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Author Topic: How to handle PvP?  (Read 2925 times)

Demonoid
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How to handle PvP?
« on: September 26, 2008, 02:40:58 AM »
Have you ever had one player kill another player's character, take his stuff, abuse him because his player character was more powerful, etc?

If so how do you handle it? Do you allow PvP and just tell the player with the 1st level character always being pushed around by a 12 level character "Too bad" or what?

Idinsinuation

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2008, 03:47:26 AM »
The abuse and/or murder of a character has consequences just like an NPC.  If everyone is having fun so be it, all outcomes will be determined by the game setting and system.  If a player or players aren't having fun, then something must be done outside of game as well as in.
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Vaecrius

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2008, 03:57:27 AM »
On my scale, having a PC actually abuse another PC through a power imbalance is on the squick scale somewhere between the GM having a PC raped and saying that they loved it on a failed willpower roll, and  shitting on the table and telling the players to use it as the battlemat with the corn bits as the minis.

So yeah, in any game where there's going to be player-versus-player action I'd much prefer each player to have equal or at least comparable resources, possibly imbalancing the defences a bit in favour of a player less familiar with the system.

But such inter-player balance is a starting assumption anyway, so it's only in-character motivation and players being generally inclined to be nice to each other that prevents most PvP scenarios from happening.

Engine

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2008, 09:05:43 AM »
Quote from: Demonoid;251490
Have you ever had one player kill another player's character, take his stuff, abuse him because his player character was more powerful, etc?

When one character really would kill another character, or take his stuff, or abuse him, yes, we've had it happen. Rather a lot, when I'm GMing, actually, because of my famously loose style of GMing.

Quote from: Demonoid;251490
If so how do you handle it? Do you allow PvP and just tell the player with the 1st level character always being pushed around by a 12 level character "Too bad" or what?

Our characters tend to be more-or-less around the same power level, although that's often eclipsed by the fact that some of our players are better than others. Everyone at the table knows this can and will happen, though, so no one's really troubled by it, as long as it's in-character. [That's what we're at the table for.] Is there sometimes resentment when one player is more clever than another, and triumphs because of it? Of course, but to our minds, the solution is simply to become more clever. ;)

We also bleed off some of the excess desire to kill each other by setting aside some time at the end of the session for out-of-continuity blowing the crap out of each other, famously named Omnidrome by my GM. This not only hones people's combat skills, but lets them get the better of each other in a way that doesn't disrupt the campaign.
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David R

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2008, 09:49:02 AM »
Quote from: Demonoid;251490
Have you ever had one player kill another player's character, take his stuff, abuse him because his player character was more powerful, etc?

If so how do you handle it? Do you allow PvP and just tell the player with the 1st level character always being pushed around by a 12 level character "Too bad" or what?


Most of my campaigns involve a hell of a lot of PVP type play. But what you describe sounds like dickish behaviour.

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David R

CavScout
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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2008, 09:51:48 AM »
Quote from: Demonoid;251490
Have you ever had one player kill another player's character, take his stuff, abuse him because his player character was more powerful, etc?

If so how do you handle it? Do you allow PvP and just tell the player with the 1st level character always being pushed around by a 12 level character "Too bad" or what?


Doesn’t sound like an issue with PvP or a game system, but an issue with the actual group members (or is there a in-game reason why this is happening?). Why is a 12th level picking on a 1st level, and secondly why are such a wide ranging group of PCs grouping?
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estar

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2008, 10:04:06 AM »
Quote from: Demonoid;251490
Have you ever had one player kill another player's character, take his stuff, abuse him because his player character was more powerful, etc?


Look at the phrasing of your question, player kills, player abuse. This means the player has issues. In my game I would not invite said player back for the next session.

If the social situation is more complex (friends of friends, etc) and it is hard to get away from not inviting him (or her) then I would blue bolt the character's ass.

The last time I had to do deal with a similar situation was a decade ago. That character (an elf) got to be polymorphed into a donkey and spend the next in-game century offering rides to anybody who came up to the gates of the elven forest city. The judge's ruling was "As you treated others as animals and so you shall be treated as an animal."

