Flammable Orphanages

[DRD1812]

The whole we burned down the orphanage (http://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/orphanages) thing is an old trope, but I've never actually seen it in play. That got me wondering whether this is something that happens in fact, or just in theory.

So how about it? Have any of you guys been involved in the in-game destruction of an actual orphanage?

[smcmike]

The closest thing I’ve seen involved the creation and abandonment of a bunch of orphans, who then died. Which is to say that we killed the orcs who fought us and left the rest of the tribe in the underdark, where they were eaten because we had killed their protectors.

[Easy_Lee]

Well, that title got my attention. Can't say that I've ever burned down an orphanage in any context.

[Emay Ecks]

I've only ever had it as a character's backstory. Reformed arsonist.

I don't think I've ever had a character actually visit an orphanage either (though I did have one run a makeshift orphanage in the back of his tavern).

I doubt many adventurers visit orphanages because an orphanage usually can't afford an adventurer's time. Seriously it's like hundreds of gold a day.

[Potato_Priest]

Nope. We've murdered all sorts of peasants and innocent farmers, but never an orphanage.

I don't know that we've ever seen an orphanage though either.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Closest I came to that was designing a Vampire: the Masquerade Gangrel character who ran an orphanage. Unfortunately the Prince considered it his snack bar, but we had an understanding that if he killed or turned any of the kids, he'd have to kill me next. Anyone else who looked at the kids sideways was mysteriously mauled by a bear.

Sadly, that campaign died before we could start it, for RL reasons.

[The_Jette]

Never burned down an orphanage. But, one of my characters has consistently burned down churches. Does that count?

[Vaz]

I brought down a thread once through suggestion that American History Xing a baby could ultimately be a good act.

Was fun.

[Waffle_Iron]

We once had to defend an orphanage against a hungry ghost, who had been picking kids off at night.
The ensuing fight wrecked the place. See, the ghost could run through walls to flee, so the party's barbarian decided that what was good for the goose was good for the gander and followed right through the wall, too...

[sithlordnergal]

I have indeed burned down an orphanage. I caused a massive wildfire that swept through a campaign world that ended up burning through half the country I was adventuring in. Best part was that no-one knew we had started the fire. In the end the main villain had to come and try to fight the fire.

I have also had a character that personally executed an entire tribe or kobolds and goblins. To the point where, when we had finished killing the goblin warriors we found the woman and children hiding in a room. He stepped inside, locked the door, and killed every single one of then with magical fire. The party Paladin was not happy with me, and I got no exp for murding them all...but my character was satisfied.

[Sirithhyando]

Never burned down an orphanage. But, one of my characters has consistently burned down churches. Does that count?

That's actually the dream of most of my characters :smallbiggrin:

Joke aside, nope, never burned an orphenage and got one character who was going often to one to make donation and play with the childrens.

[Sigreid]

No percentage in targeting an orphanage. On the other hand, I've burned down cities that probably included one. The orphanage wasn't the target, just couldn't be bothered to protect them.

[Crusher]

The whole we burned down the orphanage (http://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/orphanages) thing is an old trope, but I've never actually seen it in play. That got me wondering whether this is something that happens in fact, or just in theory.

So how about it? Have any of you guys been involved in the in-game destruction of an actual orphanage?

Heh. No actual orphanages, but I'm DMing a campaign with a group of players who consider their PCs to be "anti-heroes". They've been reliable good-deed doers for most of the campaign but its mostly because they're mercenaries and their primary patron has been paying them to do good deeds. So, if they aren't paid for it, they may or may not do the good deed.

Me: "After killing the guards you see there's an unconscious slave in a cage. It looks like the guards had probably been beating him. What do you want to do?"

Party: "Unconscious? So, he wouldn't be able to tell the guards where we went, right? I'm sure he'll be fine. Lets loot the guards and move on."

[xroads]

Yep. Sure have.

I was GMing a Dark Heresy game. The acolytes discovered that a demon was possessing some of the kids in an orphanage. So they lit the whole place on fire! :smalleek:

In hindsight, given my group's "if in doubt, lite it on fire" play style, I probably should of seen it coming.

[Waterdeep Merch]

It's a running gag around my circle.

