this is the best reason to go full murderhobo

silver dragon

Broke innkeeper marries a pale dragon with a freezing breath weapon and naturally lawful-good alignment.

white dragon

Woke innkeeper marries a pale dragon with a freezing breath weapon and naturally chaotic-evil alignment.

I’ve got an awesome ride

I’ve got an awesome hat

Welcome to Bartovia. Our little burg on the edge of nowhere. It would be completely unknown but for one fact: Bartovia is home to the largest, unexplored ruin known to exist. Every year, dozens of would-be heroes try their luck and every year the lucky ones go home empty-handed, but a little wiser maybe.

Once a decade - or less - someone escapes with real treasure. A time-hopping artifact crafted by a half-mad wizard with an unspeakable name. A sword that speaks the date and hour of your death when drawn.

And that always starts another frenzy among the desperate, stupid, or both, who flock here to die in those cursed halls.

Of course, in their haze of greed and increasing desperation, more than one dumb bastard has tried their hand at robbing the inhabitants of our humble home. The young fools never stop to wonder - who would stay here? But for the ruins there’s no industry. Too cold to grow most crops; No precious ores to mine; Nowhere near any of the good trade routes.

They don’t realize - we are them. The same fools and try-hards of years past. We’re the ones who pushed too hard; exhausted our funds; got injured; or just never learned to let go. We couldn’t leave. But couldn’t go on, either. We sold what we could part with…and then the rest. We got jobs. Opened taverns, inns, and supply stores to fleece the next round of idiots. Nevertheless, we are an entire city - if a small one - of adventurers.

Certainly, some of us are a bit long in the tooth - but woe betide the next poor bastard who thinks to pick a pocket in Bartovia.

Hot take : this idea isn’t a good choice.

And here is why. If you are using ingame tactics to discourage murderhoboing, then there is a chance to learn and not be a rotten core of a player. So, there is a chance to learn it ingame from it. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and you should ask them to join a table that they would fit if such exists.

Now, if you’re teaching something and use the good old dragon in human form once they start to push around, you better be doing it in a place that would fit before they even attempt it.

Because if you don’t, then you teach them that at any point, anywhere, there could be a dragon under disguise.

Hilarious as fuck for veteran players to play around with, as such ideas go. But teaching them this means that at any point there could be an overpowered, wise and objectively good morals anywhere.

Besides the huge problems this causes since it’s the guards-are-not-competent paradox of games but on steroids (if guards would be competent, then most adventures wouldn’t exist, especially at early levels), it also means that they are nothing and have no chance into moving the adventure one way or another. It would be like fighting a hurricane with a bug squasher.

Which is why, my personnal 2 cents is to have something that keeps your players in check but that could be part of the scenario. Kill an isolated merchand ? He has time to use Sending to a guard he knows well. Tries to be an ass to a waitress ? Get throwned out. Resists ? Local guard being called up.

If you make it realist and part of your world as it should be, you will then be teaching a solid lesson and keep your world coherent and consequence-FULL.

If you have read this until here, first thank you, and second I know this meme is mostly a running joke about improvised murderhobo-type players, but as someone that actually used it a few times you have to be careful when using disguised entities when doing it for reals. It’s the scenarist equivalent of juggling dynamite.