What shall we do with the drunken prisoner, what shall we do …
My current role-playing group hold minor adventures away from gaming sessions using Facebook. After our first Iron Kingdoms session ended with the war-caster killing captain Mayhorn in cold blood, one of the players opened a whole new chat session in Facebook to discuss the implications. This led to a long debate, mostly in character, about the implications of slaughtering this upstanding man and what to do about it. After much debate, we finally decided that the PC in question would be whipped 40 times – 10 times by each other member of the group – in front of all our crew, to ensure that everyone knew that we only kill people in battle, and only the people the captain decides to kill.
One of the great things about these (often impromptu) Facebook sessions is that they give all the players a chance to craft what their PCs say, rather than just blurting it out. It turns out that Captain Breaker’s player is excellent at writing a pirate, and did a great job throughout the downtime of producing piratical theatre. Here, then, is his final speech in front of the gathered crew:
Men and women of the seas!! Stamp yer feet and cry to the skies for today you have all proven yourselves as deserving sea wolves!! It is because of your bravery and strength that we have triumphed against an enemy twice our size and might.
Sea Dogs and scum we might all be, but no man here can deny that we have left our bite in the arse of those that believe themselves better than us! Remember the dead me hearties! They reach to us from Urcaen, their eyes demand that we continue to amass riches enough to slake their thirst, so that on the day of our judgement we shall have hands of gold to share with them in the afterlife.
Aye, but there is reason to mourn on this day as well, for our victory is not without stain. Mourn?! you say, aye says your captain, for today an act of vile thuggery has robbed us of both further glory and respect as sailors. I speak of the murder in cold blood of former Captain Mayhorn. Officer Carmichael!!! STEP FORWARD!
I accuse you of murdering Captain Mayhorn right after he had given up arms and begged for quarter. An act that not only is dishonorable, but more importantly robs this company of possible ransom money. Know man, that the actions of one man could brand your captain and this crew as pirates if it is not duly punished!! This act of impiety breaks the rules of conduct of the sea and carries the penalty of death by hanging. Carmichael! Do you deny these charges?!! Explain yourself in front of all and God!
There followed an extended section where we all indicated how our characters responded, and how Carmichael bore it all. I think most of us would have been too shy to work through all this stuff in so much detail and dramatic style in person, so it was a really refreshing and interesting way to run group interaction.
This was also the first time I’ve been a member of a group that actually took a cold-blooded execution seriously. We were generally concerned about both the fact that it was done at all, and its implications for our future as Privateers. And without the GM having to enforce any penalties in-game for the act!
This isn’t the only good thing about running downtimes by Facebook – I’ll try and say more about that in the new year!—
picture credit: Captain Breaker’s player was responsible for the picture of Breaker (Left) and Hrif the Younger (right) discussing what to do with a prisoner.
Compromise and Conceit 
January 15, 2014 at 7:14 am
That’s a good speech! Love the “no man here can deny that we have left our bite in the arse of those that believe themselves better than us!”
So who’s who? Is this the gang I met?
Why did the player do that exactly? Was there a reason? There seemed to be a fair amount of piratical slaughter anyway mind.
In one game I was in (an all day one off) aeons ago, a PC with a magic mechanical hand/gauntlet (Corum style) was a bit keen in dispensing justice to a relatively defenceless peasant and we ended up debating the action and consequences for a good hour. Totally ignoring the GM’s intended plot (based around Grendel), but he loved it. We ended up cutting off his hand as justice I think (which we might not have done with a more permanent char’s but it worked fine for the one off).
Maybe we should try and GM like the various comedy quiz shows work. All the comedians see the questions in advance so they get a choice to prep witty answers. I wonder if there’s a way we could we do something similar without spoiling the actual plot somehow?
January 18, 2014 at 3:10 pm
It’s the gang you met, Martin. I think the player did it to build up the shiftiness of his PC’s personality. it all worked out very well in the end. And yes, there is a crapton of piratical slaughter in this adventure.
That’s a crazy story. Cutting off a PC’s hand!
January 19, 2014 at 12:35 am
Was that the “face” guy from the shadowrun game by any chance? His “face” was one of the best acted PC’s I’ve ever met, so if he wanted to play an icky char for whatever reason – I could imagine it being quite successfully disturbing!
Yeah, it was somewhat contentious – the player grumbled a bit about it would make him weaker at killing the big bad, but was otherwise pretty stoic about the whole thing.