The party patron as a miserable SOB

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, I'm starting to plan a pbp game for a group of friends from an MMORPG board (yes, MMORPG players also like D&D -- reel in shock and awe). To unite all the characters under the same banner and, in theory, give them a reason to work together, I'm having them all be employees or apprentices of a powerful (and political ambitious) wizard living in Ptolus.

He's Erac, as in Erac's Cousin of 1E fame, and is only marginally nicer. I'm liberally stealing from TV's House for his personality, as well as Dr. Cox from Scrubs. He'll have other stuff piled on before I'm done. (Another nasty wizard in my Midwood campaign started off as an unholy conglomeration of Gargamel, Professor Snape and every Priest of Set that Conan ever crossed paths with, and Khenemet-Apep turned out pretty interestingly, IMO.)

Has anyone ever had the party's patron be a complete and up front SOB (as opposed to the classic betrayal by a seemingly good guy patron)? How did it work out? I don't really want the party to abandon ship, nor murder him in his sleep -- any suggestions on how to keep things from crossing that line?

 

[Charwoman Gene]

1) Competence. The guy has to be very, very good at what he does.
2) The Line. He can't cross your player's invisible line. He has to observe just enough respect for the players.
3) Escape Valve. You have to let them get stuff over on him.

 

[Mark CMG]

Sherlock Holmes was a miserable SOB but without the continual stream of overt insults. He just had little patience for other people. SH might be a better model if you want characters with free will to stick around. Characters on Scrubs, House, etc. only stick around because of the lack of stage directions that say, "Exit."

 

[Herobizkit]

Be the biggest S.O.B. in the world; Have their patron also be their main antagonist.

Your high-level wizard is rich, and bored. He hires a group of "heroes" to complete "quests" for him, all of which are designed by and paid for by him. He hires thugs for the PC's to chop down, he sets up treasures from his own vault to be "recovered"; he tries at every turn to "defeat" the PCs with each and every mad adventure he sets them on, because he enjoys watching other people suffer (from afar, of course).

Each adventure should get more and more difficult, almost to the point of ridiculousness. Deliberately set the balance against the PCs; if they start commenting on the difficulty, you're doing it right.

At the same time, you may want to sprinkle clues as to the source of the PC's troubles. Have monsters and NPCs act uncharacteristically when confornted. Thugs lose heart and flee when they're winning, maybe give up if they get hurt (at all), monsters are vicious but not AS vicious as they could be...

And the mad wizard watches on with glee, like some perverse reality TV host.

 

[Piratecat]

When the PCs earn his grudging respect, have him acknowledge that.

 

[dog45]

Ever watch the tv show The 4400. A charismatic leader named Jordan Collier manipulates everyone around him, including the people that worship him. He burns them, and they keep coming back for more.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sherlock Holmes was a miserable SOB but without the continual stream of overt insults. He just had little patience for other people. SH might be a better model if you want characters with free will to stick around. Characters on Scrubs, House, etc. only stick around because of the lack of stage directions that say, "Exit."

Heh, true.

One of the carrots I'm going to dangle in front of the apprentices is that he'll teach them spells from outside the PHB as a reward for completing missions. If they leave his service, it's the PHB only for them. That emulates the "master taught me arcane secrets" thing that is talked about in many games but not regularly modelled.

The non-wizards he'll pay well, although he won't pay for them to be raised -- or, rather, he'll bill them for it when he does have them raised.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

The non-wizards he'll pay well, although he won't pay for them to be raised -- or, rather, he'll bill them for it when he does have them raised.

Or, better yet, has it applied to their pay so that they can work it off.

Everyone expects wizards to be obnoxious, though. I'd have the party work for the church, and have their patron be the most goody-two-shoes, hard-nosed, sterotypical "letter of the law before the spirit" paladin that everyone seems to think the class should be.

Either that, or a monk who's so enlightened that he never bothers to tell the PCs what they're actually doing, but just answers questions with responses about trees in mountains and whatnot.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You're right about the stereotypical wizard, but I've got a very different sort of benevolent wizard patron figure in my Midwood campaign (the Baron of Midwood, in fact), and this is a wizard-themed MMORPG community the players are coming from, so I want to give them a reason to all play wizards, if they're so inclined.

 

[Agamon]

My players hate NPCs that tell them what to do in the first place. If the NPC is snide and condescending...well, I just don't bother going there, it wouldn't be pretty.