Player Character Conflict

This page is a draft and feedback is being welcomed so this shouldn't be taken as the final version while this notice is on it.

PvP = Player vs Player, conflict between player characters (PCs), often referencing to violence between PCs.

PvE = Player vs Environment, where the primary conflict is between PCs and Non-Player Characters (NPCs).

Death Unto Darkness is a primarily PvE game, not a PvP game, and it aims to represent the struggles of the beleaguered servants of the Imperium against an ever-multiplying number of threats within and without. PvP can occur as a part of the game but we will never, as the game team, attempt to force it - it isn’t a focus of our writing, if it occurs it happens organically.

To this end, we will never force a PC to take upon them a patron who would place them at odds with the Inquisition and the overall objectives of the player party - patrons such as this will be granted only after discussion. New character concepts that are outright hostile to the Imperium and Inquisition are very likely to be rejected unless the Game Team are significantly confident they will benefit the game,

Death Unto Darkness is about Inquisitorial Agents - in other words, the PCs - working together against an encroaching threat. Because of this Inter-Player Cooperation is heavily encouraged by ingame factors that place the players working together under the direction of a recently-united Inquisitorial Conclave, now purged of heretical elements, who are joining efforts to desperately prevent the loss of the Prosperitas Sector to dark forces.

Social conflict is a natural part of the Imperium, with religious conflict and discrimination against people hailing from specific social castes or perceived as having genetic aberrations being themes of the DuD setting, these conflicts exist to create depth for roleplay interactions and are heavily encouraged and something someone should be aware of before playing out game. The Imperium is not a nice place and most of the people within it are not, by our standards, nice people - the challenge of the Imperium is that ultimately monstrous personalities are normalised and common, especially amongst the servants of the Inquisition. The trouble is that with the multiplying threats to the Imperium, Inquisitors and their agents are forced to cooperate against the rising tide - even with those they hate and despise.

Inter-Character Violence

Because we use a cinematic narrative system with a ‘death spiral’ mechanic, our combat rules do not translate well when players come up against each other as the cinematic nature begins to break down. Thus, we decided to introduce specific rulings regarding violence between players.

• Where Player Characters are attacking other Player Characters then it is always assumed that when you hit 0 Endurance you become Subdued rather than Bleeding.

• A player may choose to become Bleeding if they wish to - if you wish to take someone alive rather than killing them you can use the I'm taking you, alive call to make them Subdued instead.

• If you have Subdued another character you must hand them over to Inquisitorial Authorities (the Game Team) immediately or allow them to recover from the condition.

• If you choose to become Bleeding then if you die as a result of players resolving to execute you or place you in a lethal situation (such as throwing out of an airlock) you may not use Fate to avoid your fate unless the Game Team agrees - by becoming bleeding you have accepted a lethal fate.

Reporting Crimes and Heresies

It is not required to use violent force to apprehend another PC if you feel they are a threat to the mission or are acting against the interests of the Imperium - nobody is forced to use violence if they do not wish to - the Inquisition is -ever- eager to hear from its agents when they believe individuals to be a threat to their objectives and the Imperium. In a situation that you feel a character is acting against the Imperium or committing an act of heresy, you can bring evidence of wrongdoing to the Inquisitorial Representative (a game team NPC who acts as the voice of the Inquisitorial conclave, and who the Drones assist), either by finding them directly (if present) or sending a message via an Administratum Drone (one of the refs). Ultimately, we do not want lone characters to feel they cannot act against overwhelming odds and feel forced to go along with acts they do not agree with just because they lack the tools of violence to influence them.

Depending on the strength of your evidence, the Inquisitorial Representative will make a judgement call, and, if necessary, issue an order for the PC to be detained - this order may be given to NPCs or PC Agents, depending on the resources available at the time IC.

If an order is disobeyed or arrest resisted, serious consequences and escalating orders may occur.

Once the accused is Detained, then the procedures above and beneath can be followed.

Processing a Detainee

If you detain another PC and do not intend to release them in short order (within a few minutes of detaining them and/or after resolving any ongoing emergency), you must immediately bring them to an Administratum Drone (one of the Refs) or, preferably, the Inquisitorial Representative (a game team NPC who acts as the voice of the Inquisitorial conclave, and who the Drones assist). When they do so, PCs will be expected to provide IC justification for their detention of a fellow acolyte of the Inquisition.

The OOC reason for this rule is that bringing a captured captive to the team in this way is intended to prevent indefinite imprisonment taking players out of play for hours.

The Inquisition has no sense of humour about missions becoming hampered as a result of Agents being detained by each other, and has provided a process to resolve such situations quickly so they do not become a burden on the smooth operation of the mission.

Therefore, if this action is stalled beyond a reasonable time (ie. the captor had ample opportunity to come find the Rep\Drones but didn’t), the Detained PC is more than justified to drop OOC and come find the game team to move this process along.

The sole exception to this process is if it becomes or is obvious that the captive is daemonically (or supernaturally) possessed, either via the player roleplaying the character accordingly or appropriate character abilities revealing this - where daemonic possession occurs it is never subtle once the daemon is aware it has been discovered or has begun to directly control the flesh and mind of its host. At this point, you may proceed with an Exorcism without consulting a Drone or the Representative.

Sentencing

After a PC is brought before the Drones or Representative this will initiate the following IC procedure:

1. If you are unable to justify (via evidence) your detention of a fellow agent, you will be told to release them immediately; failure to comply will be met with sanctions. If you can point to damage which the detained Agent has done (or was clearly about to do) to the mission team and its objectives, you can be reasonably confident of support. If you have nothing to offer except vague suspicion, you should expect sanctions.
   
   
2. If you do not have clear evidence, you may make your case for additional time to gather evidence via Interrogation of the subject; depending on the strength of your case, this may or may not be granted. If you can point to specific questions which demand answers (eg. “what were you discussing with that local we discovered sabotaging the shuttle?”) you will have better chances of getting permission than if you have no clear purpose in mind.
   
   
3. Once evidence is presented, it will be passed along with the captive to the Inquisitorial Representative (if they aren’t involved already), who will sequester themselves with the captive, and, as mouthpiece of the Conclave, will either consult via astropathic relay or follow established procedures for passing judgement on the accused (this will be used to check in with the captive’s player OOC to ensure no sentences are imposed which the player in question will not enjoy roleplaying out).
   
   
4. Should the captive be returned to the Agents and not transferred to Inquisitorial custody, a sentence will be passed, and sanction delivered by an Agent chosen by the Representative to carry it out.
   
   
5. Execution is only ever sanctioned in the most extreme circumstances, as it diminishes the available personnel to a mission - in most circumstances, the fitting of compliance collars to ensure the individual completes their mission, mind-wiping or mind-control by available psykers, and other non-resource diminishing sentences are preferred. (However, if a player wishes to retire their character and asks to be executed, they may go roll a new character immediately; their PC will be placed in detention by the Representative, and never seen again but any useful information they may have been concealing however will likely be extracted from them.)
   
   
6. Regardless of outcome, details of the incident will be reported to the Inquisitorial Patron(s) of the detained character as well as of the character(s) who detained them, to take into account in later debriefing.