This thread makes me sick.
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Is it more evil to let someone continue wrecking havoc and chaos to save one life, or to let them escape and possibly kill or harm or torture several more?
Well actually:
The sin of murder is on the murderer. It is exactly 0% evil to let the hostage die in Faerunian morality, assuming your standard mexican standoff style hostage situation. It's also not evil to let them escape and harm/torture other people by the same token.
That said, a good person might still be very likely to not want their friend dead, because that's their friend and it's hard to be friends with dead people. Also you have to take paladins into account, because their actions are determined by a lot more than just alignment.
If people legitimately think that being part of a murder-mob isn't grounds to be murdered themselves, there's a very easy solution:
Educate them otherwise.
¯_(?)_/¯
I have an engagement 2 hours-ish after that time.
Otherwise it's good for me.
One step closer to the grave, Old Timer.
Wait. Aw man.
PCs are dangerous characters leading dangerous lives.
Death in game, much like real life, can come suddenly and leave a lot of open threads and unanswered questions. This is not something that should be considered a failure.
By lessening Full Death - making it a capital punishment only worthy of players who 'deserve no OOC courtesy' as the daily mood seems to be - you remove fear of that death. It's scarcely there to begin with. Having played multiple villains and having to temper my IC Murderlust for OOC reasons - players often mistake that courtesy IC. They Abuse it. They don't fear it. The character doesn't fear death, while the player fears the loss of their character, and it shines through.
Additionally, an unvoiced concern; a lot of the time you let the other player go, for them to turn around and kill you shortly afterwards. This hasn't happened to me, but people have threatened it (and I FD'd them.) and I have seen it happen to others. There are a handful of players I trust OOC to not immediately turn around and FD me as soon as they're free - but if I don't know you I'm probably not going to let you get away with it if you've done something to warrant being killed stone-cold dead. Because that's the game. That's a real life fear. That's why people keep a gun in their car and don't let their kids talk to strangers. There are bad people. Don't pick bar fights if you don't want to get stabbed to death in an alley somewhere. Don't play a hardline character if you don't want to get killed by opposing factions. Most characters want to accomplish big things. PvP with FD comes with that territory.
As players, we try to mitigate this somewhat as we remember the stories that happen more than the ultimate victories. As players, we feel as though we have failed if our stories aren't worthy of grand retellings, or if we don't accomplish the objectives we set out to begin. Ultimately this is not the rubric we should judge ourselves by. Yes, playing the legendary character who has a name that lives on - a statue in their honor - a mangled helm in Shylocks - is a great thing. But it occurs mostly by accident, luck, and timing.
Instead, the Rubrics you should judge your character by:
Did you have fun?
Yes, the end sucked, the end /always/ sucks, at best it's bittersweet. Up until that point, did you have fun?
Was it a memorable character?
Did you improve your own ability to roleplay?
Did you get to cyber with one or more hot babes?
I see no problems with these laws.
America could learn something from Cormyr.
Rest in peace, ye holy Knight-Manager of Lord Ronald.
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