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Evil Characters?
Tweet Topic Started: Aug 28 2006, 12:21 PM (301 Views)
Hades Aug 28 2006, 12:21 PM Post #1
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How do you feel about letting your players run evil characters? Personally, I don't allow evil characters ni my campaign. Mostly because I have not met a player that was able to run a bad guy effectively and still maintain any group coherence. Also, most of my players prefer being Chaotic Good or Neutral Good, so they have conflict with the evil aligned player to a degree that becomes disruptive.

What do you think?
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cambric Aug 28 2006, 12:35 PM Post #2
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Totally against it, at this point.

I have 'newer' players, who would not do too well. I've seen it done with my more experienced players, but it didn't last long...I think 4 sessions, then it slid into PvP.

I'm sure it 'could' be done, probably LE would be the easiest at it, but I still view D&D as a 'heroic' game, so that is one rule that has never changed for my campaigns: No Evil PC's.

If any player begins to go down that path, they get warned and if their character did happen to become 'evil', then it would become a NPC.

Not saying I'm right and it can't be done!! Just I don't want to deal with it.

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Didge Aug 28 2006, 12:40 PM Post #3
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I don't let my players run evil characters for similar reasons. However, they also haven't really felt the calling to play good characters. So they play neutral. In addition, I'd have no problem letting them play evil characters, but that's not my cup of tea. D&D to me is all about the heroes overcoming the bad guys, not the other way around.

In addition, most (not all) people I've seen run evil characters, once they get their character up to around 9th level is when they start offing one another for their equipment. <_< They don't get the whole "still need teamwork" idea that good or even neutral parties have a good grasp on.

When you're making an Adventure, remember to ask, "WWMPD" (What Would My Player's Do?) Then tailor your adventure around that.
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DaveReaves Aug 28 2006, 01:21 PM Post #4
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Historically I have played with people who are convinced that chaotic neutral means they can do whatever they want, I shudder to think what those people would do to chaotic evil. As such I have never allowed evil PCs and I can only think of one DM I played with that let someone play evil and it ended very, very badly. Bad enough I walked away from the table and the guy who owned the comic store had to yell at a grown man about his language and behavior.

I guess it may be possible to work with an evil PC if every one in the group knows whats going on. That PC would have to have a damn good reason for traveling with the group and the player would have to understand that even an evil character has to be sane to exist in society.
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Hades Aug 28 2006, 03:39 PM Post #5
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My take on alignment is this...

Lawful Evil is like what we see with politicians and corrupt cops.

Neutral Evil is like a serial killer cop who may buy ice cream for your daughter or kidnap and eat her.

Chaotic evil is like a serial killer cop armed with heavy firearms wandering the streets in an ice cream truck and shooting children who come up to but snacks then laughing while he drives away.

Seriously, I know Orcs and and such are listed as being CE but I always tend to think they are LE if anything. They follow their own laws and cultural mores. To me, CE is so damned whacked out that they are just pure monsters.
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Redisbest Aug 28 2006, 06:10 PM Post #6
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The way I like to go- as a player and a leader- is that you make a character and then alignment follows. I don't think I'd do very well choosing an alignment first and playing to type- it would become too much of a cliche too quickly.

Galemp did run a campaign of all evil characters last semester. From what he told me, it worked out very well (except for one player who did not want to play)- I think that it has a lot to do with the approach. They had all been leaning to the darker side of neutral for so long that it was natural and not too disruptive to slip into evil. He'd have to give the full story, though. This is all second hand for me.

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cambric Aug 28 2006, 06:22 PM Post #7
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Hades
Aug 28 2006, 06:39 PM
My take on alignment is this...Seriously, I know Orcs and and such are listed as being CE but I always tend to think they are LE if anything. They follow their own laws and cultural mores. To me, CE is so damned whacked out that they are just pure monsters.

Orcs are more NE than LE. They do what they can get away with...they will only follow a stronger leader.

If you can get your hands on "The Slayer's Guide to Orcs", it explains it really well.

Just a thought...

Cam
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DarkElf Sep 6 2006, 05:04 PM Post #8
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I look at it this way. D&D is about the players being heros. I don't allow evil PC's. Though i have played with characters(see Dave's post) that have played CN, borderline...screw it, as evil, and were called on it. Picking up another unconscious character and throwing them down a trap filled hallway is not CN!!! Well anyway.

I have played an evil character once. I was an NE Lich wizard, that was in the end the true bad guy, leading the players to do my will, and my goals. In fact it ended with a large battle, and they all wanted to kill me. even though I never trully did anything bad against them besides systematically manipulating them into doing what ever I wanted. The game was set up this way with the DM, and it was the basis of the campaign.

I as a DM like DMing a group on good aligned characters, it makes it more controllable with actions and such.
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kismetrose Sep 8 2006, 12:15 AM Post #9
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I think that, at this point, if my folks were to play evil PCs, I'd want to explore how they became evil. Basically this means that I would not just let them roll up a character from scratch and then begin the campaign with little attention to background. I would probably discuss their backgrounds extensively and do preludes to roleplay through important sections of their lives to get an idea of how their evil was shaped.

The thing is, some folks think that if you're evil you don't care about anything or anyone, and that anything goes - but that is generally not the case. (There are some evil folks who don't care about anything and are willing to do anything, but they tend to piss off too many folks and don't tend to last long.) Evil people do have things they care about, but they are often more self-centered things. Evil people might also have people they care about, but whereas good people tend to focus on love and friendship, evil folks tend to focus on aspects like jealousy and envy. Most importantly, people have their own codes of conduct, somewhere that they draw the line, and I'm not just talking about LE people. Everyone has their own standards of taste, their own beliefs, and their own interests. Some evil people will kill children with abandon, for instance, while others won't for any number of reasons.

For a person to play an evil character under me, they would have to know more about their character's motivations and boundaries: what they do care about and what they are and are not willing to do.
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Aladdar Sep 8 2006, 07:26 AM Post #10
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Most people don't understand evil. They think evil is just Freddy Krueger. I wouldn't let a player play that type of evil, but very evil people could easily slip their way into a good aligned group and manipulate them or use them for protection as they plan and carry out their schemes.

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