bodyguard he could find. That thief was- to Bear- brother, father and God all rolled up into a diminutive package that was his only true friend.

The thief eventually took something he really shouldn't have, and the City Watch boiled out of their barracks like fire ants from a kicked-over mound. As the party fled, the thief told Bear to protect him...

As they crossed a river on a narrow bridge, Bear turned and faced the entire Watch himself, taking down one after another until he died. By then, the party was safely away.

That campaign resulted in the thief being handed over- dead- to the authorities anonymously (with an explanation), and the reward money being used to found an orphanage.

In another campaign, the troublemaker is the wizard who is kind of the game's focal point. He routinely makes decisions that wind up coming back to haunt him...and his partymates. I cannot tell you how many of his fetes have been interrupted by uninvited supernatural badasses with a score to settle.

 

[Water Bob]

As they crossed a river on a narrow bridge, Bear turned and faced the entire Watch himself, taking down one after another until he died. By then, the party was safely away.

Epic ending! What a way to go!

I love RPG when ethics and personal morals are played with. That ending sounds fantastic.

The only difference in my game is that I would never allow a player to have max stats no matter what he traded. He's got to roll, just like everbody else.

Great character concept, though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The DM was pursueded by the PC oncept- all of that brute force was not only wrapped by a gentle soul, it was in thrall to a conniving sociopath. It made for some truly fun play, the best of which was the stand at the bridge.

And while I understand the thing about the max stats- i've only swung a bargain like this once in 30+ years of gaming- it wasn't the max stats that made the PC, it was the 6s for mental stats. I mean, the odds against rolling 1-3 18s is already high, but paired with a trio of 6s? Heck, simply getting 3 significantly above-average and 3 significantly below-average rolls is still long odds.*

FWIW, I always hold playing that PC as one of my top 5 roleplaying achievements.











* the closest I've come since then was Johnny Bones, a Ftr/Th with Str15, Dex15, Con13, Int12, Wis8 and Cha6.

 

[Water Bob]

* the closest I've come since then was Johnny Bones, a Ftr/Th with Str15, Dex15, Con13, Int12, Wis8 and Cha6.

One of the two PCs in my Conan game, generated using the default system of 4d6, drop lowest, arrange to taste, plus racial modifiers.


Caelis Redbirth

STR 19
DEX 13
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 7
CHA 6


Athletic, fit, and amazingly strong (CON 10; STR 19) and quicker than you'd think for all his bulk (DEX 13).

Abover average intelligence (INT 12).

But, he's somewhat socially inept. People don't like him when they meet him, even his own kind. (CHA 6). And, this is, in part, due to the bad decisions he sometimes makes. (WIS 7). It's as if he's lacking in common sense.





As far as the max stats deal: If I ever made that type of deal with a player, the 18's in physicals would be balanced by their numerical opposites in mentals. So, the character would have 18's in all three physicals, but 3's in all three mentals. For each point that he wanted to bring the mentals up, he'd have to lower the physicals. So, 17 and 4. 16 and 5. 15 and 6. 14 and 7. 13 and 8. 12 and 9. 11 and 10. Those would be his physical/mental choices.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The problem with the 3s is the PC would not have been playable that way in 1Ed, as I recall. Hence the 6s- essentially the lowest stats he could have in all the mental stats and still be a human fighter.

 

[Water Bob]

The problem with the 3s is the PC would not have been playable that way in 1Ed, as I recall. Hence the 6s- essentially the lowest stats he could have in all the mental stats and still be a human fighter.

Ah...I see. I'd still restrict the character to 15 stats, then.

I love the concept, though.