2018-10-25 Death & Betrayal

Recently, Brad was writing about killing. He said, “morality aside, it’s the best tactical solution since you don’t need to revisit the problem.”

killing

I enjoy combat for other reasons: as the character is an investment of time and effort, the risk of losing that is real, it makes everything more relevant. Independent of that, however: Brad says that killing is expedient because enemies will not come back, but I take inspiration from ancient history. Caesar was magnanimous. He was not often betrayed. And if he was, it was a political situation which he was able to exploit. What I try to do as I run my campaigns is offer similar situations.

• If people surrender, they will surrender and not attack as soon as you turn your back.
• If people promise things in exchange for their lives, they keep these promises.
• I provide an honest assessment: if I think these bandits will continue thieving even though they just promised to join the rebel army, I tell the players: “these bandits will surely join the rebels, but who knows how long they’ll stay there; they don’t look like they like getting up early and marching for days on end.”

I think these small changes were enough for players to trust that most people they let go will stay gone, or if they are revisited, they’ll never wish that they had been killed instead.

​#RPG ​#Old School