Meaning killing other players and maybe some NPCs when you yourself are a player. Killing those whose death can make sense for you in one way or another (not just random berserk madness). Does the OOC attitude “I should be nice to people” stop you from doing that? And if it doesn’t how do you feel about it?
I’m happy to do it when it’s appropriate. While it may spoil one player’s game a little, the possibility of death can improve the overall larp by adding tension. If it suits the larp.
Probably less suitable to a Fraggles larp than a Warhammer larp, for example. The dread of death seldom hangs like a spectre over Fraggle Rock. Except in that one episode with the Terrible Tunnel. Or when they get caught by Gorgs. Even then, no Fraggles actually die and if they did you would be left thinking WTF?
… yes, I’m re-watching the Fraggles. Jim Henson’s stuff is 100% awesomeness.
What Ryan said, but without the nonsense about the Fraggles. Honestly, they were only one step above those vile Smurfs… 
Assuming the game had killing, I would have no compunction killing someone who deserved it. But I’d like to know that they met some preset criteria (e.g. a character or monster motivation) rather than being killed just because they were incapacitated.
Thinking about this gives rise the fact that in Multiverse there are runeswords. And runeswords tend to kill the undeserving. 
Take back your foul slander of the Smurfs, vile miscreant, or it’ll be water balloons at dawn!
Which will be damn cold for the loser at this time of year, and I’ve already had one cold, so please do take it back or I’ll probably catch another.
I dub thee Mike “Gargamel” Curtis! Hah!
Actually my kids have just discovered the smurfs at the local video shop. AAAAARGH! cheesy much?
sorry Lucy… back on topic
I really struggle to kill PC’s. I’ve said this before. Even with extremely large amounts of character motivation, I’m always OOC aware of how much effort a lot of people put into their characters.
it’s a shame because in some cases it would have been a good thing for the game, if not for the player in question.
I have never killed a PC before.
HOWEVER I have severely wanted to for the following reasons:
They have by their actions committed an in game crime - either against other players or against innocents in game.
For repeated against the spirit of the game theft. Because of the nature of the larp environment it is often easy for people to steal stuff & get away with it. Example are plentiful in Quest but essentially thieving players would wait until the last point in the game, while all other players are defeating the big bad & have to put their loot down… they’d then swipe it and run off.
Generally its more fun having people put on trial for their wrongs & makes for great role playing but there have been times where my necromancers have wanted to gut, spit & animate thieving characters.
Nothing wrong with freezing them and then shaking them by their ankles. See what falls out of their pockets.
Its a shame there are too many good games out there. I would have no compunction if i was playing a character with no Morality.
Or a monster fighting for its life etc
If my character had morals no way.
In quest there would have been a few good reasons if there was a ban on killing other PCs Especially with the irreverence sometimes shown to a member of the nobility.
If i was a paid assassin definitely
Hmmm, how does the line go - correct me if I get this wrong, please…
“I’ll kill a man in a fair fight. Or if I think he’s gonna start a fair fight. Or if he bothers me. Or if there’s a woman. Or if I’m gettin’ paid. Mostly if I’m getting paid…”
[quote=“Dave”]Hmmm, how does the line go - correct me if I get this wrong, please…
“I’ll kill a man in a fair fight. Or if I think he’s gonna start a fair fight. Or if he bothers me. Or if there’s a woman. Or if I’m gettin’ paid. Mostly if I’m getting paid…”[/quote]
you get a gold star from the serenity GM 8)
I don’t make a distinction between killing PCs and NPCs. I’m just as happy / unhappy to kill either.
It depends a lot on the character I play, but mostly I won’t attack people and try to kill them; but I will kill people in “battle”. I think this is a very real attitude that most people have or certainly had many years ago. People drafted into the army killed enemy soldiers when they wouldn’t have ever done the same thing in civilian life.
I have been known to sap people, tie them up and beat them to within an inch of their life… [size=75]…more than once.[/size]
In real life, I’d try very hard not to kill someone, even if they were trying to kill me. I just don’t need that kind of guilt keeping me awake at night and I try to play that same reluctance to kill with most of my characters.
I agree. The only character I’ve played that really wanted to kill people (although I still didn’t , for above mentioned player reasons) was actually insane. So, normal rules not really applicable.
I remember that… My nun was very worried about your cruelty 
Ah, I remember that one too… I kept all my hit points for most of the weekend unharmed, and on Sunday morning you took them all off in two seconds. Well done. [size=67]I really should be more careful with trusting people in larp…[/size]
I think it’s very easy in gaming to fall into an attitude of treating killing lightly (after all, no one really dies, so it’s okay) but this attitude tends to only extends to NPCs
How I feel about killing tends to depend on the game I’m in and the character I’m playing - I’ve played a character that didn’t even blink when it came to killing her fellow human beings, I’ve played a character who was disinclined to kill but would’ve done it if it was absolutely necessary and I’ve played many, many more characters, usually very ordinary people in modern settings, who have been utterly horrified to see people killed.
In terms of out of character, I do find it a lot harder to kill PCs for the same reason many people have cited - we know it sucks to lose a PC. There was one instance where my character would’ve killed another PC but I didn’t up doing it because I felt bad about. I really regret that in retrospect - in character, I would have killed him.
In summary, I tend to try and decide how my character feels about the sanctity of human life, and then try and act faithfully to that.
As much as we try to put it in “what would my character do?”, most peoples reactions will be coloured by their personal feelings about it.
I/Darnon wanted to gut Mike’s really annoying frenchman at St.Wolfgangs but Darnon would never dream of actually killing him. It just would have been wrong & there would have been consequences.
I find despite games being essentially a fantasy, that laws of some kind still apply… and if you commit crime in a larp there should be consequences if you’re caught… I have missed catching player character thieves in games by literally a sword length because they ran out of the “in game area” seconds ahead of me. And they get away scot free because they’re out of game, when in reality if I had chased them for 5 seconds more I would have cut them down as they ran.
You’d have be playing a psychotic character to kill someone for simply being annoying…still, glad I made an impression 
What’s this about OOC areas ? I mean, if you can elude you pursuers and then take the South Road to the Next Town, then that’s cool. But having an area where you simply have to get there to make your getaway seems strange. What’s the thinking behind this game mechanic ?
It’s something that was used as an “escape” for the party. We usually only had 3-4 hour modules that could be quite disasterous, so the party always had a point where they could retreat to if they wanted to leave the game ie actually retreat from the scenario.
As all our games were run in public parks, it usually coincided with the park entrance our boundary…
Especially crazy people who have stabbed one of their own eyes out… bit of a giveaway that she wasn’t playing with the whole deck, hmmmm? 
I didn’t do finishing blow tho, so you didn’t die… I did… bloody Louis grump grizzle
Yeah what Dave said. To “leave” the realm or game area, you simply had to get to the designated area, which was often a carpark or some such.
Of course you couldn’t re-enter the game if you did this… well not immediately… depends on what your actions were out of game (and this involved a GM). There were occasions where players left the game area to go get out of area help… and they had to wait 30minutes or so before they could re-enter to represent this.
But yeah theiving characters abused this mechanic so they could steal everything while people were busy fighting. I made up a 300m headstart (yes, angry Jared very fast) once, and was in sword range when a certain player left the game boundary… there wasn’t much question of what would have happened had I caught him…