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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Baron Opal" data-source="post: 1465499" data-attributes="member: 10433">My solutionI was running a game where the characters were middling-high level, 12 or so. A new player introduced the others to the concept of inter-party strife and less than "good" behavior. His actions had some unfortunate consequences.He brought in a wizard with a healthy passel of items, appropriate for the group. For some reason the party needed something from the village and the villagers weren't cooperative. The magician proceded, to my shock, eliminate the village. I think they were gnomes or halflings, some race that wasn't represented in the party. Gnomes. The other wizard's was shocked, the priest's player was inscrutable (as always), and the fighter's and ranger's players were amused, but didn't assist. So, after the carnage, they were able to recover what they needed and they had about an hour long in-character discussion about what happened. Which, acutally, was rather cool.There was a lot of disscussion of morals, noting that if they were orcs that they would have done the same without hesitation. The gnomes were uncooperative and the mission was vitally important. The Duke who commissioned them gave them broad lattitude in executing their mission. The wizard pointed out that it was these precise actions that cause the party to hunt down people in the first place. The ranger's player, who was into chaos more than what was conveinent, bought into the "ends justifies the means" philosophy that the first wizard was selling.(Actually, the longer this goes the more details I remember. Nifty, that.)So we have, Kimerod the human wizard proposing the moral validity of erasing a village, Fubar the human (mutant) ranger thinking that's acceptible, Trevyn the human wizard arguing that it is wrong, Brendan the human fighter being murmuring support for Kimerod, and Leshif the elven cleric being inscrutable.Further on in the quest, the party is challenged by a party of six characters. They decry the PCs as villans and attack. The PCs respond in kind, although with some hesitation on the part of Trevyn and Leshif. The other party is exterminated as they were 6-7th level. What follows is more arguing (and now its arguing) about what happened at the village. Kimerod and Fubar ransack the bodies, but the others are starting to feel icky about taking anything. Brendan's conscience is starting to bother him.A couple weeks later (game time, next week real time) the party is navigating through a mountain pass when they are scried and then ambushed by a party of equivalent level. In a balls-to-the-wall fight the party is barely victorious. As they are healing themselves they notice that the enemy priest was to Osiris (Leshif's patron) and was lead by a paladin of Horus. Trevyn is a worshipper of Isis. (Horus is the divine son of Isis and Osiris). Well. Trevyn is horrified, and now there is major arguing. Brendan is now on Trevyn's side. Fubar has very little to say. Kimerod is still arguing that "its their fault for attacking us". Leshif's player speaks. This is a bit of a surprise in of itself. He goes on for a good ten minutes on why what they were doing is wrong, in character, and that the party was well and good to go back to the major city, confess their crimes, and make what resitution they could. Kimerod refused. Leshif Flame Striked him. Trevyn weighed in with a Fireball. Brendan's and Fubar's players were surprised. Leshif's player stood up and pointed to the two of them and said "Good or Evil. Choose now!" No one, including myself, had ever seen Leshif's player take charge before. It was pretty cool, actually. Brendan drew his sword and laid into Kimerod and Fubar holed up inside his Cube of Force to watch Kimerod implode.Next week, Kimerod's player made a new PC, the party Teleported to the major city, and much Atonement was done. I gave them some nasty task to do as well as pay for both of the previous parties' Ressurections. While Fubar didn't help in the takedown of Kimerod, he did participate in the atonement so Leshif let him stick around.It was really cool to see the dynamic of the party shift one way than the other. Particularly when Kimerod's player didn't realize how major it was to see Leshif's player, who was majorly shy, take a stand.Baron Opal</blockquote>

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