Sunday 13 May 2018

Merry Murder Hobo Month of May







































After this video came out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=802&v=lMpVxtTWqbc
It talks about problems with murder hobos lika a pathology, the causes and solutions but assumes everyone is agreeing on what Murder Hobo means.

And earlier I found these definitions

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=murderhobo

1 murderhobo

The typical protagonist of a fantasy role-playing game, who is a homeless guy who goes around killing people and taking their stuff. The term originated in discussions of tabletop role-playing games by authors seeking to create games aimed at styles of play not supported by traditional games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Four murderhoboes burned down the peaceful orc village, killed every orc in it, and looted their corpses.

2 murderhobo

A derogatory term used to denigrate old school players of Dungeons & Dragons, and considered a gross insult among real old school players andDMs. Users of the term falsely claim that murderhobo was the style of playback in the day (1974-1978) and that is based on a false understanding of what old school play is. Bitd the way that the original old school Dungeons & Dragons was played was as a game of exploration, and good play meant that you a avoided combat when possible and gained treasure by other means. Aplayer in those days only went into combat when it could not be avoided and only killed when it was necessary. If the goal could be obtained through other types of interaction, that was the preferred day.

Zac S did this Vital Research on Murder Hobos

I just (coincidence?) researched the history of the term today:

Oct 2010

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-163486.html
First use of the term (not the earliest google hit but only bc some pages update retroactively)
Neutral

More early uses:
June 2011

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15156648/

Sept (9/11) 2011
https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-584293.html

First use of it as semi undesirable:
someone says they don't mind it, just not in their Tolkien game:


Aug 11, 2011https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?587797-Tolkien-Just-curious-Is-there-any-epic-Middle-Earth-adventure-campaigns-out-there

First definitely negative use is....RPGPundit? He objects to the idea that most D&D ends up as murderhoboism but doesn't appear to object to the idea Murderhobos are bad:
https://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?21176-quot-Murder-hobos-quot

11-02-2011 06:00 PM
Opinions on this vary in the thread
First usage afterward where the author assumes casually Murderhobo is a negative descriptor is someone on RPGnet talking about the Punisher:
https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-601882.html
"I am super serious and tortured and, unlike all those pussies who call themselves superheroes, I get the job done and kill the bad guys who deserve it. And I'm a murderhobo living in the sewers, human relations are for the weak and untortured. Brooding. In the dark." The ridiculing helps to show how pathetic that character actually is. Heck half the Marvel characters have had more messed up lives…”

Early serious discussion of the term outside RPGsite on 4chan:
12/05/11(Mon)16:09 No.17115965
"Stop saying murderhobo"
"Nobody gives a fuck that you have to make people who play the game for different things look like they're doing it wrong"
"Murderhobo is a joke, the kind of stereotypical character a LOT of players make. You know. Munchkin'ized characters that have no living family,no relatives, no friends, no house, no connection"
"It's a character that lives for killing"

"Murderhobo
I've seen TONS of them"

"Yeah,I"m a Paladin-Inquisitor of Torm. My entire family got turned by Vampyres, and I had to kill them all MYSELF. I burned down the house, and left the kingdom in disgrace, forever branded to never exist. I have no home. No family.Nothing but revenge, and as Torm as my ally, I'll murder every undead that lives."

"Murderhobo"

"WHAT BACKGROUND?"

"ALL HIS FAMILY IS DEAD.
HIS FRIEND ARE DEAD.
HE KILLED THEM ALL HIMSELF.
HIS ORDER BANISHED HIM.
HE HAS NO CONNECTIONS TO ANYTHING.
He's so grimdark and metal that whenever he walked HOLY DIVER plays!"

"What can he roleplay besides murdering things?ANGST?"

12/05/11(Mon)16:26 No.17116119
"it doesn't help that the guys who make murderhobos are either:
a) newf*gs who don't know any better
b) emotionally unstable and looking for catharsis
c) emotionally unstable and looking for a power trip
d) angsty basement dwellers
or e) THAT GUY"

"Most of my groups murderhobos are either b, d, or e; with one of the two e-types, whom I like to call THIS GUY in person (he doesn't understand the reference at all), being my best friend who actively enjoys WoW despite having gone through everything. For comparison, I can't even enjoy playing unless I have a friend running alongside me (usually THIS GUY) the other e-type is a registered and self-described sociopath with enough personality that I don't really mind his excesses so long as I can manage to have some fun in his shadow"

12/05/11(Mon)16:30 No.17116153
"Holy fuck, dude. It's time you consider that you might have some big issues as well. If ALL your friends really do suck that bad, why do you hang out with them? Because you are so fucking co-dependent you can't stand the thought of being alone so it's these chucklefucks you cling to despite the fact they are chucklefucks? Or you're so fucking repulsive that you can't go out and get another set of friends?"

"But to be completely honest, a lot of my characters end up being murderhobos just to troll the people I game with. And I wonder why I haven't had a regular gaming group in over a year.”

