I personally like the notion of someone much bigger and badder being introduced and essentially smacking the party down (defeat, run to jail or some such) It opens the opportunity for you, the DM to "preach" to the party what they are doing and the impact it is having. Tied in with the above repercussions, folks won't share information, won't deal with them in shops, maybe even barred from a town due to their violent reputation.
As stated also, murder hobo characters are only fun for everyone in dungeon crawls, where 90% of your encounters are usually KILLKILLKILL. In a proper campaign, they should quickly become outlaws/"bad guys" for the ongoing murders. A little OOC to the group, explaining that reigning the lunatic in can and should, be as much fun as jumping in with him, and you can have a LO of fun, even feeding them times when they try to hold him back to negotiate, but the negotiations go poorly (your design and plan) and the group can just eventually look to their murderous companion, shrug and say "Ok, we do it YOUR way then!" It gives the group chances to build a story and still offers them chances to allow said rampaging death dealer to run amok at times.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
An experienced player shouldn't really be playing a murder hobo when there are new players in the group. The experienced player should know that the first impressions (e.g. first game session) really sets the tone for how the new players will view the game for all future sessions.
I agree with this. I feel like an experienced player who takes the game seriously to some degree wouldn't just go murder hobo all the time. Maybe there is a misjudgement in experience, like how if a person says they've played DnD for 10 years may seem like a lot of experience to someone who is new, but in reality you could play 10 years of DnD and learn nothing.
I also feel like the characters are murder hobo'ing their way through the world because there are no consequences to their actions. If the world doesn't have rules and laws that are enforced, they're going to feel like they can walk all over you. A lot of people in this thread say that a neutral NPC that could be wildly powerful would stop this in its tracks and I have to agree.
But most importantly, if they're having a good time and you're the one who has to adjust, I would talk it out openly with everyone. This may be their preferred playstyle and that's ok. And if your playstyle is different, you can either try to open your perspectives to the way that they want to play the game and go along with it or try and find players who share the value of deep narrative immersion that you have. Don't sacrifice your wants in the game for theirs, and vice versa. Ultimately, if you can meet in the middle, that could work out even better.
tl;dr Create challenges and consequences for them murder hobo'ing people. If its done in a settlement, send bounty hunters after them that local law enforcement hires to bring them in to justice. Make the pressures of murder hobo'ing more and more intense as they continue to do it. Settlements will see how dangerous they are and do more in their power to stop them over time if they aren't stopped.
It seems to me the right question here is 'but is it a fun orgy of violence?'
Anyways - just talk to the player. Low IQ doesn't equate violence. Tell them plainly that this isn't the campaign you're running, and if this is the only way they want to play, you'll have to end it.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Solution 3: an encounter with a VIP (royalty, head of a continent-spanning Thieves Guild, whatever), who an attack on would basically make the lives of the entire party forfeit
I advice against this. It's much easier to get the annoying player to behave if point out to the rest of the group that they aren't a problem.
Sending mercenaries or guards after the Barbarian and telling the other PCs "Step aside, we have no quarrel with you. We know *you* are all honorable people who have done great good to society. We just want the murderer!" works much better than having "the law" attacking the whole party. You could also have a scene where people approach just some of the other party members asking for help to take down their murderous "friend". Or perhaps offering a reward if the other PCs helps take down the barbarian.
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I personally like the notion of someone much bigger and badder being introduced and essentially smacking the party down (defeat, run to jail or some such) It opens the opportunity for you, the DM to "preach" to the party what they are doing and the impact it is having. Tied in with the above repercussions, folks won't share information, won't deal with them in shops, maybe even barred from a town due to their violent reputation.
As stated also, murder hobo characters are only fun for everyone in dungeon crawls, where 90% of your encounters are usually KILLKILLKILL. In a proper campaign, they should quickly become outlaws/"bad guys" for the ongoing murders. A little OOC to the group, explaining that reigning the lunatic in can and should, be as much fun as jumping in with him, and you can have a LO of fun, even feeding them times when they try to hold him back to negotiate, but the negotiations go poorly (your design and plan) and the group can just eventually look to their murderous companion, shrug and say "Ok, we do it YOUR way then!" It gives the group chances to build a story and still offers them chances to allow said rampaging death dealer to run amok at times.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
I agree with this. I feel like an experienced player who takes the game seriously to some degree wouldn't just go murder hobo all the time. Maybe there is a misjudgement in experience, like how if a person says they've played DnD for 10 years may seem like a lot of experience to someone who is new, but in reality you could play 10 years of DnD and learn nothing.
I also feel like the characters are murder hobo'ing their way through the world because there are no consequences to their actions. If the world doesn't have rules and laws that are enforced, they're going to feel like they can walk all over you. A lot of people in this thread say that a neutral NPC that could be wildly powerful would stop this in its tracks and I have to agree.
But most importantly, if they're having a good time and you're the one who has to adjust, I would talk it out openly with everyone. This may be their preferred playstyle and that's ok. And if your playstyle is different, you can either try to open your perspectives to the way that they want to play the game and go along with it or try and find players who share the value of deep narrative immersion that you have. Don't sacrifice your wants in the game for theirs, and vice versa. Ultimately, if you can meet in the middle, that could work out even better.
tl;dr Create challenges and consequences for them murder hobo'ing people. If its done in a settlement, send bounty hunters after them that local law enforcement hires to bring them in to justice. Make the pressures of murder hobo'ing more and more intense as they continue to do it. Settlements will see how dangerous they are and do more in their power to stop them over time if they aren't stopped.
It seems to me the right question here is 'but is it a fun orgy of violence?'
Anyways - just talk to the player. Low IQ doesn't equate violence. Tell them plainly that this isn't the campaign you're running, and if this is the only way they want to play, you'll have to end it.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I advice against this. It's much easier to get the annoying player to behave if point out to the rest of the group that they aren't a problem.
Sending mercenaries or guards after the Barbarian and telling the other PCs "Step aside, we have no quarrel with you. We know *you* are all honorable people who have done great good to society. We just want the murderer!" works much better than having "the law" attacking the whole party. You could also have a scene where people approach just some of the other party members asking for help to take down their murderous "friend". Or perhaps offering a reward if the other PCs helps take down the barbarian.