In my OtE campaign there has only been one "killing" so far. One death caused by a pc in about 15 sessions. This character didn't even do the killing herself, she got someone else to do it...an npc. Before the campaign started all I said was "this is as close to reality as possible". All but one of the characters had any real combat skills.

Furthermore rules for gunshots, stabbing ect are pretty loose. If you get shot, stabbed...well it's a bad situation Not that the characters are in much danger, the nature of the campaign is such that unless they go out of their way to put themselves in harms way, they should be relatively safe.

The thing is, I've noticed that with my players if I say a campaign is like "real life" they instinctively realize that they can't go around killing folks. It's like a switch is turned on. I don't even have to have any mechanics to stop them from going on a killing spree or to show the effects of killing someone on their characters mental state.

I have no idea if they are basing their actions on how they [would] behave in real life, regardless of the psychological make up of their characters or they know that this is the unwritten "rule" of the game. Perhaps one bleeds into the other.

And when they do "kill" in these settings, the stuff that get's roleplayed is guilt and fear of getting caught. Like in The Day of Living Dangerously campaign, the character who hired the killer roleplays both the feeling of guilt and the paranoia that the murder will be traced back to her character.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: flyingmiceSpike is just confused - he thinks you are talking about Pikas, who electrocute and eat each other's smoking corpses daily, the vicious brutes!

-clahs

Well, I will admit, Clahs, that my background and the daily fight for surival does color my attitude quite a bit.  But really, I'd rather do the eatin' than be eaten.