I am about to start running a campaign for a wizard, a barbarian, and a cleric and I am unsure if I should allow/encourage PKing or if I should discourage it. I know that PKing can sometimes disband adventures, but if there was a player that was not RPing a ,let’s say, a lawful good PC right and RPing the PC as a chaotic evil, they could in theory kill them and kick them out of the adventure, but I want to get peoples opinions on it.
I'm not totally sure I understand the question... are you saying that, if a player is acting out of alignment that you'll be just killing off their character? Or are you talking about like... PVP?
I am taking about both, also I come from the MC and botw community so I tend to shorten things if they end up getting way to long, so if you didn’t know already PKing means player killing
This is part of a Session 0 discussion. Generally speaking, any form of serious intraparty conflict is something to be avoided. 9 times out of 10, it's going to cause problems between the players themselves.
If there is a follow through plan, like the players have new characters that they want to switch to, then it's ok to let things go a bit off script because there won't be any hurt feelings. Otherwise, proceed with extreme caution.
Also keep in mind that D&D is meant to be cooperative. It is not balanced for PvP. Something else to consider is that you probably don't want your players to have to watch their backs all the time. If they can't trust the people they travel with and fight along side with their lives, why in the world would they be with them in the first place? So a session 0 conversation will be critical if you even want to try this route.
I would note that there is a certain type of player who takes advantage of players being unwilling to engage in interparty conflict by being general colossal jerks and getting the party in trouble. PKing doesn't really help with that, but kicking someone for being an a-hole should be on the table.
If someone has written Lawful Good but if roleplaying chaotic evil, then they should change their alignment to chaotic evil. Not everyone can accurately predict their character before they start roleplaying, so it's better to change alignments to how they want to play than tell them to change how they play to reflect the alignment.
As for killing someone's character just because they are "playing them wrong", absolutely not. Never. This is a situation where words are of immense use - talk to them. Explain the issue with their character - if it's just "you're acting chaotic when your sheet says lawful" then change their sheet, and if it's that their actions are causing problems for the party, talk to them about what it is that's making problems and ask them to tone those aspects of their character down a bit to help them still work with the party.
Most people would happily reign in parts of their roleplay if it's annoying or upsetting others. Everyone would be annoyed if their character was killed off because others thought they were playing them wrong.
Your goal as the DM is to give your players the best possible game experience. If you are thinking "I might not like a character, so I'll kill them" then DMing is not for you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I am about to start running a campaign for a wizard, a barbarian, and a cleric and I am unsure if I should allow/encourage PKing or if I should discourage it. I know that PKing can sometimes disband adventures, but if there was a player that was not RPing a ,let’s say, a lawful good PC right and RPing the PC as a chaotic evil, they could in theory kill them and kick them out of the adventure, but I want to get peoples opinions on it.
I'm not totally sure I understand the question... are you saying that, if a player is acting out of alignment that you'll be just killing off their character? Or are you talking about like... PVP?
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I am taking about both, also I come from the MC and botw community so I tend to shorten things if they end up getting way to long, so if you didn’t know already PKing means player killing
This is part of a Session 0 discussion. Generally speaking, any form of serious intraparty conflict is something to be avoided. 9 times out of 10, it's going to cause problems between the players themselves.
If there is a follow through plan, like the players have new characters that they want to switch to, then it's ok to let things go a bit off script because there won't be any hurt feelings. Otherwise, proceed with extreme caution.
Alright. Thank you for all the help!
Also keep in mind that D&D is meant to be cooperative. It is not balanced for PvP. Something else to consider is that you probably don't want your players to have to watch their backs all the time. If they can't trust the people they travel with and fight along side with their lives, why in the world would they be with them in the first place? So a session 0 conversation will be critical if you even want to try this route.
Alright. Thanks everyone for your input!
I would note that there is a certain type of player who takes advantage of players being unwilling to engage in interparty conflict by being general colossal jerks and getting the party in trouble. PKing doesn't really help with that, but kicking someone for being an a-hole should be on the table.
If someone has written Lawful Good but if roleplaying chaotic evil, then they should change their alignment to chaotic evil. Not everyone can accurately predict their character before they start roleplaying, so it's better to change alignments to how they want to play than tell them to change how they play to reflect the alignment.
As for killing someone's character just because they are "playing them wrong", absolutely not. Never. This is a situation where words are of immense use - talk to them. Explain the issue with their character - if it's just "you're acting chaotic when your sheet says lawful" then change their sheet, and if it's that their actions are causing problems for the party, talk to them about what it is that's making problems and ask them to tone those aspects of their character down a bit to help them still work with the party.
Most people would happily reign in parts of their roleplay if it's annoying or upsetting others. Everyone would be annoyed if their character was killed off because others thought they were playing them wrong.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Short answer: Discourage.
Your goal as the DM is to give your players the best possible game experience. If you are thinking "I might not like a character, so I'll kill them" then DMing is not for you.