Jürgen Hubert's LiveJournal - The Path of Evil

The Path of Evil

Oct. 4th, 2008 at 6:35 PM

I've just posted a lengthy essay on how to deal with sociopathic player characters over at ENWorld. You might find it interesting.

Comments

( 11 comments — Leave a comment )

inncubus wrote:

Oct. 4th, 2008 04:42 pm (UTC)

I like it.

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robertprior wrote:

Oct. 4th, 2008 06:57 pm (UTC)

Very good.

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allandaros wrote:

Oct. 4th, 2008 08:17 pm (UTC)

I parsed this as "sociopathic players" at first, and my first thought was "STAY AWAAAAY!"

Going and reading it now. :)

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tcpip wrote:

Oct. 5th, 2008 10:51 am (UTC)

I parsed this as "sociopathic players" at first, and my first thought was "STAY AWAAAAY!"

So did I! :)

This said, great campaign plot.

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baronsamedi wrote:

Oct. 4th, 2008 08:39 pm (UTC)

That is a very well thought out essay. It is intellegent and makes a lot of sense. It would probobly work, though I am sure some thick headed players would decide it wasnt their fault and they were just being punished. The former of course is untrue; it is their fault. The latter true.

Sadly I have a two part approach; 1) talk to them about their behavior and if that does not work 2) kick them. We have had a couple players who found no one willing to run for them but who had two or more GMs try to talk to them of their behavior in the extended group.

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0mniscient wrote:

Oct. 5th, 2008 03:33 am (UTC)

Good ideas, but they're a little dependent on putting the cart before the horse.

It's easy for players to see NPCs fully in game terms, because that's what NPCs ultimately are. Not just in tabletop RPGs, but in video games of all stripes as well. Turning the players into champions of darkness won't have as much effect on them if they have no reason to empathize with NPCs beforehand. I'd say the first step, assuming nondisruptive players, would be one of two things. Either give the players a reason to care about NPCs, or realize that the players who see things in video game terms are only shortchanging themselves.

If players are actively destructive, I wonder how many months of play time you're asking a GM to put into making a point. Furthermore, the players who really tend towards this either see NPCs as faceless targets for their aggression (in which case you're wasting your time trying to show just how bad these NPCs have it), or else are actively sadistic (in which case showcasing NPC misery just rewards them). Rehabilitating a player who just follows along with a bad group is probably best served by giving them better - and more importantly, different - role models. Rehabilitating a player who actively enjoys causing mayhem sounds like a lot of stress for something I'm supposedly doing for my enjoyment, if it's possible at all.

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notthebuddha wrote:

Oct. 5th, 2008 08:52 pm (UTC)

Turning the players into champions of darkness won't have as much effect on them if they have no reason to empathize with NPCs beforehand.

I think you are overlooking the numerous places Jurgen brings home the consequences to the players as the reason to care about NPCs (fear, flight, economic privation). If that's not enough for your players, you can go into full scorched earth mode, where the people burn crops, flood dungeons, provoke other bad actors, etc, all in an attempt to make the place more hostile to the evil PCs.

If players are actively destructive, I wonder how many months of play time you're asking a GM to put into making a point.

Eh, I think it could be a nice change of pace, as an opportunity to indulge the GM's baser urges as well, and it can be just as much productive gaming as a camapign about pirates or vampires would be.

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