So a ninja, a cowboy, and a rock star walk into a bar...

[Knight_of_Chaos]

...and the only possible result is a giant can of Awesome.


My brother's campaign started last weekend and it looks like it's going to be a good time.


The only concern I have is that the ninja has Compassion 1 and Conviction 4, while my character (the rock star) has Compassion 4 and Conviction 4... and the Red Rage of Compassion Flaw.  The ninja also has a tendency to stab people that look at us funny (actually happened).  I have a feeling I'm going to be Limit Breaking about every other session.


I don't have a huge problem with this, but it messes around with my suspension of disbelief when PC's kill people for no real reason.  Both because I generally don't play characters that would hang out with people like that and because I think some people take in-game murder too lightly.


Anyone ever play with someone like this?  I think I know how I'm going to approach this from a player perspective, but I was just wondering how common this is for other groups.  This is probably the 3rd player I've gamed with who does things like this out of about 10 total.

 

[StarHawk]

I used to play with a guy like that. In every game we would play he'd usually put a gun to someone's head at least once a session. Basically what had to happen is for each individual game we'd play the ST would have to sit him down and explain why this behavior wasn't cool in this game world. Example: Werewolf: The Apocolypse, insulting a fellow werewolf and putting a pistol to their head will cause the bigger werewolves to pound you into the dirt. In Exalted, flaring your anima and putting your daiklave to someone's neck is a sure way to get caught as anethema and get a wyld hunt on you.


This was a staple for the game, and after a few games where his character was outright killed for his actions in such a way, he got the hint and stopped playing like that.

 

[memesis]

I find that a lot of people play in that fashion because they CAN - because there's basically no negative consequence.  The online version of "no consequences" works much the same way:


http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

 

[Flagg]

I think people who play like that must feel very weak and inferior in real life. It's kind of infantile.

 

[Sherwood]

I got a good one for you.  In my game we had a player who was known for sabotaging games, screwing with players, and being a dick.  We really didn't want him to play, but we like his wife playing and if we had banned him, she would not be allowed to come.  Here is an example of just how fucked up this guy is.


My players are romping around in the southern desert and trying to solve a dispute between the local desert tribesmen.  They find a large underground Manse, and the COMBAT MONSTER LUNAR gets the Hearthstone and attunes herself to it.  Robert, playing a Solar with all of his charms in acrobatics and larceny trees, steals the 5 dot hearthstone from the COMBAT MONSTER LUNAR.  I tried the "Are you sure you want to do that?" a few times, but no luck.  Lunar finds out about it, and goes for the Moonsiver Daiklave in DBT mode.  The Lunar now has a new form to shapeshift into, and Robert spends three hours whining about how his charactr died.

 

[Flagg]

I played in a game where the combat monster's player was the dick. My character stole the Big Important Artifact from him just to stop him from lording over the rest of us.

 

[Ker'ion]

I think people who play like that must feel very weak and inferior in real life. It's kind of infantile.

That must explain why EM always plays facist homicidal Solars. :?

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

I think people who play like that must feel very weak and inferior in real life. It's kind of infantile.

That must explain why EM always plays facist homicidal Solars. :?

THAT I have to hear about.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Ker'ion--There's no maybe in that equation. He readily admits that a game atmosphere is the only place where he has any power...


And most folks who lack power, or haven't a lot of experience with it, tend to fear losing it, and tend to react poorly to even a minimal loss.


I suppose the question might also be, is his dream car HUGE?

 

[Sherwood]

I enjoy playing powerful, tough characters as much as the next guy.  But I also can step back and have my characters get smacked around without taking it personally.  I was in a Mage game set in Europe in the Dark Ages.  I was grabbed by the bad guys and got my magic taken away (think Princess Garnet losing her Summoning power in Final Fantasy).  It was actually kind of fun facing a new set of challenges.

 

[Haku1]

You COULD always run a game where the whole point IS to be evil mean bastiches... where you play Anathema to the HILT...

 

[Knight_of_Chaos]

You COULD always run a game where the whole point IS to be evil mean bastiches... where you play Anathema to the HILT...

Yeah, I played an evil D&D 3.5 campaign a while back where my character's goal was to become an ultra powerful lich and take over the world.  We even had our own dungeon at one point.


It was fun, but it's not something I'd want to play all the time.


No, I think my gripe is mostly in line with memesis's comment:  People that play without thinking about what consequences there would be for their actions, both external (law enforcement) and internal (the character's conscience and/or common sense).


Depending on the game, this stuff can really make me lose interest.  It's not quite so bad in Exalted, since everything's so over the top anyway, but a game of Vampire was pretty much destroyed by one of these players.  The exchange was something like this:


Me: "That suspicious guy's getting away.  Somebody stop him!"


