I quit 4e-DM after my first day.

[Fifth Element]

It seems like they broke that expectation... but I would argue that it's not a DM's job to care.

I disagree. There was one player (the paladin) who was not in it for en evil campaign, and it seems that the DM doesn't enjoy that type of game either. So one player and the DM, it seems, were not having fun. That's enough to care about right there.

 

[SkidAce]

The dreaded tenth alignment: Stupid Evil.

Wait a minute...

according to Dark Helmet, evil always wins because good is stupid.

...and someone with that much shwartz has to be correct.

 

[Punnuendo]

Stories like this are why I'm a big fan of having a group template before starting play. It should be hashed out how the characters know one another, why they trust each other, and what their group goals are before you have the first game session. Keeps everyone from going nuts on everyone else, at least for a little while.

 

[Fifth Element]

Wait a minute...

according to Dark Helmet, evil always wins because good is stupid.

...and someone with that much shwartz has to be correct.

He's still using the old alignment system - if there's Stupid Evil there must also be Stupid Good.

 

[Woas]

Why not give EXALTED a try? Seems right down your alley.

 

[Jackex]

Not a troll actually.

We did discuss the characters background story, and i have played with them several times before. I'd played dnd with them on and off for along time, and we have done an evil run before. It was the first time I had been DM, two of the players wanted to do some colorful stuff, and what they asked for their characters was okay. Those two were where the ones who skinned people and sacrificed people. The dragon born was a Barbarian who wanted to be a little paranoid, she had a pretty basic story about just wanting to get stronger. The most boring of the player stories.
We have always done several things, don't put alignment on character sheets if you want to hide them from other players, not the DM. The story itself was more neutral that players would be allowed to go in the direction they wished.

After the players started slaughtering the crew, two of them kept asking random crap, can I do this, can I do that, I take his severed head and put him on my hand as a puppet. I told them to stop, even evil charcters wouldn't do most of this stuff. It was mainly one guy that started it, and the others just went along with it.

Obviously i'm not giving every single detail, just a general desciption

 

[Dark Mistress]

Once more that is still the players not the games fault. Though i have to ask. Is this the first 4e game you guys have played? Perhaps the problem is one or more of the players just really has made up his or her mind about it already and decided to just not take it serious.

The reason i ask is because we was doing some short term stuff recently in our group and we had one player do that. In the end it turned out he refused to even give 4e a chance he made up his mind he hated it and didn't want to play it. So basically he sabotaged the game to be sure we didn't play it again.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Don't quit the game quit the players.

Unless you're good friends with them, then try to resolve things, but if there's no resolving the differences then go your own way.

I had to do that with an old friend. When ever we'd play an RPG together as players, he'd always roll up a person who was incredibly powerful with high combat skills. Then he'd always play some sort of prank on my character to embarrass me or find some way to get my character into trouble with somebody else. Such as stealing from the till in a church and planting it on my character. I tried and tried to talk to him and get him to stop it but he used the "I'm only role playing to build character" rationalization and nothing I tried ever changed his mind. But from my perspective he was being a bully and harassing me but he just wouldn't listen. If I tried to play a prank on him back he'd just kill off my character. So I had to stop playing with him for good. He can't understand why I stopped playing with him and is very angry with me for doing so.

So the lesson is don't quit the game quit the players.

 

[nedjer]

Someone maybe doesn't think you're worthy, at least compared to him. When you started well enough, if maybe not inspirationally, the balloon burst as the possibility that you are worthy came up.

Time to move you off safer new GM territory into the sandbox, where any GM can major fail, and re-assert the 'proper' outgame implicit social hierarchy . . . you didn't have a chance and you weren't meant to?

 

[Oryan77]

You shoulda done what I always do....cry about it...a lot...like a big baby.

Trust me, this works. Nothing gets to your friends more than a grown man crying like a girl. To spice it up more and really tug at my players heartstrings, I sometimes get a bit of snot going to moisten the upper lip.

You may laugh now, but my players wouldn't dare create chaotic evil PCs and then go on a rampage. I'm surprised nobody offered this advice sooner