The Aftermath: Behind the Screen

What to do when your players go full murderhobo is a problem almost as old as D&D itself, and one that caused me some grief. Ultimately, I turned the question to the players: how long do you want to spend dealing with consequences of this? Do you want to just get away with it? Your group might want to play D&D like it’s Grand Theft Auto, and if everyone – DM included – is happy with that, then that’s okay. There’s no “right” way to play D&D.

Some players want realistic consequences. The problem is, following the crime through to a 'realistic' punishment, there’s little guidance in the setting as to what the penalty for manslaughter would be; so I, as the DM, must make a purely arbitrary decision. If it’s arbitrary, why not ask the player if they want their character to live or not?

And so to the solution. Important external factors are as follows: Sigil’s punishment for murder is clear (see In the Cage pg. 35): execution. The Athar are out for blood, and are likely to pay for the best lawyer money can buy to ensure a conviction of murder rather than manslaughter. The Guvners are aware of the burning Athar-Signer tension, and will want to stay neutral. They’re not going to get drawn into the conflict by protecting a low-ranking Namer like M’narr. He’s pretty much on his own. M’narr’s lawyer will be honest and tell him he’s fucked. He can either plead guilty, die, and hope the party can retrieve his body for resurrection; or he can plead insanity, get sent to the Gatehouse, and hope he is forgotten about and able to quietly get a discharge in a few months’ time.

What M’narr doesn’t know is that his lawyer is in cahoots with a sub-faction of the Athar. They want M’narr to get sent to the Gatehouse, so they can break into the asylum and exact a personal, torturous revenge on him. There’ll be a jailbreak mission to get him out. This solution allows for meaningful consequences. But crucially, dealing with the consequences requires the players to play D&D, rather than for me to just narrate everything, or fine them into penury.

The Park of the Infernal and Divine is a real place in Sigil, but has precious little background. With the players looking for an urban hiding place, it made good sense to use it. I flavoured it thus: centuries ago, the powers of good and evil took their shadow war to Sigil. Knowing that swaying believers was more useful that just killing each other, each side sought to out-do the other with displays of power and majesty. A lot of the displays ended up being majestic statues, all of which were built or conjured into this field of grass in The Lady’s Ward. There’s a statue here for pretty much every major celestial and fiendish high-up. Statues of the big names are still looked after, but the lesser powers have long since vanished in the razorvine.

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