Motivating Evil to Neutral Party [Any]

[Volos]

I decided that I wanted to test my DMing skills and I allowed my players to choose whatever alignment they felt best described their characters. So far I have a Lawful Evil Half-Black Dragon Ex-Paladin Blackguard, a True Neutral Feral Shifter Druid, and a Chaotic Neutral Naga Rogue. (Half snake half man, not the usual D&D monster). Now the characters seem to be working together just fine. Whenever the blackguard does something cruel, the druid could care less because the weak die so that the strong survive (animal logic), and the rogue is actually happy because he gets the shiny stuff left behind.
My only problem is that I'm having trouble motivating the entire party to jump into the next adventure. They love the intercharacter Roleplaying going on, but I just can't get them excited to go for the next adventure. I need suggestions on what will motivate a evil to neutral party.
The Blackguard is motivated by revenge on the bandits that caused the death of his beloved, as well as a need to prove just how far he has fallen from grace now that he's an ex-paladin. (Though there may be a chance to redeem him later in my story)
The Druid is motivated by keeping the natural world and the creatures that live there safe from the advances of the humaniod races, but she still wants to feel accepted in society because she knows she came from the humaniod races not her wild dog family.
The Rogue is motivated by trying to find others of his kind and to be accepted by them. He doesn't know if his half-snake half-man form is a one time mistake or if there are other Naga like him in the world. He also wants to keep anyone else from suffering as he did growing up as a slave to cruel masters. He champions for orphans and slaves from time to time if it suits him.
So... help?

[aberratio ictus]

Step 1: Continue intercharakter roleplay they enjoy so much until they become friends.

Step 2: Use any of their personal motivations to start a plot.

Step 3: Enjoy.

[Lapak]

The Plot in a Nutshell: Profiteering Racket / Conquest on the Wild Frontier!

Give them a reason to move to the edges of civilization if they are not there already. Once they're there, present them with the following situation:

A major push has been made to settle the wild lands on the edge of [Political Territory X.] A number of semi-autonomous colonies have been forged on the edge of the wilderness, and gotten busy doing the stuff new colonies do: logging, mining, hunting, kicking out the hostile locals.

- The Druid has an obvious motivation: kick the colonies' collective tail and make them stop abusing the wilderness.
- The Rogue has a motivation that can be uncovered: the hostile locals (read: typically-evil humanoids) worship a shadowy set of gods represented by snake-people. Initially, they might find colonists selling local religious gear as curiosities, and this can lead to follow-up missions in the wild to find out more.
- The Blackguard is the trigger to get them out there to begin with, because the bandits have moved to the easier pickings on the frontier, and gets his Evil on by backing up the other two: see below.

The Druid is probably going to go down one of two paths: kick the colonies in the teeth or attempt to negotiate. If 'kick in teeth', well, she gets accepted by beating them until they accept the more nature-friendly ways she's trying to share, at which point she's part of society by leading it. If she decides to go subtle, she could present herself as the representative of Nature that can make things nice for the colonists if they play along. Either way, the Blackguard gets to play the heavy for her, slaying and torturing and killing the people who don't play nice and being the Scary Spooky Avenger From the Woods. Who Especially Hates Bandits.

The more time they spend in the area, the more indications of the uprooted local religion they should come into contact with, which will keep the rogue interested in the short term and lead to the next long-term adventure. In the medium term, cleaning up the colonies' act can include dealing with abuses they inflict on the locals AND on each other; frontiers tend to be rough on the weak. Again, while he could do much of this himself, letting the Blackguard play the Avenging Bad Man get the work done for both of them.

[Volos]

The Plot in a Nutshell: Profiteering Racket / Conquest on the Wild Frontier!

Give them a reason to move to the edges of civilization if they are not there already. Once they're there, present them with the following situation:

A major push has been made to settle the wild lands on the edge of [Political Territory X.] A number of semi-autonomous colonies have been forged on the edge of the wilderness, and gotten busy doing the stuff new colonies do: logging, mining, hunting, kicking out the hostile locals.

- The Druid has an obvious motivation: kick the colonies' collective tail and make them stop abusing the wilderness.
- The Rogue has a motivation that can be uncovered: the hostile locals (read: typically-evil humanoids) worship a shadowy set of gods represented by snake-people. Initially, they might find colonists selling local religious gear as curiosities, and this can lead to follow-up missions in the wild to find out more.
- The Blackguard is the trigger to get them out there to begin with, because the bandits have moved to the easier pickings on the frontier, and gets his Evil on by backing up the other two: see below.