In one of the first games I ever DM'd, two different orphanages got burned down due to player actions: One was deliberate- he was rather angry about being set on fire by an orphan who was trying to help him get over his pyrophobia. One was on accident- wizard player thought I'd award XP for murdering rats and he was close to leveling, so he entered a sewer to kill some. What he neglected is that his magical dagger inflicted a horrific plague on anything hit by it, which spread rapidly when dozens of rats came to feast on their fallen brethren. He then decided to use fire spells to destroy the rats en masse before they could spread the plague, which ignited the sewers and soon the entire town. I detailed the burning orphanage as all the players were standing on the outskirts of town in shock. Then I awarded the wizard a small amount of XP for the fiery deaths of each orphan. It was less than 10 off of the level he wanted. The players almost starved to death getting to another town, too.

In a game I played just recently, the entire party had some weird obsession with orphans and orphanages. It kept happening. The DM brought them up twice, then we kept seeking them out. Some of us were roleplaying do-gooders and were trying to help all the children. So it's even weirder that our actions ended up destroying several of them, and two of our players kept threatening orphans for some reason (that reason being very poor roleplaying justification). Three of our epilogues involved running orphanages, and our commemorative painting of the campaign involved a burning orphanage in the distance. It just had to.

[EvilAnagram]

There have definitely been player deaths that led to massive swaths of destruction, but I can only think of one orphan dying, and the DM ended the session when I said I attacked the player responsible and wouldn't let us pick up on that thread.

[Requilac]

Does it count if you did not know it was an orphanage when you burned it down?

My group did not do this, but several of my friends were in a group that did. Not too long ago when I was playing in one of AL’s “epics” (multiple tables work together in real time to accomplish a single goal) we were defending a city from invading pirates. The pirates took over a tavern and were using it as a temporary base. One of the groups wanted to rescue some hostages from the tavern so they planned on burning a nearby building to distract some of the pirates’ attention and then break in and fight the weaker force. The party all investigated the building across the street to see if anyone was in it then burned down the apparently empty building. The main issue was that they all terribly failed their investigation checks, four people somehow rolled a natural 1 and the other 2 people rolled a 2 and a 6. Eventually the screaming of immolated orphans made the adventerer’s realize that perhaps they should have come up with a better plan. Well, the pirates were sure distracted all right at the very least.

Edit: the party that did this did not do so because they were extreme murderhobos or because they were evil though, it was just an accident. I still think it might be what you are asking for though.

[Bahamut7]

Orphanage? No...something worse and far worst.

These events have been forever dubbed A One Way Ticket to Midnight in our group. Playing in a future space campaign (Some Star Wars and some Warhammer 40k). The empire is after us, though they don't know what we look like yet, they just know of a group with a loose description. We are refueling on a small planet that is rich with the raw material of the fuel for that world (think a planet with a giant oil core). We find out the empire is coming en masse (star destroyer type ships) and the locals are trying to stop us...

We end up igniting the planet core and riding out the explosion with shields at max but no engine emissions. The empire lost all new details of our group and we got away.

PART 2

Thought that was it, huh? Ha. We performed a big merc job (Neutral no evil stuff) and get paid big. Crate filled with jewels and GPs. We paid and are getting the ship, named the Rubber Ducky, outfitted with newer engines, weapons, etc. We leave the horde on board (new group to the game and such) and go off to find small jobs to do.

Sigh. Mechanic takes loot. We find mechanic and his family. Ranger has an alignment shift and kills mechanic and his wife. >.< We coerce the guys son who had been spared the sight of that to fix the ship as it was still dismantle. Would you know it? Residents managed to call the local Police and we are tracked back to the hanger. After a couple of hours in game of us delaying the police (false calls elsewhere and then a kooky hostage scenario) we manage to get the ship up and running...except the entire building is surrounded.

We look around...what do we find? Fuel tanks filled to the brim.

We manage to fly out the hanger while igniting the tanks with a well placed shot. Percentile roll. LOTS of D6s rolled...we annihilated every person in a 6 block radius, including the cops and the mechanic's son who I assured no harm would come to.

Actual song to go with scenario...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQE1Q1NILfQ

[The_Jette]

Orphanage? No...something worse and far worst.

These events have been forever dubbed A One Way Ticket to Midnight in our group. Playing in a future space campaign (Some Star Wars and some Warhammer 40k). The empire is after us, though they don't know what we look like yet, they just know of a group with a loose description. We are refueling on a small planet that is rich with the raw material of the fuel for that world (think a planet with a giant oil core). We find out the empire is coming en masse (star destroyer type ships) and the locals are trying to stop us...

We end up igniting the planet core and riding out the explosion with shields at max but no engine emissions. The empire lost all new details of our group and we got away.

PART 2

Thought that was it, huh? Ha. We performed a big merc job (Neutral no evil stuff) and get paid big. Crate filled with jewels and GPs. We paid and are getting the ship, named the Rubber Ducky, outfitted with newer engines, weapons, etc. We leave the horde on board (new group to the game and such) and go off to find small jobs to do.

