So, gamers. Important question: When adventuring, do you desecrate tombs, graves, or bodies? Do you loot the dead?
So, gamers. Important question: When adventuring, do you desecrate tombs, graves, or bodies? Do you loot the dead?
So, gamers. Important question: When adventuring, do you desecrate tombs, graves, or bodies? Do you loot the dead?
In fantasy games yes; it often has consequences.
In fantasy games yes; it often has consequences.
Sometimes. Depended on whether the dead were “us” or “them”.
We didn’t go around to all the cemeteries in town, digging for wedding rings. But nor did we hesitate to loot the bodies of our slain enemies.
Undead are always fair targets. Unless, of course, we have come to see them as “victims” of a vampire or necromancer, e.g..
Sometimes. Depended on whether the dead were “us” or “them”.
We didn’t go around to all the cemeteries in town, digging for wedding rings. But nor did we hesitate to loot the bodies of our slain enemies.
Undead are always fair targets. Unless, of course, we have come to see them as “victims” of a vampire or necromancer, e.g..
In the games I run, I often have civilisation push back. The elves want the armour of their slain brethren returned. The dwarves object to the cleric wearing the armour of their fallen hero and will go to war in order to get it back, that kind of thing. But other than that, “what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon”.
In the games I run, I often have civilisation push back. The elves want the armour of their slain brethren returned. The dwarves object to the cleric wearing the armour of their fallen hero and will go to war in order to get it back, that kind of thing. But other than that, “what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon”.
A bit difficult to play a dungeon crawling game centred on acquiring equipment and loot without doing that. Otherwise, no.
A bit difficult to play a dungeon crawling game centred on acquiring equipment and loot without doing that. Otherwise, no.
In my D&D 5e game I am running the excellent Storm King’s Thunder.
This module caused a little controversy upon release because it requires the PCs to loot one or more burial mounds.
Some DMs recoiled off that and made changes. For myself I am going to ramp it up. It will be a moral decision for the party (who have been quite happy to slaughter the living members of the Tribes), and there will be repercussions, both ‘political’ (the Tribes will unite!) and supernatural (curses, etc).
For myself I am hoping that the players come up with another solution to the problem.
They usually do! 🙂
In my D&D 5e game I am running the excellent Storm King’s Thunder.
This module caused a little controversy upon release because it requires the PCs to loot one or more burial mounds.
Some DMs recoiled off that and made changes. For myself I am going to ramp it up. It will be a moral decision for the party (who have been quite happy to slaughter the living members of the Tribes), and there will be repercussions, both ‘political’ (the Tribes will unite!) and supernatural (curses, etc).
For myself I am hoping that the players come up with another solution to the problem.
They usually do! 🙂
In any version of D&D, yes. In any other game, no.
In any version of D&D, yes. In any other game, no.
I mainly play in a fantasy world with faithful (not necessarily lawful) heroes as characters where robbing the dead would threaten their and your own souls heavily (The Dark Eye). So we definitely don’t. If we do, there must be some highly relevant reason of something even worse for the world coming from it.
In other games I plunder or desecrate the dead when it’s an integral part of my character. Like, recently I played a druid who worshipped his God by letting his animal companion eating from the dead. But he was honoring the dead in this way (from his point of view).
I mainly play in a fantasy world with faithful (not necessarily lawful) heroes as characters where robbing the dead would threaten their and your own souls heavily (The Dark Eye). So we definitely don’t. If we do, there must be some highly relevant reason of something even worse for the world coming from it.
In other games I plunder or desecrate the dead when it’s an integral part of my character. Like, recently I played a druid who worshipped his God by letting his animal companion eating from the dead. But he was honoring the dead in this way (from his point of view).
When I run D&D, a part of the setting is always that, if the dead are left with their possessions, they tend to remain tied to this world, and reanimate as undead. So, evil people/cultures/creatures bury their dead with their possessions, and good people/creatures/cultures do not. Relieving the dead of their possessions, either to use or to destroy, is an important part of respecting the dead and allowing them to move on into the afterlife. “Looting” or “desecrating” the burial sites of evil cultures either puts an end to a host of undead, or prevents the rise of undead later. Of course, that gets us into the whole problem of “evil” cultures …
When I run D&D, a part of the setting is always that, if the dead are left with their possessions, they tend to remain tied to this world, and reanimate as undead. So, evil people/cultures/creatures bury their dead with their possessions, and good people/creatures/cultures do not. Relieving the dead of their possessions, either to use or to destroy, is an important part of respecting the dead and allowing them to move on into the afterlife. “Looting” or “desecrating” the burial sites of evil cultures either puts an end to a host of undead, or prevents the rise of undead later. Of course, that gets us into the whole problem of “evil” cultures …
If it’s in my character’s personality to do so, then yes. I play to the character. As a GM I let the players do whatever they want but their actions always have consequences.
If it’s in my character’s personality to do so, then yes. I play to the character. As a GM I let the players do whatever they want but their actions always have consequences.
As CEO of the guild of extraordinary murder hobos anything other than a yes is treason!
As CEO of the guild of extraordinary murder hobos anything other than a yes is treason!
Gerrit Reininghaus​ How do heros then acquire magic items? Make them? Defeat an enemy without killing them and take the items? Steal them from vaults or armories where they for some reason lie inused?
Gerrit Reininghaus​ How do heros then acquire magic items? Make them? Defeat an enemy without killing them and take the items? Steal them from vaults or armories where they for some reason lie inused?
They get handed them by an old mage as part of their heroic destiny of course!
They get handed them by an old mage as part of their heroic destiny of course!
Christo Meid In that setting there aren’t many magic items. Hardly any with permanent magic at least. Those charged with some spells you can buy at wizard academies.
However, I should mention that extraordinary situations are often enough around in an adventurer’s life. So no religion would put your own life at stake for the sanctity of some rules. You can also pray for forgiveness.
Christo Meid In that setting there aren’t many magic items. Hardly any with permanent magic at least. Those charged with some spells you can buy at wizard academies.
However, I should mention that extraordinary situations are often enough around in an adventurer’s life. So no religion would put your own life at stake for the sanctity of some rules. You can also pray for forgiveness.