While negotiating the cost of passage one of my players literally stopped me mid sentence and turned to the other players at the table. "Alright after we get over the river we kill the crew and then fly the ship all the way to the mountains.(Where the death knight is said to be) As long as we keep one alive we can torture him for information on how to fly the ship." This was done completely out of character, while I was trying to role-play the captain of the ship.
I deal with this sort of situation by ruling that there is no "out of character". Anything players say, their characters are saying.
If players are discussing combat tactics, then so are their characters (and their foes are probably listening carefully). If the players are being offensive, then so are their characters. If the players are joking around then so are their characters.
I also very firmly believe in consequences, especially that in-game actions have in-game consequences.
There is a word for killing the crew of an airship and stealing the vessel. That word is "piracy". Those PCs will eventually gain a reputation as pirates and bandits. Local rulers will refuse to meet with them. merchants will stop dealing with them. Other pirate groups will extend invitations.
How well-off is the family of the halfling girl? Do they have money to pay for someone to locate the body? If so, speak with dead or raise dead magic is going to badly inciminate the PCs.
Does the airship crew belong to a guild? Is that guild going to take steps to track down what happened to their missing vessel?
For extra sneakiness, have the guild hire the PCs to find the missing airship…
If any of the characters get divine power from good-aligned deities then that power stops working. Good-aligned deities don't provide spells and blessings to evil worshippers. As an aside, this can lead to some cool roleplaying (for example, the characters do penance by finding the body of the young girl and raising her from the dead).
Also, out-of-character, you need to tell the players to cross out whatever alignment they have written at the top of their character sheets and write "Evil" instead.
Alternatively, you can do what I do in my games. I don't GM evil characters. Period. I don't like it and I'm pretty sure I'm no good at it. I tell people at the start of every campaign, "I don't do evil characters. If your character come close to crossing that line I'll warn you. If your character crosses the line then they become an NPC and you make a new one."
These are all good suggestions. I would add that your players probably enjoy being murder hobos and trying to break the habit might make the game less fun for them. They may be more interested in power tripping in a fantasy world than roleplaying in it. If you implement the suggestions here (which you probably have done already, considering the age of this thread) and they don't help, you might try altering the tone of the game to fit the player's expectations.
I have this issue with my party (though not to the same extent as yours) and my solution is to make all the NPCs murder hobos, too. Lords go to war at the first sign of a rival's weakness. Priests abuse their power and guards kill petty thieves on the spot. I've had a quest giver refuse to pay the PCs after they completed a quest because he was greedy and powerful enough that they couldn't just extort the money. I've had rogue who tried to rob everything in sight loose his gold and gear overnight to a robber he never caught. No one in the party would lend him new gear because he stole from them in the past.
If the world is rational and just but the PCs aren't, the two will be in conflict. If you can't make your PCs act in character with the world, you can always make the world act in character with the PCs.
if you have any paladins or clerics, make their gods forsake them and they lose their powers. Also, druids use the divine power of nature gods, so anyone w/ divine magic loses it... >:)
I don't know if this is a thing in 5e or not (I'm still learning) but in the older AD&D's (1st and 2nd edition) there was a method for dealing with the killing of halfing waifs by NG aligned characters. In 2E alignment shifts happened (at the DM's discretion) when the characters did exactly the sort of thing your players seem to be doing. So the DM would shift the alignment of the offending members to the alignment most closely associated with their behavior. When this shift occurred, it penalized them experience points (and in some cases at the DM discretion) entire levels and made it harder for them to advance in levels.
All that being said, the ultimate goal of the DM should be to make the game interesting and fun for the players. If they want to go the murder hobo route, by all means indulge them if that's what they truly want, but make it clear, that behavior like that makes them the bad guys. Give them a challenge by sending the bereaved family of the halfling girl (who just happens to come from a long line of very powerful halfling assassins) after her killers.
You could also use an alignment shift to break the connection between clerics/paladins and their deities. That'll grab their attention.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Aut Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam (Find a way or make one) - Hannibal Allegedly
Lessons learned in blood are not soon forgotten. - Clyde Shelton
The truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is and you must bow to it's power or live a lie. -Miyamoto Musashi
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I deal with this sort of situation by ruling that there is no "out of character". Anything players say, their characters are saying.
