How do you get a group to stop mistreating NPCs?

How do you get a group to stop mistreating NPCs?

Just because they're not real doesn't mean they don't have any feelings.

You "railroad" them by having the NPCs react with hostility to the PCs bullying them. Maybe even steal some of their precious stuff.

What if you are not the GM?

Tell them to cut it out. If they don't, leave the group.

> you will never have a young female elf beg you for mercy as you and your group of mercenaries raid her village and burn it to ground, her wide merciful eyes freezing either as you lash your hammer across her face, breaking her neck and dropping her onto her sides, before bringing it down over and over, cracking her ribs and legs , before leaving her amongthecorpses of her tribe. Slowly the ants will gather and begin to feast on her. Blowflies will nest in her still living flesh, and coyotes will fight over the juicy , bountiful flesh in her highs and hips, tearing it away in long strips. Her raspy shrieks of agony will only attract more predators, which will feast on her body until she finally dies, and nature reclaims her body.

Didn't they ban you vert?

You'd make a good BBEG

Didn't you stop being a pussy yet?

Kill the NPCs and use them as clothing. They won't be mistreated once they give the heroes +2 to defense.

>not bullying NPCs.

It's a sad (well, sad to some, not me) fact most RPGs pan out like some kind of Archer spin-off. A group of intelligent, competent professionals who nevertheless fail at everything because they're all petty dysfunctional assholes.

Most parties will hassle NPCs. Mostly because players are usually pretty keen on who they can and can't get away with bullying. Some PCs by virtue of their class or alignment won't be actively hostile but it's very rare for anyone to treat an NPC with respect unless they set off the party's "Do Not Fuck With This Person" alarms. Which is actually much harder to do than it sounds.

As a player I don't really care if I "bully" NPCs. Likewise, I don't give a shit if my players browbeat the characters I throw at them.

Make every NPC a potential waifu love interest.

What exactly kind of setting would that even be?

Gust/Atlus

Pretty much every modern rpg video game, unfortunately.

vert pls go

Play V:tR or any other game where the NPCs can and will bully them instead. By the time they're powerful enough to do the bullying they've earned it.

Kill all the NPCs
They can't have hurt feelings if they're all zombies.

if you are the good guy in the party? go to the guards and tell them. only works if they do violate the law though

problem solved, but players might hate you.

>By the time they're powerful enough to do the bullying they've earned it.

Keep showing them this until they stop. It'll work...one way or another.

Just what we need, news reports on D&D driving people into muder-rape-cannibal cults.

how indeed...

I'm not even going to ask how this is relevant. Virt, everyone knows it's you, anonymity isn't working.

You make the NPC too slutty to bully

Vivica, what are you doing. You're better than this.

Consequences.

>Distrust
>Reputation
>Prosecution

And by that I don't mean guard come and attack. That's the same thing that happens when the players do it right, it's just different goons. But what if they don't get any rapport with locals? What if streets they enter clear? What if wanted posters with reward are posted?

You will need a few details.

>Witnesses
Preferably of the unseen kind, and absolutely innocent.

>Crucial information
The players won't care if nobody talks to their characters any more if there isn't any information they need. And make that information dangerous is some way so it requires trust to volunteer it.

Now the next thing they will try is kidnapping and torture. We're deep into evil campaigning by now, but regardless, it doesn't work. It's the same intimidate roll. Just because the party dehumanizes someone violently does not make them better information sources. And it has so many consequences...

>complaining about players playing a band of mercenaries role playing as a band of mercenaries
>bringing filthy political correctness into a game for reasons outside of in-game reasoning
Ya, you are that guy.

> +2 to defense

"Human skin is not as tough as leather and will not wear as well." - Roose Bolton's DIY Crafting Tips

To be fair, user, Cool Cat is a far-out movie.

...

>How do you get a group to stop mistreating NPCs?

Have you tried passive-aggressive hints or insults? How about killing off their characters?

>real world mercenaries never treat anyone at all with any respect, ever, under any circumstances
>every party of PCs in every rpg is always best described as mercenaries
>common human decency is political correctness
>having the simulated society reacting realistically to people acting like animals isn't in-game reasoning

being polite isnt politically correct. It's common decency.

If you ain't you should probably get back to healing under the table.

In all honesty though, show them how much better people react when you're not a raging douche all the time. What's the party like?

dorian is shit and bland

BLAND!

sebastian best husbando objectively, Bethany best waifu objectively and are cute together.

cute!

though, i would enjoy worshiping fem sarcastic hawke

Fuck off you autist

Can you specify the problem and the setting? I'm going to assume medieval fantasy.

If they're being seriously annoying to everyone they meet, then remember merchants don't post prices and the fixed price is alien to a generic fantasy setting.

If they're actually assaulting the townsfolk or something, look into historic proceedings against felons, including confiscation of assets and eventual writs of outlawry should they fail to turn up in court.

It's not just that adventuring parties will come after them, as outlaws they won't be able to reliably spend money or go into civilized areas. In ultimate form this would actually mean that they're going to have to spend their treasure in monster settlements and you're now running an evil campaign.

Either way, you devalue their money - putting yourself beyond society means that you don't get its benefits.

Trap them in a school and force them to mutually kill each other, of course! They'll either be too dead or too full of despair to bully anyone!

back to battle royale with you, kitano!

>kidnapping and torture

Roleplaying NPCs getting tortured is exhausting.

The real problem here is of course different players wanting to play a different sort of game. You sort it out by talking about it OOC like adults.

Try talking.
>Guys, being rude to NPCs means they and their buddies will be mean to you as well
Doesn't work?
>

Instead of trying to fix them, you'd probably be better off finding a new group that isn't composed of pathetic bottom-feeders.

>Players are ashole to NPCs
>GM warms them if consequences
>Players ignore GM
>Next NPC they bully calls her dragon dad and the dragon beats the shit of the party, incinerates their stuff and calls them bullies
>Cue a month long quest to get strong enough to kill the dragon
>And then relatives of NPCs they bullied in the pasts poisons the whole party before they can fight the dragon again.

My group doesn't treat NPCs like garbage because it's stupid to treat an imaginary person badly because they're imaginary (because you're also sitting at a table with a bunch of other nerds pretending to be powerful people).

Fug da feels. IT'S TIME TO BULLY !

Get them to actually care about the NPCs. I recommend putting the NPCs in situations that don't pose any benefit for the PCs by killing them. There don't even have to be negative consequences (at least immediate), just make it pointless to kill them.

However, not all NPCs should be held to this.

Junko pls go.

This is the right answer. Steer them without railroading by making npcs that don't make logical sense to be dicks to, and provide realistic incentives to lay off the muderhobo-ing.

For example, if you're DM don't give story-critical NPCs desirable magic items, or don't reveal them right away. Give the impression that there are greater rewards for collaborating with that npc rather than robbing them or looting their corpse. Have witnesses around to deter thuggery.

As a player, you can strike up a deal with that NPC or have them hire you to make them more valuable as an ally than an enemy. You could even play good-cop-bad-cop by acting as a foil to your companion's tomfoolery.

Don't be afraid to throw in cannon fodder for shits and giggles, though. Sometimes a well-placed act of gratuitous violence or misdirected cruelty is just what your party needs.

Have the NPC's dad beat up the PC's dad

This would actually be pretty funny

Why would they not act like this in real life? What discourages it?

Make sure that's modeled in the game.