Games Where Player Characters are the Bad Guys

[Sanguinarious]

And then the person who decides not to follow that statement kills you and takes all your stuff. (Star Trek itself did a bit with this where the Mirror Universe Terrans get inspired by Mirror Spock to be less violent and then get conquered by someone else.)

Refusing to engage in war effectively works as a multi-person prisoner's dilemma with large rewards to the first one to break the rules. Even our modern standards, imperfect as they are, are backed by the military and financial power of a large international hegemon which, of course, has its interests come first.

I'm not advocating breaking into the house next door and taking their stuff, but 'might makes right' is the norm historically, and even more so pre-historically, and before that in the animal kingdom. Before that bacteria would secrete toxins to kill other bacteria.

(Perhaps this is the reason stories of paladins and the like are so attractive...we'd like to believe that the people with the power are morally just, because IRL it just isn't so most of the time. There's a well-known franchise where the bad guys win...it's called real life.)

Not necessarily. You can choose to defend yourself and maintain a strong defensive ability while not being aggressive. As Teddy Roosevelt, one of america's second-best presidents said ''Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far. ''

Just because you choose to be generally non aggressive militarily doesn't mean you can't defend yourself and hit an aggressor back hard. That's why America had the nuclear triade strategy for dealing with the mutural assured destruction situation, we had numerous missile bases, both in and out of America , bombers which could stay airborne for several days with refueling and the boomers, our missile subs. It was pretty hard to imagine any plausible scenario that would allow any enemy to take out enough of our deterrent forces to protect him from utter destruction if he attacked.

Frankly I'm neither a Hawk nor a dove, I'm a Raven. I believe in maintaining a strong ready defense but not in bombing anyone who looks at us cross-eyed or refuses our generous offers to run their economy for them.

 

[Thourne]

Did anyone mention Necessary Evil yet?
You play the bad guys in it by design.
The good supers get taken out and aliens are invading earth.
So, the bad supers (which includes the players) are like ... um no. Our planet and go to fighting the ETs

 

[MGibster]

Did anyone mention Necessary Evil yet?
You play the bad guys in it by design.

My group played Necessary Evil and we had a good time with it. Most of us made silver age style comic super heroes. My villain was a riff of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so essentially an evil Hulk with an evil scientist alter-ego. One of the players made a mind control specialist who took over an orphanage and used the orphans as his minions. The rest of us "villains" were like, "Damn, you're giving us villains a bad name!"

 

[the Jester]

Now I'm picturing Rand as a 3E/PF1 cleric or bard making liberal use of the Enthrall spell. Everyone stands around listening to long winded speeches about capitalism while nodding in agreement.

Leomund's Lamentable Belabourment, for those that remember it!

 

[the Jester]

On topic, it's been 20 years or thereabouts since I read it, but I think HOL (Human Occupied Landfill) might fit the bill.