What would you do with killer PCs

[Badger]

Yeah sick that guy on him, yikes:eek:

 

the 2 players: Please dont hurt us Mr. Avenger.

 

American Avenger: That's Mr. Avenger, sir.

 

 

Actually, just use him to give them the All-American beatdown.

[Vondy]

I recommend encouraging them to find a game that is more to their liking.

 

Barring that: explain the "rule of recipricosity"

 

You start an arms race... I start an arms race (and I have more points).

 

You kill villians... villians kill you.

[megaplayboy]

The best solution to killer PCs is for other PCs to take them to task over it, and for the GM to tack a few consequences onto that. it depends on how accidental/intentional and justifiable/unjustifiable the killings/near-killings were, but a real problem exists if the other PCs refuse to confront their teammates over the incident. That can have a lot more impact than the GM sledgehammering things into them.

[NetNemesis316]

Thanks

 

I thank everyone for the suggestions. If you have any others or if you think I was being unfair to the players, maybe calculated the damage to harshly or something, let me know.

[The Mind Master]

Re: Thanks

 

Originally posted by NetNemesis316

I thank everyone for the suggestions. If you have any others or if you think I was being unfair to the players, maybe calculated the damage to harshly or something, let me know.

 

I'm not normally a game mechanic, and I think you pegged the players correctly as over-the-top, but I do have a minor caveat about the damage from the 70 STR attack.

 

I don't know exactly how you calculated the added damage, but it seems a bit excessive to me that it doubled the average BODY that would normally be rolled on 14d6.

 

The only reason I bring this up is because I had a very high STR brick player in one of my games who found it very frustrating trying to figure out exactly how much STR to use against opponents. He wasn't a "killer" PC, but he wanted to be able to take out weak agent-types quickly with a single punch. It was a high-level campaign, and that was certainly in the genre. In the end, we figured out some rule mechanism (I don't recall exactly what, now) so that he could be confident of taking out a low-BODY character without having to be afraid of badly injuring him.

 

This wasn't your situation, but I usually draw a pretty big distinction between normal attacks and killing attacks...even if the normal attacks are high-level.

[Metaphysician]

Originally posted by Sketchpad

I've been in a similar situation before ... when I was confronted with a group of super "heroes" that took out a major villain, I had the law come down on them hard ... for the next three weekly sessions, they were on the run from UNTIL, Primus, FBI and three superhero groups ... when they were finally caught, there was a trial (which we played out, as one of the players was a laywer) and they lost. Of the six members, three were found guilty as accessories to manslaughter (gaining 10 years in the tank), two were found guilty of second degree manslaughter (life with chance of parole), and the last one, who was the most violent of them was found guilty first degree manslaughter and coerscion (sp?) (3 life terms w/o parole) ... the group was also charged with resisting arrest and assualting a public law officer (aka sanctioned supers). The players were disappointed and I lost 3 members ... but, in the long run, the group was better because of it as the remaining three made new characters (one of which being a second gen of his original character) and went on to form a much loved group in the world ... ironic part is, the three that left told me that their characters would never change, so they busted out of jail as NPCs and became one of the main villain groups that the PCs battled

 

Um, did they kill this major villain in combat, or murder him in cold blood while he was helpless??

 

If the former, you went *way* overboard.

[Sean]

I'd offer this as an alternative to introducing a more powerful hero to thump/hunt down any killer PCs. Present your bloodthirsty heroes with clear cut situations where that tactic's totally inappropriate. Mind controlled innocents attack the heroes, a newly empowered teenage super who cannot control his/her powers, etc. You can also start using more fragile villians who have little resistant defences. Be sure to follow through on the consequences of a player killing a NPC. Heroes don't have the luxury of ignoring consequences--being accountable to both society's and their own code of justice.

[zornwil]

As Von D-Man says, it's discussion time as the GM and the players don't want to play the same game, basically . My first "superhero" games were fairly hack-n-slash and we just enjoyed it. Moving to another group, things got more heroic in nature. Our current group is generally heroic but not entirely by any means. So far so good as in each instance I and the players were playing the same game.

 

A big part of the discussion should be simple - "What comic book do you guys want to play like?" If they all want to play Punisher that's one thing, if they want to play '60s Batman quite another. Maybe picking comic books or heroes will work better.

[lemming]

Re: Re: Thanks

 

Originally posted by The Mind Master

The only reason I bring this up is because I had a very high STR brick player in one of my games who found it very frustrating trying to figure out exactly how much STR to use against opponents. He wasn't a "killer" PC, but he wanted to be able to take out weak agent-types quickly with a single punch. It was a high-level campaign, and that was certainly in the genre. In the end, we figured out some rule mechanism (I don't recall exactly what, now) so that he could be confident of taking out a low-BODY character without having to be afraid of badly injuring him.

