Avian Mosquito
Educated
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2014
- Messages
- 55
So, I'm running a campaign in my own system (in an incomplete setting, making things up as I go, which I do a lot), and for our first campaign in this setting my daughter brings a new boy over. This is the second time she's brought a new boy, and I expected issues because that's what happened last time, and prepared for immense stupidity. What I got was not stupidity. I got active malice.
It started before the game did. He was skimming the rulebook while I got the food ready, and he asked where the alignment system was. I told him there wasn't one. He smiled, and I thought all was well. Then we actually got into the game, and I realized why he was smiling. The very first quest was to clear a nest of giant beetles out of a pasture. A woman flagged them down as they approached the town, recognizing them as adventurers, explained the problem and promised them a reward. And he said "Let's just kill her. Her house is one room, the reward should be easy to find."
I didn't quite know what to say to that. Sam chimed in with "And that would be wrong.". My head stopped spinning, and I added "Kid, this is just a starter quest, to give you some XP before you get onto the plot.". And he responded with "Yeah, but she's worth more XP than those beetles anyway.". And sure, that was correct, the woman was worth 300xp and the beetles were 140 between the nine of them. I pointed out that there was quest XP as well, he pointed out it was only 100xp and she was still worth 25% more than the whole quest. I started making a moral argument, and he said "But there's no alignment system, so there's no right and wrong.", and I gave up. I'm pretty sure he knew damn well that "subjective morality" does NOT mean "no morality" and was just trying to rationalize being a bastard to NPCs. I had to tell him they were within sight of the town wall and a couple other farms, and this action would end in a TPK, to get him to drop it.
Well, we've been at this all yesterday and today. We were actually playing all night, the party members are all levels 8-10, and in all this time he did NOT improve. He's continued suggesting we kill quest givers, gone out of his way to terrorize townsfolk for personal gain, and today I finally had enough. A shopkeeper asked a ridiculously high price for a box of -3 potions of adept stabilization (potions that temporarily boost your health, to avoid penalties in combat), and instead of, you know, HAGGLING, he hopped the counter, beat the shopkeeper to death, and started stuffing potions in his backpack. And "So what. We're in the afterlife, he's dead already." was his only justification for it.
Two minutes (game time) later, he left the shop. A town guard confronted him, he broke the guard's leg and ran. He got away, too. Thought he was clear until the town gates closed. He went in quietly to the prisons with the next guards showed up, he started making an argument that he was working for the pharaoh and was too valuable to jail, then he bribed the judge and got off free. I bet he thought he was real hot shit, too, until he was at the town gates and saw six people coming at him. And the other four behind him.
Now, if this was D&D, he'd have been fine. But it's not D&D, or anything remotely like it. In two minutes, they'd dragged him to the ground, pulled off his helmet, and punched him a dozen times in the head. And while his character is getting beat the fuck down, he's grinning like a maniac. He said "Nice. Can't wait to see the rest of the campaign." So he's making a new character. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I know what he was doing now, he was seeing how I was handling morality since there wasn't an alignment system, but I don't like people killing off my NPCs and derailing my campaign just to see how I respond.
It started before the game did. He was skimming the rulebook while I got the food ready, and he asked where the alignment system was. I told him there wasn't one. He smiled, and I thought all was well. Then we actually got into the game, and I realized why he was smiling. The very first quest was to clear a nest of giant beetles out of a pasture. A woman flagged them down as they approached the town, recognizing them as adventurers, explained the problem and promised them a reward. And he said "Let's just kill her. Her house is one room, the reward should be easy to find."
I didn't quite know what to say to that. Sam chimed in with "And that would be wrong.". My head stopped spinning, and I added "Kid, this is just a starter quest, to give you some XP before you get onto the plot.". And he responded with "Yeah, but she's worth more XP than those beetles anyway.". And sure, that was correct, the woman was worth 300xp and the beetles were 140 between the nine of them. I pointed out that there was quest XP as well, he pointed out it was only 100xp and she was still worth 25% more than the whole quest. I started making a moral argument, and he said "But there's no alignment system, so there's no right and wrong.", and I gave up. I'm pretty sure he knew damn well that "subjective morality" does NOT mean "no morality" and was just trying to rationalize being a bastard to NPCs. I had to tell him they were within sight of the town wall and a couple other farms, and this action would end in a TPK, to get him to drop it.
Well, we've been at this all yesterday and today. We were actually playing all night, the party members are all levels 8-10, and in all this time he did NOT improve. He's continued suggesting we kill quest givers, gone out of his way to terrorize townsfolk for personal gain, and today I finally had enough. A shopkeeper asked a ridiculously high price for a box of -3 potions of adept stabilization (potions that temporarily boost your health, to avoid penalties in combat), and instead of, you know, HAGGLING, he hopped the counter, beat the shopkeeper to death, and started stuffing potions in his backpack. And "So what. We're in the afterlife, he's dead already." was his only justification for it.
Two minutes (game time) later, he left the shop. A town guard confronted him, he broke the guard's leg and ran. He got away, too. Thought he was clear until the town gates closed. He went in quietly to the prisons with the next guards showed up, he started making an argument that he was working for the pharaoh and was too valuable to jail, then he bribed the judge and got off free. I bet he thought he was real hot shit, too, until he was at the town gates and saw six people coming at him. And the other four behind him.
Now, if this was D&D, he'd have been fine. But it's not D&D, or anything remotely like it. In two minutes, they'd dragged him to the ground, pulled off his helmet, and punched him a dozen times in the head. And while his character is getting beat the fuck down, he's grinning like a maniac. He said "Nice. Can't wait to see the rest of the campaign." So he's making a new character. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I know what he was doing now, he was seeing how I was handling morality since there wasn't an alignment system, but I don't like people killing off my NPCs and derailing my campaign just to see how I respond.
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