Do Players Ever Have To Pay Weregild?

mAcular Chaotic · March 15, 2020, 10:53:19 PM

Paying a weregild is actually being merciful. Normally you'd just get executed. I've had players get hit with a 15,000 gold piece fine for destroying a church and killing some of its top clergy, leading to a year long (IRL) quest to reclaim their lost honor and pay back the fine.

It does depend in some sense on the party's own sense of honor. If they're 100% murder hobos, they'll be able to cut down pretty much everyone in their way unless they're like level 1, but then the campaign is effectively just about them being on the run from the law at that point.

Azraele · March 15, 2020, 11:07:39 PM

For the rest of us left scratching our collective skulls at "Weregild":

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WillInNewHaven · March 16, 2020, 09:52:30 AM

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1124294Paying a weregild is actually being merciful. Normally you'd just get executed. I've had players get hit with a 15,000 gold piece fine for destroying a church and killing some of its top clergy, leading to a year long (IRL) quest to reclaim their lost honor and pay back the fine.

It does depend in some sense on the party's own sense of honor. If they're 100% murder hobos, they'll be able to cut down pretty much everyone in their way unless they're like level 1, but then the campaign is effectively just about them being on the run from the law at that point.

Is there some sort of rule that I never knew about that everyone you meet has to be a mook? No player-character in my campaign could ever be confident that they could "cut down pretty much everyone in their way," whatever system I was running.

Ghostmaker · March 16, 2020, 10:34:07 AM

And just to muddy the waters further, in some cases weregild is paid when someone dies under your command.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings references an incident where King Folcwine of Rohan sent two sons to lead an army in support of Gondor against a Haradrim invasion. Sadly, both sons died in the defense, and Turin II (the Steward of Gondor) would send a great weregild of gold as compensation.

crkrueger · March 16, 2020, 10:59:26 AM

Are PCs required to pay Weregild or can demand Weregild?

Sure...if they're in a place where the culture accepts Weregild.

Bren · March 16, 2020, 11:08:34 AM

I may have missed one or two posts, but how exactly does one get a were to stand still long enough to gild them? I would think werewolves, werebears, wereboars, etc. would resist the gilding process.

mAcular Chaotic · March 16, 2020, 01:02:04 PM

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;1124325Is there some sort of rule that I never knew about that everyone you meet has to be a mook? No player-character in my campaign could ever be confident that they could "cut down pretty much everyone in their way," whatever system I was running.

It's a general assumption of adventuring. The player characters are a league above everyone else and that's why they're needed for help.

Bren · March 16, 2020, 02:23:45 PM

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1124351It's a general assumption of adventuring. The player characters are a league above everyone else and that's why they're needed for help.

It's an assumption, but it's not one everyone uses. In 46 years of gaming, I don't think I've ever run or played in any setting where that assumption was true.

Zirunel · March 16, 2020, 07:03:39 PM

Quote from: Greentongue;1124042Sometimes humans are killed. Be they "bandits" or townsfolk in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Are characters ever held accountable to the families of those they kill?

What about the other side? Can surviving characters demand weregild for companions that are killed?

I suppose I don't know this for certain, but I'm guessing this question is at least partly inspired by Tekumel, where wergeld-like compensation for torts (including death but also injury, property damage, slander, minor slights, etc) is baked pretty hard into the setting?

On Tekumel, it is emphatically a thing. Playing D&D, I don't remember it ever being so much a formal thing in any game I've played in, although, most every game I can remember, killing people (humans) always comes with consequences

Greentongue · March 17, 2020, 06:40:24 AM

Quote from: Zirunel;1124395I suppose I don't know this for certain, but I'm guessing this question is at least partly inspired by Tekumel, where wergeld-like compensation for torts (including death but also injury, property damage, slander, minor slights, etc) is baked pretty hard into the setting?

On Tekumel, it is emphatically a thing. Playing D&D, I don't remember it ever being so much a formal thing in any game I've played in, although, most every game I can remember, killing people (humans) always comes with consequences

While yes, I've used it most often playing in Tekumel, it can certainly apply in most settings that have feuds as a real possibility.

I doubt that most wandering Murder Hobos style games consider it but if I knew all the answers there would be no point in asking.

WillInNewHaven · March 17, 2020, 01:46:41 PM

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1124351It's a general assumption of adventuring. The player characters are a league above everyone else and that's why they're needed for help.

Eventually, maybe, they reach that stage but it takes time and trials to get there. Most of the player-characters in my campaigns have been people who are, in their minds, temporarily adventuring for cause. Professional adventurers have been rare. And most characters who reach a stage where they are leagues above everyone else retire.