Slap-Fights

Question: Have there ever been any PCs that refuse to work with each other in the group or even attack one another? What do you do as a ST if this happens?

A sticky question. We actually have loads of PCs that fight one another all the time; PvP is alive and well in our groups, and hardly a game session goes by without Eztli beating Aiona or Terminus unconscious, Sowiljr mind-whammying Eztli, Zwazo mind-whammying everybody, everybody mind-whammying Zwazo, Vala locking people in Dreamworlds or illusion boxes, people throwing Vala over their shoulders and running off with her, Jioni shooting Sverrir, Sverrir punching Folkwardr, Folkwardr screaming at everyone for trying to stop him from completing his vengeful crusades, or Yoloxochitl hiding underground and refusing to help the group until everyone stops yelling. None of this is a problem, though; it's important to remember that PvP isn't necessarily a bad thing, even in games where a group needs to work together, and often it's a necessary part of character development and story-building. If the players are fine with their characters getting into it and no one is upset outside of the game world, there's no reason to rein it in and stop interesting plot points from emerging. If, however, players are upset about it, or end up feeling picked on or like they can't get anything done in the game, then you have a problem that needs to be addressed; the game is supposed to be fun, after all, and if it isn't because of in- or out-of-game rivalries and fights, it's not doing its job.

The easiest way to nip uncooperative characters in the bud is to watch for them at character creation and try to help players create someone who can at least manage working with the group, even if they don't want to be entirely friendly. Make sure new characters have human connections somewhere in their lives, whether to mortal family members, organizations or other people the other PCs might know. Make sure they have some characterization beyond their stats, so that interacting with the other PCs leads to roleplaying instead of mindless conflict. Remind them that they'll be playing in a group, and that while their badass loner archetype is totally allowed in the game, they don't want to play it completely straight or they're going to end up frustrated and alone.

As a Storyteller, the best thing you can do after character creation is to give the PCs a reason they need to work together with at least basic cooperation; it's something that a good Storyteller or GM will do in almost any group game. Give them all a mutual goal that they need each other to accomplish; play on their emotional triggers (if you know his mother was killed by a rampaging Nemean boar, point out this other dude in his party is a professional boar-hunter!) that give them a reason to want to stick around one another. In Scion, probably the best thing you can do to keep PCs together is to have their parent gods working together for one reason or another - Scions with Piety or Loyalty will pretty much automatically need to fall in line if their parent tells them that this is what's up, and everyone being part of the same divine club means that there are more rewards for cooperation and consequences for in-fighting. Also keep Virtues in mind; it doesn't hurt to remind the guy with Order that attacking other people is against the law and he'll have to make a check to try to go through with it, or to remind the girl with Piety that attacking someone her father said to work with is a direct contravention of a divine mandate. Like all Virtues, they can choose to avoid them sometimes, but the reminder makes it less of a frequent occurrence.

If nothing seems to be working and one (or two, or three) particular player just can't seem to get along with the group without starting giant brawls and pissing everyone else off, it might be time to sit down and have a calm out-of-character talk about it. Try to see if the players can explain why they never get along and what things are bothering them about the situation; it might just be a case of incompatible characters, but often such a powwow can result in some good suggestions for fostering cooperation (or, in the case of several of our PCs, primers on How to Trick/Misdirect/Mind-Whammy My Character Into Helping, Please Do It For the Sake of Everyone). Players often want to get things done and not be fighting all the time, but they also want to roleplay their characters and feel trapped because cooperation would go against their personalities, so help them find ways to work together within the system.

Finally, there are some characters that just can't work within a band, either because they can't reasonably cooperate with anyone else's characters' personalities or because they've just gone toxic. Do not be afraid to let these characters die. I don't mean to go out and murder them as the ST, because that would be shitty; just don't go out of your way to save them when they decide to run off on their own, get into fights with their bandmates or decide that they don't want to share their secret plans and they end up blowing up in their faces. In most cases, they won't end up actually dying, because their bandmates will often come to their rescue even if they don't like them much, which can end up fostering more camaraderie (or grudging gratitude) in the future, and uncooperative characters who almost get themselves killed often enough may start to realize that they do need the group after all. And if they actually do die, well, now the player has a chance to create someone new that hopefully won't be as frustrating for themselves and everyone else. Refer back to watching for signs of problem characters at creation.

Let me be totally clear here: I'm not advocating preventing PCs from roleplaying whatever personality they have, nor am I suggesting you just kill off PCs because they're inconvenient. Neither is a good idea, and will see you losing players pretty quickly if they start feeling oppressed. But trying to help players and their PCs find a way to cooperating is a good idea if they want or need it, and not softening the rules to accommodate a misbehaving PC is not picking on them; it's being totally fair. Most importantly, don't sweat small fights (or even big fights) or disagreements among the band if the players still seem to be engaged and having fun; PCs will always have different opinions on what they should be doing now, how they should do it and whose job it is to do what, and letting them sort it out in character is part of the game.