Looking for help with motivations of an evil party

[rgard]

Didn't address motivation in the previous post. The PCs should be motivated by self-preservation. If they don't successfully complete each assigned task, they are disciplined or worse.

You can have them be led initially by one of the BBEG's lieutenants (12th or 13th level if the PCs are 10th level.) Have the mission go terribly wrong (higher ECL than they should have been able to handle.) The BBEG then executes the lieutenant in front of the PCs...most horribly. The BBEG then promotes one of the party to lieutenant and tells him or her not to disappoint him.

Your choice for new party leader can be interesting. If you promote your alpha player's PC, things will go a bit more smoothly for them. If you promote the PC of one of your players who is not normally a decision maker, but a follower, it can be a white-knuckle ride for the PCs. I'm talking about the players themselves, not their game personas/PCs.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[ChimericDream]

Wow... I really like some of the ideas coming up in here, and they are helping me come up with a lot of useful plot hooks.

I've already sent off an email to my players. Our first game will be delayed a week, but that should give everyone time to send me at least a sentence or two detailing their character's background, motivations, and goals.

As for being high level characters in the organization, the setting I've created runs the full spectrum of levels all the way into high-epic, so their particular organization has bosses in the 20-30 level range, making the party effectively a mid-level mook hit squad. I do, however, really like the idea about the executed lieutenant idea. I'll definitely be using that (and the idea about promoting a "follower" to the leader spot).

Thanks for all of the ideas! You're helping me come up with a nice overarching plot for the campaign, and great ideas for individual adventures to run when the players aren't doing something specific.

 

[rgard]

Wow... I really like some of the ideas coming up in here, and they are helping me come up with a lot of useful plot hooks.

I've already sent off an email to my players. Our first game will be delayed a week, but that should give everyone time to send me at least a sentence or two detailing their character's background, motivations, and goals.

As for being high level characters in the organization, the setting I've created runs the full spectrum of levels all the way into high-epic, so their particular organization has bosses in the 20-30 level range, making the party effectively a mid-level mook hit squad. I do, however, really like the idea about the executed lieutenant idea. I'll definitely be using that (and the idea about promoting a "follower" to the leader spot).

Thanks for all of the ideas! You're helping me come up with a nice overarching plot for the campaign, and great ideas for individual adventures to run when the players aren't doing something specific.

Thanks. I used the above in a darkside SW campaign I ran last year. In that campaign I had the PCs report to "Darth Vex" a dark Jedi who in turn reported to Darth Vader. Darth Vex was the enforcer when it came to punishing the party when they screwed up. Not sure how comfortable you are with whacking PCs, but occasionally Darth Vex would accompany the party on a mission and invariably one of the PCs died when she went on the mission with them. The death usually resulted from Darth Vex failing to come to a PC's aid (after she said she would) or she would directly kill the PC for some infraction or collateral PC death from an area of effect weapon that was aimed at the rebellion types...and the PC was too close.

I rarely sent her on missions with the party, but when I did the players would blanche and be visibly nervous and on edge during the session.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[painandgreed]

Well if their leaders in the organization are powerful, you could simply say "We order you to do this and if you don't do it we will kill you." I mean, it is an evil organization, so they don't have to play nice with the PCs if the PCs don't toe the line.

See, with the people I play with, this would do nothing but have them spending time trying to knock off the leaders or leaving for a different region rather than addressing their task. But again, IME, the reason that people usually play evil parties is not "to be evil" but to get out from underneath the yoke of DM manipuation or at least be able to exact a fair price for doing it. If a DM has to have NPCs threaten PCs to motivate them to take an adventure, then the PCs probably aren't actually as happy with the game as they should be. Not that threatening BBEG bosses aren't part of the genre, but if you're having to motivate the players instead of the characters, then something is not right.

Of course, the DM could always ask the players what motivates thier characters and work with that.