Fans of mature (vile) material, what do you want?

[mhacdebhandia]

Good vile material focuses more on temptation, corruption, and degradation than on gore, cackling, and revulsion.

Vile darkness has a purpose, as unfathomable as that may seem to the average person. Your vile cult shouldn't be murdering infants because they like murdering infants mwahahaha, they should be stealing children to destroy hope and raising them in their cult to beget terror, or sacrificing them to a dark god or fiend for some other reason.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Anything that can top GURPS Horror, Delta Green and Delta Green: Countdown.

Slightly less ambitious, I want something horriffic that hangs together. A mere collection of evil artifacts, spells, monsters and whatnot doesn't cut it. All of these should form a whole - a consistent body of evil that reveals one onion layer of the darkness to another to the unlucky investigator.

Let us for example start with a spellbook full of dark and vile spells. Simply listing the spells in it, while a good start, is not enough. I want its history as well - who wrote it and why, through whose hands it has passed since then, and what kinds of tragedies and disasters it has created in its wake. These are all things that can be investigated and heard of before the PCs even glimpse the tome.

If the tome has any monsters associated with it (possibly they can be summoned by it, or act as its guardian), I want a full description of them as well - and their appearance and powers should also be hinted at in the history of the book as other people have encountered it and told their tales about it, even if they didn't fully grasp the big picture.

Then there should be a full writeup on the people who possess it now - an evil cult, or a reclusive necromancer, perhaps - as well as their agendas, their dwelling (including a full floor plan) and their resources apart from the book.

And there should be other groups or people after the book - either because they want to have its power for their own, or because they want to safely seal it away (for it cannot be destroyed by conventional means). All these can serve as complications for the adventurers.

Finally, a number of adventure seeds that detail possible ways the PCs learn of the book and come into contact with it or its effects should help the adventures going.

All this information is enough to create many adventures around a single item - possibly even an entire campaign arc. And because it is self-consistent, these adventures will make a much more lasting impression than just finding another "Generic Stick of Dark Vileness +4"...

 

[Imruphel]

I would like to see all of the fiends (tanar'ri, baatezu, yugoloths, gehreleths etc...) redesigned so that their powers actually match their flavour text (and I suppose that would also mean going back to 2E to get some decent flavour text).

At the moment, they all seem to be, more or less, random grab-bags of abilities. There doesn't seem to be any underlying design reason for much about them.

 

[Odhanan]

Evil that makes sense. Not that evil in D&D doesn't make sense (it may at times), or that it isn't always flavorful or fun, but it's often two dimensional, very "black and white", and I have a hard time, sometimes, to rely with characters with no other motivation than just being evil for the sake of it. I like cliches when they are well handled, but after a while they destroy my suspension of disbelief.

I like villains who have a reason for being evil. For me, for Evil to feel real, it has to be a valid choice of action, at least at the beginning, before it becomes a spiral. If events, people/items and choices in the game are clearly "right" or "wrong", then there isn't any real choice. Evil actions may look like valid options at times, especially for a "greater good", or for reasons that have more to do with ego than ethics and morals (vengeance, frustrations, "right" wrongs done to you by giving in to various forms of evil acts).

The one cheezy reason to avoid IMO for being evil is "wanting power". When an individual wants "power", that's for a purpose, that's not a goal by itself. Whether it's to make him/herself feel better, to get revenge on a particularly powerful foe or foes, to perform an epic act that has a particular significance for the character, whatever. But there has to be a reason beyond the desire for power.

Alignments are not known around our game table. The DM decides who is what alignment, if those alignments change due to this or that action in game, even though a few spells and abilities (Detect... spells) may allow PCs to know part or all of a character's inclinations.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Fear not, Fluffy will have his moment to shine in the upcoming Blackdirge Publishing release: None so Vile: Puppies and Kittens of Doom - Fluffy: Destroyer of Worlds.

 

[sword-dancer]

Forces and Powers who tap in to dark Forces, faster but with their own price.

Magic which is dark and powered by sacrifice of others, not because they use bone weapons as part of it.

Blood magic, which operates on the pain and suffering of targets, victims and so on and corrupts the caster and/or the target,

Choices, struggle, Evil Adversaries who are innocent, Artifacts who subtle corrupts the champions of good.

Good who do terrible things because it`s the only choice they`ve, see or because they consider it justice.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Hi all; thanks for the great feedback.

So far what I have gleaned from your responses is less fork in the eyeball and more slow corruption and moral dilemma. A few of you have mentioned that you would like to see products detailing vile NPC's and/or monsters, which I think is an excellent idea, and is currently in the works.

My own feelings on the subject are as follows. I love the "ewww" factor. That is to say, that as a DM I find nothing more pleasing than when players flinch in revulsion at my description of an NPC or monster. For example, I think the Cancer Mage from the BoVD is sheer brilliance. It is foul beyond description, evokes instant revulsion, but still offers a DM a wide array of compelling options for its use.

Personally, I think subjects that are intrinsically abhorrent (cannibalism, human sacrifice, sadism, etc.) make great fodder for vile material. Although, I absolutely agree with what one poster said, it is not enough for a villain to be simply revolting, there has to be a method to his madness, a solid reason for his horrendous evil.

Thanks again for the feedback. Keep the suggestions coming.

BD

 

[Zog]

Ohhhh - Vile Magical Dungeon Dressing!

Statues, Tapestries, elaborate wall carvings - all of which have some magical effect.

A statue which, at first, simply makes those who fail the save want to take it with them. And given that it looks harmless, just a slightly unusual pose, why not? Except that it whispers dark thoughts to those who sleep nearby (ie, in the same house).

So, the party beats up the evil cult, destroys the evil altar, takes a cool looking (and valuable) statue back home, sets it up in the foyer, and weeks later the cult is reborn with the cook and maid and butler leading it.

Otherwise innocuous or non-standard treasure items that have a slow corrupting influence on their new owner. Or other wierd and vile affects -

a tapestry from which a vile beast can walk when the moon is new, and pull victims into, so they are now part of the image, being eternally tortured, frozen in pain....
a golden, bejeweled dinner set which introduces a suble drug to all food eaten off the plates, with the flatware, etc.
And, of course, a very faint illusion spell to mask the evil nature of the items.

 

[tzor]

As a more mature (as in I'm in mymid 40's) sort of gamer I tend to look towards a deeper meaning of vile. Gore isn't vile, it's just gore. The so called "Book of Vile Darkness" covers more than just vile, including gore, gross, and extreeme evil overkill.

Vile is more than just super evil, in fact I think it is completely seperate from the notions of good and evil. Generally speaking good is placing others at the expense of self; evil is placing teh self at the expense of othes. Vile on the other hand is the destruction of the principles of humanity itself, free will and hope being the two most obvious types. Vile can be applied to the other or to the self. The path of the blackguard is the fath to fienddom, and that is acually vileness applied to the self.

Advanced vile is those evil things that hurt others by depriving others of free will or hope or faith while at the same time maintaining a veneer of either goodness or lawfullness. They attempt to twist or make a mockery of those things that their victims hold dear. If chaotic, they are the master of the lie, if lawful they are the master of the fine print.