An Evil Game . . Sorta

[white_trash_samurai]

Hello everyone!

Just returning after a long absence and I feel the DM Itch . .. I want to run a game. Not just any game I want to run a game where the group eventually turnn into the bad guys, I want them to be the villians. But they are not going to know this going into the game, thats why Im thinking sorta evil

My Idea is to have them start as they normally would at creation and do a request for a local lord something very sterotypical. Lord charges them with retrieving villagers from some Orcs or something that has taken them slaves, I figure this should take until level 4 or 5 lots of investigating gathering resources beating down the Slave Driver . . .

The Twist . . . .

After they become the heroes the Lord rewards them with a decent house and a farm/work shop . . . . Fast forward 10-15 years . . . . The Lord has now become King and he comes back to the village/hamlet/town and asks another favor asks them to deliver a important documents to another fiefdom. The group is not going to know that a group of assasins has already been dispatched to this fiefdom to take out this other lord about the time the group shows up. They have background of past glory and able to handle themselves so they are framed for the murder of the other lord. At this point they will have to escape and go from their to seek revenge if need be.

Does this at all sound plausable?? Its hard to keep my group guessing because there is a total off about 150 years Gaming experience with them.

Any thoughts Critiques, its ok I can take critism I was looking for some feedback if before I poured alot of work into this project.

 

[Madeiner]

You are then deciding that whatever they do, they have no chance to clear their name.
I don't like it.

Besides, you'd better tell them the scope of the adventure, lest you end up with paladins and other characters that don't want to go evil.

 

[white_trash_samurai]

Thanks for the feedback!

The problem with my group is how unpredictable they, of course id give them a chance to clear their name but would they is a bigger question, the only reason I say "Evil" is because it may end up being that way.

I can see the group going straight up overboard to clear their name up to and including a killing spree.

Id like to see how they handle a Paladin in the group wondering how they should handle themselves in a classic doublecross, see if they turn their back on the laws and church or keep going the straight and narrow to the bitter end.

 

[Herobizkit]

I can see a few issues that, were I one of your players, I wouldn't like at all.

a) fast-forwarding 10-15 years: I just got to level 5, and you want me to skip ten real campaign years? If I'm playing a human, that's half my adventuring life right there.

b) the frame-up: I (the player) am going to want to know "why" I was framed just as much as my character would. If my own Lord had set us up, that would be a far more interesting tale than us happening to be at the "wrong place, wrong time".

Perhaps the new King remembers how effective his "heroes" have been, and has decided that they're just the wrong kind of people to be around while he rules with an iron fist. Maybe the King wasn't always such a tyrant, but something made him that way.

To be short, NPC motivations will be key in telling a believable "murder mystery" story.

 

[white_trash_samurai]

I was thinking of the 10 -15 years might not be the way to go, but a part of me has always wanted to run a game were the Heroes got a late start, kinda like the old guys show up to save the day.

Good point and thanks for the feedback thats why im still hashing this out, im just tired of Pathfinder APs and im really wanting to offer something different.

 

[HalfordAskold]

I have wanted to do something like that. Except that after they get to 5th level, their patron has been replaced by a doppleganger. Then their patron, who has always been trustworthy, starts having them do things that at first and just a quick look, are not bad. But eventually they find out that they have been doing things that they thought were good, but were in actually bad. You know, steal the evil artifact from the a tomb and give it to the patron so it can destroyed..etc. Except it was a Holy relic or it was something preventing/guarding something. The good thing about this is that the heros may not believe depending on if they hear anything about it. and if they go to their patron, he can tell them its just their enemies. he could even set up some of his own lower minions to attack the higher level PCs as some kind of red herring.

I always love a good plot twist.

 

[MortonStromgal]

If I wanted to make the PCs the bad guys I would borrow from the 7 samurai and have them hired to protect a "defenseless" village from "bandits". When in reality the village is full of necromancers who are stealing life from the lands remotely. The bandits are a group of heroes sent to put a stop to the necromancers.

 

[Herobizkit]

For me, I would not enjoy the doppelganger route, mostly because "it's been done to death". I (as a DM) would create a legitimate reason why the King would have gone from swell guy to despot in the timeline provided. Everyone makes mistakes, and Kings are no exception.

You could reeeeeeally mess up the PCs and have them sucked into a Domain of Dread as a result of their actions. Perhaps it would be here that the reason for the King's turn to evil could be found.

Borrowing from the Seven Samurai is a great idea. You could have the village aligned as Lawful Evil (that's why they detect as evil), but their leader actually be a decent guy, and the townsfolk love him. The town Lord is incensed and will fight to the death. The PCs will realize Something Foul Is Afoot when their King later absorbs the land they were hired to eradicate... and turns the whole place into a strip mine. What's in the mine? What, indeed...?

 

[white_trash_samurai]

Im digging the 7 Samurai route with the necromancers, too bad Pathfinder doesnt have defilers, that would work so well.

What about the illusion of a small farming village and the townsfolk? And the "bandits" are actually knights to route the Necromancers?