Teammates that attack you because of a disagreement.

[WhiteBread]

Well the situation is as following. I play my third campaign now and for once took a less serious Chicken Infested Commoner and wanted to play him as a chicken loving crazy dude(catlady anyone?). So obviously i introduced myself as well as my Chickenmount and chickenpets all by name. Sir McNugget, Misses Fluffelbutt and so on. I told the players that i love my chickens and don't consider them food when we introduced our characters.
Situation: We played a Halloween Adventure and later on come into a small cave with a pit inside. The pit contained a key we needed as well as a lot of undead which would attack if you were coming close but were unattackable because they dissapeared if u went away. So obviously half the party wanted to throw one of my 4 chickens inside to force them out and snipe them from afar. I was against this and started a discussion.
And here comes : A player decided to instead attack me and push me down. Thankfully his attack barely missed or else i would have been lvl drained like on of the other players later on and died.
I seriously don't have any tolerance anymore with teammates attacking me (happened before with so many stupid chaotic barbarians or stupid chaotic dwarfs that think its okay to defend the one that apologized after stabbing you) and I decided to defend myself. The team stood beside the player that tried to push me and even attacked me and my chickens too when i tried to punish the player for that ****. An arrow hit and my character was down.

So after this huge wall of text. I feel really angry even outside of character because I think **** like that destroys the fun. Attacking a player or his animal companions is straight up pvp. My DM allows us to do whatever which makes the situation worse.

What would you guys do? I really think rolling up now a character to just kill whoever pissed me of. A straight up barbarian chaotic evil. Did you ever had a situation of a group that is so much out for pvp and pissing each other off instead of playing the game?

[Mith]

While that is extremely crappy behaviour on the table's part, throwing fuel on the fire probably isn't the best way to go about it.

Do you think if you talked to the table about your problem that they would listen? If not, I would suggest looking for a different table if you can.

[oxybe]

I would leave.

~fin.

I know I would leave, because this sort of behaviour has caused me to leave groups before.

I've been privy to 2 kinds of antagonistic behaviour.

First is agreed upon antagonism, where me and another player talked about it behind the scenes and any "antagonism" was actually just something we both planned and acted out together, rather then something we just threw on the other without warning. It was in good fun and agreed upon: neither of us would've done it without the other's consent.

The second is when someone is being a "Richard". This is the sort of antagonism that has caused me to simply up and leave groups. I have no will or want to be around this sort of antagonistic behaviour, and i have better things to spend my free time on then hanging out with people who actively make the activity not fun and I have better things to do then plan out petty revenge ploys... like actively having fun.

So I left those groups and never looked back.

[WhiteBread]

I would leave.

~fin.

I know I would leave, because this sort of behaviour has caused me to leave groups before.


So I left those groups and never looked back.

Worst is that I even talked with the people to not cause **** like this and so we can actually be somewhat on the same page. Then i saw a barbarian chaotic neutral and rogue chaotic neutral and already thought they would be the first to attack me in any way or steal from me. But no it was a chaotic good spirit shaman... I probably will really leave after the next attack. You are probably right that i shouldn't waste my time with this.

[quinron]

You're playing a very silly character concept; regardless of how seriously you take the character, it's still quite silly. So, while the other players did step over the line, I can understand their decisions if the group disputes were handled in-character - even if you protested, they'd just see you as the crazy chicken man. While you said you talked to people about not doing this, they may not view this as a problem due to the fact that you're playing a joke character.

That said, if your disputes about this were out-of-character and you agreed beforehand that you wouldn't do things like this, that's dirty pool. If the DM is okay with a game like this, and the players intend to play a game like this, and you aren't okay with it, I have to agree with the others - starting another fight like this is just going to make the game less fun for you. You obviously want to play a different game than they're playing - you're best off just leaving.

[Zanos]

Are the other players playing serious characters? It's pretty irritating when someone shows up with "haha i like chickens" man in a serious game. Not that attacking you was the right way to go about it. In D&D and it's ilk, I don't like PvP leads to anything other than hurt feelings. In some systems it's more or less expected, though. Like world of darkness.

[Katrina]

As one of the people who tends to play Chaotic Neutral Rogues, you should really look carefully at anyone who attacks their friends with lethal force over anything other than "Give me that baby so the demons won't eat it." level stuff. You want to have a fist fight, fine. You want to passive aggressive each other for the next couple of sessions, annoying but acceptable. But from the perspective of almost any character who lives in a "fantasy Adventure" setting; you don't live long if you can't trust people to watch your back. That's an attitude that any character who has survived a couple of adventures is going to develop. So you may have minor disagreements, but any character that draws a sword on you without mind control being involved is not your friend and does not have your back. You cannot travel with that person into a dangerous situation unless you are actually trying to get them killed.

I've seen this happen in D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, and a number of other systems. The only one where my character will even keep working with people like that is Paranoia. (Because hey, you're all assumed to kinda be out to get each other). My Shadowrunners are especially prone to dumping teammates they believe they can't trust.

And if the problem extends to out of character, then you probably won't agree with that group on a lot of things.

