>That guy who always wants to spare or capture the enemy instead of just murdering them on the spot
I cannot name a single time where taking an enemy alive didn't end up turning into a shitshow.
>not taking slaves to sell for a hefty sum of gold
Its like you don't even want to level up.
>>44999040
I only capture enemies when I'm either playing a bandit and ransoming/enslaving, or a cannibal and don't have any preservatives on me.
>>44999040
>That GM that always has you fight people of value and never lets you capture and ransom them for more gold than you'll get doing his dumb quest
>>44999040
>GM makes all enemies fight to the death, thus making the value of life in his campaign null
>>44999188
>gm who doesn't use moral checks
>>44999040
How are you going to forge an empire if you slay every living soul in defeated nations?
>>44999040
Catch them, torture them, give them the thought of freedom, disfigure and release, or outright kill
>>44999076
>Slavery not turning into a shitshow
Do you even have a GM?
>>44999636
>GM rolls for moral
>"as you slaughter his fellows, one member of the orcish warband falls to his knees and cries out to the heavens;
>"ME AM REALISING THAT ME TRUE FAMILY AM BEING ME FRIENDS TOO LATE!"
>
>>45000180
As a GM who allowed captures and taking of slaves, it can get quickly out of hand.
>>44999817
Agreed, if you're running a kingdom building game capturing enemies alive is a must. No one attacks a nation by themselves.
>>44999040
literally any time armies fight?
>>44999040
Yeah, it's not like anyone ever takes prisoners IRL.
Totally unrealistic tactic 0/20 would berate on 4chan again.
>>45000271
The typical party has nothing close to the numbers or diplomatic responsibilities of an army.
>>45000432
I'm not arguing that people don't take prisoners in real life. I'm saying that trying to transport a live prisoner while avoiding getting gutted by them in your sleep is tedious and stupid, especially if you aren't getting a reward for it. And if you let them go, they are just going to turn on you. And if not you, then they will simply prey on the next poor sap to cross their path.
>>44999040
Our group has stopped taking prisoners as well, anon. You're not alone.
Every single time it happened, the GM used it to fuck with us. Unfortunately for him, what this essentially did was slowly hone the party into some sort of semi-psychotic trash squad who steamrolls through groups of enemies in an intensely methodical fashion, and then scours all evidence of their passing from the world with fire.
>>45000696
>Implying getting the shit kicked out of you by a half-giant thank-god-not-quite-naked berserker, a dude in a gaudy dress with only a spellbook and 300 pigeons to his name, a pane-touched assassin with a necklace of what looks like ears, and a very exasperated paladin isn't a life-changing experience.
I think you're underestimating the insanity your typical adventuring party brings to the world. It's not like the bandits or what have you were picked up at a routine traffic-stop gone wrong and learned nothing except "don't get caught."
>Fight rival party, win and take their cleric hostage to figure out how they knew about us
>While interrogating him, half orc fighter stabs him with Sturge Dagger (This is 1st ed, can't be removed till it drinks its fill of blood)
>Captured cleric goes unconscious with -6 HP
>Our cleric uses all our heals to get him back awake
>He wakes up, points at our Dwarven fighter and says "Die!"
>Dwarf falls over.
Turns out he was only unconscious since he made his save, but NEVER AGAIN.
>>44999040
Our whole party learned psionics after we dragged the BBEG of a campaign to an enterprising Illithid as a delivery. Even better that it was an oriental-themed campaign. Too bad he'll be hungry in an hour.
>>45001225
>points at our Dwarven fighter
You left his hands free? Are you mentally challenged?
>>45001225
>He wakes up, points at our Dwarven fighter and says "Die!"
>Dwarf falls over.
I don't know why but this made me laugh so hard I peed a little
>>45000779
Get a new GM then.
>>45001675
The rest of the story didn't make that totally obvious?
>>44999040
Yeah it's annoying when someone is trying to incapacitate an enemy who clearly has no intent of giving up but similarly it's annoying when the GM has a moment where the enemies surrender (like to have some form of expanded RP for the scene) and the first response from one or more of the group is to murderise them.
>>45000696
>I'm saying that trying to transport a live prisoner while avoiding getting gutted by them in your sleep is tedious and stupid, especially if you aren't getting a reward for it. And if you let them go, they are just going to turn on you. And if not you, then they will simply prey on the next poor sap to cross their path.
While this is true from a pragmatic prospective, it's not really realistical. When people are brought before death they start complying very hard and begging to stay alive. It's so strong in fact they get Stockholm syndrome.
The problem is by having this unrealistic NPC behavior grooms players into being murder hobos and acting like total cocks.
I am required by my code to allow any who beg for mercy to go.
Unfortunately the big bad knows this and told literally everyone who works for him.
>>45000222
Trips confirm. And I agree with that assessment!
>>45003691
>being a paladin
>not being fantasy judge dredd
What the fuck are you even doing, m8?
>>45003731
>Being a Paladin
I'm not.
>>45003737
And? According to this: >>45003691
Your dumbshit character can't discern genuine pleas for mercy from defeated but not dead enemies who simply ask because they know you "have to let them live".
>>45003731
Are you familiar with Judge Dredd?
He takes prisoners all the time he and most judges only kill when criminals refuse to surrender.
>>45003863
Or if the sentence is death. Their whole gimmick is that they decide the sentence on the spot, and if it's a death sentence they just kill you right there.
