[UA] Murder in Game

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

Okay, just one more post and then I'll cool it, I
swear.  This has been bugging me and I value the
opinions on this list, even the ones I don't agree
with in any way.

I've been running across more and more references to
the "murderer" character and how bad it is, but it all
seems very confused.

In UA, playing a murderer is an important character
option.  Being a professional murderer, like a hit man
or TNI thug seems rife with emotional possibilities,
ones which are easy to extract with rules like
Passions and hardened notches.  Likewise, I had a
character based of Johnny the Homicidal maniac in one
of my games and, while it was rocky as first, the
character became important and interesting because, I
think, of the rules and setting.

But there are rules and settings out there just as
good as UA where people are freaking out about
"murderer" characters.

Perhaps it's guilt.  A year or so ago, I played a
clueless, self-styled "necromancer" ghoul (in a
Vampire game) who'd killed a few people in a misguided
attempt to gain immortality.  Then he fell in with a
Ravnos who tried to set him straight/manipulate him
(the Ravnos was another player who left early, so his
motives never became clear.)  When it was discovered
that my character was kinda dumb and had ritually
killed several people, the other players took me
outside, tied me to a tree, grew claws and
disemboweled me (partly out of frustration, I think. I
was playing the part pretty durn stupid.)

So, here's my question: I've never actually had one of
my PCs murder another PCs, but I often play characters
who've killed in their pasts (sometimes they regret it
and sometimes they're just coming to grips with the
idea of murder as being wrong.)  On the other hand, I
often get killed off by other players, especially ones
of the "I only kill bad guys" ilk.  When people talk
about murderer characters, are they referring to me or
people with a tendency to slaughter PCs?

I had thought they were referring to me, but the game
contracts I read made me think otherwise.

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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