[Vizzerdrix]

Talking about it with the group, then walking away is the mature thing to do. However, you do have a silver lining to this dark cloud. You can get some pvp practice. Learn some tricks to handle such things in the future. What system are you playing, and what sorts of characters do you enjoy the most?


On a side note, I bet we could turn a chicken into a straight up murder hen! Are copper rooster spurs elegible for stunning or vorpal?

[WhiteBread]

Talking about it with the group, then walking away is the mature thing to do. However, you do have a silver lining to this dark cloud. You can get some pvp practice. Learn some tricks to handle such things in the future. What system are you playing, and what sorts of characters do you enjoy the most?


On a side note, I bet we could turn a chicken into a straight up murder hen! Are copper rooster spurs elegible for stunning or vorpal?

Playing 3.5 and i do have a lot of pvp practice(thanks to every stupid barbarian always starting to hit around with his axe when someone disagrees with him killing a bound enemy even thought he is "chaotic good") but i can't do anything against being ganged up cause half the group just watched and the other half is "Oh what a fight? Gonna attack the dude too!" mentality. I did talk with them and said that this is the last time i tolerate a pvp attack like that. If my character dies i will ask the dm to play a villain that is out to kill them in revenge for his killed brother. Otherwise i just quit. It would be nice having a party for once that is out for adventure and fun instead of backstabbing.

[Vizzerdrix]

I wouldnt even let them know I was playing a villian. You can do all sorts of mayhem in a surprise round if you want. Honestly I suspect your former party would be happier as your undead pets :smallwink:

[Geddy2112]

As one of the people who tends to play Chaotic Neutral Rogues, you should really look carefully at anyone who attacks their friends with lethal force over anything other than "Give me that baby so the demons won't eat it." level stuff. You want to have a fist fight, fine. You want to passive aggressive each other for the next couple of sessions, annoying but acceptable. But from the perspective of almost any character who lives in a "fantasy Adventure" setting; you don't live long if you can't trust people to watch your back. That's an attitude that any character who has survived a couple of adventures is going to develop. So you may have minor disagreements, but any character that draws a sword on you without mind control being involved is not your friend and does not have your back. You cannot travel with that person into a dangerous situation unless you are actually trying to get them killed.

This.

With rare exception, there should be no grounds for PvP. Conflict is going to happen; we have conflict with our families, friends, significant others, and most certainly our gaming group. We have passive aggressive backbiting, arguments, and sometimes we just straight up tell the other person off. However, most people won't come to blows unless something is incredibly serious, and even then it is usually a fistfight brawl that ends with nobody seriously hurt. Lethal force or PvP in real life is nothing short of dire lives on the line. Would I punch my friends? Under most circumstances no, unless we were sparring in a boxing gym or they were doing some dumb stuff where I had to physically restrain them. Would I use lethal force against my friends? Not unless they were actively trying to kill/rape/seriously injure somebody else, and even then I would hope I could stop such behavior by talking them down, and at worst the threat of force.

The same rules of engagement go for an adventuring party-heck, In every campaign I have been in at least two party members had a bit of strife between them. Never anything where they would kill each other, but there were some serious philosophical differences and heated arguments from time to time.
Simply pushing you and/or your animal companion, no matter how silly their concept is, into a pit and use you as bait is very poor form. There is certainly nothing wrong with you volunteering, but even if the party consensus is to use you as bait that gives them no right to do so. Some systems like Paranoia are designed for PvP and encourage it, but it is okay because everyone is on the same page from the get go and it is almost tongue in cheek how often people get backstabbed. Also, I know you said chaotic neutral barbarians, and I know some archtypes from 3.X of barbarian can actually lose control when they rage, and mechanically are bound to attack anything(including allies) until the rage ends, and unless a player is deliberately playing this kind of mechanic to incite PvP with rules to hide behind, then there is nothing inherently wrong with that either.

I don't think bringing in another character to kill theirs. You create a circle of PvP and bad blood that never ends-the best is to leave the game, or all offending parties roll up new characters and drop the animosity.

[BarbieTheRPG]

If your group allows pvp as stated, seems you have options:
1. Accept that playstyle and rpg characters that fit how your group games.
2. Convince your group pvp is not fun.
3. Find a new group.

How they game isn't wrong. It's their accepted style of play. You have different tastes. Myself I would try to find a compromise that works for everyone.

[Segev]

Chiming in to add my vote for talking to the group OOC. See why they thought it was acceptable, and spell out why you didn't. If they don't agree and keep making you mad by trying to justify it (in ways that don't convince you; do consider that they may have been justified for reasons you haven't seen/considered, but don't necessarily EXPECT that to be the case), leave.

If they're going to gang up on you, they're either not your friends, or this game brings out a side of them that could damage your friendship, and either way, you shouldn't be playing with them.

[Deophaun]

Worst is that I even talked with the people to not cause **** like this and so we can actually be somewhat on the same page.

Seems like the time to walk is now, not after talking to them yet again about how serious you guys, this time I mean it you are about no PvP. You've already laid down a marker, they agreed to respect it, then ignored it. They lied. Do not expect change. Time to go, otherwise forget it: they know there will be no repercussions and things will just get worse for you from now on.