>>44999188
>gm makes all enemies fight to the death
>gets sad I subverted his entire encounter the one time I solved it with diplomacy
>at the end of the campaign punishes my character for being 'a heartless killer who never tried to spare the foe'
That campaign still haunts me.
>>44999040
In my last campaign the players captured several high ranking members of enemy governments. Most folks don't have some super back-up hidden trick to escape captivity and the players can travel pretty fast, especially when it takes a bit for word to reach any potential reinforcements that they're even needed.
I mean, it basically caused a war when they did it, but that was already kind of happening so they didn't give a shit.
>>45000215
I would actually be alright for this. Some sort of insights gained from combat events (losing most of your friends/party) and plot resolution that give mechanical bonuses instead of traditional leveling up.
>>45003880
Except the only crimes that come with death sentences are treason and the like.
Hell even mass murders only get life in the cubes assuming they're brought in alive.
>>44999040
That usually happens when one of the group has morals and another is a psychopath.
>>44999040
>all my players try to spare their enemies and offer diplomacy after roughing them up and keep making new friends and allies and favors
I'm so happy, they were doomed from the start but fought bloody and hard and never caved, even when it bit them in the ass, and they finally stand a chance of a happier end
I am goddamn proud to call them heroes
>>44999040
It usually goes well to me.
I'm the kind of player who gathers NPCs everywhere, evil, neutral or good I try to interact with pretty much anyone.
Most of the times I end up getting minions and allies.
>>45003731
Dredd generally dislikes killing in cold blood, Apocalypse War aside.
Hell, he even felt lousy about about killing a guy that was trying to shoot him, because he realized he totally could've taking him down non-lethally.
>>44999040
If you never take any of your enemies alive, then how do you learn their nefarious plans?
Don't tell me the villain monologues them to you! You gotta capture a semi-important mook, interrogate him, then learn that getting caught was a part of his plan.
>>45004029
Hell there was a story where he got brought up for review because another judge thought he used lethal force inappropriately.
We captured some female ninjas and dragged them around with us. When we could get them to cooperate they were quite helpful. Also two of the characters eventually got to settle down with ninja waifus.
>>45004054
>>45004054
You're being much too creative and exciting. Here, have another 20 mooks to fight for the entire session, all of them fighting to the bloody death no matter how many die or how overwhelmed they are.
What if you catch them to bring them to face their fate in the hands of the sanctioned judicial system?
My wizard once insisted to capture an orc. We interrogated him, then locked him up in a cellar. He survived several days by eating cabbage and drinking stale ale. Then his bandits friends found him and murdered him for betraying them. When my mage found out, he went berserker mode, butchered most of the bandits, tortured the rest and then handed them over to the local law enforcement for public execution.
>mfw character built around dealing nonlethal damage and intimidation
stick with the prod
>>44999040
>not walking in the footsteps of non violence, honoring all life and respecting monster and human alike.
>>44999040
We've been leaving every villain we've faced alive.Except one, she crossed several lines and almost killed a number of children just for kicks.
They've been helping us on occasion, mostly to help convince their friends to enter a cease fire with us.
As a side effect, others heroes are getting nervous around us and are seriously starting to think we're joining the enemy.
It's actually been rather fun as our established allies are starting to pull away leaving us with a new network of unreliable and potentially belligerent 'frenemies'.
>>44999040
>play only war
>storm trooper is a biggoted religious live loving pacificist
At least he still kills xenos but a type 5 mutant heretic still deserve to live in his fucked up moral compass.
At least our heavy specialist isnt a fagget and disolves heretics once stormtrooper isnt looking...
>not capturing an enemy soldier to interrogate
How do you expect to gain intel?
>>45005807
Looking at logbooks, notes, enemy troop movement, dispatch information, recon, other paperwork.
>>45004067
>>45004029
Yeah. Judge Dread is a cold and harsh universe but they don't have the Judges be above it all. They are prisoners of the law just as much as every civilian.
>>45004054
I've had such a difficult time getting this through to my party this campaign.
Literally every time they find a bad guy that knows something useful, or might be able to give them some direction for the plot? Dead.
They even have a priest with speak-with-dead powers, who can guarantee that the spirit is telling the truth, but she never does anything.
Then they turn to me and go "Uh, so what do we think we should do next?"
>>45003814
What's not genuine about asking for mercy when you know you're going to get it?
>>45003691
Just remember to really make them beg. On their hands and knees, preferably with crying. Make it as humiliating as possible for the foe.
>>45005842
I have a few issues the other way in many games I play in. I keep trying to interrogate but 99% of the time the enemy is 'Working for someone they fear betraying too much to tell you anything'. Either that or they don't KNOW anything and are just a hired gun.
It's getting a bit frustrating.
>>44999040
>player tries to capture fucking everyone
>breaks stealth just to wrangle some guard from a gang known to be vicious motherfuckers, and try to hold him hostage against his patrol buddy
>gets shot and bitches
>tries to wrestle a gun out of the hand of a party-member aiming at a gang member who's running away to get help
>actively sabotages the group after all this, to spite the guy who'd been taking aim
>rest of the group had been pretty comfortable with just gunning down anyone in their way
the cruel irony of this is that the rest of the party had been capturing the actually important people alive pretty well, even on jobs that were explicitly assassinations.
it was just this one player who went full retard and tried to talk fucking everybody down so that they could get random gangbangers alive, when guns have already been drawn or when one side's car is on fire and scattered in pieces over the parking lot
>>44999040
>not using captured enemies as a test for traps
If that Goblin hadn't been dropped into the pool how else could we have known that it was actually a portal to another plane?
