What's wrong with being good?

[Dragonblade]

I cannot play evil characters at all. There is just no satisfaction in it.

I would rather be the shining hero willing to spill his lifesblood on the battlefield to free the innocent villagers from the enslavement and tyranny of some dark lord!

Thats so much more gratifying and satisfying then an evil campaign. I definitely agree that the maturity of the players is a big factor.

 

[Creamsteak]

Re: Re: Re: What's wrong with being good?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

I'd be willing to bet that his players are not mature.
By mature gamers, I mean over ~28.

Play with some older gamers, and I'll virtually guarantee that you will see this problem vanish.

Oh, come on now reaper, not that I don't COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU, but there are a few exceptions.

~Did I pass my innuendo check?

 

[Elf Witch]

The two groups I play in tend towards CG. It allows for heroic intensions but also one can accomplish this at any means. Most of the players aviod LG referring to it as Lawful Stupid since some feels it traps them to play a specific way thus becoming a 2d cardboard cutout character.

I have never understood this. Playing LG can be a role playing challenge because it requires you to be creative. Because to a LG person the ends to do not justify the means. I like playing LG it as always been my favorite alingment to play. I do think some players play it stupidly. You don't have to throw your PCs life away and you can most assuredly retreat to come back and fight another day.

 

[Elf Witch]

I have also found CN the hardest alignment to roleplay properly because so many people that try it tend to do more evil actions and say its due to freedom of spirit and such nonsense, and in fact most end up playing NE without realizing it when they play the alignment that I can do whatever I want for my own selfish reasons and I will do it regardless of what other people may think (all really selfish acts and methods of acting, which is NE).

Has anyone else seen this occur?

I think CN is one of the hardest to play and most of the time it is played rather badly. In the last campaign I played in my roommate played a great CN fighter. She played her with leanings to good but not afraid to do some evil acts if she felt they were needed to accomplish her goals. The only person she would endanger her life for was her twin sister and later the man she fell in love with. She obeyed laws if she felt that they were just and did not impinge on what she wanted to do.

Basically she played her as self-absorbed and self-centered which is what CN basically is.

 

[HellHound]

Not a problem in my home. Our games of D&D are Epic Fantasy - we play good and neutral aligned parties. And most of the neutral characters are Lawful.

It's about mindset.

 

[mythago]

Now, why am I guessing that Reapersaurus is 30?

But I agree with Buttercup--your players sound very immature. It's one thing to want to play an evil character; it's quite another to get mad at the GM when being evil has consequences.

Can you get new players? These guys should maybe stick to playing orcs in Blood Bowl, or something.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hey, now, Reap, all us yong 'uns ain't too bad.

I'm 21, and the closest to evil I've ever played is a neutral kobold who is self-interested and self-important, but who also won't go out of his way to hurt, wound, or injure people who he's supposed to be working with...he wants to prove his power, rule the world, etc., but he's not going to be an ass about it.

I'm more often DM, so I guess I play evil a lot, actually...

My players generally don't go in for evil alignments. There was once, when it was more of a new thing...("Dude! He's letting us play evil!"), but it was done thoughtfully, and with skill, and I *still* made them save the world by making it a quest of self-interest, that they were willing and able to go out of their way to hurt and kill people in their quest. And many of them died at the hands of constubalry.

You could solve the problem perhaps easily...your players probably feel confined by the alignment system, like it can't represent what they truly want to do....

So tell them "Act however you want...you don't have to pick an alignment"

And then pick an alignment for them based on their actions. Do they flout any and all authority they come accross? Chaotic. Do they go out of their way to kill babies, or are they content in only killing the babies who try to kill them (Evil in the first case, Neutral in the second)...or would they go out of their way to find what's causing the killer baby rampage in the firs place? (Good).

You keep track of alignment. Tell the players that. They don't need to label themselves anymore -- you just label how they act.

 

[National Acrobat]

Re: Re: Re: What's wrong with being good?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

I'd be willing to bet that his players are not mature.
By mature gamers, I mean over ~28.

Play with some older gamers, and I'll virtually guarantee that you will see this problem vanish.

Funny thing is that the group that I play with is the exact opposite. There are between 7-10 of us that generally play, not everyone plays in every campaign. Usually about 7 of us do. We have been together for over 10 years, we are all 32 or older and we have always played mostly good, or nuetral (with good leanings) characters. We enjoy heroic role playing and we like all things nice and helpful. All of us have been role playing since we were 10 or 11.


In 2 weeks we are starting a new campaign.

Every one is evil.

We are all mature. We are all seasoned gamers and 3 of us are experienced DM's.

We just wanted to try something different.

We have been good for so long we wanted to see how the other side lives. Not only that, all of the characters are LE.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[mythago]

Playing evil PCs isn't the problem--playing Stupid Evil is. "Whaddya MEAN the city guard is mad that we're killing people left and right?!"

One of the most interesting characters I played was in a Palladium game. Aberrant (basically LE) in a mostly-good group; there were game reasons that we were thrown together. It was a very uneasy truce, kept together only because there was a greater threat with consequences none of us wanted to happen.

 

[reapersaurus]

hmm.. seems like people didn't follow the posts exactly.

original post:

I'm just wondering if anyone can answer this: why do players have such an aversion to playing good characters?! It seems my players always either go for neutral or evil alignments unless they absolutely have to be good (to be a paladin, for example).

my post:

Play with some older gamers, and I'll virtually guarantee that you will see this problem vanish.

National Acrobat, your group perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about.

I didn't say that mature gamers don't play evil.

I said mature gamers don't have such an aversion to playing good characters.

And I also didn't say that all younger players are immature, OR that all younger players like to play evil characters.

*takes breath*
sheesh!
It's amazing sometimes how people can read stuff that's not written.
But that's part of the fun of posting on discussion groups!