Avoiding the MurderHobo: An Argument for Crafting Context

A short one this morning, inspired partially by my recent acquisition of the first graphic novel of Rat Queens.  This is primarily a tabletop issue, but is one that has implications in LARP as well.  One of my favorite critique terms for the genre of Dungeons and Dragons is the term MurderHobo.  The idea behind the critique is that many D&D parties simply wander aimlessly through the world and kill things, some of which are arguably sentient and innocent.  I am not here to argue that this doesn't happen.  One might even say that the Murderhobo is a kind of natural savagery that D&D parties devolve into without guidance.  But I say that it is ultimately a failure of context crafting, a part of worldbuilding that is often ignored.

So, what do I mean by context crafting and how does it fit into gaming in general and the MurderHobo in particular.  Part of crafting a game is crafting a game world, the fictional universe in which the game takes place.  Part of this is imagining the way in which different elements interact, how do the elves feel about the dwarves? Who lives in the old swamp? How does interstellar travel work? Was there an ancient empire who left ruins everywhere? These questions create a world, but one aspect that escapes many people in the process of worldbuilding is creating a context for the action of the story.  It's all well and good to have a war between the halflings and the gnomes, but where do the PCs fit into that context.

Crafting Contexts for Action
This is part of why I recommend a degree of working backwards when it comes to worldbuilding and methods for avoiding the MurderHobo problem demonstrate this very well.  So, at the heart of the MurderHobo issue is the idea of unmotivated travel and a default attitude of violence.  Adventure stories tend to be about travel, so the story tends to move from place to place, and characters built for violence, as I would argue D&D PCs tend to be, tend to look for opportunities to use their abilities.  The way to avoid a game devolving into a MurderHobo Jamboree is to create a context for the game that incorporates travel and violence(or investigation or social politicking, or whatever your specific game is about) and build that into the world.  Think about what type of people historically travel from place to place and what kind of contexts freelancers are acceptable in(note, the term freelance actually comes from historical mercenaries a Free Lance refers to a knight that does not have a lord). And think about what the stakes are for which the characters are willing to use violence.

Here are some examples.

• A game about a merchant caravan, where different character classes represent different roles within the caravan.  The characters are willing to use violence to defend themselves from raiders or to help people along the way based on the 'Caravan Code' which governs how different caravans interact.

• A game about a judge travelling a circuit.  The characters are attendant on that judge and act as bailiffs, summoners, even executioners.  They may help with investigations or have to defend prisoners from mob justice.  They are authorized to use violence in accordance with serving the law.

• A game about an exiled lord and his household.  The characters are the last loyal servants of a lord who have to try and find a new home after a failed coup against the evil(?) king.  They wander from place to place looking for a new home, sometimes taking freelance work to pay the bills.  They use violence to defend themselves and to earn a living.

• A game that takes place in a country with no standing army, where all military operations are sourced to privateer style adventuring companies.  Strong intercompany rivalries exist, but direct conflicts are rare.  Instead, adventuring companies are sent to deal with catastrophies normally handled by the military.  

• A game set in the aftermath of a catastrophe, where people are isolated in small communities.  Adventuring groups travel to ruins to salvage valuable materials and sell them to the communities that produce food and allow them to survive the winter, but those ruins are inhabited by the lingering monsters that were the root of the catastrophe.  

All of these contexts provide a stage on which the action of the story can take place.  They may be the action of the story all by themselves.  They are all contexts that incorporate the fundamentals of the D&D adventuring per the MurderHobo paradigm, travel and violence, while giving potential reasons that the populace doesn't just rise up and kill these people who wander from town to town and create trouble.

Creating Eventfulness in LARP
This is more applicable to LARP than it might appear at first blush.  While the type of context being created is very different, many LARPs fail because they do not create a context in which it makes sense for the action to take place.  In a LARP, the question is less about what sort of people travel, but more of a question of what sort of events draw people together and provide for the sort of politicking that makes up LARP.  This is especially true in ongoing LARPs, because the excuse of , we hang around every second Saturday makes less sense when the city as a whole hates each other.

I find that in a LARP, the creation of a ritual calendar, or sense of regular eventfulness can be an action driving context.  Even the idea of a leader holding court on a regular basis can be relevant context for disparate groups and individuals to gather and interact.  Part of this is the creation of stakes.  If there is something in the gamespace that cannot be gained by characters in other ways(if gamespace is the only time territory is handed out, or if gamespace is the only time that one can gain social status, or if gamespace is the only time that a secret society can meet unobtrusively), then characters have a context for game attendance.

This problem actually has a player component as well.  While the Wolverine character may feel like an interesting choice, being a grumpy loner almost never works for a LARP.  Such characters seek out ways of being alone, and coming to a social gathering, no matter how mandatory, is anathema to their ways of being.  In this case, part of context creation falls to players, creating characters that fit the context.

Altogether, by crafting a context for the action of the story, Storytellers can make better games.  When thinking about the world that is made, think about how that world creates opportunities for the story of game to include the characters.  Because otherwise, they'll wander off and you'll be stuck running a MurderHobo Jamboree!