>>45000696
Yeah. Thats why you cripple their legs and hands on capture. Solves literally all of the problems you mentioned and still leaves them open to ransoming or info mining.
>>45006055
Reminds me of that story where you have a paladin putting out people's eyes instead of killing them leading to someone going for eyestabs and going "I'M BEING MERCIFUL!" to folks.
>>45005842
Then you just answer them "You dont know that, becaus you just killed whatever had the information for you."
OR
Stop being a goddamn fucking lazy GM and start making journals. Its not that hard to let the players find a journal that they can go back to for references.
>>45006071
He is being merciful. he could have outright killed them, instead he blinded them making them continuing to do evil acts physically an absolute bastard. This is their punishment and opens the road through redemption even if its just so others won't hate them enough to help their blind asses. Only reason i cripple my ransoms is cause it not only knocks them out of future combat but means there's now at least one guy caring for his ass who i also won't meet in combat meaning in the long run i kill less people.
Dm even rolled with it once with a small army of bandits my militia had set their eyes on, bandits were mostly down and out farmers and the like who wanted a constant source of income raiding the land. They instead welcomed us with open, deweaponed arms, and a local castle recently debodied. Dm hoped it would show me that i didn't need to carve justice into flesh now while bribing me with a kickass castle. I cut off the right hands and took the left eyes of all former bandits i could find. had the smithies who got to keep their hands in order for work make left handed, stump friendly farm tools and sent them home. Used the bandit weapons and kept Lefty, the only bandit and leader of bandits who still wanted to help us, to train the locals who wanted to join me and the militia. Even had made a stump friendly shield when he marched with us.
>>45003949
>give bonuses instead of leveling up
That'd be an interesting mechanic for a game. You'd have combat and non-combat levels, and resolving conflicts peacefully would level up your non-combat.
After all, why would diplomancing your way through everything learn you how to fight better?
>>45005861
Everything. If you know you're getting mercy just for asking, you're not asking for mercy, you're asking "it was fun, can I go home now?". Mercy is asked by someone that honestly surrendered and is ready to comply to anything to save their lives, asking for a chance to redeem itself. If you're just going "nah, that guy spares anyone that asks, let's fuck with him", you're not asking for mercy. And if you spare literally anyone that asks knowing that you have an oath, you're as dumb as a smitebot paladin. Get an actual personality for your character.
>>45006246
What'd be a good term for "non-combat" feats?
>>44999040
Only kill everything if you're ready to have a bad time.
Opposites worse imo
>Group comes upon a lead
>They follow the guy, who is now running from them
>Some goon in the back ally protect him.
>They slaughter them all, including informant
>They look at me like I'm going to tell them the next step, and are confused the man did not keep a written copy of every conversation hes had on him.
Dude was a fucking no name drug dealer. They spent the next session trying to figure out how to get a cleric to make him talk again. Wouldn't be so bad if this didnt happen every fucking time they need to interrogate.
They tried to do better though:
>Find guy, tie him up, cut off his leg
>No "talk or else", just legs gone
>Man fails fort saves and passes out, slowly dieing from blood loss
>No one tries to stop the bleeding
>They wait for him to wake up after 40 minutes
>"What the hell GM?"
I dont have a very clever group of players.
>>45003916
That doesn't even make any sense!
>>45005768
That sounds pretty cool actually, losing trust in friends & the good in exchange for the unstable aid of evil.
Have they tried to seed doubts in the PCs mind of their allies' allegience? Maybe have one inform you of a traitor amongst your ranks in truth; then using this trust to spread lies about others?
>>45006916
Social feats
Mundane feats
Diplomatic feats
General feats
Common feats
Investigative feats
>>44999040
>we're all heroes
>lawlful good
>kill everyone
>>44999040
I kill them all. And I take their shit. Monsters, beasts, town guards, friendly npcs, distracted party members.
I'm a murderhobbo. That's like my class.
>DM evil campaign
>The players kill fewer people in effort to take as many people as minions
>get so good as to almost never have to kill anyone
Makes you think who the real bad guys are.
>enemies flee once they take too many losses or fight turns to their disadvantage/becomes too risky
>party constantly disappointed because "it felt like we lost that fight"
Well gee, sorry these npcs value their lives
>>45007690
I imagine it depends partially on whether you reward them for the enemies that fled.
If they don't get xp since they didn't kill the enemies, then it does feel like they're getting fucked.
>>45007657
Care to elaborate on that?
>>44999040
>party walks around murdering people right and wrong
>get arrested
>"we're innocent, we only kill the bad guys"
>they're all convicts now, run away and starts killing the innocent
>get arrested again
>"fuck you, fuck the system!"
>eventually ended up dying durin a riot in prison that they started
>mfw
Every. Fucking. Time.
My character did that, but ended up having to resort to more brutal methods to get evil humanoids to follow him. Falling to demon worship, he eventually became Evil (NPC in this campaign) and left to go be evil with his cult.
>>45007726
The players basically created a monster version of Outer Heaven. They basically used mass produced slimes to surround vestiges of people, offer them to surrender and be subservient while retaining most rights. All the people had to do was dissolve their left pinky in a slime they had as a sign of subservience. We haven't had a chance to play in a while but they currently have 3 towns of people who are a self autonomous servants spreading the good word for them. Also one of the characters is a mind flayer who occasionally eats the slaves brains.
