D&D 5E (2014) What does "murderhobo" mean to you?

[DemoMonkey]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Adventurer: "We were just outside of the Underchasm, on the edge of Shaar, when the potions began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive the cart..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the cart, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Menzoberranzan. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Pelor! What are these gods damned animals? And do they have stuff we can take?"

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Is a Drow a person?

For the sake of this discussion, we'll say yes. An evil person, one that does not pose an immediate threat but may, at some theoretical point in the future, pose one.

Kill them and take their stuff or not?

No, not unless I have specific knowledge of a plan to commit evil. Everyone deserves a chance.

 

[Krachek]

The lowest version of hack and slash play style.

 

[DemoMonkey]

"No, not unless I have specific knowledge of a plan to commit evil. Everyone deserves a chance."

Fair enough. But then I am guessing your games take a soft view of alignment for humanoids?

In a lot of games, and to a lot of players, the game is divided very clearly into good guys and bad guys. And bad guys are bad, and can be deprived of life and goods with impunity, because they are bad, and the player characters are good. (And we KNOW they are good, because they are fighting the bad guys. Circular logic is the tool of Fiends!)

And they have to keep travelling because all the bad guys refuse to congregate in one place. No time for home life when there is evil in the world!

Which, even with involved interested players and a complete lack of attacking hapless peasants makes them sort of ...Self-appointed Executioners of No Fixed Address?

Murderhobos is a lot catchier, don't you think?

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

A general 'Kill because we can, kill the consequences later' attitude.

 

[Saeviomagy]

If a character doesn't have a home and solves all their problems via killing, then they are a murderhobo.

If they have a well defined home community that is regularly a part of the game, or they avoid killing, then they are not a murderhobo.

There's a big grey area in between.

 

[Waterbizkit]

It means nothing. Labels are for chumps. I won't be pigeon holed in your straitjacket terminology, man.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

"Adventurers who kill things (orcs, goblins, bartenders, town guards, etc) and take their stuff then leave town and go to a new place to avoid any consequences of their actions."

 

[Anselyn]

My kids don't understand the in-joke.

Then explain it to them, along with irony?

 

[redrick]

I'd describe some of the classic pre-D&D adventurer archetypes as murdhobos. Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser. Conan the Barbarian.

Look at a classic D&D module like B2: Keep on the Borderlands. There are ways to approach this dungeon that don't involve killing all or most of the inhabitants, but there is also a more direct way to run this dungeon that involves, at its most creative, pitting some of its inhabitants against each other so that they do some of the killing for you. Then you take their stuff, and when you have taken all of the stuff, you clear out to another town with another dungeon.

But it's not "murder" because the inhabitants are all Chaotic, right? They even have little Chaotic kids included in the module. I remember running it for a group a few years ago. While storming the Hobgoblin cave, a number of kids were knocked out. They tried to decide whether or not to kill the sleeping children. They're evil, right? They decided to leave the kids be, and then, after taking a short rest, one of the kids woke up, wriggled out of his ropes, and started running for help. Dead monster kids from there on out.

Generally, I prefer not to run with whole races of evil humanoids, because it doesn't sit well with me. But it's definitely a part of D&D's DNA.