Psychologically traumatized NPCs, Do you find them as fun as I do? Options

[Wounded Ronin]

So, I'm watching Casino Royale with some friends and it's very entertaining. As others have pointed out they try to emphasize the character of James Bond and make it serious again instead of focusing on gadgets and 14-year-old sexuality. I think it's pretty well done although I wish it were set in the 60s, as long as they're going back to the Dr. No roots.

Anyway, my favorite part in the film is...

[ Spoiler ]

...how the female accountant gets psychologically traumatized when Bond kills those guys in close proximity to her and goes sobbing in the shower afterwards.

For some reason that just really cracked me up. Usually in these action-ey types of movies everyone goes and kills a dozen mooks without breaking a sweat or batting an eye. Having someone actually react with something more than a superficial scream was supremely funny when I juxtaposed it in my mind with the conventions of the genre.

If psychologically traumatized secondary characters are as amusing to everyone else as they are to me I suppose that they would be great in a SR game. I mean, by default most players run characters who, whether or not they are designed to do well at physical combat (i.e. they could be a decker or something) aren't traumatized by t3h murder. Even if someone takes the Pacifist flaw or whatever in my experience the character is still pretty cool about mortifying battlefield carnage. They don't partake but they don't get irrationally upset or anything like that.

Of course that's reasonable for a game about mercenaries but I suppose that it's worth pointing out that this seems to hold true even for characters who don't have some kind of hardcore military background or who, by their character background, haven't already accumulated 500 combat kills.

Maybe a game could have something kind of unique flair if there were NPCs who actually DID freak out psychologically, turn irrational, whatever. Hopefully it would be some kind of recurring NPC whom the players will be able to observe some kind of mental decline with. I'm thinking of that journalist character who is quoted and stuff in, what is it, the Companion? For some reason the PCs must interact with a journalist and as the jouranlist gets sucked into more sociopathic PC activities they get to witness a mental decline. Maybe it makes them think more about their characters or something.

So, thoughts?

[Ravor]

Yes, although I try to remember that with the possible exception of Rich Corp-Babies even the most naive Sixth Worlder would be considered extremely jaded and cynical by our standards.

[treehugger]

I cant remember the game it was, but i'm pretty sure some game system had a flaw (as in merits and flaw systems) where you never killed anyone, and it wasnt a sociopathic killer game :)
Actually, even if the mood is dark, the average corp slave have never seen a dead body except on the Trid, and even less someone's head blowing up.
The worst is with magic as the effects can be pretty impressive and so imho even scarier.
People SHOULD go near catatonic once the heads start to blow up, unless you have true firefight experience.
I bet modern day military arent cold enought not to be shaken by such sight, even with their trainning, so why should the average joe just shrug off ?

[torzzzzz]

It kind of makes sense that some characters would get affected by seeing lots of killings, but it never gets played for some reason in the same way you don't play having a shower or going to the loo! :D

I would say that if you were to play it, it would possibly play like a flaw? and in that case would be really fun to play, might even try it out as an experiment in my next game!

T x

[Pendaric]

My group and I have actively chosen to back away from the realistic playing of emotional stress caused by death.
It can and does bring you down Real World.
At the end of the day we play for fun, there's real value in the roleplaying such distress in moderation but to much and bad things happen to the game. War is hell after all.

As to the effect on NPC's, its cool. I have a group of pacifist npc's that have redifined their enitre relationship wiht the PC's due to combat trauma. Just knowing the person next to you is a murderer changes how you think about them.

[mmu1]

It's not a huge part of it, but the games I play in certainly have their share of traumatized NPCs.

Hell, as we speak (we play online, had to end a session in mid-combat due to time constraints), our rigger's violently maneuvering van contains two extremely freaked out pre-teens, a nearly comatose drone rigger NPC, a beat-up mage NPC that had just been jerked awake by the screams, and an angry firefly bug spirit causing all the commotion. Oh, and a lot of weapons. And a canister of nerve gas - very well armored, but still... (and the rigger in charge, who's wishing she stayed jacked in, pretending it wasn't happening)

It makes my head hurt to think how that's going to get resolved.