>>44999040
Then your GM is a pillock.
>>45006116
>Stop being a goddamn fucking lazy GM and start making journals.
Session journals were one of the most useful thing I have ever done for my table, we play roughly every two weeks.
But I don't fucking write the journal, they do. At the end of the session I roll to see who's writing (excusing the last guy who wrote it).
>No, I don't let the guy that actually enjoys it write every time.
>>45007990
>>45006116
>>45005842
I actually started to just record our sessions. It has helped immensly. We had a stenographer but it started to interfere with her role play because it became, "Wait...wait....Ok what happend? Sorry was writing".
I am loading them up for the party at some point to go back and laugh at the stupid shit.
>>45003916
Oh, you have one of those too?
>>44999040
>lengthy campaign
>party paladin insists on sparing everything he possibly can within reason
>party finds out about massive invasion from the underdark is to take place in two months game time.
>paladin just vanishes from the party all together.
>Hours before shows up with literally everything we didn't kill in tow.
Many times in actual history.
>>44999040
>Post Apocalypse campaign.
Okay, so we capture the Raiders, what then? Literally all they know is rape, pillage, burn. If we let them go they're just going to start doing it again.
>Okay, so let's take them back to the settlement.
WHY?! So we can murder them later? Or wait for them to escape so they can try to murder us?
You and I both know the best solution.
>>44999076
At last, someone who gets it.
After watching LPs of Undertale, I've been obsessing over how to make it possible to diplomance or at least nonlethally repel or KO enemies, rather than forcing my players to murder all enemies.
>>45008105
>>45007990
I think he meant a character's journal for your PCs to find on a slain NPC that contains the info you need from him, in case you kill him.
Current game we captured a bunch of orc women and are living with them now. Better than killing them all off, they've got valuable skills we don't. Just getting to the point of cooperation was the difficulty. Guess it all depends on the type of game, this one is a settler/village making game.
>>45011530
Next you'll tell me you're looking for a way to make enemies use weapons they don't have in their book entires
>>44999040
I like to leave wandering bandits strung up by their feet stark bollock naked.
Persistent pursuers however, get strung up by the neck.
>>44999040
Happens a lot in the Rogue Trader game I'm running.
We've established that capturing a rival RT and ransoming their dynasty for their safe return is the standard way to handle conflict between RTs, and somebody killing a surrendered or incapacitated rival is a very strong sign that they're a grade A asshole. But my players tend to extend the capturing thing to any incapacitated enemy. So far, they've captured:
>One Chaos reaver captain (normally they give no quarter to worshippers of the Ruinous Powers, but this guy they set out to capture because they knew he was part of a pirate fleet led by a powerful warlord and they wanted to interrogate him to find out more about his boss. Why they still keep him alive is beyond me, though).
>Two Eldar warlocks (captured in a fight where for some reason every single opponent got knocked unconcious or otherwise incapacitated before dropping to low enough health to die. Later handed over to the Eldar as a sign of goodwill and to gain some useful information)
>Two Dark Eldar (one was a Kabalite warrior that ended up joining them; his Kabal already did a lot of mercenary work and being a random mook he didn't particularly care about who he fought for as long as he got paid. The other was a sybarite and had more reason to try to kill them PCs or escape. However, he got handed over to his Kabal the next session when the PCs struck a temporary truce with them to deal with more pressing issues).
So far it's worked pretty well, all things considered.
>>45011660
Well, the average player, when confronted with monsters, will probably brutally kill first and ask questions later. He may be trying to come up with a way to suppress that instinct.
How has capturing not worked for you? Capture three bandits, brutally kill one in front of the others as an example, and turn those two in for a bounty.
Or sell them.
Even if you're not evil, I've gained a ton of information by talking to myou captives. This could be because I can talk circles around my DM, but still.
>>45007990
>But I don't fucking write the journal, they do. At the end of the session I roll to see who's writing (excusing the last guy who wrote it).
There's no way I could get my players to write a journal, I can't even get them to level up between sessions.
>>45011800
How about telling them they don't have to kill everything? That will basically insure they kill nothing, because that's how people's brains tend to work
Every time I even try to non-lethally dispatch an opponent, the DM just kills them anyway via bleeding out or some stupid excuse. So much interrogations.
>>45012268
*so much for interrogations.
>>45012268
Wow, your DM sucks. D&D (which I assume you're using since you said DM) has explicit rules for both nonlethal damage and bleeding out, and he's ignoring them.
>>45012268
Nobody wants to watch you play SAW, your DM is preventing you from making everybody uncomfortable with your fetishes
>>45012379
Also, you can just not kill the person off, because it's a game of pretend
>>45003662
>When people are brought before death they start complying very hard and begging to stay alive. It's so strong in fact they get Stockholm syndrome.
GMs don't ever try to simulate this to any extent from what I've seen. All the 'cool' NPCs get incredibly snarky and witty when captured, while mooks don't really do anything.
>>44999040
That's because the most widely rpg is D&D and basically on D&D you have to find enemy, kill him and steal his shit - that is smartly called "loot", no matter what the fuck the enemy is. If it's hostile, you jut waste it and take all his shit.
>>45012910
I'm a GM and my NPCs usually either beg for their lives or go completely silent. Depends on their background and angle.