 The player's next character was considerably calmer.

Drohem

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2008, 10:33:10 AM »
I tell players straight up that there will be absolutely no PvP whatsoever in my games.

RockViper

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2008, 10:46:01 AM »
That kind of shit doesn't fly in my games. The player would have been told to leave and not come back. Go home and play WoW or some other CRPG if you want to act like a douche to other players.
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OneTinSoldier

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2008, 10:58:07 AM »
I always have an in-character party charter (or they are part of a organization) with rules for loot distribution, expenses, and above all banning PvP in all its forms, includeing stealing from other PCs.

Nothing kills a gaming group faster than in-party theft or violence. Sooner or later someone takes it personally, and next thing you know, you've lost a player.

Nor do I allow PC classes/races/backgrounds/etc. that would put PCs at odds with each other.
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TonyLB

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2008, 11:06:34 AM »
If there is a huge imbalance in the power that player A has, relative to the power that player B has, and that power is the crucial element in their getting to participate in the game?  Well, that's an issue to start with.

Or, writ small ... what are you doing playing 1st level characters alongside 12th level characters in the first place?

In a game like Ars Magica, where troupe play has folks playing uber-powerful Magic alongside much-less-buff Grogs you could (in theory) get the same problem ... if the Grog's power were the way that their players were expected to contribute to the game.  But it's not.  Grogs are there to be fun (and often funny) characters, salt of the earth common-sense to provide a foil to the abstruse craziness of the Magi.  Plus:  Easily replaceable ... so if a Magus kills one, the player of the torched Grog says "Wow, that was cool!  Your next Grog is gonna be awful skittish!" and gets to continue contributing to the game.
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Engine

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2008, 11:29:45 AM »
Quote from: TonyLB;251592
Or, writ small ... what are you doing playing 1st level characters alongside 12th level characters in the first place?

We do this sometimes. Though the ideal is supposed to be matching power levels, over time our players have grown to care much less about things like this, in favor of just being whomever they think up. I used to regularly play the Street Kid archetype in Shadowrun, just to show people that it's not the numbers on the sheet that really count. I suppose it also all depends on your group, their preferences and goals, and how able they are to divorce reality from unreality.
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TonyLB

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2008, 01:46:54 PM »
Engine:  But what you're saying, I think, is that you had a group such that the difference between 1st and 12th level wouldn't make any difference in terms of you, as a player, being able to have fun in the game.  Did I get that right?
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pathar

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #13 on: September 26, 2008, 01:51:33 PM »
Jeez.  In my game group the players routinely conspire against each other.  One of my fondest memories is the time my D&D character stole a few hundred thousand gold from the party, blamed the whole thing on the god of betrayal, and used the money to finance a new merchant company - all without the other players knowing until we told them about it years later.  (They thought it was hilarious.)  Part of it's just leftover habits from playing Vampire for so many years, but even in standard campaigns we have occasional power struggles within the party resulting in direct conflict (ranging from characters arm wrestling over a strength buff item to actual duels over moral conflicts), convoluted murder plots put in motion by one character against another, and (my personal favorite) the arrest or institutionalization of characters who are just too disruptive.  It's just how we roll - nobody takes it personally.
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Engine

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How to handle PvP?
« Reply #14 on: September 26, 2008, 01:57:37 PM »
Quote from: TonyLB;251690
Engine:  But what you're saying, I think, is that you had a group such that the difference between 1st and 12th level wouldn't make any difference in terms of you, as a player, being able to have fun in the game.  Did I get that right?
I think that's a fair statement, although it wasn't precisely what I was saying [but certainly should have been, so thank you!]. I'm willing to bet that, dropped into some group of douchebags, if I were 1st level and they were 12th, and they insisted on being douchey about it, I probably would certainly have less fun than I would otherwise. So I guess the trouble isn't the level imbalance, it's the douches. :)

[edit: "probably would certainly?" What's that even mean? Honestly, there's just something wrong with me sometimes.]
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