Sigh. Mechanic takes loot. We find mechanic and his family. Ranger has an alignment shift and kills mechanic and his wife. >.< We coerce the guys son who had been spared the sight of that to fix the ship as it was still dismantle. Would you know it? Residents managed to call the local Police and we are tracked back to the hanger. After a couple of hours in game of us delaying the police (false calls elsewhere and then a kooky hostage scenario) we manage to get the ship up and running...except the entire building is surrounded.

We look around...what do we find? Fuel tanks filled to the brim.

We manage to fly out the hanger while igniting the tanks with a well placed shot. Percentile roll. LOTS of D6s rolled...we annihilated every person in a 6 block radius, including the cops and the mechanic's son who I assured no harm would come to.

Actual song to go with scenario...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQE1Q1NILfQ

Why didn't you take the mechanic's son with you? Having a mechanic would be useful, I would think...

[Sigreid]

Why didn't you take the mechanic's son with you? Having a mechanic would be useful, I would think...

Not when the mechanic has good reason to screw you.

[Twizzly513]

Oh my Pelor I had one player who used to do this.

Walk into a village:
"Is there an orphanage?" *followed by the demented and hatred-provoking laugh of a boy who clearly thinks he is clever and original*

Every time.

He also thought he was funny because he ate people.

He once was being chased by police for committing murder in the middle of a marketplace. He stopped to eat a horse then complained that he got caught.

At least he had a good time? :smallsigh:

[Kane0]

Well, once in a kingmaker game we built an orphanarium specifically to take on all the orphans we made while adventuring and ended up feeling bad for. Run by a friendly orc oddly enough.

Turned out pretty well, our treasurer was a pyromancer and serial arsonist and the building stood for a good four years in game. It only got burned down as collateral damage when fighting insurgents from an opposing nation, who smuggled in wands of Burning Arc to enact their terrorism coincidentally.

[lebefrei]

Honestly as a DM I would probably never put an orphanage into a game just because I don't want to find out I have players that want to do this. While it's just a game, I've really picked up on psychopathic tendencies by play styles. Having a player take glee in murdering imaginary, already suffering children is beyond knowledge of them that I'd want.

[Telok]

Not specifically orphanages but there have been several boats, some manor houses (but no huts thatched roofs), and a covered wagon (downhill, at speed, with a fight going on inside).

We did... Correction, the druid, accidentally wiped out an entire slum (all the buildings, about 1/3rd the people) with a powered up weather control spell because a couple archers were shooting at him during a fight. There could have been a couple orphanages in there.

[Hyde]

Happened when someone miscalculated the bad guy's morality and hid in one. He even blocked the exits first.

[Gnomes2169]

Closest I've come is when we blew up a church with gnomish explosives. To be fair, it's because it was being used as a nightmare fuel insect nest and was killing the city and turning them into obsidian skeletons at the behest of a beholder lich... buuuuuut still. This place had one temple. AND IT WAS CLEANSED.

[Dankus Memakus]

I had a CE party member burn a church with orphans inside, I failed to stop her....I then killed my party mate and rolled her corpse into the fire. The lesson? A level 2 wizard Cannot sustain very many hits from a maul.

[DRD1812]

Well, once in a kingmaker game we built an orphanarium specifically to take on all the orphans we made while adventuring and ended up feeling bad for. Run by a friendly orc oddly enough.

Turned out pretty well, our treasurer was a pyromancer and serial arsonist and the building stood for a good four years in game. It only got burned down as collateral damage when fighting insurgents from an opposing nation, who smuggled in wands of Burning Arc to enact their terrorism coincidentally.

Love this one. You had an orphanage, a pyromancer, and somebody else burned the sucker down. Swear to god man, in-game orphanages need to be built from asbestos.

[NecessaryWeevil]

and a covered wagon (downhill, at speed, with a fight going on inside).


You're doing D&D right.

[Droodicus]

Had a shadowrun character ended up having a bunch of orphans because he blew up their bystander father while shooting high ex grenades at hallucinogenic ghosts.

Then we kept having to save them from baddies who'd try to use them as leverage. Those baddies would get horribly mutilated by dual sledgehammers.

[Tanarii]

Nope. We've murdered all sorts of peasants and innocent farmers, but never an orphanage.

I don't know that we've ever seen an orphanage though either.That was my first thought too. I've played and run plenty of D&D games over 40 years running the gamut from hero to murderhero to murderhobo to actively villains. And I've never seen an orphanage in a fantasy RPG game. Not even in a character's background. Plenty of orphans, as in parents dead. But no actual orphanages.

