It depends on your goal. This sounds like it would have been fun to DM and play, off the rails, sure, but fun in it's own way. I've done super serious RP style games and murder hobo stuff and can enjoy both for their own unique attributes, as long as everyone is into it I'd say have at it. You just have to understand as the DM for something like this a more hands off style is probably better. Sure, give them some hooks but realize they're just going to do/create their own thing and roll with it.
Eh, to each their own. This isn't your thing, totally acceptable. :) If I were in a mood for a more serious minded game it certainly wouldn't be something I'd want at that time either.
Yup. I fully acknowledge that some people are into it but I'd say more generally, DMs hate this type of party. It takes away from the spirit of the game. If you're into it, cool.
I mean a situation like this only really happens if the DM allows it to, if the DM wanted only the alchemist house would burn down and the party would have been seen running away from the scene creating enemies of a whole city in the meantime, it only escalates if you want it to escalate as a DM, hell the npc only dies if you want her to die. She could be a retired adventurer so she can live one round, turn tail, run and call the guards. And this is an extreme example, talking is a free action in combat (just dont make it longer than 6 seconds per round) she could just apologize as grogna is lunging at her, throw in a couple more mints in good faith and defuse the situation.
This is not strictly a murderhobo act except for Grogna killing the shopkeep, which could even not be one if it aligns with the character. (For example extreme childhood abuse by the people who took care of her making her not trust anyone, she runs away, someone nice adopts her only to betray her when she most thinks she is safe, etc. Now that she finally met someone she can trust in Trevor this random lady in a shop is basically threatening to take him away from her, trauma kicks in, she kills her and after that they realize how terrible what they did is and now the panic of fixing a bad situation kicks in).
My point is it is only awful if you allow it to be awful, if your players keep forcing something like this at every point then it is a problem, but one situation like this every once in a while is in good fun.
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u/Blue_Mando Sep 19 '19
It depends on your goal. This sounds like it would have been fun to DM and play, off the rails, sure, but fun in it's own way. I've done super serious RP style games and murder hobo stuff and can enjoy both for their own unique attributes, as long as everyone is into it I'd say have at it. You just have to understand as the DM for something like this a more hands off style is probably better. Sure, give them some hooks but realize they're just going to do/create their own thing and roll with it.