Murder and Mayhem

[Kestrel]

Depends on the character.

This. As well as the purpose of the character. Sometimes I join an RP just because I want to write about killing things. Will my character care if that's the case? Probably not.

[Kangaroo]

Going back to the theme of pacifist characters, it's one which had be really quite challenging and often provides quite a good reward if it manages to come off right. A lot of it does matter with the type of character, obviously some professions just don't suit the pacifist way. A good example of how it can work in a group roleplay that has violence and death in it, would to be considering a healer or scholar/monk role that has some purpose to the group beyond killing. But then the question does also exist whether it's the act of violence they hate, or personally committing violence that they hate. I don't know if technically both count as pacifists, I would consider that they do but I'm not an expert on the matter. It can also lead to a great level of teamwork between writers as there are players that need to be protected yet they will be ding soemthing that the warriors of the group aren't able to do later on.

[Kestrel]

Going back to the theme of pacifist characters, it's one which had be really quite challenging and often provides quite a good reward if it manages to come off right. A lot of it does matter with the type of character, obviously some professions just don't suit the pacifist way. A good example of how it can work in a group roleplay that has violence and death in it, would to be considering a healer or scholar/monk role that has some purpose to the group beyond killing. But then the question does also exist whether it's the act of violence they hate, or personally committing violence that they hate. I don't know if technically both count as pacifists, I would consider that they do but I'm not an expert on the matter. It can also lead to a great level of teamwork between writers as there are players that need to be protected yet they will be ding soemthing that the warriors of the group aren't able to do later on.

The concept of protecting a vulnerable character, I enjoy. A recurring theme in RP's I play characters in is that this character 'pays' everyone else, one way or another, so if this character dies it goes poof with your salary/dearest heartfelt wish/loved ones their lives. These characters are typically lesser fighters or unable to fight. Not pacifists per sé but if you barely know how to handle a kitchen knife and you're up against trained soldiers or ferocious beasts... You're going to prefer running and hiding behind your bodyguard than taking your chances with an enemy.

[Kangaroo]

The concept of protecting a vulnerable character, I enjoy. A recurring theme in RP's I play characters in is that this character 'pays' everyone else, one way or another, so if this character dies it goes poof with your salary/dearest heartfelt wish/loved ones their lives. These characters are typically lesser fighters or unable to fight. Not pacifists per sé but if you barely know how to handle a kitchen knife and you're up against trained soldiers or ferocious beasts... You're going to prefer running and hiding behind your bodyguard than taking your chances with an enemy.

I think that where's the distinction between personal and universal hatred of violence comes in. Whether there both forms of pacifism, I don't know but the idea of being payed/escorted is also another good one, can often lead to the best interactive roleplays.

[Shon Harris]

My last character, Simon, has had five years of kill or be killed. Despite this, he does not simply go along with it. Most nights I describe his dreams. Each has some religious connections and it can be viewed as if a vague premonition or possibly just him thinking he's somehow 'chosen by God'. Whatever you decide it is, it often distracts Simon.

Thinking about it, I don't do characters who are completely desensitizes to killing. I heard Brovo speak about the second nature idea, but my experience with veterans in and out of my family has been different. For example, my great-grandfather served during in the Second World War as a medic and paratrooper from D-Day until the close of the European theater. Before I was born he was home with his family, maybe a decade later, and one of the young girls was playing with a cat. Apparently the cat hurt her somehow, she cried out, and my great-grandfather instantaneously grabbed it and snapped its neck. The killing came, like Brovo said, by second nature, but the remorse and the emotions surrounding it plagued him for years.

With that example in mind my characters may kill, but they have some sort of foundation to keep them sane. An early character in RPG I had killed frequently and was gifted with that skill. His counterweight was a sense of necessary evil placed in the group that he killed for. It still took an emotional toll, but he lessened the effect so long as he believed the group must survive and the killing ensured it.

[Dudel]

Which I find somewhat bewildering and that's why I am asking if and how you roleplay your characters' attitude towards killing. Does it ever become important for character development or can they happily slice away?

I have 2 characters that I typically squeeze into fantasy games. One of them is a sociopathic lizard, so enjoyment in the acts typically follow, and the other is a firm neutralist, doing his best to avoid asserting himself onto others (which includes death) and finds killing of others bad-form in most cases. Of course the second character is also neutral in most of the RP endeavors, unless it can be shown to be in his interests to be involved.

[Mimosa]

As a chill, nonviolent person by nature, I like to think my characters have very diverse reactions to killing and violence. Off the top of my head, in the one violent RP I'm in, I'm playing:

-A young woman who was very rarely treated as human throughout her life and as a result has no problem with killing. "Conscience? What's that?"
-Another chick who is against killing the innocent, but she's a little delusional and thinks she lives in an Orwellian nightmare-world. She views it as her civic duty to rid the government of corruption by assassinating politicians.
-And a bloke who thought he was going to enjoy killing--for chrissakes, his favorite hobby is beating his sports rivals over the head with a club!--but once he actually gets ordered to kill someone, he has a mental breakdown and can't do it, so Girl Number One has to do it for him.

[Brovo]

As a chill, nonviolent person by nature, I like to think my characters have very diverse reactions to killing and violence. Off the top of my head, in the one violent RP I'm in, I'm playing:

-A young woman who was very rarely treated as human throughout her life and as a result has no problem with killing. "Conscience? What's that?"
-Another chick who is against killing the innocent, but she's a little delusional and thinks she lives in an Orwellian nightmare-world. She views it as her civic duty to rid the government of corruption by assassinating politicians.
-And a bloke who thought he was going to enjoy killing--for chrissakes, his favorite hobby is beating his sports rivals over the head with a club!--but once he actually gets ordered to kill someone, he has a mental breakdown and can't do it, so Girl Number One has to do it for him.

Wow. Nice.

[Informatix]

So, this has been on my mind for quite a while. How do your characters cope with killing?

I'm used to fantasy RPs where people will bash in heads and slit throats without batting an eye. Even the naive, young farm girl who just discovered her sorcerous powers is able to burn a man to death and think nothing of it. At most, there will be a onetime token utterance of "OMG, I killed him!" and that's it.

Which I find somewhat bewildering and that's why I am asking if and how you roleplay your characters' attitude towards killing. Does it ever become important for character development or can they happily slice away?

Depends. I'm a fairly detached individual myself most times, so I tend to forget this kind of conflict for purely personal reasons. Other times, I consciously bypass it by playing someone who is either detached or already seasoned at .. whatever individual killing profession they tend to have, mostly because I don't find that conflict very interesting to play out. It was necessary, either for greater good (or SCIENCE!) or your own survival, and that's how much time I usually have for the problem.
I do play one or two characters who are averse to (at least excessive) killing, but as you said, that's difficult to play plausibly when the other players won't go along with it and restrain their own characters - what reason would you have for hanging out with a bunch of murderous freaks whom you detest?
I do pride myself on generally avoiding gratuitious bloodbaths when possible, but that's a matter for another thread (like "How graphic/frequent is your in-game violence?").


PS: I think a lot of fantasy characters can rationalize by remembering that there's a definite afterlife out there, so you're not necessarily doing anything wrong, are you?
Ahem. Sorry, had to get rid of that stray thought, because I used a similar argument in my conscietous objection.