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why I play evil characters
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<blockquote data-quote="Feliath" data-source="post: 144766" data-attributes="member: 3008"><p><strong>Another take on evil characters</strong></p><p></p><p>First off, I did away with alignment in my campaign first thing I did; it's the only thing in core D&D that really annoys me, since the new edition. Keep this in mind below.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I just thought I'd mention another type of evil, which I realize is likely a very small subgroup but which has been curiously common in campaigns I have DM:ed: the person who <em>wants</em> to be good, yet when it comes down to it, acts evil anyway - out of cowardice, or defeatism, or just general habit. I have about one and a half such characters in my present campaign. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> </p><p>One is a thief, whom, orphaned, grew up with thieves after having initially been raised - by a girl who found him - to believe in justice and kindness. His behavior patterns override his ideals constantly, driving him slowly insane; his player pulls off the conflict well. </p><p>The other, who constitutes the half, is an elven necromancer (you have to understand that in my homebrew world, elves are rather nonstandard and detached from humans) obsessed with resurrecting his dead wife. He acts from love, but he's quite prepared to step over corpses and obliterate things others love for it. He doesn't really <em>want</em> to be "Good", and has few illusions about how humans view his deeds, but he feels that what is truly good is defined by what helps him "save" his wife; therefore he counts only for a half. </p><p>(Yeah, it's a pretty low level campaign so far.)</p><p>I would definitely consider both these characters Evil if I used alignments. Still, it strikes me as a very human evil, easy to RP around, and easy to identify with, and the campaign is the deeper and more involving for it. </p><p></p><p>The point of all this blabbing, I guess, is "don't think Evil means 'O-mohahahaaaa!'; it can be so much more subtle and enhance the game thereby". Or, it could be "Dont drink a large bottle of cola late at night and then try to write a messageboard entry". I wouldn't really know, though; I've had too much cola to drink. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>/Feliath</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Feliath, post: 144766, member: 3008"] [b]Another take on evil characters[/b] First off, I did away with alignment in my campaign first thing I did; it's the only thing in core D&D that really annoys me, since the new edition. Keep this in mind below. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention another type of evil, which I realize is likely a very small subgroup but which has been curiously common in campaigns I have DM:ed: the person who [I]wants[/I] to be good, yet when it comes down to it, acts evil anyway - out of cowardice, or defeatism, or just general habit. I have about one and a half such characters in my present campaign. :D One is a thief, whom, orphaned, grew up with thieves after having initially been raised - by a girl who found him - to believe in justice and kindness. His behavior patterns override his ideals constantly, driving him slowly insane; his player pulls off the conflict well. The other, who constitutes the half, is an elven necromancer (you have to understand that in my homebrew world, elves are rather nonstandard and detached from humans) obsessed with resurrecting his dead wife. He acts from love, but he's quite prepared to step over corpses and obliterate things others love for it. He doesn't really [I]want[/I] to be "Good", and has few illusions about how humans view his deeds, but he feels that what is truly good is defined by what helps him "save" his wife; therefore he counts only for a half. (Yeah, it's a pretty low level campaign so far.) I would definitely consider both these characters Evil if I used alignments. Still, it strikes me as a very human evil, easy to RP around, and easy to identify with, and the campaign is the deeper and more involving for it. The point of all this blabbing, I guess, is "don't think Evil means 'O-mohahahaaaa!'; it can be so much more subtle and enhance the game thereby". Or, it could be "Dont drink a large bottle of cola late at night and then try to write a messageboard entry". I wouldn't really know, though; I've had too much cola to drink. ;) /Feliath [/QUOTE]
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