Dear @matthewmercer ,
From one dm to another, how can you stop/prevent your players from always becoming murder-hobos and killing their way through your campaign?Sincerely yours, a desperate dm that has tried for 4 years. #dnd #dungeonsanddragons
— Marie Cham (@MiniMatato) February 10, 2019
It’s a tough start. Having law enforcement much more powerful than the party bring them to task can help, & trial where they have to befriend a shady lord to get off the hook? Show allies can benefit them more than dead bodies by discovering their killing ended a profitable story
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) February 11, 2019
Just killing everyone they encounter has consequences, and often in ways that the players cannot avoid. Make offers/hooks where it is implicit that killing their way through would result in a probable TPK, or imprisonment.
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) February 11, 2019
One issue is that combat may seem the only “Good” option. One problem many RPGs (especially limited or linear situations such as in Video games) have is that doing the right / moral thing such as sparing opponents does not result in as much loot / reward / xp targets as the kill option.
Unfortunately most short-sighted responders to this basic concept is “Well you’re not Supposed to be rewarded for doing the right thing.” While this response holds true on the surface, it ultimately represents a justification for penalizing the players. If the players continually choose the “good / better path” that deprives them of rewards such as loot, this will leave them under-equipped, and consequently under-performing compared to their “murder-hobo” counterparts. Further, even though allies and connections can provide aid to offset this, such networks are generally location specific and don’t help in other areas / “dungeons”.
It is because of this that my fellow DM and I began brainstorming on both a reputation system and a boon system. The reputation system, somewhat like the honor system of 2nd Ed Oriental Adventures would provide discounts / refusal from vendors or favor / disfavor with law enforcement. The boon system (for those finding non-combat / kill solutions) might see a town or religious organization tasking a low level adventurer to intercept the hero and deliver an item to them, or the granting of background or feat abilities by a divine entity reminiscent of the Vow of Poverty from the Book of Exalted deeds. This way should they forego the loot / rewards that murder-hoboing might grant them, they are not left underpowered for doing so