Why Murderhoboing Can Be Good in D&D

By Luke Hart

The term “murderhobo” usually gets thrown around like an insult. You know the type—no backstory, no morals, no remorse. Just a rusty axe, a fast initiative roll, and a strong urge to solve every social encounter with a body count. But what if I told you that, in the right context, a murderhobo might actually be… good for the game?

Now, I’m not talking about the power-gaming murderhobos who bulldoze the rest of the group or ruin roleplay with constant “I stab him” interruptions. I’m talking about the laid-back, chaos gremlin kind. The ones who bring levity, challenge assumptions, and occasionally do something brilliant beneath their blood-soaked exterior.

Today we’re diving into 5 reasons that a little bit of murderhoboing might actually help your D&D game.

By the way, if you're looking for a low level pre-made adventure module for your D&D 5e game, I highly recommend Into the Fey. It's designed for levels 1 to 5, features tricksy fey and their sly schemes, and contains everything you need to play!

Watch or listen to this article by clicking the video below.

1. Murderhobos Create a Moral Contrast with Other Characters

A good party is made of contrasts: loud and quiet, reckless and careful, murderhobo and paladin. When you’ve got one character who wants to kill first and ask questions never, it forces the rest of the group to define their own ethics in response.

Take this one session I ran: the party had cornered a cultist ringleader who was begging for his life. The bard wanted to question him. The cleric wanted to bring him to justice. And before they could decide, the barbarian just—wham—buried his axe in the guy’s skull. It was chaos. And then it was drama. The bard yelled, the cleric gave a sermon, and suddenly the party had a serious talk about how they wanted to approach future moral dilemmas.

That kind of tension? It’s gold. It gets people thinking about alignment, consequences, and how their characters want to handle the grey areas. Murderhobos, in that sense, are the match that sets those conversations ablaze.

2. Murderhobos Create a Challenge for Other Players

One of the best murderhobos I ever had at the table was a dwarven fighter named Brick. Brick’s solution to everything was violence—and not the thoughtful kind. The party’s rogue would sneak up to eavesdrop, the bard would prepare a brilliant deception, the cleric would offer diplomacy… and then Brick would yell, “I CHARGE!” and kick in the nearest door.

The group hated it. And yet they also loved it.

Because here’s what happened: the other players started planning around Brick. The bard learned to keep him distracted during tense negotiations. The rogue would scout extra far ahead to keep him from getting bored. And the cleric? She started carrying two healing spells labeled “For Brick” and “For Everyone Else.”

That kind of player dynamic doesn’t come from careful story arcs—it comes from navigating each other’s chaos in-character. As long as the conflict stays friendly, a murderhobo forces the other players to think creatively, make tough calls, and adapt to wild behavior without derailing the story.

They’re not just a headache—they’re a problem the players get to solve together.

3. Murderhobos Prompt Consequences That Enrich the World

Let me tell you about a halfling barbarian named Stabbers. Stabbers murdered a noble’s cousin over an insult about his height. Just snapped one day and threw a steak knife through the guy’s eye in the middle of a dinner party. Classic murderhobo move.

Now, I could’ve just hand-waved it and moved on. But instead, I made the noble furious. Within two sessions, there were bounty posters with Stabbers’ face on them all over the kingdom. Guards doubled at city gates. A rival adventuring party was hired to bring him in alive. And the innkeeper—who had been their friend—turned them away, too afraid of harboring fugitives.

You see, the world reacted to the players.

Murderhobos are walking opportunities for consequence. They give the GM a way to show how the setting responds to player behavior. A single reckless act can ripple outward, reshaping alliances, creating enemies, and dragging the whole party into a deeper, more dynamic story.

All because one short barbarian couldn’t take a joke.

4. Murderhobos Keep the Table Guessing

There’s always one. In one game, it was a tiefling rogue named Scrap who never met a door she didn’t want to kick down or a conversation she didn’t want to interrupt with a knife.

The party would be mid-negotiation with a duke, trying to delicately navigate court politics, and Scrap would blurt out, “You want me to kill him or nah?” Total murderhobo energy. But here’s the thing—it kept the game moving.

Murderhobos inject unpredictability into a session. They force both the players and the GM to stay on their toes. If the plot’s dragging? Boom—murderhobo lights a fuse. If the GM is rambling through a five-minute history lesson? The murderhobo might just throw a firebomb at a statue and shout, “Oops.”

They might derail the plan, sure—but they’re never boring. And that chaos can be exactly what a game needs when it starts to feel too predictable or slow. Love them or fear them, a murderhobo will do something. And sometimes, that’s the best possible gift to a stagnating session.

5. A Good-Natured Murderhobo Can Be Hilarious

Let me tell you about Gus. He was a barbarian who once tried to interrogate a goblin by shouting “TELL ME YOUR SECRETS” while shaking him upside down like a coin purse. Gus wasn’t evil. He wasn’t edgy. He was just... chaos in pants. And we loved him for it.

That’s the thing about a good-natured murderhobo—they can be hilarious. As long as everyone at the table is in on the joke and the tone allows for it, their antics become memorable highlights. Whether it’s stealing a king’s crown mid-conversation or using a bag of holding as a surprise attack, they bring absurdity that turns a serious moment into something everyone will be laughing about for years.

Even better? They challenge the GM. Not maliciously, but in a way that says, “I see your carefully constructed plot, and I raise you a bar fight with the archbishop.” It keeps the tone light, the ego in check, and the game feeling like fun—which, honestly, is kind of the point.

I must say, though, all of these cases work best if the murderhobo player doesn’t steamroll the other players with their zany antics, murderous tendencies, and general pushiness. Those murderhobos are a problem... but if you can get the right kind of murderhobo, they can go a long way towards energizing a campaign and taking it in unexpected directions.

Confront Devious Fey and Their Tricksy Plots!

For years, the fey creatures inhabiting Pelview Grove to the north and Pelfell Bog to the east have not been a source of trouble, though perhaps they were a shade too mischievous at times. That has now changed.

Beset on all sides by a variety of issues -- childish pranks gone wild, dwarves forced out of their own brewery, and farmers missing -- the Aeredale guard is looking for help from local adventuring parties to set things right.

For those brave souls who accept the call to adventure, it'll be time to go into the fey.

If you’re looking to start up a new 5e campaign or reboot your current one, Into the Fey may be exactly what you need. Designed for levels 1 to 5, Into the Fey contains everything you need to start playing:

• Eleven fey-themed adventures for level 1 to 5 adventuring parties
• Over 40 new fey monsters
• The fully fleshed-out town of Aeredale
• Maps of Aeredale, the surrounding region, and the Fey Plane
• Player handouts
• Hag potion system
• 15 new fey magic items
• JPG image files of all Into the Fey adventure maps, including GM versions and gridded/non-gridded player versions
• JPG images files of all Into the Fey world maps
• Digital tokens of Into the Fey NPCs and monsters

Pick up the Into the Fey Ultimate Bundle to get the hardcover, the PDF, digital maps, and digital tokens.

Starting a new campaign can be tons of work; let Into the Fey do some of the heavy lifting for you!