Skip to main content

Re-murder!

Eh, whaddya gonna do?
Death!!!! Death stalks you at every corner! There it is, right there! Deeaaath! Ok, maybe that was just a lamp…behind you! Oh right, that’s just the cat. There it is again! Lamp again. Really though, death is rampant in tabletop games. We’ve even previously talked about the particular issue of your players becoming Murder Hobos, those transient adventurers that travel from location to location, killing NPCS all over, and shaking the bodies down for anything they can use or sell. Given how D&D got its start, and the similar ways you can fund your character's activities in many of the digital games D&D's inspired, it isn’t a surprise this is a common occurrence. For this post though, we’re going to talk about a related topic close to the core of the issue: Death. Or rather, to be specific... Murder! But with the high technology and/or magic so common in most of our tabletop settings, at what point does murder actually become murder? Why are murders in game narratives not solved quicker? And, finally what can we do to improve or even fix these murderous problems when they come up? 

Mostly Dead is Still Slightly Alive

In our sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic tabletop worlds, there are a ton of ways to bring someone back. Standard clones, replicator clones, Lazarus machines, pills, injections. Granted, these are all more on the science fantasy side of things, but that means there's still a least a little science involved! And, if you’re bringing in a transporter clone, the original person should probably be dead, or there could be some pretty awkward exchanges. Similar things exist in fantasy settings. You have resurrection spells, reincarnation, revivify, a well-timed healing spell or potion (the chocolate coating makes it go down easier). And that's just to name a few. So it's extremely easy to see how one could kill a foe and still have them return to life within some kind of constraint. But if you can do that, and they are indeed truly returned to life, did a murder really take place? Are they just considered "mostly dead" until a certain number of stipulations or opportunities to bring them back have passed? These moral quandaries shouldn’t be strange, we’ve seen them in our own literature, shows, and movies for ages. If we can concede that some "murdered" individuals are slightly alive, where does that leave us in terms of law and justice in our games? 

You have selected Regicide!
The Next Great Adventure.

Certainly, if these characters aren't "returned" to the story in some way , we can consider them murdered. And, especially with the aforementioned murder hobos still abounding in our tabletop games, we can expect the bodies to keep showing up. So, how are these murders being solved? Hopefully, you aren’t letting your players investigate a murder they themselves perpetrated. If you are, you’ve opened up a whole new set of problems. (Unless it's that kind of game. And if you're running that kind of game, invite Bugsy.) So who is doing the investigating? That is going to be dependent on setting, of course, but there's likely to be some sort of local constabulary. Kingdom guards, Starfleet Security, the city watch, private police, other adventurers... It could be just about anyone, and that's probably part of your problem. The laws themselves will also vary from place to place - what one realm may consider self defense, might be unequivocal murder in another. If you can nail down who's investigating, and what the law is, you have yet another problem: punishment. It may be a fine based on local laws, which naturally allows the rich to literally get away with murder. Punishment may mean death, if guilt can be proven, but how do we get there? And once you do, how can you keep the game fun?. 

So You Have Chosen... Death

To be blunt, murder in most games isn’t exactly the same kind moral issue in a game it is in real life. If we truly must bring a character back, there's any number of deus ex machina ways to accomplish it. You still have to have some order though. Before your players make the shift from singing hobos to stabbing hobos, try thinking of some reasonable consequences in advance. This will likely include working out just who is enforcing, and investigating laws, not to mention who's the one making them. Make sure those lawbearers have the tools they need to solve crimes. Fantasy worlds have various forms of "speak with dead" and "zone of truth," or other similar devices. Sci-fi probably has something similar as well, with truth serums and brain scan technology. Death isn’t necessarily the final end in a game, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still prepare for it, not unlike how we prepare for that inevitability in real life. Until next week folks, enjoy your tables, your murder hobos, and your dice. 

- A 

Send questions, comments, and invitations to "How To Host a Murder" games to neversaydice20@gmail.com

This actually shows an accidental death, but whatever

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Lewd Dungeon Adventures with Phoenix Grey

While we here at Never Say Dice try to bring you our own creations every week, be they on storytelling, video games, tabletop games, or any number of other nerdly topics, we thought it'd be good to talk to some other creators so you, dear readers, can hear from others right here on our blog. We haven’t included an interview since our popular MDRF posts , and thought now would be the perfect time to start including them again. One creator I’ve personally backed in the past has developed a risqué game series called Lewd Dungeon Adventures: An Adult Tabletop Role-Playing Game for Couples . So this week, here at Never Say Dice you’ll get some background on that series from the creator herself, Phoenix Gray. - A We should point out that, like the game itself, this conversation will involve sexual topics, so if the subject of sex and gaming (in this case, both in-universe and among the participants themselves) doesn't interest you, you may want to move on to another post. I've be...
Read more

An Introduction to Risus

While roaming the internet in the late nineties/early noughties, I came across a TTRPG that was rules-lite and called itself “the anything RPG.” Want to play a high school cheerleader/samurai-in-training part-time goth enthusiast fast food cashier? The hot pink stick figure art glared back at me. Nah, not interested. But I was wrong. The stick figures were actually purple, and Risus is a surprisingly versatile, handy and down right fun TTRPG. I wouldn’t figure that out though till I discovered it again several years later. Even though it was written as a comedy system (and somewhat lighthearted response to GURPS) you really can use it for just about anything: space opera, high fantasy, pulp, vampires,western, any movie setting you could think of...seriously anything. You can read a far more detailed and interesting history in a number of other places should it strike your fancy. It is time for your Risus indoctrination introduction. Risus really is versatile and fairly easy to learn...
Read more

Devouring "Roll for Sandwich"

Good timezone to Never Say Dice fans, adventures in Aardia, TikTok and beyond. No, I’m not the Roll for Sandwich guy (neither of us is), but if you haven’t heard of him already (or especially if you have), this week I wanted to talk about the TikTok/YouTube show Roll for Sandwich hosted by Jacob Pauwels. The premise is exactly what it sounds like: every episode, the host rolls dice to determine the various items that comprise a sandwich (except when the episode is about s’mores). He assembles the sandwich, then actually eats and critiques his random creation. If it sounds pretty niche to you... it is. You should  probably be both a bit of a foodie and a TTRPG fan in order to truly appreciate both the strange layered creations and the roleplaying references. My eldest son has been so interested in the web series that he decided he wanted to try doing it for himself. So, for the last week of summer this year, we took stock of our cupboards, made our own charts, and proceeded to con...
Read more

Peasant Railgun

Peasants are the common commoner amongst the NPCs of many a tabletop role playing game. It doesn’t matter the setting, there's going to be a variety of "common" NPC that's peasant-like in some way. The subject of peasants has come up in my Dungeons and Dragons gaming group once again as the Peasant Railgun meme makes its way through the internet once again. A crazy idea that's been around for many years. Not sure what we’re talking about? The concept goes something like this: we find a big bad target, line up a group of 2,280 peasants all in a row over the distance of two miles, have them all ready their action, and then have them pass an object (usually a spear) down the line over the course of a six-second round, until it reaches the last person in line who throws the ammo at the target - gaining  "velocity damage" based on falling object damage, and dealing somewhere near 400d6 worth of damage. If this idea sounds ridiculous to you, and you’re a reg...
Read more