john@frog.UUCP (John Woods) (10/31/84)
Everyone knows how easy it is to create adventures for Lawful/Good players, since the forces of Evil are always creating vile temples and evil empires; as soon as one thinks of the very concept of FRP, one is immediately led to the thought of a pitiful, small band of Good characters going forth to do battle against a legion of Evil. What does a DM do, however, if the players prefer to BE Evil, hideous people? (In the game, that is. Most of the players in my group are not evil, hideous people. Well, many. Some. A couple?) Somehow, the mirror image situation does not have the same kind of logic to it. So, what do other DMs do in this situation? Is it just a matter of getting used to having the baddies go bash the good guys, or are there other kinds of adventures one can design? -- John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1114 ...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA Campus Crusade for Cthulu -- It Found Me!
szy@gcc-opus.ARPA (Steven J Szymanski <SZY>) (11/03/84)
> From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods) > Subject: ?Adventures for Evil PCs? > Message-ID: <122@frog.UUCP> > > What does a DM do, however, if the players prefer to BE Evil, hideous people? > (In the game, that is. Most of the players in my group are not evil, hideous > people. Well, many. Some. A couple?) Somehow, the mirror image situation > does not have the same kind of logic to it. > > So, what do other DMs do in this situation? Is it just a matter of getting > used to having the baddies go bash the good guys, or are there other kinds > of adventures one can design? Well, I have run several Evil-PC campaigns and have gotten to the point that I prefer them to the Good-PC variety. There are however an number of special concerns which need to be addressed. First, there are many players who have strange ideas about what it means to be EVIL. Playing an Evil character does not mean that you have do nasty things on principle, rather it is often a lack of principles which make the character Evil. Thus just because there is a opportunity to mug a little old lady doesn't mean an evil character will do it. Likewise being evil doesn't mean that you have a Wisdom and Intelligence of 3! Discretion is as much the better part of Greed and Vengeance as it is of Valor. Of course, there can be Evil characters who do go around doing random violence without reguard to their own safety; but the player should recognize that such a character may not be very survivable. Second, there are special problems dealing with Chaotic-Evil characters. Lawful-Evils tend to be fine upstanding citizens (snicker, snicker). They don't kill people unless those people get in their way. They don't break the law unless they have to. In fact many LE's pride themselves in always following the letter of the Law (except when they don't). And because of their Lawful nature, it is usually easy for the DM to focus them on the main stream of his/her campaign. Chaotic-Evils however are a different matter. They tend to be more random in their violence and less focused in their actions; making it harder for the DM to prepare interesting things for them. I have two of dealing with this: 1. Send In The Marines. No society can survive without some way of dealing random Evil. Sure, a decent level evil party can deal with the local police or even the county sheriffs; but sooner or later they are going to do enough damage that someone higher up is going to take notice and deal with them. The purpose of doing this from the DM's point of view is NOT to kill off the party; I usually make sure that the first couple of times I send in the marines, the party can get out safely if they only run and lay low for a while. The purpose is to teach a little discretion so that they won't go around doing violence just for the sake of violence. 2. Use A Bigger Carrot. Present at the beginning of the campaign a very clear goal for the party, which every party member is interested in and which can not be achieved by any single member. It may be a hidden treasure horde, a magical relic, or even a political office; but make sure it is something which you can keep it just out of reach until the campaign is over. This will do two things: First it will cut down on party members killing each other off, since they all need each other (for the time being). Second it will focus the parties actions and cut down on random violence. Finally, as you pointed out in your article, new motivations for the campaign need to be developed for an Evil-PC campaign. There are two scenarios which I have found to be successful so far: the Bigger Carrot scenario presented above, and the Machiavellian Mayhem scenario. The Bigger Carrot can be lots of fun as the party nukes everything in its way; and most people find the final session, from which usually only a few survive, worth the price of having their character killed off by another party member who was not willing to share the wealth (they are of course likely to have had their own plan for eliminating the competition). On the other hand, the Machiavellian Mayhem scenario is based on setting up a number of politically/economically/magically powerful Lawful-Evil NPC's who are competing with each other, and putting the party in the middle of the conflict (perhaps initially hired to do some dirty work for one of the NPC's). This allows for some great character play as the party jostles for position between the "super-powers"; and is more easily extended than the Bigger Carrot scenario. Also the two scenarios can be combined where the the LE-NPC's all try to get the party to grab the "Carrot" and bring it to them. <<John, ask jeff or jim there on frog about my "Miroban" campaign>> So, happy havoc and may the Dark Side be with you.
chenr@tilt.FUN (The 1200 baud hacker) (11/06/84)
One of the most incredible hoses I ever heard of was done by a party of Chaotic-Evil PC's. They set up a LARGE empire, centralized it, and got it running smoothly, but centralizaed it to such a degree that the empire couldn't run without a certain group of people -- them. Then they took off. -- Break out the rods of absorption, guys. It's clobbering time... Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr