Treat game npcs as you'd like to be treated, imo. They'll usually return whatever treatment you give them. Valuable lesson about life and human nature in general, I think, as this works well in real life, too--unless you are dealing with the 1 in 1,000,000 "whacko," of course...! Then, it won't matter how considerate you are, he'll still try and whack off your head...;) Best avoid them if you aren't positive you can crush them, or that you won't need them later for something critical. Basically, it's just a bad idea to try an whack a friendly character--everyone in town may like him and then you've just made a whole passel of enemies...! No problem with doing it for fun, of course, just to see what happens--but just make sure you have saved game ready!