As for traumatized PCs... Let me echo Pendaric and say that sort of thing has - in my experience - too much potential to be a downer. At least in the long run, and if roleplayed in detail. So while I have, for example, been having fun playing one of my characters as starting to get a little less stable (though frankly, given what a bunch of weirdoes some of the people he runs with are, I'm not sure anyone noticed) I wouldn't want to roleplay him as sliding into psychosis.

[Kagetenshi]

I'll echo that. I was originally planning on playing this exact sort of thing after my Rigger took 20 boxes from a severe narcoject overdose, but then I realized just how much time it would eat from the game and how much possibly-getting-us-killed it would cause. It bothers me that I'm playing an effective M wound (eight boxes + 3 successes on a Resist Pain spell—we met a mage who managed to get two successes on a Heal spell on me despite the TN of 10) as roughly equivalent to a bad headache, but I really don't see any other path forward that doesn't involve serious risk of getting the party pasted.

~J

[hyzmarca]

Psychological trauma can be played in a trite and cliche manner. Vesper's little cry certainly was. It can even be over-the-top, which is so much better.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Thane36425]

The many of people would be traumatized by killing even a single person. Even trained police officers often have problems with it and they all get counselling. Combat oriented training like the military gets can make this easier to handle, but still there are limits. The Nazis originally used firing squads for their genocide, but had to stop because virtually all of the soliders ended up with mental problems.

However, there is a small percentage of people who aren't much affected by this. They aren't all serial killers and such, it is just their makeup. Studies in the military since WWI have shown that a few percent of men, maybe 5% tops, are "natural warriors." These men aren't overly affected by the stress of battle or of killing. They took to the battlefield and killing list fish to water. After the war, they went home and lived normal lives. Most of them anyway. Some of them probably did end up gangsters in the 1920's, etc., but most were normal.

So, because they are drawn to running, the characters could fall into this group to one extent or another. The fighting and killing might not overly affect them. The GM could rule that in the still of the night the faces of the dead haunt them, or they get flashbacks (not bad enough to harm them, but enough to be disturbing).

Anyway, if you are so inclined, one of the better books on this subject is "On Killing: The Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society."

[Kagetenshi]

Also, it needs to be said: there is only one Casino Royale, and the person traumatized in it was Jimmy Bond.

~J

[Blade]

[Lindt]

Ah yes, one of the reasons I think the new Bond feel is great.
I havent had an NPC get all shell shocked yet, but I have a few on deck that are in positions where they could be. Im looking fwd. to it.

And 'That' Casino Royale never happened. Im sticking my head in the sand "la la la la la"

[Thane36425]

[Kyoto Kid]

...yeah, I remember when carrying a pocket knife or switchblade was grounds a meeting with the parents and principal followed by a three to five day suspension from school. Now kids bring in semi automatic pistols, SMGs and even ARs.

There's also a new trend happening, the "crime crew" where teens team up go on violent mini crime sprees.

[Kagetenshi]

[Kyoto Kid]

..yeah I know...

My Grandparents' generation complained about my parent's generation listening and dancing to that that wild and loose swing band music

My Parent's generation complained about my generation listening to all that Rock & Roll, those four guys from Liverpool, and that druggie hippie music.

Now my generation complains about all the negative connotations in Hip Hop & Rap.

...and so it goes...

I wonder if Old Bach & his generation dealt with this in the 18th Century

...those wild contrapunctalist baroquies, taking music from the church where it belongs to the heathens on the streets. May they be shown the folly of their ways. :biggrin:

[Wounded Ronin]

[Kagetenshi]

Oh, I don't know. I remember back in high school the big question was whether longarms should be allowed at school assemblies. It was eventually decided that they had to be left in lockers at that time, due to problems with vision obstruction due to a few heavily-armed rows that sat near the front of the assembly.

There was also a debate over whether it should be a disciplinary infraction to hold a pistol "gangsta style" when shooting at someone.

~J

[krayola red]

[Crusher Bob]

After several high profile missings at our school, they required us to firmly anchor our weapon in the target with the bayonet before we could pull the trigger. Now imagine a group of giggling high school girls running around the halls with fixed bayonets. What a recipie for disaster that was... :rotfl:

[Kyoto Kid]

[mfb]

wait, that's not what they were designed for?

[Kyoto Kid]

...somewhere there's a new character concept lurking in all of this...

...I think I'll call her Suzie (Buffy's already been taken)....:silly: