Re: The Captives Problem

From: antalvarez2001 <antalvarez1976_at_...>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 09:50:35 -0000

> In this case, we rarely see adventure stories, in whatever genre, in
> which sympathetic lead characters murder helpless, defeated
> opponents.

I don't think so.

Iliad, Book X: kill of sleeping warriors. IIRC.

And sometimes, evil villains (in fiction, not in reality ;-)) ARE sympatethic for the public. And sometimes the main character of the story is a very ruthless, cruel villain.

> 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?

In general, I don't expect the rules make a limit (or incentive or disincentive) for the kind of stories or the kind of characters you could play. This is a matter for player and narrator decision. In narrative games, there is a link between rules and genre, but I don't like at all making rules incentives for taking moral decisions in some way. In fact, moral decisions are important in narrative games, so I prefer as a general rule not to force them with rules constructs.

I would take a different perspective. Killing people, or killing people helpless or killing people ruthless is not irrelevant or meaningless in the story (this is not a video-game). Perhaps, it has a meaning for the PC's; anyway, it has a meaning for the public (players and narrator). Significance is the key. Normally, I make (or I encourage) descriptions to make PC's decisions relevant in the story. But perhaps narrative rules could help.

Regards,

Antonio