"You know I actually played a murderhobo once.
He was a woodelf. He kept a rapier hidden in his giant hobo coat. He spoke a gypsy cryptelect. He also murdered people for food.
So, yknow there you go"

And On My G+ Thread
I got People to Suggest
Murder Hobo Maxims

Jack Derricourt, Joshua Blackketter, Anders "The Delver"Nordberg, Iacopo Maffi, Gieljan de Vries, Shoe Skogen, Matthew Adams, Kerstan Szczepanski, Sean McCoy, Aron Clark, Gus L, Rafa Ramos, Ivan Sorensen

On the frontier anyone sassing you could be a pretext to murdering you you so strike first!
Sillas Bunyon

Every foe needs their intestines checked for swallowed treasure. Squeeze and tug for treasure, beware parasites. A diamond with shit on it is still a diamond.
Pegleg Bill


Don't murder anyone you could sell as a slave.
Kate Bloodeagle


Every corpse could be good to sell for meat or render into tallow, or oil to burn down houses. Waste not want not.
Vinegar Tom

Every scrap of furniture, door, pot, utensil and filthy mattress has some value and not all treasure is gold.
Steven "Shanky" Bates


Spend every cent you have as quick as possible and stay in debt for tomorrow you die! Drugs and prostitutes are a sound investment and you can't take gold to hell.
Old "Scabby" Bill


Fair fights are for people whom the bards would remember in a hundred years.
Grosh "Firebomb" Krosh

Overwhelming eldritch might will solve many problems, but not all problems. Always travel with someone sneaky and someone large.
Pete Loudly

Never argue about the so called alignments when killing infants or helpless enemies, this will only give ideas to the Destiny Masters, kill and move one like its nothing.
Wats Itsfeis


Start stealing from each other only if you are ready to kill any other member of the party and retire from adventuring. You will find a quick path into retirement this way.
Jack "snore stabber" Willikins


Ignore what you are carrying, keep it in the back of your mind and lie if anyone that asks, up where you will need to swim, then you better prepare or will find yourself sinking.
M'cumb Rancesuk 


A strangled wizard can cast no sorcery, a tongueless wizard is a silent weakling.
Beni Profane


I'll fight whatever it is long enough to run proper, but I don't do doors. 

"Killer" Ponzi Hedwig

Smile, be polite, laugh, and tell jokes right up until the stabbing starts.
Murray the Murderer 


Someone who hires you for a dangerous mission is too weak to manage it themselves, too friendless to find someone tougher, has no interest in your well-being and likely has a full pouch, the situation can only be clarified with a swift shanking - the same goes for gods, wizards and ancient spirits.
Milicent "Cobweb"


Never trust the dead or anyone who agrees to work with you without a promise of pay.
Beni Profane 


You lookin at me?
Anonymous


Check every corpse. Make more corpses.
Anonymous

Always send the runt in first, he or she ain't gonna argue. Unless your runt is thieving Fred from Harsted, that bastard always argues.
Urtha Nettletoes


They always try to send us small ones in first, I don't mind, I just forget to point all the traps out to them. And forget lockpicks, hammer and chisel are gonna be your best friends.
"Honest" Fred from Harsted 


Keep your maxims and your nooses short.
Sammi Two Swords


Make friends! But...if they don't wanna be friends, kick em inna FACE. 

Anonymous

Eat the healer last.
Indiana Gnoll 


Don't travel to the Veins of the Earth.

Anonymous

Do it to them before they can even think to do it to you.

Anonymous

A murderhobo who thinks to be strong will soon be dethobo.

Anonymous

Nobody needs you" “Poke it, flip it, smell it, whack it, THEN open it.

Anonymous

Green slime? It’s not a trap, it’s a resource.

Anonymous

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Anonymous

Kick down the door.
To kill the whos home.
To conquer the world.
Frazer "Grabby" Mc Graw 


The gods in heaven play cosmic dice around their banquet table with our lives, only murder hobos are free and wild, everyone else is weak and just living some preordained backstory.
Sister Gloria "Slaughter Margin" Dillinger

Everything Burns is a double-edged sword.

Anonymous

Alignment was made by the gods to start fights.
And to know who to kill.
It does this very well.
Ramos "Goblin gutter"


Stab it and see.
Then burn it with fire.
If it still moves flee.
Or call on magic wrath and godly ire.
Tilly Skullcrusher 


If you murdering people inhabiting a torture dungeon nobody will care. Kill a sheriff or a few bailiffs and a mob with pitchforks will burn your house down. So don't have a house.
Garry the Bonkers Berserker 


Don't just stab villagers. Provoke them into striking first then kill them and sue their families and take their land.
Bloody Mary Turtlebaum 


If the gods didn't want you to stab it they wouldn't have made it bleed.
If the gods didn't want you to burn it they wouldn't have made it flammable.
If they didn't want you to drown it they wouldn't have made it breathe.
If they didn't want everyone dead they would have shared their immortality.
Brother Bugger McNugget


Thou shalt always kill or be killed.

Anonymous

Thinking of putting all this in a illustrated zine or update my murder hobo book
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FTPnav4Yg66azKb48AdweiUtbLlnEyrl
I found a table I forgot to include and have done several murderhobo shanty town maps to put in also

1 comment:

  1. Hmm....kust want me to murder-hobo enchance my next campaign a little bit more. Bye bye Fighter, magic-user, cleric, thief and hello Marauder, Pyromaner, Exorcist, and Pilferer. What's the worse that could happen?

    ReplyDelete

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