I'm sure some of you have run into this… I was talking to one of my players who was supposed to be a Moritat assassin, but we both agreed he has been straying pretty far from that as he moves into the leadership role within his Cell. Now, we were talking really about fleshing out his background more since there were aspects we had missed, and as it turns out not only does his character have a deathwish (based on guilt over incidents in his childhood) that he is just now coming to terms with and admitting to, but he also is quitting the Reaper path.

I already plan to build in repercussions from leaving the Reapers, as they have been observing him on his Travails. I think he might honestly want me to kill his character and that might actually happen.

What really gets to me is that, in rejecting it, he also made statements that all of humanity is essentially doomed and a state of chaos is natural (though he was thinking of it like entropy or a natural order, not a malevolent force working against humanity), stressing that everything the Moritat and even the Inquisition works for will be for naught. Now, he hasn't said this out loud, but if his character is having this crisis of faith it's sure to come out through his work sooner or later. If his heart isn't in it, perhaps he will endanger the other cell members or even a population he is trying to protect.

As a GM, this gives me lots of fodder but I'm not sure where he's going with it. In RL the guy is a philosophy major and he has had some very serious concerns and doubts about the 40K setting itself, conceptually, and I know he's battled with it. He's also a dedicated enough roleplayer that this might be his character working through a period of personal doubt.

So I put it to you all. Have you dealt with something like this from your players? Should I actively try to kill him as he seems like he might be asking for? It would be easy to send his observer to kill him because he knows too much. Do the Moritat even do that? Also, how can I exploit his doubts or help him work through them? He could be a pretty interesting Radical in the making…

I see three possible thinks here

1) The player does not like the setting/feels that the setting is nor realitic/reasonable and makes his char acting out o nit

2) You have a good roleplayer here who is into a little drama

3) Somebody has bought "Black Crusade" recently and will try to convert your gaming group

In case of 1) --> Nothing you can do about it. As long as nothing hits the fan, let the things role on. If it starts getting ugly, deal with the problems that emerge. Ahead planing is futile!

In case of 2) --> Nothing wrong here, let things role on.

In case of 3) --> Relax and wait for the chance to become a player instead of a GM

Haha! I think out of your three options it's the 1st, and maybe the 2nd. Def not the 3rd, since he's broke and I buy all the books. He's never expressed interest in playing that.

I agree though, in those cases there's not much I can do. The environment of 40K is very brutal and confusing, so I can understand that his desire for a neat and orderly philosophy will be challenged and I LOVE challenging it on purpose. As for the second option, I will probably find out tonight when we game but I also asked him straight up if this was HIM or his character having those doubts. I'll keep you guys posted, but thanks for the vote of confidence.

Lets hope its option 2- most people play the 40k setting straight, exaggerating everything themselves and purging everything FOR THE EMPEROR! I've not quite seen a player go into that level of introspection yet with it yet.

I am very curious as to how it works out, do keep up us posted! Thanks.

Good luck with you're game as well- it seems to be going very well though: its good for a GM to challenge his players like that (I really need to get back into it hehe).

These guys have never played it straight like that. 2 years on now between RT and DH with various members, but this guy's been core and he's always had a real problem with the setting. I mean, I think he enjoys it but it disturbs him. They want to know why it's not more high tech, why religion is so strong, etc. I want them to read the Horus Heresy novels but fat chance… Anyway, they're all great roleplayers and I love messing with their heads so it works out, but I want to make sure it's still fun for him, you know?

Thanks both of you for the words of encouragement though.

I feel like adding a little something here. You say that you think the player enjoys the setting, but it disturbs him? and that he's had issues with it for a while? To me that just sounds like you're presenting the 41st millenium properly. It is supposed to be disturbing and dark and in many ways just unpleasant for someone living in this day and age (or that has at least been my take on it). My players never seem to grasp this.

Would the Moritat send another Reaper or Reapers to Kill the PC, I would say yes. Had he not been inducted into the Reapers he might not have this issue, as I expect they loose many who can not handle the restriction that are placed on them. Is he now openly spilling blood with guns?

Might start as a simple Reaper on Ex-Reaper, but expect that it will be watched by the Moritat support/intelligence arms that monitors them. He he kills the other Reaper with a edged weapon, well might be the end of it. Yet if he uses a gun, I would expect more Reapers to come, maybe including working in teams and maybe with supporting non Reapers Moritat members.

I wish you well with this game and please keep us informed

While my fellow posters are correct, perhaps there is another way to let the suicidal assassin play it his way without killing off his character. My suggestion is to let him to abandon the path of the Moritat, and have his faith crushed. However, that fall from the assassins may be what makes him into an Inquisitor. I realize he may not be at Ascension level yet, but hear me out.

In philosophy, there are two concepts by Freidrich Nietzche that could be of use to you: the "Last Man" and the "Übermensch" from Thus Spoke Zarathustra . The "Last Man" is described by Nietzche as a (bad) goal for humanity. The "Last Man" is a creature of comfort; he does things only for his own security, is apathetic to such things as passion, lives within the ways and means of a given society, and generally exists for their own existence, because there is no other reason to. They have little patience for anything that would endanger their comfort, and if they are altruistic, they would give this same comfort to others, who will in turn become as apathetic and passionless as they are.