Probably because the entire concept seems to industrial era. Medieval-fantasy has street urchins, usually working for the thieves or beggars guilds. Not orphanages.

[krugaan]

That was my first thought too. I've played and run plenty of D&D games over 40 years running the gamut from hero to murderhero to murderhobo to actively villains. And I've never seen an orphanage in a fantasy RPG game. Not even in a character's background. Plenty of orphans, as in parents dead. But no actual orphanages.

Probably because the entire concept seems to industrial era. Medieval-fantasy has street urchins, usually working for the thieves or beggars guilds. Not orphanages.

I'm sure monastaries and temples are the de facto orphanages around. Indoctrinate 'em while they're young, free power to the gods!

[Tanarii]

I think it's more just everyone obeying the general rule: don't insert kids into a game that's generally about things getting murdered.

I recently broke that rule for a Caves of Chaos run, and rediscovered why it's a rule. Even for humanoid whelps.

[krugaan]

I think it's more just everyone obeying the general rule: don't insert kids into a game that's generally about things getting murdered.

I recently broke that rule for a Caves of Chaos run, and rediscovered why it's a rule. Even for humanoid whelps.

Not just DnD... in most video games, even sandbox games, the kids are invincible. Their poor parents can get massacred, naturally.

[Sigreid]

Not just DnD... in most video games, even sandbox games, the kids are invincible. Their poor parents can get massacred, naturally.

And then there was the Ultima series that put at least one kid in every game that was specifically there to be killed.

[krugaan]

And then there was the Ultima series that put at least one kid in every game that was specifically there to be killed.

Rofl, was there really one in every game? I only played 7 and 7.5.

Well, jokes on them: EA doesn't like killing kids. Dead kids can't be milked with microtransactions. Bazing!

[SpamCreateWater]

Haven't burnt one down yet. But I did convince our LG member to build and run an orphanage so I could use it as a tax shelter.

[Laserlight]

No orphanages in our games. They've burned and shot each other, though.

The party did burn down a warehouse they'd been hired to guard. Granted there was a demon in it at the time, but the fire mage had a pretty good idea that the demon was immune to fire. However, her romantic rival was also in the area of effect--the only PC in the AoE, by some remarkable coincidence--and he wasn't fireproof. So she torched him sufficiently to get her point across. After the demon flew off, the party just went back to their hotel, leaving the burning warehouse behind them. Didn't try to extinguish it or tell the city guard, just...walked away.

And two weeks ago, the PCs were in a jungle village, and the elders were afraid that a particular type of monster would attack. One of the PCs suggested "Can't we just burn the whole forest down?" That was vetoed, but only because it would take more effort than simply abandoning the village to its fate.

[Tanarii]

One of the PCs suggested "Can't we just burn the whole forest down?" That was vetoed, but only because it would take more effort than simply abandoning the village to its fate.
Lol I've had PCs deliberately start forest fires more times than I can count. Fire Bolt makes it a piece of cake too, although for my own sanity I did rule a miss doesn't start accidental fires. I've had Druids actually upset that they can't start forest fires with Produce Flame!

[Naanomi]

Way back in 2e, we had a chain-lightning bounce through a group of children... they were apprentices to an evil wizard if that helps (and we didn’t do it in purpose... chain lightning + undetected illusions)

[mgshamster]

There's a module in Planescape where an orphanage was burned down.

The story goes that a serial arsonist burned down an orphanage and as he was making his escape, he accidentally saved one of the children from burning to death. This act was witnessed by an angel, who mistakenly believed this person to be of paramount goodness and blessed the arsonist with its own Divine Goodness, which led to further consequences down the road. And the PCs had to clean up after the mess it all made. :)

Another Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March, has the Modrons trample an orphanage, and the PCs have to save the children before the Modrons get there.

[Tanarii]

Another Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March, has the Modrons trample an orphanage, and the PCs have to save the children before the Modrons get there.I've never understood how the way Modrons are portrayed, they aren't Evil. Like, more evil than Devils and Demons. At least Devils and Demons care enough to feel some type of way.

[Glorthindel]

A party I was in did accidentally infect an entire good town with a zombie plague, and I do recall there was an orphanage in the town, and since the number of survivors we pulled out the mess was in the single figures, I guess the orphanage was lost with all hands, and in the end it did burn since we razed the entire town to purge the plague (and I guess it was me, since I lit the fire on the zombie that started the unfortunate chain-reaction that wiped out the town)

[mgshamster]

I've never understood how the way Modrons are portrayed, they aren't Evil. Like, more evil than Devils and Demons. At least Devils and Demons care enough to feel some type of way.

