What Do We Do With A Murder Hobo (Early in the Session)

Have you noticed your players becoming a little more detached from your tabletop gaming world? Are they going from location to location, indiscriminately killing NPCs and looting whatever they can get their imaginary hands on? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you might have a case of…MURDER HOBOS! Now you’re probably asking yourself…is there any cure for this condition? Can I stop my players from killing and stealing everyone and everything? Won’t somebody please help me stop this insanity!?! Calm down there good fellow, all the yelling and hair pulling is uncalled for. After all, it probably isn’t as big a deal as you might think. Before we get into some helpful tips from your fine friends at Never Say Dice, let's talk a bit about why you may have Murder Hobos, and then delve into what to do about it.  - A

A: So you have Murder Hobos. Nothing to be ashamed of. Unless...it's all your fault! Okay, it probably isn’t all your fault, but if these players of yours have all gone to murderhobo-ing, there are a few things that may be happening. The first that comes to mind is that there's something else going on in the players' lives. It helps if you know your players well outside of gaming sessions, but even if you don’t, at least try to take a few moments now and then before (or after) sessions to find out what's going on in their lives outside your fantasy realms. Depression, anxiety, stress, any number of issues can cause someone to just want to simplify their gaming experience and get on with murder hoboing. Luckily, that one isn’t really the fault of a GM at all. The next way it could come up though is boredom. That one's on the whole group. Maybe they’re bored with your story, maybe they’re just bored with the characters. It's possible they don’t know the reason why, but if you have an open discussion, you’re bound to find some ways out of this murder hobo rut with your players. That does lead to the last possibility…. you’re allowing it. If you’re letting the characters get away with it, especially if they know this is supposed to be a more serious campaign without murder hoboing, you'll need to find a way to bring in the balance of consequences. Finally, and most simply, they may just want to go a-murder-hoboing. That's the version of the game they want to play for their own reasons. In that case, I personally say…Let them murder hobo! Perhaps not in the game you're trying to be serious with, but maybe pick up an alternative game, create some new characters, and let those players murder hobo to their heart's content. Bugsy, what do you think of the reasons behind murder hobo-ing and what else can we do about it at our tables?

B: It's funny that we have a joke term for what was, for a significant portion of the hobby's history, the default playstyle. The reason we have a humorous nickname for it is that some players and GMs saw the potential in TTRPGs beyond the simplest forms of violent acquisition of wealth and, in the process of developing more rich, complex worlds with more things to do, saw the inherent silliness of the default occupation for PCs. But the potential is always there, especially in older systems that allow a player to eschew broader engagement in favor of the simply play loop of "take risk to get reward to improve character to take bigger risks to get bigger rewards to..." And here, I think, is the problem that a lot of us have with it. As you said, Andy, plenty of people will want to run more thoughtful, serious campaigns, and when a player only uses it as a background for the "risk/reward/improve," it can feel like all the work put into developing the story and setting was wasted. But, on the other hand, that's still a valid playstyle baked into the game, especially older systems with clearer ties to TTRPGs' wargaming roots, like D&D. So we can't really say a player is doing it "wrong," even if their approach is at odds with the goals of the GM or the rest of the group.

An organic way to deal with this would be to incorporate their playstyle into the larger story. Just because they're ignoring the larger world, after all, doesn't mean the larger world is ignoring them. Their reputation could precede them - shopkeeps could charge more for weapons, armor, or supplies, thinking that the character's wandering ways and reckless lifestyle is likely to cheat them out of a repeat customer. They could be hired for a dangerous (and discreet) mission from a local figure eager to keep things quiet... or looking for a well-known villain to pin things on. Someone affected by their destructive ways could hunt them down for revenge... or seek them as a mentor. Legends could spring up around them, with varying degrees of accuracy. (This also gives the other PCs a chance for some gentle ribbing or playing up their own parts in the mythology building around the campaign.) With time, the player may make the shift from Murder Hobo to something more like a wandering ronin or a "sword for hire" - essentially doing the same things they had been, but with greater awareness of the world around them. And this, in my opinion, is what makes the difference. Even if everyone is onboard for a Murder Hobo Campaign, it's very easy to burn out quickly - so Andy's suggestion of a one-shot or mini-campaign is an apt one. Ultimately, if all one is seeking is the dopamine rush of that feedback loop, electronic games are a far more efficient way of getting that experience. And so we return to the flexibility of the tabletop and breadth of possibility that comes from roleplaying with other people. If we can provide that framework, even the most ardent Murder Hobo might find themselves noticing the wide world around them.

Send questions, comments, and secret Murder Hobo recipes to neversaydice20@gmail.com, or tweet them @neversaydice2... until Twitter finds itself in the Murder Hobo stew.