The Druid is probably going to go down one of two paths: kick the colonies in the teeth or attempt to negotiate. If 'kick in teeth', well, she gets accepted by beating them until they accept the more nature-friendly ways she's trying to share, at which point she's part of society by leading it. If she decides to go subtle, she could present herself as the representative of Nature that can make things nice for the colonists if they play along. Either way, the Blackguard gets to play the heavy for her, slaying and torturing and killing the people who don't play nice and being the Scary Spooky Avenger From the Woods. Who Especially Hates Bandits.

The more time they spend in the area, the more indications of the uprooted local religion they should come into contact with, which will keep the rogue interested in the short term and lead to the next long-term adventure. In the medium term, cleaning up the colonies' act can include dealing with abuses they inflict on the locals AND on each other; frontiers tend to be rough on the weak. Again, while he could do much of this himself, letting the Blackguard play the Avenging Bad Man get the work done for both of them.

Many thanks for the amazing plot, I think I shall use this to good effect before drawing them into the larger story I planned.

[Moff Chumley]

Awesome things

You rock. I'mma kidnap you and force you to DM mah games, okay? :smallcool:

[Lapak]

Many thanks for the amazing plot, I think I shall use this to good effect before drawing them into the larger story I planned.Glad you like it! :smallsmile:

[Raiki]

I actually received an amazing piece of advice when I was a rookie DM that helped me out a lot. This trick has never failed me, though you have to remember to use it sparingly or the players will start to resent it catch on.

Give them syphilis.

No, really. Hit them with some undesirable condition, and then let them find "clues" that imply that the only way to get rid of it is to [go to a certain place, do a certain thing, visit a certain person, whatever else you need them to do].

It does work, but don't abuse it.

~R~

[Amel]

Gotta say, running an "evil" game, and having done so once in the past, Lapak's idea illustrates an important thing to remember when running this kind of game. It's the same as any other type of game. Find out what motivates the players and give them something to do that is related to that motivation.

Alternatively, you can do what I've done with my current "evil" group. Make them part of a larger organization where they have independence, but still have "bosses" that must be answered to. Occasionally, they get sent on a mission of some sort. Eventually they figure out what they want to do and begin pursuing that goal. Then you just figure out a way to use that goal to motivate them into a plot-line or quest.

I tend to stay as far away from railroading as I can and give the players as many options as possible. This gives them the false sense of having a choice.

[Coidzor]

Well, raw power and wealth that is apparently more easily and quickly obtained than more... sanctioned activities.

I'm not really buying "Druid slaughters massive number of colonists, so they make him their leader," though. That seems more like, "Druid slaughters massive numbers of colonists, this attracts the attention of the power(s) behind the colonization."

[Lapak]

Gotta say, running an "evil" game, and having done so once in the past, Lapak's idea illustrates an important thing to remember when running this kind of game. It's the same as any other type of game. Find out what motivates the players and give them something to do that is related to that motivation.Indeed. The players have to believe that their characters would be invested in the task, and it certainly helps if it's something that they can work together on productively. In the plot-skeleton I suggested, they even have the opportunity to do something non-destructive while staying non-Good. That said...

Alternatively, you can do what I've done with my current "evil" group. Make them part of a larger organization where they have independence, but still have "bosses" that must be answered to. Occasionally, they get sent on a mission of some sort. Eventually they figure out what they want to do and begin pursuing that goal. Then you just figure out a way to use that goal to motivate them into a plot-line or quest.

I tend to stay as far away from railroading as I can and give the players as many options as possible. This is critical. Whether you stay actively away from railroading or no, the players WILL jump whatever tracks you have laid down. You might set up the situation I've put out above, and they may decide to go haring off into the wilderness immediately, or stalk the bandits and then head back to civilization, or a thousand other things. Sketch out an idea of the overall situation in your head just in case, and it's never a bad idea to knock together a couple of location-free but fun little time-burning encounters that you can drop in anywhere. If they do something that catches you totally unprepared and you need to scramble to continue play to the end of the session, you can pull out one of those to hold them off.

EDIT on the druid thing: I was mostly free-form riffing there, and you're likely right. Even so, the thing about colonies is that they tend to be remote from the central authority; otherwise they'd just be the outer portion of the country itself. It's not too hard to swing the idea that a local warlord (or druid) could set themselves up as the leader by force - a response would come along eventually, probably, but even that isn't definite. 'Failed' colonies, or conquered ones, may be abandoned as too costly if it suits the political climate back home.