The Henderson dilemma

[Shinkiro]

An event happened in a private roleplay that leads me to a question

What do you do in a scenario what two players IC response to each other due to a combination of setting and series lore, would result in their characters trying to kill leach on sight, and any other action would basically be considered metagaming/OOC, when the entire purpose of the RP, is teamwork, what is the correct response for the gm to make in this scenario?

 

[foodforpigs]

I will say my suggestions are with the assumption that the players OOC want to cooperate with the DM to make a good game, and there are no actual sour feelings OOC. Regardless, the DM should state upfront that the game is meant to be cooperative and prohibits PvP as to set player expectation.

Suggestions
1) Direct option: Have one or both players make new characters that can cooperate. Depending on how far into the RP it is and how invested the players are in their characters, this might not be a big deal.

2) Extenuating circumstances: Basically, the situation can provide the reason for cooperation. This one is more difficult and risky because it can suspend some realism and, when handled incorrectly, can cause further conflict. For example, a survival scenario could at least suspend each character's desire to off the other and find even a sliver of common ground.

ex. Paladin and Blackguard survive to fight against a slew of monsters in a dense jungle. Although they have different codes of honor, it can become their common ground. They can still distrust and hate the other, but find mutual cooperation (at least, temporarily) useful.

3) Refuse to believe killing is the only resolution to a conflict. I don't know the characters, but perhaps talk with your players to see if there are ways the characters can justify not killing. It could be a simple as a character not preferring to kill unless given no other option to.

 

[Astaroth]

In my opinion, the best thing the GM can do is manipulate the situation so that killing each other continues to be unsuccessful/impossible due to current circumstance. Are there other players or NPCs who outnumber them and would restrain them in the event of a conflict? Maybe they're attacked by something else before they can fight/before the fight is over? Is there some kind of situation that requires the skillset of both to accomplish a necessary goal? Are they on sacred ground where violence is prohibited? Maybe the city guards arrest them for brawling in the street? Etc.

Really, there are all kinds of valid reasons for sworn enemies to be incapable or unwilling to kill each other in short term, and that's enough to keep things somewhat civil.