Pure adherence to law.

In that particular scenario, a contract had been set for the path of the next Modrons march, but this town was placed directly in that path when it slide over from the Outlands to Mount Celestia. The Modrons followed the path exactly as outlined in the contract, and it's not their fault someone decided to place a town in the way.

For that adventure, they destroy the entire town. The orphanage was just one of the buildings in the way, and just one of tasks the PCs have to do (in addition to saving the orphans, they also have to convince a group of old do-gooders not to fight the Modrons lest they get killed, save a library from burning down, and a few other things involving various buildings here and there.

Also, for this adventure, they're all somewhat crazed due to the Modron March happening a few hundred years too soon, which is due to events that are hidden to any reader of this book. Instead, the true cause of it is laid out in Dead Gods (a technical sequel to TGMM, but designed to be played with different PCs).

[Sigreid]

Rofl, was there really one in every game? I only played 7 and 7.5.

Well, jokes on them: EA doesn't like killing kids. Dead kids can't be milked with microtransactions. Bazing!

Yes, because in Ultima 1 the creator put some kids locked in cages that turned into monsters when you let them out. As is predictable some people lost their f-ing minds. Rather than back down, he went another way.

[DRD1812]

Another Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March, has the Modrons trample an orphanage, and the PCs have to save the children before the Modrons get there.

Like... Is the orphanage just in their way? Or is the primary point of marching to trample this one orphanage?

[Tanarii]

Pure adherence to law.If by that you mean they're effectively a non-sentient imitation of life with no free will, sure. Then morality need not apply. Otherwise, they are portrayed as a general Evil behavior in pursuit of their goals. Even as defined by the rather easy-going 5e D&D alignments, let alone the more stringent 2e Alignment system where actual Actions carry morality.

[samcifer]

Town guard (TC) staring at burning orphanage: "What happened?"

Me: "Such a lovely fire."

TG: "You started the fire?"

Me: "I make such lovely fires."

TG: "Where are the children?"

ME: "They make such lovely fires."

[Tanarii]

ME: "They make such lovely fires."I laughed. I'm a bad person.

[samcifer]

I laughed. I'm a bad person.

It's not as if anyone wanted them anyways. :D

[mgshamster]

Like... Is the orphanage just in their way? Or is the primary point of marching to trample this one orphanage?

It was one building of many that was in their way. Heck, the entire town was in their way.

In Planescape, towns can move and shift based on the alignment of the population. This town shifted from the outlands (N) to Mount Celestia (LG), and the location it settled just happened to be on the path that was designated for the Modron March.

[krugaan]

It's not as if anyone wanted them anyways. :D

I like you.

[Sigreid]

There's a module in Planescape where an orphanage was burned down.

The story goes that a serial arsonist burned down an orphanage and as he was making his escape, he accidentally saved one of the children from burning to death. This act was witnessed by an angel, who mistakenly believed this person to be of paramount goodness and blessed the arsonist with its own Divine Goodness, which led to further consequences down the road. And the PCs had to clean up after the mess it all made. :)

Another Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March, has the Modrons trample an orphanage, and the PCs have to save the children before the Modrons get there.

And just like that my celestial warlock has an origin story. Thank you.

[Cl0001]

I have burned down three orphanages and a full town, all as one character over the course of 3 sessions. I was a mid level (8-12) CE necromancy wizard. I had a book of vile darkness and I was trying to summon Vecna into my body. To do this I had to become the epitomy of evil. So I went out and did the most evil thing I could think of. It all culminated when my character raped a princess then killed a pc. That’s when the dm told me to stop being evil and that I had completed that part of the quest.

[RazorChain]

If somebody burned down an orphanage it was probably the infamous half-orc Thronk Pigsvomit, he had the tendency to burn down everything.

In fact the term to "Thronk" something is either burning something down or to use excessive force with massive collateral damage to achieve your goals.

[the_brazenburn]

We didn't burn the orphanage down, but we did allow a pair of thugs to slaughter 80 percent of its population. One of the orphans living there was secretly a wererat who worked for the local Zhentarim clan, which was at war with a rival thieves' guild known as the Jackals. Two or three Jackal thugs, as well as our party, which was aligned with the Jackals, went to take out the wererat, but we couldn't tell which one was our target, so we blocked the doors while the thugs systematically slaughtered all the orphans they could find. And still the wererat escaped!