If players are discussing combat tactics, then so are their characters (and their foes are probably listening carefully). If the players are being offensive, then so are their characters. If the players are joking around then so are their characters.
I also very firmly believe in consequences, especially that in-game actions have in-game consequences.
There is a word for killing the crew of an airship and stealing the vessel. That word is "piracy". Those PCs will eventually gain a reputation as pirates and bandits. Local rulers will refuse to meet with them. merchants will stop dealing with them. Other pirate groups will extend invitations.
How well-off is the family of the halfling girl? Do they have money to pay for someone to locate the body? If so, speak with dead or raise dead magic is going to badly inciminate the PCs.
Does the airship crew belong to a guild? Is that guild going to take steps to track down what happened to their missing vessel?
For extra sneakiness, have the guild hire the PCs to find the missing airship…
If any of the characters get divine power from good-aligned deities then that power stops working. Good-aligned deities don't provide spells and blessings to evil worshippers. As an aside, this can lead to some cool roleplaying (for example, the characters do penance by finding the body of the young girl and raising her from the dead).
Also, out-of-character, you need to tell the players to cross out whatever alignment they have written at the top of their character sheets and write "Evil" instead.
Alternatively, you can do what I do in my games. I don't GM evil characters. Period. I don't like it and I'm pretty sure I'm no good at it. I tell people at the start of every campaign, "I don't do evil characters. If your character come close to crossing that line I'll warn you. If your character crosses the line then they become an NPC and you make a new one."
These are all good suggestions. I would add that your players probably enjoy being murder hobos and trying to break the habit might make the game less fun for them. They may be more interested in power tripping in a fantasy world than roleplaying in it. If you implement the suggestions here (which you probably have done already, considering the age of this thread) and they don't help, you might try altering the tone of the game to fit the player's expectations.
I have this issue with my party (though not to the same extent as yours) and my solution is to make all the NPCs murder hobos, too. Lords go to war at the first sign of a rival's weakness. Priests abuse their power and guards kill petty thieves on the spot. I've had a quest giver refuse to pay the PCs after they completed a quest because he was greedy and powerful enough that they couldn't just extort the money. I've had rogue who tried to rob everything in sight loose his gold and gear overnight to a robber he never caught. No one in the party would lend him new gear because he stole from them in the past.
If the world is rational and just but the PCs aren't, the two will be in conflict. If you can't make your PCs act in character with the world, you can always make the world act in character with the PCs.
We used to run into a lot of 30th level farmers...became a bit of a running joke in our early campaigns! LOL
Create NPC's they love, and slowly ease them into fleshing out personalities.
if you have any paladins or clerics, make their gods forsake them and they lose their powers. Also, druids use the divine power of nature gods, so anyone w/ divine magic loses it... >:)
PM me the word tomato
Just ban stuff. Cut it off at the root. ‘Guys this ability/spell is broken.’ Quick table ruling and move on.
Two words...Alignment Shift.
I don't know if this is a thing in 5e or not (I'm still learning) but in the older AD&D's (1st and 2nd edition) there was a method for dealing with the killing of halfing waifs by NG aligned characters. In 2E alignment shifts happened (at the DM's discretion) when the characters did exactly the sort of thing your players seem to be doing. So the DM would shift the alignment of the offending members to the alignment most closely associated with their behavior. When this shift occurred, it penalized them experience points (and in some cases at the DM discretion) entire levels and made it harder for them to advance in levels.
All that being said, the ultimate goal of the DM should be to make the game interesting and fun for the players. If they want to go the murder hobo route, by all means indulge them if that's what they truly want, but make it clear, that behavior like that makes them the bad guys. Give them a challenge by sending the bereaved family of the halfling girl (who just happens to come from a long line of very powerful halfling assassins) after her killers.
You could also use an alignment shift to break the connection between clerics/paladins and their deities. That'll grab their attention.
Aut Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam (Find a way or make one) - Hannibal Allegedly
Lessons learned in blood are not soon forgotten. - Clyde Shelton
The truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is and you must bow to it's power or live a lie. -Miyamoto Musashi