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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    SamuraiGirl

    Join Date
    Jan 2019

    Default So I have this NPC...

    A little backstory first.

    My home game is 1st edition 7th Sea and my players are going through a homage to "The Amazing Race". Basically, a race around the known world doing tasks & obstacles. Right now, they're in Vodacce -- which for those who know the game world is a rather sexist & classist country.

    Well, they're in the city of Laurentia (Caligari territory), where I throw a curveball in the form of someone's been going around killing people ala "Don't Look Now". Since they're heroes, they decide to investigate for a day. The evidence strongly implies that the killer is a 10 year old (which she is). There's been 4 deaths in order: a vagrant, a wine merchant, a jenny (low-class prostitute) and a priest.

    What the players haven't figured out yet is why these murders have happened, with one player even asking "Why this particular order?" Which there is a valid reason: the vagrant was killed first because she wanted to see if she could kill -- no one would in theory miss a vagrant.

    The murders of the wine merchant and the jenny make things murky/lean towards "justifiable homicide". The jenny was the murderer's abusive mother and the wine merchant was one of her equally abusive clients.

    The 4th murder wasn't planned. As a good Vaticine, the child gave confession to the priest. The priest did not react well to said confession, so the troubled child then killed him too because she didn't want to be "punished".

    4 murders -- 2 where the victims probably had it comin', but 2 where the victims were innocent. I don't want it where all the victims ended up being abusive So-and-Sos who deserved to die, it would make things too neat and unbelievable.

    OOC, the players suspect the kid did it, but IC, they haven't put the pieces together. In fact, they want to take her along on the Race with them! One player wants to teach her how to box and turn her into Hit-Girl. Another player, the quietest one who is finally taking some initiative so that's something I'd like to keep encouraging, is saying that there's a supernatural reason/the kid's possessed (there isn't). A third player is a former child psychologist in real life so his mind is already jumping to the worst case scenario with all the victims.

    And the 4th player is my husband -- who knows how much of a true crime fan I am, but can't quite convince the others that this might not be a Good Idea.

    The kid isn't a good liar. Nor is she very smart. She is, after all, only 10 years old. They are aware that she's being evasive. I tried to give them an out in the form of a nun and her abbey that maybe they could find sanctuary for her, but they don't wanna take it.

    I don't want to go all murderhobo here with her -- she's damaged but she's guilty, but now that her abusers are dead, there's a good chance she can be rehabilitated. But two of her victims didn't deserve to die -- and the country she did her crimes in probably doesn't care she's only 10 years old and was abused. She's a girl and she's poor -- that's already two strikes against her in Vodacce.

    Thoughts...?

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Yora's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Germany

    Default Re: So I have this NPC...

    It's up to the players to decide what they want to do about it. The GM doesn't have to give them an easy correct answer.
    The GM sets up a situation, the players decide what to do about it.
    We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.

    Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2014

    Default Re: So I have this NPC...

    If she likes the party back, and they take her with regardless of her actions, she could kill people she perceives as threatening them - which, her being ten, may not be actual threats - the rude postmaster whose approval they need to dock, the man flirting with a party member over drinks, the fighter who bested one of the party in a friendly sparring match, etc. Basically continue on her established pattern of offing people with only a 50-50 chance of it being beneficial, the other half the time it causes problems for the party.

    If they don’t take any steps to curb this behavior or rehabilitate her, have her advance to trying to kill party members the next time there’s a major intraparty disagreement or someone does something she doesn’t like.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Australia

    Default Re: So I have this NPC...

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    It's up to the players to decide what they want to do about it. The GM doesn't have to give them an easy correct answer.
    The GM sets up a situation, the players decide what to do about it.
    That's very much my thoughts. The only way you really need to make a hard choice is if they take the child along. Can the life of an adventurer lead to the child getting "well adjusted"? Can the PCs keep her supervised enough to be safe while not getting her killed as an innocent bystander? Will they want to protect her if she continues her homicidal ways?
    If they keep her with them, she's an easy go-to for drama - lost in a crowd, meeting random kids in town, kidnapped by the BBEG

    Given your child-psych player, maybe add a supernatural element so if you go outside realism for the child, there's "plausible deniability"?
    I love playing in a party with a couple of power-gamers, it frees me up to be Elan!


  5. - Top - End - #5
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    RedWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Oct 2020

    Default Re: So I have this NPC...

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    It's up to the players to decide what they want to do about it. The GM doesn't have to give them an easy correct answer.
    The GM sets up a situation, the players decide what to do about it.
    This 100%!

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