welcome to the freak show. 3.5.

[Mrgone]

alright. my group has been hinting at an evil based campaign. I've decided that I'd try to accommodate their needs for evil. I've a few ideas myself but wanted to drop it by the playground to see if anything better came up. any advice will be appreciated. the creepier the better. i want to give them the session of a life time. The people of the playground have made that happen several times over.

[MukkTB]

You could just let them take a free level adjustment +2. This should result in some bizarre monster player characters, weird hybrid things, half golems, and generally disturbing creatures.

[Randomguy]

Alternatively, give everyone either Willing Deformity (forget what book it's from) or Aberrant Blood (from lords of madness) as a bonus feat.

[Mrgone]

that could work, in turn snuff the need for a table all together. i like it. as far as sorce books we have lords of madness. great suggestion and thanks. do you think book of vile darkness should be permitted or am i asking for a one time play allowing that book.

[lsfreak]

that could work, in turn snuff the need for a table all together. i like it. as far as sorce books we have lords of madness. great suggestion and thanks. do you think book of vile darkness should be permitted or am i asking for a one time play allowing that book.

I wouldn't give a blanket "yes, it's allowed." From what I remember, a lot of it's mediocre with a few gold mines of brokenness (mind rape, disciple of dispater), and much of the "mechanical fluff" is problematic, same as BoED (what is good/evil, etc). And keep in mind it's 3.0.

Other books to keep in mind are Heroes of Horror, Exemplars of Evil, and Elder Evils. Only HoH has significant amounts of mechanical stuff (EoE/EE are limited to the first chapter, I think; the rest of the books are example BBEG's), but for player ideas or for DM ideas all three are good. One or two of them also have Willing Deformity and related feats in them.

[Medic!]

The level of maturity at your table will have more of an impact on the enjoyability of the campaign than anything else (I know butt-cheeks clench when someone starts using the word maturity and refering to other people, but it's not an insult!)

Personally I absolutely LOVE playing evil characters, but I tend to play them at a more realistic/real-world evil level as opposed to some of the evil characters I've stood side-by-side with who's idea of evil was more of a multiple choice test containing:

You encounter [an NPC/Monster/Village/Inanimate Object] do you:
1) kill it
2) rape it
3) urinate/defecate on it
4) go out of your way to do all of the above

We had one player who had been gaining some experience as a DM literally put us in a tavern for a campaign start and tell the party at a table "I want to see you perform an act of great evil so I know you're the ones I want to hire." Three sessions later he bombarded our level 6 party with 18 level 20 clerics and 25 level 20 paladins because we completed our mission to kidnap a child by using her as a hostage when the guards and the CR-appropirate paladin tried to stop us.

90% of this post has nothing to do with the OP, but the part about how your players do "Evil" was the relevant point :smallcool:

EDIT: OH now I remember the point of that story: The DM's expectation of Evil Party and the Party's expectations were completely out of synch: We expected to be dirty selfish bastards who won by any means/dirty trick available, and he expected us to steal, kill, and pee on things, especially if "It looks holy"

[Mrgone]

no offense taken only time my cheeks clench is when I'm pinching one out. that sounds like a hell of a run by the way. pretty much what i plan on doing with this run is to provide the paints (the books listed above seem to be a pretty sweet start), and a canvas (a traveling freak show) and let the players paint the picture.

as of now I'm thinking 3 ecl to start with. aberrant blood and willing deformity as bonus feats. i'll probably change up some of the were templates to make them a little more violent and a little less controllable just in case somebody rolls that rout. I've always liked the more animal than man version of lycanthropy. maybe a frenzied effect similar to the frenzied zerker with a trickier save or no recognition of friend or foe at all. we'll see.

That sound like a good set up for the session?

[Mrgone]

k here is an update on the campaign set up. players seem to be pretty happy with it and i think it has a bit of flare.

starting level: 1st level for purposes of introduction to the black circus.
after introduction the character will gain a +3 ecl for purposes
of determining templates and such for an effective level 4
character.

bonus feats: the character will start with aberrant blood and willing deformity
as free feats and will roll randomly for one free aberrant feat
and again for one free deformity feat. the free feats will be
awarded after induction into the black circus.

source materials: all wotc published material. (I reserve the rite to approve
or disapprove any content after generation, before play). in
other words: no pun puns lol.

I've put together the first session of the campaign. I'd link it but some of my friends which will end up playing in it frequent these boards. lol don't wanna give the fun away. maybe i'll toss it in a spoiler later. we'll see.

[Laughingcarp]

If you have time and the inclination, I'd seriously suggest checking out Jonathan L. Howard's novel "Johannes Cabal; The Necromancer".

http://www.amazon.com/Johannes-Cabal-Necromancer-Jonathan-Howard/dp/0385528086

It sounds like it'd fit perfectly into the theme you're pulling, with the main character ending up running an evil traveling theme park. Plus, it's one of the best books I've read in ages.

[Mrgone]

If you have time and the inclination, I'd seriously suggest checking out Jonathan L. Howard's novel "Johannes Cabal; The Necromancer".

http://www.amazon.com/Johannes-Cabal-Necromancer-Jonathan-Howard/dp/0385528086

It sounds like it'd fit perfectly into the theme you're pulling, with the main character ending up running an evil traveling theme park. Plus, it's one of the best books I've read in ages.

totally gonna check that out. sounds like its right up my ally. i love horror, and it could give me something strong to build off of. thank you for the suggestion.

[Laughingcarp]

Absolutely! More than happy to share quality literature!