The axe looked sharp enough to cut through a concrete block, and certainly sharp enough to cut through a crossdressing murderhobo wizard.
2016, Tim Hutchings & Jason Giardino, "Foucault’s Heterotopias as Play Spaces", International Journal of Role-Playing, Issue 7 (2016), page 13:
In a non-heterotopic game of Dungeons & Dragons, a player can casually describe the actions of (to borrow the popular phrase) a “murder hobo” and have no regrets or particular insight into their own behavior.
You can find soulblades aplenty at your local murder hobo supply store; the present problem is far more general.
2017, Jason Paul McCartan, Through Dungeons Deeper: A Survival Guide for Dungeoneers as Written by a Survivor, page 99:
Know that you're not going to be the only group of murderhobos out there though, and there's an increasing chance that you may run into others the more dungeons you explore.
2018, Nikolai Bjädefors Butler, "From Rolling to Reading: An Analysis of the Adaptation of Narrative Between Role-Playing Games and Novels", thesis submitted to Lund University, page 28:
This in addition to the player's lack of compassion for NPCs and their eagerness for violence suggest that these players are what is colloquially known by role-players as murderhobos.
Still, while being a murderhobo was all well and good in roleplaying games, running around and killing everything you saw and stealing from every unlocked door was a good way to end up in jail in the real world.
2018, Mike Pritchard, A Player's Guide to Strinrath, page 15:
At best, the hero would be an idealist righting wrongs and saving the world and at worst a wandering murder hobo with poor impulse control, no moral centre and suffering no real consequences regardless of his actions.
2019, "Heywood Jablomi", "D&D Player Shocked when Coplayers don't like his Murderhobo Character", The Medium (satirical newspaper of Rutgers University), 30 January 2019, page A7:
And we also have this girl Maria, who had a murderhobo in her last session, so she came into this one really annoyed and asked everyone not to play any evil characters.
Grab some stone, craft a sword and go on, be a murderhobo.
2020, Rafiel D., "Be Your Own Hero: How Dungeons & Dragons Helped My Mental Health", The Comics Youth Newspaper Project, page 43:
By playing D&D with pals, I'd become so immersed in the fantasy world that it would take my mind off everything that's going on and all of the endless global negativity (even when a campaign devolves into one ruled by murder hobos! But that's just D&D in general anyway...).
That Eldritch Assassin title is definitely not just for show. I am the mightiest magical murderhobo the land has ever seen!
2020, Ethan Freckleton & Scott Gill, Rebuild: A LitRPG Redemption Saga, unnumbered page:
Seeing Bronan's feral grin, she added, “And no murder hobo. Not in my town.”
2020, C. T. Phipps, The Agent G Omnibus, Volume 1, unnumbered page:
"You named yourself after the net-addicted nerd from Neuromancer?"
James asked, blinking. "Why not James Bond, Dave Murderhobo, or Hiro Protagonist?"
2021, Spike, quoted in Walter E. Brediger III, "Adult Spaces of Play: Board Game Bars as Affinity Spaces", thesis submitted to the University of Nevada, Reno, page 97:
We want to be heroic. We want to be kind. We want to be… murderhobos.
2021, Susan, quoted in Anne M. Goodall, "Magic, Adventure & Social Participation: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and Their Potential to Promote Social Inclusion and Citizenship", thesis submitted to the University of Ottawa, page 86:
And me and my sister and her friend were playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons in my room and it was a total useless game of murder hobos that were doing vile things for money, and it just dawned on me.
2021, Brenden Bobby, "Roll d20 for consent", Reader (Sandpoint, Idaho), 16 September 2021, page 14:
Maybe you joined a new group expecting a heavy role-playing experience, just to discover the rest of the party was a group of murderhobos with their hearts set on loot and plunder.
No matter where I game, I always end up with a group of people that nearly destroy the first town in game 1, be it Star Wars, Serenity, d20 Modern, or DnD. Funny. The world is full of murderous hobo's. They're called adventurers.
I just give my players a level after every three finished dungeons or XP worthy quests that they do. Of course I also mechanically track their reputation and piety. This means that there are actual dice benefits to doing good deeds (and boasting about them) and being a faithful believer. I find that this puts some brakes on the anonymous murder hobo attitude most D&D games seem to turn into.
So what does the summoner do about the commoner rushing him with a dagger? He summons a pack of wild dogs and has her ripped to shreds without even giving the rest of us a chance to intervene... Self defense, not murderhoboism... Yep... A murderhobo would have killed her even if she'd dropped the knife and pleaded for her life.
...in combination murderhobo refers to a shallow character with next to no connection to the setting and a disturbing propensity for violence. This describes a lot of RPG characters, particularly in more adventuring focused games.
In a nutshell, being a “murder hobo” refers to the idea that in many games, the players are nameless heroes who sort of just wander around killing everything they see... For some games, like Legend of Zelda, being a murder hobo isn’t all that bad... this is a major point that people who cry foul on “Murder Hobos” often ignore: the archetypical “hero’s journey” story requires the hero to be homeless in the sense that the character can’t return home until after the story is completed.
... it’s not hard to get gullible people to sign up to an Adventuring Guild to feed the investment maw. Being a Murder Hobo is more lucrative than, say, farming or tanning. More deadly, but certainly more lucrative.
