Playing at Evil: Consequences of an Evil PC

[Hypersmurf]

The last evil game I played in, my conceptions (and the DM's, I think) were at odds with the rest of the players'.

I was trying to play a 'realistic' evil. The ends justify the means, where the ends are his own increased power and influence. Work within the system where possible. A lie is all the more believable for being 90% true. That sort of thing.

If it became necessary to kill an innocent, he would do it and sleep fine at night. But if it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't do it.

Whereas the other players were portraying cartoon evil. They would cross the street to kick a puppy, and slaughter random civilians at the drop of a hat.

My character ended up getting his throat cut by the other PCs, and the DM ended the game shortly thereafter... it wasn't the game she thought she was going to run.

The last evil game I ran was fairly cartoony itself, but that was okay. It was a sort-of Reservoir Dogs in Ankh-Morpork setting, so over-the-top fitted right in

-Hyp.

 

[Nifft]

The last evil game I played in, my conceptions (and the DM's, I think) were at odds with the rest of the players'.

I was trying to play a 'realistic' evil. The ends justify the means, where the ends are his own increased power and influence. Work within the system where possible. A lie is all the more believable for being 90% true. That sort of thing.

If it became necessary to kill an innocent, he would do it and sleep fine at night. But if it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't do it.

I'm doing the same thing in a RttToEE game. The other two PCs are Chaotic Neutral, and I'm going to be playing a LE Anima Mage (Binder 1 / Wiz 3 / AM 1+). He's currently Evil because every morning he casts vestige wrack which has the [Evil] descriptor.

In the future, he will have no compunction about casting animate dead or any other [Evil] spells. He's otherwise typical for a Wizard: interested in increasing his own mystical and temporal power, interested in understanding the universe, interested in summoning fiends to do his bidding... the usual.

He might just take Improved Familiar for an Imp (named "Dante" perhaps).

Anyway -- I'll let you know how it works out, when a thread like this happens in the future.

-- N

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

I miss my evil PC game.

It's been awhile since Saduul wreaked havoc on the unbelievers, and used their spilled blood to power foul arcane.

 

[Sound of Azure]

The last evil game I played in, my conceptions (and the DM's, I think) were at odds with the rest of the players'.

I was trying to play a 'realistic' evil. The ends justify the means, where the ends are his own increased power and influence. Work within the system where possible. A lie is all the more believable for being 90% true. That sort of thing.

If it became necessary to kill an innocent, he would do it and sleep fine at night. But if it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't do it.
-Hyp.

Yeah, that is more or less what I was trying to do, and avoid the "Mwuhaha" cartoon-evil. Cartoon-evil can be fun as well, but only in the right kind of game.

Since the game Father Zelkyr is in is intended to be long term, I thought I should make him as "realistic" as possible, and try to explore the complexities of such a character, looking at how he might justify certain things or act according to certain stimuli. It's also an experiment to see if I could convincingly play at evil, since I normally play good-types.

 

[Sound of Azure]

I'm doing the same thing in a RttToEE game. The other two PCs are Chaotic Neutral, and I'm going to be playing a LE Anima Mage (Binder 1 / Wiz 3 / AM 1+). He's currently Evil because every morning he casts vestige wrack which has the [Evil] descriptor.

In the future, he will have no compunction about casting animate dead or any other [Evil] spells. He's otherwise typical for a Wizard: interested in increasing his own mystical and temporal power, interested in understanding the universe, interested in summoning fiends to do his bidding... the usual.

He might just take Improved Familiar for an Imp (named "Dante" perhaps).

Anyway -- I'll let you know how it works out, when a thread like this happens in the future.

-- N

Sounds good. Look forward to hearing about it! Must be frustrating hanging out with CNs....

 

[sckeener]

My character ended up getting his throat cut by the other PCs, and the DM ended the game shortly thereafter... it wasn't the game she thought she was going to run.

that is when the DM makes sure your character gets raised and the others brought to justice....wash, rise, repeat until the players are playing a smarter evil.

 

[WayneLigon]

My favorite 'let's play evil characters' story involves a group where one guy sits back during all the dungeoning and such. Then, when the rest of the party is weak, says 'OK, that should do it. GImme all your stuff or die'. They resist, he slaughters them. Being the only survivor, he gets all the XP for the dungeoning plus the XP for killing his fellows which makes him exponentially more powerful than their brand new 1st level characters after the second time of this. Wash, rinse, repeat for three weeks until the others saw the wisdom of not playing evil characters. It's never fun when it happens to you.

 

[sckeener]

My favorite 'let's play evil characters' story involves a group where one guy sits back during all the dungeoning and such. Then, when the rest of the party is weak, says 'OK, that should do it. GImme all your stuff or die'. They resist, he slaughters them. Being the only survivor, he gets all the XP for the dungeoning plus the XP for killing his fellows which makes him exponentially more powerful than their brand new 1st level characters after the second time of this. Wash, rinse, repeat for three weeks until the others saw the wisdom of not playing evil characters. It's never fun when it happens to you.

The wisdom check needed to be made on why did they hire someone that has a known track record of getting his co-adventurers killed! Admittedly he could try to spin it that he is always the lucky one, the lucky one that survives, but still that is a silly way to make a name for yourself.

 

[Mercule]

I've got a smart evil PC that I've played in several PBEM games. Those rarely seem to go well. Too often, everyone else is doing "cartoon evil" or "stupid evil". There was one game where most of the evil PCs were doing "smart".

It was fun while it lasted, then there was a medical issue with the GM's wife, IIRC. Interestingly enough, the smart evil PCs ensured that there was a whole lot less bloodshed than most good-aligned groups I've seen. We had to contend with the reality of the law and the non-candy-coated truth of our actions.

With the couple of evil characters I've played, I tend to make them "acceptable" by giving them a potential trigger for reformation. In the case of the above ranger/assassin, he was pragmatic enough that he worshipped Meilikki in FR, as he really didn't think it was sane to promise your soul to any of the evil gods.

 

[pawsplay]

I enjoy evil characters as a change of pace. I play them basically like good characters, except without all those inconvenient restrictions. Really rotten characters are fun... just look at Interview with the Vampire, Payback, many caper movies, Fallen, etc. I think a lot of people feel uncomfortable with their emotional safety off. However, in real life, I am a very morally firm person... to me, playing evil is a moral vacation, not a threat to my sense of identity. And I relish it when my nastiest characters have gotten what's coming to them. I picture most such characters as laughing their way to the gallows.