Sounds like you've just got a shit GM m8. Shoot that NPC in the kneecaps, see if he co-operates more.
>>44999040
>Our group had an enemy warband surrender right after we had killed their boss
>Took the warriors back to the city to wait their judgment
>While getting there, warband's autistic Oracle broke things left and right because of his curse
The imprisonment didn't lead the party into lethal trouble, but we were pissed off quite a lot of times. It was like a Three Stooges act. He was behaving like the big retard from Of Mice and Men.
>>45007554
I like General feats the best, social, investigative, and diplomatic are all too specific, and mundane feats makes me think of shit like tying your shoes.
>>44999040
Our Warlock used a couple AOE spells centered in a group of about 25 bandits and basically incapacitated all of them. As the Dragonborn Fighter interrogated one of the leaders from the group, our Elf Ranger said during this, he "cut all of the bandit's throats" and "earned all of the EXP because he killed them all". My Paladin not having any of the Ranger's shit, stopped him before he started the slaughter of those who could not fight back (even though they were technically evil, gotta love honor) and instead gave all of the 24 bandits a choice - Join us and try to do good in life, or swear on their lives to never raise a hand against their fellow man again. A couple high Diplomacy rolls later we had about 20 followers.However a little while later our DM had most of them killed off by Ghouls while the party was away. Of the like 6 that survived, only 2 stuck around while the rest ditched.
>>44999040
>YFW you brought this guy into the group
>we go monster hunting
>he throws a hissy fit because 'muh innocent monoliths of nature eating to survive'
>suggests ambushing sentient humans as an alternative
>>45003863
Yeah, but he also doesn't let them fucking go.
Straight to trial, or if they assaulted a Judge, they get death sentence on the spot
>>44999040
There is no mercy in war.
>>45017180
Yes there is
>>45016851
>they get death sentence on the spot
No they don't again the only crimes that come with a death sentence are treason and destruction of vital mega-city resources like fucking with power or water on a large scale.
Killing a judge is life in the cubes.
Now of course this assumes that they get taken down alive in the first place.
>>45017180
Not only is there plenty of mercy, it's an incredibly lucrative business for raking in lots of dosh and other concessions.
What OP needs to do is provide a way for his players to quickly lose their captives before they become a source of trouble. A high turnover rate would cut down on time investment and attachment that might lead to an idle player derailing the adventure.
And if he wanted to curb the habit, he could impose some short term expense for taking and holding prisoners with a chance of disaster as long as the prisoner is kept with the party.
>>45012769
This is the only valid excuse. If you were trying to get important info that's one thing, but if you were going all chaotic-evil OW THE EDGE then the DM was doing the rest of your party a favor.
>>45015078
>Quick Tying
>Tying your shoes is now a move action instead of a full action.
>>45006969= )
My Monk has never killed anyone, and he's gotten to level 11. Its actually pretty easy. He captures guys, frees them if he believes they'll change, imprisons them if they won't, and occasionally lets the rest of the party deal with them, if we have no other choice.
Its a fun little game of "How many people can I beat in combat, so the others don't kill them" whenever an encounter starts.
>>44999040
As a player, I genuinely enjoy killing enemies. The one exception is attractive women, and even then they only get one chance to behave.
It saves the DM a LOT of trouble, because who wants to bookkeep all the prisoners? It's a pain in the ass.
>>45022573
Monks can deal non-leathal damage without any penalty, is not that hard to not kill anything as a monk, probably the only nice thing monks have. Rest of guys have a -4 to try to hit non-lethally with weapons, ranged weapons and magic can't be non-lethal.
>>44999040
Sometimes you don't always want to immediately kill a foe. Like, I and my party (norse wizard, I, the turkish horse archer/hunter, and a scotts knight) were fighting some werewolves (sorta- they regenerated and had the form of giant, polar bear sized wolves). We really wanted their pelts, to complement our also badass but less impressive wolfskin cloaks, but, to our dismay, the werewolves turned back to humans when killed.
So, after killing the first two, we engaged in a grapple- sorta. The knight distracted the last werewolf from the front and broke it's front legs (technically I shot it's right leg in the join with an arrow a bit ago and he broke the other limb twice) while I skinned it from behind with my tulwar. It went really well given that we're using a realistic swordfighting system (Song of Swords), and we're bogstandard, if skilled, humans (PCP 21). Fighting a regenerating giant wolf. Other than the wizard (riddle of steel rules) failing a touch spell and fainting from spell strain right onto the wolf. Thank fuck I managed to kick him in the ass and wake him before it got up. The knight's armor and skill kept him alive, I managed to cut it's spine in half, and while it was slowly dying I nearly skinned it entirely!... then the damn thing regenerated. Nearly killed me with a claw strike, and then I decapitated it and the knight ripped the head off before it reverted.
I got a talent that let's me skin foes midcombat, the knight got a badass helmet, and we got a banner.
It was the most hilarious fight I've seen since a WFRP dwarf party fisted a giant toad to kill it.
>>45004011
Hell yes, motherfucker
I'm a police officer in a Cyberpunkish setting. It's our job to 'try' to take criminals and villains in alive.
And for most small-time individuals, we do just that.
Then our Squad Captain has a 'shoot first, then announce that we're police' mentality. Though her gun normally is loaded with tranquillisers of shock ammo.
And our Sniper- sorry 'Designated Marksman Special Weapon Specialist' operates under the notion if she was authorised to use a gun then she is fully expected to use it.