Have him check out the manuever "Pulling a Punch"

[Sketchpad]

Originally posted by Metaphysician

Um, did they kill this major villain in combat, or murder him in cold blood while he was helpless??

 

If the former, you went *way* overboard.

 

Well, let's just put it this way ... it was a major villain (think Magneto level). The heroes basically crippled him then vaped him with a plasma blast ... the only reason they were caught in the first place was because there were bystanders around (one of which got the entire thing on tape) ...

Honestly, I don't think it was overboard ... I encourage my players to emulate heroism as in superhero comics, which is probably closer to silver-age values and not like the various "edgier" characters (like Punisher, Wolverine and the Dark Knight Returns) ...

[Starwolf]

I once had some players that had a hack & slash attitude so I created a mega-assassin NPC in the vein of DC's terminator (who has taken on gthe entire teen titans repeatedly, and in a cross over fought Wolverine to a draw). I explain to the players out of game that if they use extreme lethlaity that there will be consequences. If they persist then the bad guys hire the "Worlds Greatest Assassin" to eliminate the characters. My mega-assassin was named Battlemaster and while he could stand toe to toe with any hero/target his most devastating attack was a single lethal shot from a thousand yards out.

 

As far as redeemking your team, if the battle occured in the mall, there were lots of civilian witnesses. If the team has any official sanctioning, then while the team will have to answer questions, the whole team should not be penalized. It would however help a lot if the team had the two offenders turn themselves in (or brought them in themselves). In fact if the players have left the game, having the team track the guilty PCs, battle, then capture them and turn them in and incarcerated in Stronghold, would/should satisfy the public. Then its onto the next CB scenario as you planned.

[freakboy6117]

one idea i had which i thought was cute was have the team finishing off another crime scene and then have a littel old lady come up to them and obviously there thinking autographhunter and have her start hitting the one who attckedteh yugo with her hand bag and crying about him pputteing her garndson in the hospital what a terrible person he is etc and then have the press show up. nothing like grandma to show you the error of your ways.

 

especially as there only choices are to fly off

beat up an old lady or try and defend their indefensible actions infront of the press

[ChuckB]

From what I've seen , the villain mortality-rate ratio depends on what kind of mood a player is in and whether he's had a bad day or good day.

 

Weekend games or friday night games seem to be less stressful , but not everyone can pull that off.

[Ghost who Walks]

This situation has cropped up before on these boards.

 

I have developed a fictional backstory, in the history of my campaign. Mostly it takes RL events, and twists them for my own purposes. All the players know this history, and it helps them in getting a "feel" for the world.

 

This is the one I use for excessive force.

 

In 1992, a speedster was spotted running down a Los Angeles Freeway at excessive speed. Identified as the mercenary supervillain, the Dash (old timers will recognize this character), PRIMUS was immediately notified and dispatched to apprehend the wanted criminal.

 

PRIMUS caught up to him on a freeway overpass, where he appeared to be catching his breath. When ordered to surrender, he said nothing, only held up his hands in what could have been interpretted as an attempt to use 'some kind of power'.

 

The four assault agents closed in on the quivering supervillain, and forced him to the ground. He attempted to get up severl times, and the agents responded by using 'non-lethal' force to keep him down. After several minutes of kicking and striking the villain, he lapsed into unconciousness and was taken away.

 

A hovering news helicoptor recorded the event.

 

As he was a supervillain, the Agents supervisor insisted that he be taken to the PRIMUS facility for questioning. (Note: supervisor was not on the scene, was giving instructions over the radio) Several hours later, at the PRIMUS facility, is was determined that the Dash was in serious need of medical attention, and taken to the hospital.

 

Attending physician believing he had a case of police brutality, notified the appropriate authorities. No charges were filed against the four agents by their supervisors.

 

When the dash regained conciousness next week, he got a lawyer and sued the Justice Department, Federal Government, and the Hospital. Partially paralyzed, unable to speak clearly, and the victim of chiled abuse, he recieved a lot of sympathy from the media...who tend to dislike paramilitary organizations, like PRIMUS. He won, recieving such a large sum that all future law enforcement personel dealing with superpowered situations were required to take 'special certification classes.'

 

Known to PRIMUS, but not known to the apprehending officers was that the Dash recieved his powers by injesting a pill, which gave him powers for an hour. He was addicted to the pills, and while his metabolism was supercharged some of the time, when off of the pills he was weak as a normal.

 

When apprehended by the police, he had just come down from a bad reaction to his pill, which had boosted his powers even higher, to the detriment of his self control.

 

The four agents were all fired, eventually. Today, they work independently as private investigators...traveling the country helping people in need. The Dash is formally retired from supervillainy, living in a mansion in Los Angeles. Persistant rumors however link him to the local VIPER nest...whose leader is supposed to be in a wheelchair.

 

Other tactics that work are showing the players comics that indicate the 'type of world' you want to play in. There is a big difference between a Wolverine comic and on with Captain America.