ST Forge: Positive PVP in 3 Easy Steps

ST Forge is a series to help Storytellers and Game Masters improve their craft and learn new ways to engage their players.

Have you ever sat at a table where the Paladin of the group demanded he was going to engage in lethal player-vs-player combat against the Rogue for doing… roguish things? Player-vs-Player (PVP) is often seen as detrimental to conflict resolution in a tabletop roleplaying game. Yet it happens time and time again, and the story is the same decade after decade. Perhaps your players grew up in MMOs where PVP is common, or perhaps you are running Vampire: The Masquerade, where inter-party conflict is sometimes baked into the very story. Convictions, in one way or another, will clash, causing swords and tempers to flare, and inevitably, characters are trying to kill each other. Left unchecked, this rift will continue to grow at your table, and other players are left playing neutral to contain the nuclear bomb of drama unfolding in front of them.

It’s no surprise that most storytellers limit or outright ban PVP at their table.

The outright ban ties your storyteller’s hands however, depriving you of some remarkable stories and character growth dangling at your fingertips. By changing the format of the game or handling it in different ways (rather than watching tables be literally flipped), you can foster intergroup conflict without destroying your game.

A massive disclaimer is required before these ideas: If you do not want PVP at your table, you are under no obligation to allow it.

I kid you not, this was the bloodiest Holiday D&D session ever. Image Credit: Matt Doser

Anime held the answer - Tournament arcs

The easiest way to settle a grudge is in the arena. Find a faction or kingdom in your world that would have a highly sponsored tournament and run with it. I’m not talking about a one-on-one underground deathmatch; think grander. An event with Kings or Mega Corporations backing the event with full audiences. By making the tournament a large event, with sponsors and a plotline for every player at the table—each character will have their moment to shine. You’ll also be able to set up brackets with different types of competitions as well. This way, your Shadowrun Rigger won’t have to face off a Street Samurai in a game of murderball unless they really wish.

Legend of the Five Rings has had the Topaz Championship as its starter kit adventure for years, and it’s no surprise that a game dedicated to various clans and samurai would have an opening arc centered around a tournament. Multiple characters compete for the honor and glory of their chosen clan, and even though they are friends, honor demands they compete until there is a final champion. The characters face off in contests that they are strong in, while they are weak in others (looking at you, Heraldry! Nobody likes you!), but everyone gets to work a bit of PVP out of their system without the out-of-game tension that follows. Plus, it allows you to seed in multiple plot hooks and have the world react to your PC’s inner-party conflict. Every game system supports this because games and sports are baked into our very culture, it ALSO serves to display unique aspects of your particular world.

The Rule of cool

Let’s say the PVP caught you, the ST, off guard, and you don’t know what to do. A ranger decided to betray the entire party and sell them out to a local bandit group. The entire group (including you) is wondering what the hell is going on and what motivations that player could possibly have. The cheap advice is to talk to your player, figure out what’s up, and then rewind everything to pretend it never happened. Spoiler: everyone at the table already knows it did. Let’s dial up the advice and lean into the scenario by letting the events unfold. Just remember that you are the storyteller, and your glorious sandbox is yours to control.

Let the betrayal happen.

Have the PC’s in dire straights, hell, even give the ranger exactly what he wants if he is pushing for throat-slitting ruthlessness. All while passing notes to the players caught in this horrible scenario or assuring them that there is a master plan and to play along. Nearly every game has a mechanic for resurrection, and while narrating the betrayal—you lay the seeds for revenge. Let the instigator achieve his win and end the session with a spoiler that there is hope next session. Over the next week, you’ll have time to work with the NPCs, the Gods, the Underworld, or whatever powers you need to craft a cunning tale of betrayal and revenge. If the ranger’s only goal (in this example) was to become a pure villain, allow them to do so and make it part of the next quest. That player will have to make a new character of course, and their ranger will probably meet a gruesome fate at the hands of their betrayed party in the years to come—but all is fair in love and war.

War. It’s good for at least this.

Since the characters in your campaign are the protagonists of the story, then their actions have greater consequences in the world. By the time the players start developing convictions about factions enough to fight each other, they’ve often reached the mid or end of the campaign. This means every action they take has ripple effects in the world. Just as dropping a few magical items can ruin the economy of a local village, two characters with high faction ratings suddenly dueling each other in the streets can spark a war outside of the PC’s control.

There are amazing reasons for sparking this war. The obvious one is teaching your players they are moral examples for others out there, and perhaps killing each other over a bag of gold isn’t worth it. Otherwise, any time you can take a conflict your players have started and spin that conflict into a full story is a win. Nobody writes better compelling plotlines with full player investment than the players themselves. Once you crank the dial of conflict up to a solid eleven, it sets the stage for an epic campaign based on their own actions. Which they may, by that point, fully regret and have unified. If they haven’t, and you have the bandwidth, it’s possible to run two tables in the same world for a limited time as the battles unfold. When you are ready to move forward with your original story, have your villains capitalize on the scene before them to enact their plans.

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Featured Image: The Black Ballad - Elizabeth Mefessta