Also she never uses low-lethal rounds.
Because of this we have to generally plan out our encounters when we go after big fish just to account for the gun happy members of our squad.
However this being a fascist police state, criminal deaths are generally considered to be acceptable in the line of duty.
>>45003949
>>45000215
Tenra Bansho already does this.
>>45012769
>>45018836
>2016
>using physical torture
If you're not extremely short on time, white torture is where it's at
>>45006233
You are a fucking idiot. Blinding like that is basically a death sentence, just a much slower, and meaner one.
Prick.
>>45017626
No, shooting at a Judge is generally an automatic death sentence, unless you're a Futsie or some other variety of headcase.
Judges tend to carry these sentences out in the heat of pretty crazy gunfights, so it's easy to miss.
I only play D&D
>>45026501
Where did you get this?
>>45028379
Googled white torture.
Not the one I was looking for, but it served it's purpose. There are quite a few good articles on the subject
>>45028379
Wikileaks - the gitmo interrogation SOP manual was leaked a few years back.
>>45029023
Shouldn't white torture be the use of healing spells to torture people?
>>45031936
Guess yoou could do that too. Sick
Joke's on you, we take enemies alive all the time so we can hand them off to the boss, who will then gather up his mentats and telepath and spill the poor bastard's mind and brains all over the interrogation room floor, then hand us a neatly compiled report on everything he knew, plus a handful of corpse starch bars. If the capturee is really lucky, he gets bundled off to the Fortress Tenebrous, where they'll convert his entire life story into a neat manila folder, which we may or may not get to see. But we're playing Dark Heresy, so....
>>45000180
>Never hearing about crime slaves
>>45025830
>regenerating wolf monsters with wonderful pelts. Keep one chained up. Eternal torment literally being flayed alive to support the rogues cheap suit emporium.
You'll love my games,I guarantee it.
>"I search him while he's tied up."
>"You find 3 cp and an empty vial."
Whenever my players capture the enemy they lose all chance of possibly getting any loot. No kill (or creative defeat), no loot.
>>44999040
I hate people like you, you are the death of good roleplay
>>45033570
Sounds pretty dumb.
>>45033603
To be honest we're playing an 'evil' campaign at the moment and so far the only difference between a good run and an evil run seems to be the level of pragmatism. "Good" characters are normally played in an extremely schizophrenically sentimental way, they'll kill someone for shits and giggles but save an evil enemy because they suddenly feel virtuous.
>>45033570
What possible purpose could this serve other than letting you railroad your players? You sound like a powertripping weiner.
>>44999040
A lot of GM's are kind of running the show like it's a videogame. Some times they get really heavy-handed with adding "consequences" but almost always for being nice, since they've been taught that being nice is supposed to be harder than being evil, somehow. So you spare an enemy? Haha, he shows up and ruins your day. But very rarely do you see logical consequences for being a murderhobo.
Like, okay, you killed a bunch of people. In a pre-modern world of small communities where social relationships are super important. So why isn't anyone showing up to avenge them, why don't you get a shitty reputation?
It might just be my experience but it seems the whole "consequences" thing is often applied very lopsidedly.
>>45032061
Think about how much skin a person has flaked off during their entire life? Imagine healing them so that all that skin regenerated and smothered them in rolls upon rolls of greasy skin.
>>45033570
Wow, you're one fag-ass DM.
>>45000023
This happened in one of my games. We intimidated a surviving goblin of an encounter into dropping his weapons, tied him to a stick and used him to trigger traps...
We'd keep him alive through healing magic and heal checks. Whenever he wasn't in use one of the party was tormenting him, normally with the body-parts or guts of some other fallen enemy.
The DM kept rolling to try and make the poor bastard escaped. He kept on failing. In the end he decided that the goblin had just lost all hope and sanity.... the whole party suddenly just felt really bad and placed him in the way of a carnivorous beast-thing.
>>44999040
Only time I've ever not killed an enemy was due to subjective bullshit while I was a Paladin. I know I didn't have to because my DM isn't the fictional sociopathic guygax-esque weirdoes that compose the fall meme on /tg/ but I wanted to stay in character.
>>45003916
>That campaign still haunts me.
Because of how bad it was?
>>45033570
>Whenever my players capture the enemy they lose all chance of possibly getting any loot. No kill (or creative defeat), no loot.
>players capture
>No kill (or creative defeat), no loot.
>(or creative defeat)
Nigga, how do your players capture a fucker without defeating him somehow? And are you saying setting up a plan to take someone captive is somehow easier than sticking a sword up his ass?
Yous an ass, would not play at table.
>>45006233
>left handed, stump friendly farm tools
Utter nonsense.
>>45006246
Yeah, but then you'd just be super high level in one area and weak as shit in the other with no way to train it. The previous 50 encounters you didn't think talking would work, so now you're level 19 Combat and still level 1 social. This time social would be best, but your low ass level means you're probably going to insult the enemy no matter how well you do.
>>45012769
In my group's first campaign we managed to get anything we needed out of captured foes because That Guy spent the trip from battlefield to camp talking about all the ways he was going to torture information out of them.
No, Craig, we don't have lye. Why do you want it? Wait, don't tell me, I don't need to know. It looks like the bandit has it figured out anyway.
>>45016792
I'm so sick of these people who are all indifferent to the deaths of human beings but go up in arms over the demise of an animal that dindu nuffin.
>>45036558
It's because deep down inside we all know humans are evil aligned creatures and deserve no more mercy than any other monster we'd find in a dungeon.
>>45036558
>implying that human life has more value than animal life
>2016
>being this anthropocentric
I bet you don't even see anything wrong with the term "Human Rights"
>>45001225
Doesn't neg HP wipe prepared spells in 1e?
>>44999188
God, I have this GM. I think I can count on my fingers the ammount of times an enemy has retreated in one of his games over the past 4 years
>>45036384
If you never have social encounters you wouldn't focus on improving your social abilities anyway.
>>44999040
I once played a lawful neutral military officer who was isolated with his platoon in potentially hostile territory. After being jumped by elves we captured and detained the survivors, tending to them and treating them to the best of our ability as per military protocol. It was a real shit show for us having to accommodate a bunch of obstinate elves while slogging our way back to friendly forces completely unsupported, but in the end we wound up patching up human/elf relations through our ethical actions and gaining the empire a loyal and powerful ally. So, I suppose sparing your enemies doesn't always turn out like shit
After the adventure I was immediately promoted and sent out to die in some other godforsaken war-front for all my trouble. Bureaucracy, am I right?
>>45033570
you sir are a faggot
>>45036097
Late reply, but yes.
>GMPC even turns on me because 'you are a ruthless murderer who has no respect for life, I must kill you now before you go further'
>PC replies 'hey I don't want to kill you, can we not do this'
>GMPC says 'No it's too late, death is the only way to stop me from killing you'
>Wreck the GMPC, non-lethally
>GM gets mad I ended the fight so quickly when he wanted it to be a dramatic face-off
>GM effectively removes the GMPC from the plot from that point on anyway
>Later on get railroaded into a fight I had no way of fleeing or surviving because 'the enemy is faster than you and also once you kill him he'll blow up and take you with him'
>GM later says he didn't want to give my character a good ending because he didn't like them
I really hope I'll never take part in anything this bad again.
My main regret is that I didn't just up and quit mid-session once the railroad happened, but eh;
>emotional investment in PC's fate
>>45000432
Taking prisoners in DnD means the DM will roll for all the saves and whatever just to have the prisoner get free, don't roll some perception check, and then murder half the party.
>>45038642
Your GM sounds like an asshole
>>45004011
FRIENDSHIP BEST SHIP
too bad my GM always makes his bad guys irredeemable, woe is me, check out my dark back story, edge lords or evil for the sake of evil cartoon villains
>>45038642
Never play with that person again
>>45038797
I do think that was the one most important thing I learned from that campaign.He's since come to me asking if I'd be interested in joining his next campaign and that he's learned his lesson and will run things better; I replied with a hard 'no' and he immediately started throwing insults at me.
>>45038684
I never said it was a great idea in roleplaying games.
Things like mercy and trust tend not to work out so well in a GM-run world. GMs are often quick to berate mercy and punish it as a weakness, then turn right around and start calling you a murderhobo when you stop giving it. As such, when an NPC starts combat against a PC I care about, it's kill or be killed.
>>45038422
I believe the entire idea is to have situations where you could solve it either way. Problem being if you prefer to solve them all one way and then hit a situation where you HAVE to solve it the other way you're now screwed.
>>45038940Did you laugh in his face? Because that is fucking hilarious.
>>45039313
>GM-run world
#1 cause of family deaths.
The one time our group tried taking someone alive (Only War).
>Battle between our squad and the enemy takes place in a fuel depot
>Manage to grapple the last guy to the ground and tie him up to a barrel
>I (Being a Captain and currently in charge of the squad) order my sergeant to interrogate the man, regarding the location we were about to hit (His Barracks)
>Thanks to our GM being a ">that GM" kinda guy he gave us literally nothing. Not because he resisted the interrogate rolls, but purely because he was "Plot Stupid"
>Decide that his usefulness was at an end (Even though it was never really at a beginning"
>Order him executed.
>Dumbfuck sergeant uses a bolt gun to execute him.
>Round goes through his head into the barrel and ignites the promethium, throwing liquid death everywhere.
>Everyone passes the dodge test, except for the Second Lieutenant.
>He begins rolling on the floor burning to death.
>He can't put himself out.
>I order the rest of the squad to put him out.
>Even with HUGE pluses for the squad working as a whole I stand and watch as the lieutenant burns to death as the squad is simply kicking dirt on him.
>MFW PC death for literally no information because of dumbfuck sergeant.
Captives; Not even once.
>>45040065
The GM has control of encounters though, so he doesn't have to dick you over with unwinnable social encounters.
>>45040107
My god, that is fucking hilarious
>>45040107
>a bunch of elite space marines meekly kicking sand on some poor burning bastard like a tired group of beach bullies
>>45017750
Bounties might require people to be taken alive, prisoners of war would be bought by their opposing factions for trade in negotiations for their own prisoners.
>>44999040
Spare one to spread your reputation, isn't that how it works?
>>45033570
... Why? That's retarded. Loot progression is literally built into the system. You are hobbling your players and ruining game balance.
Besides, a bandit could just as easily bargain for his life with promises of buried treasure or some shit. You're just a troll.
>>45000696
Adventurers usually travel through unknown areas though.
>In 1906, with a team of 23 camels, two horses, and eight men, Canning surveyed the route completing the difficult journey from Wiluna to Halls Creek in less than six months. The survey party left Halls Creek in late January 1907 and arrived back in Wiluna in early July 1907. During the 14-month expedition, they had trekked about 4,000 km (2,500 mi), relying on Aboriginal guides to help them find water.