The Übermensch, on the other hand, is a creator of a new morality. The creation of the Übermensch was supposed to be the goal of humanity (according to Nietzche), but societal rules and religious culture not only get in the way of that, but also contribute to humanity's and the universe's downward spiral. The Übermensch is a reaction against that- the Übermensch rejects current values, and substitutes his own, ideally creating a humanity better suited to the needs of the world and the universe as a whole.

So, what does this all mean for your character? Let him have a choice: let him be a Last Man or an Übermensch. With the "death" of his faith, he has little guidance except himself. And if he survives his own doubt and angst, he can be a good candidate for becoming an Inquisitor. If he chooses the Last Man route, he can fight against change, believing his actions to keep things as they are are altruistic, or even heroic. He could be a Puritan fighting an Übermensch Radical, or believes he can unwind the secrets of Tzeench by discovering the Black Library. If he chooses the Übermensch route, he can become his own judge, jury and executioner, leading the Imperium of Man to a newer age. Again, he could be a Puritan, creating new orders of assassins, to cull the traitors and weaklings of humanity, or become a Radical, touting war as the only solution, or spreading the psyker gene to humanity in an attempt towards transcendence.

A lack of faith doesn't mean an end to one's character; it could be the reason the Holy Ordos chose him in the first place. After all, Inquisitors are beholden only to themselves.

Jeff Tibbetts said:

The answer is simple really. Humanity has been through the apocalypse and some how survived. Their societies destroyed by their own accursed tools in the dark age of technology has created a rightfully deserved fear of technology and science. Their planets and worlds abandoned in the worst kind of way in the time before the Emperor. I mean the players really must understand how the people where rescued from the worst kind of hell by the Emperor.

Imagine our world had ran out of petroleum completely and it needed to be shipped in from else where, along with food, and advanced medicine. The supplies come regularly and then suddenly it just stops. The global economy crashes within a few months. Only back breaking labor will push supplies to the major cities. Billions of people having never farmed or even gardened will have to wait months for their food to grow but most will only have weeks till they suffer an ignoble fate. Without an economy to guarantee survival the infrastructure falls apart and people are forced to fend for themselves with out power. Within a year catastrophic famine, disease, and violence have scarred the imaginations of the people forever.

This happened everywhere in the Imperium. Think what you will of a dark setting but the Emperor saved these poor bastards. He's still saving them with the Astronomicon. Without the Emperor many planets could not support their populations and there would be another violent implosion of human progress. This is why the people worship the Emperor so readily.

Another note about the technology as well. Often times it's not that they don't have the ability it's that they don't have it for everyone. Most of the transmission lines are dedicated for important business and not for idle calls to ones mom. With trillions of bodies the airwaves are litterly jammed with important calls that would essentially render our concept of cell phones as a crackpot theory. Why all the candles and quills? Well cause power don't come cheap. We here in our pitiful population of 6 billion can have some who enjoy the luxuries of computer tablets but in a population of 300 billion… not a chance. That power is going to stuff that matters and it's certainly not going to be distributed to just any ol'prole with a desire to share adorable kitten pictures.

/stands up and claps

Well put, Garner. One of the best descriptions I have seen like… ever

Garner said:

Wow, fellas. This thread took on a life of its own and that's awesome! There's some Good Stuff ™ going on.

So here's the dealio: First of all I should not have said the player was a Reaper. He took the opening advance but not the alt one yet, he's still on his Trevails. I spoke with him last night, and he's being a good roleplayer. He's not nearly as despondent IRL as his character, and this was his way of legitimately working through his character's doubts. He has NOT entirely given up on the Moritat path, and may yet choose to stay within it. He has used a gun, in a situation where his blades may not have worked well (fighting a Slaugth, and heck if I worshipped my blade with religious reverence I wouldn't want to put it anywhere near one of those guys!) but not since. His character has seen some crazy things, and honestly doesn't understand the power struggles, politics, mindless bureaucracy, etc. of the Imperium and isn't yet sure what to make of it all. I will be watching him closely as he moves forward… Angel of Death said that if he wasn't inducted into the Reapers, they might let him go. I agree with that! Isn't that what the Trevails are for? I mean, the way I understand them the cult doesn't seem to harbor any further agenda or have many secrets to expose beyond their actual techniques. I really like some of the things you fine folks came up with, and will be filtering through all of it as we move on in the game to see how things turn out.

As for the setting: I'm a big fan of "show, don't tell" in storytelling but sometimes it doesn't really work out as well as I'd like. I mean, the characters grew up in the crazy environs of the Imperium but the actual players did not, so from an outsider's perspective something like the social dichotomy of Ambulon with it's glittering jeweled spine nobles vs. the mutant gutscum is confusing. None of them have a background with 40K, and I try my best to show them how screwed up and crazy things are but sometimes I think they figure I'm just messing with them. The guy that plays the Moritat, incidentally, is a very seasoned GM and he is running a RT game that he just started up a little while ago. In reading GM resources, I think he's coming to understand some metagame principles a little better. So, basically, I feel like I'm on the right track in terms of setting, I just wish I could be more explicit and explain some things to them. I do, when and if it's relevant.