Ass: "I take the shotgun out of the back seat of our car and fire a slug at the retreating figure."


GM:  "He crumples to the ground in a spray of blood."


Me:  ::Blink:: ::Blink::  "Dude, you just shot that guy!"


Ass: "You said to stop him.  So I did."


Me:  ::Blink:: ::Blink::  "Dude, you just SHOT THAT GUY!"


Ass:  "And?"


Me:  "You don't just shoot people for no reason!"


Ass:  "He was trying to escape.  That's a reason."


Me:  "You're a freaking Brujah, tackle him or something!"


GM:  "You hear sirens in the distance."


Me:  "Damnit, you're cut.  Everyone, bail!"


And for the record, we were all in the 7-8 humanity range.  I think the campaign pretty much fell apart after that because I don't want to deal with that kind of crap in a gritty game.

 

[Haku1]

*nodnods*


That does sound kinda crappy... he might not have been thinking it's a gritty/realistic game... and more... First Person Shooter type game.  8)


Of course, he could also have been psychotic with POWAH!

 

[Knight_of_Chaos]

So last weekend something else happened that I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with yet.  We land at this cloaked floating island with our flying pirate ship ( 8) )  and I end up horribly botching my Heart Compelling roll (5 1's on 10 dice...) on two of their elite guards.  My brother rules that their ears start to bleed and they fall over dead.  And before you freak out, there is a precedent for that:  I've hit people with sound as part of a stunt a couple of times.  I was a little irritated with the ruling at the time, but I've gotten over it.  That WAS a botch of epic proportions...


Anyway, having killed three of their guys accidentally, (the first one was a friendly fire mishap... but people should know that you don't just air drop on an injured and totemic Anathema in the middle of a battle without stating your intentions) I face something of a dilemma from an in-character perspective.  Part of me wants to wax emo and hang up the guitar until some dramatically appropriate event causes him to come back to the rock.  Another part of me looks at his Conviction of 4 and says they were an accident and he'll do better next time.  A third part of me looks at the character sheet and sees how his combat ability will fall through the floor if he gets rid of his Goremaul-tar.  Not to mention that almost all of his Charms become useless.


So what does this have to do with all of you?  I'm not quite sure.  I think I'm just "thinking out loud" here.

 

[Vanman]

A few ideas, because it is, after all, your character.....


Even rock stars have bad albums. Not every album can be a winner. Sometimes they put out a stinkerydoo. You could look at it in this fashion.


The way I'd probably do it is spend some time mourning over the deaths. But you do have Conviction 4. This could be the event that spurs you to do better, to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Hell, it might even spur an alteration in your Virtue Flaw (with ST approval - or if it even can be changed - I'm not sure about that). When one door shuts, another door opens.


It's these sorts of dilemas that make roleplaying so interesting. At least iin my book.


Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Sherwood]

Heck, you could use this as motivation to launch a new tour to promote the release of new music, dedicated to the lives that were lost in such a sad way.  It could be used as a driving force to motivate you to new levels.

 

[YogoIshida]

As a Rock star you have 2 major solutions to this dilemma Heroin or Public Service Announcements.

"Did you know that for the daily cost of a pot of chai, you to can help prevent guardsmen from suffering life threatening sonic injuries? These piteous mortals are at risk from roaming Rock Bands and must be protected. Won't you find it within your heart to call now?"

Serious, note now With a Compassion of 4 your character can use this as a hook to finding these guards' families to receive forgiveness, and/or make sure they are cared for. One of my characters once ended up with a ward this way that my ST used to make life interesting for me. Basically ask yourself how your character will man up to his actions intentional or not.


Oh as to the ninja, A person with Conviction 4 should have a fairly solid reasoning towards strait out attacking. What I'm saying is likely he won't be killing because he hasn't gotten to make an attack roll yet this session, but with that Compassion 1 he could attack because the guy is wearing plaid and polka dots if that is against his beliefs. Have your characters ask him what his "triggers" are and then try to isolate them. Appeal to his conviction "If we're constantly killing random people, we will be hampered in our ability to successfully complete our tasks" We have all dealt with kill crazy characters that try to exterminate the group with their idiocy, proper management is the best check against these jack-offs (Y I is in no way saying that your ninja is jack-off. Ninja are a noble and misunderstood minority and must be protected from themselves, some conditions may apply)


Y I

 

[Knight_of_Chaos]

Serious, note now With a Compassion of 4 your character can use this as a hook to finding these guards' families to receive forgiveness, and/or make sure they are cared for. One of my characters once ended up with a ward this way that my ST used to make life interesting for me. Basically ask yourself how your character will man up to his actions intentional or not.

Interesting idea.  I may follow up on that.


But yeah, upon further reflection I think I was overreacting to what amounts to squicking a couple of Extras.  I'll save the "quit rock" card for something more profound.