>Canning had always planned to rely on Aboriginal guides to help him find water and had taken neck chains and handcuffs supplied to him by the Wiluna police to make sure local 'guides' stayed as long as he needed them. In order to gain assistance in locating water along the route, Canning captured several Martu men, chained them by the neck and forced them to lead his party to native water sources (soaks).
>After the Canning survey party returned to Perth, Canning's use of Aboriginal guides came under scrutiny. The expedition's cook, Edward Blake, accused Canning of mistreating many of the Aboriginal people they met during the survey expedition. Blake objected to the use of chains and criticised the "party's 'immoral' pursuit of Aboriginal women, the theft and 'unfair' trade of Aboriginal property and the destruction of native waters".
>Blake was unable to prove many of his claims, but Canning did admit to the use of chains. Kimberley Explorer and the first Premier of Western Australia, John Forrest, dismissed Canning's actions by claiming that all explorers behaved in this manner.
>>45033570
You know, in Exalted, enemies are generally worth more dead than alive. You never really need mortals, and you don't need their pitiful loot.
What you DO need is Necromancy fodder. Hungry Ghosts are better fighters than mortals, and you can bind him immediately if you kill him right there.
>>45006557
>I'd rather murder helpless prisoners than ransom them off
The Eternal Anglo strikes again!
>>44999040
>everyone must be an unrepentant murderer, 100% of the time!
This is literally the murderhobo mindset.
If you're dungeoncrawling D&D, yeah, I get it, it's annoying. But if you're playing a more realistic, RP-heavy game, death is a big deal!
>>45011351
Slavery. What, do you have so many fueled and working farm machines that you don't need any more help at harvest time?
If you're really worried about them reverting just do what the Athenians did and cut off their thumb and index finger so they can't use weapons.
>>45040423
Only war is ordinary guardsmen, not spehs marines
I would KILL to have non-murderhobo players who respect a man's life enough to preserve him for useful things like "questioning"
>>44999076
I know I'm late, but it's not like you can just grab every random dude you fight and turn them into a slave. They're usually bred for it, born and raised to be slaves. A seasoned, disobedient warrior wouldn't sell for shit, you'd get laughed out of the bazaar.
>>45044539
Not if I take everyone in the bazaar captive and sell them to someone who doesn't laugh at my fine, veteran warrior slaves.
>>45025720
There are a decent range of nonlethal options for both magic and weapons though. A merciful weapon does extra nonlethal damage amd makes it all nonlethal. A merciful metamagic feat makes spells nonlethal.
>>45005609
Remember that we're police.
>>45008342
that's actually pretty cool
Our enemies make it personal half the time. So there is no sparing them. Torture, rape, and sadistic behavior with civvies makes for heroes who are quick to put them to the sword.
Even keeping "harmless" enemies around don't cut it. Chained up hags almost killed us once.
A couple of them we've luckily redeemed. They had fixations or were doing the best they could in horrible circumstances or they had gotten in too deep. We've had to go on case by case basis, which gets a bit easier to see who is just plain psychotic evil when most of us have the Alignment command rings to see if someone needs a quick decapitation or redemption.
>>44999099
Sounds legit
>>44999040
This is all just from one game
>Raiding bandits lair
>Leave everyone but head bandit alive
>Turns out most were peasants forced to work under him to protect their loved ones
>Siege on city, fighting some named enemies
>Via a well placed suggestion, one of their team realizes she's been manipulated
>Still has to be subdued in her rage, but is now repentant and working community service for town
>Siege also has a number of bystanders roped into helping similar to bandit lair
>Clearing out vampires from vampire controlled hamlet
>Loli vampire discovered to have been forced into it, wants to repent
>Causes no trouble in time spent I board party's ship
>Eventually handed over to a church that will help her repent
>>44999040
Slavery thread?
>>45046555
>Loli vampire
>Church
Why do i get the mental image of loli getting impales with a lot of stakes.
>>45046642
>Loli
>impaled
>"stakes"
oh, i get that image too now
>>45046642
Because stakes kill vampires. And the loli was a vampire.
>>45011405
>not selling them to Ramun
>have this guy in our group that always wants to take hostages
>never knows what to do with them
He does it all the time, he always says he wants us to get into some EPIC scheming and roleplay, but he has absolutely zero creativity.
I usually 'accident' them so we can get on with the story.
>>45044539
>A seasoned, disobedient warrior wouldn't sell for shit,
Depends on the state of the local bloodsport
>>45051395
Also depends on the type of seasoning and the preferences of the local cannibals, obviously.
kinda tangential, but within the theme of restraining PC's
our party had the complete opposite of OP, we should have taken the peaceful route many times in our pathfinder campaign
>most of our group is new to tabletop RPG, so we usually just kill everything we see
>GM wises up to this, and starts throwing us harder and harder encounters, that could probably be resolved without battle
>we keep killing everything anyway, mostly because of our ranger who has a vendetta against evil shit (or perceived evil)
>in fact our ranger is the cause of most of our problems in our games
>one time we released a troll from a cage as a diversion so we could escape from a prison
>as the troll is leaving the room, our ranger decides to shoot the troll because he reckons we can kill it
>important NPC dies as a result
swear to fuck keegan I'm going to slap you one day.
