How is this handled in fiction?
Historical and real world examples can be useful, but they can trip you up if they're your primary starting point.
In this case, we rarely see adventure stories, in whatever genre, in which sympathetic lead characters murder helpless, defeated opponents.
What do they tend to do instead? Why do they do this?
Then the question becomes: how do I build and describe my game world so that the players see the disincentives for murdering helpless, defeated opponents?
(Part of the answer is that the mechanics should give players greater opportunity, at suitably climactic moments, to "heroically" kill their enemies, that is, in the heat of combat. But that's only part of it.)
A much greater component is an understanding of the fictional conceits that ought to be at work in a story-based game, just as they are in the stories from which it draws its inspiration.
Take care >>> Robin
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