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Raimun
2012-12-10, 05:16 PM
As per the title, have you ever played a character and decided to make him/her/it do something you personally oppose?

I've just noticed that people tend to play characters that somehow reflect them and most often seem to base the morality and actions of their characters to what they are comfortable with. At least I've noticed that I tend to gravitate towards this kind of play.

Sure, all the characters I've played have always had different personalities, quirks, habits, specialities, etc.
Still, if they all were somehow assembled together in a massive crossover event and had to work together towards a common goal, I'm pretty sure they would all get along pretty well. There would be no major squabbles, just endless sarcastic remarks, general one-upmanship and such.
Nothing like a "Chaotic Evil Demon Summoner, Compulsively Kleptomaniac Assassin, Pacifist Good Healer and Lawful Stupid Paladin-team up".

Just to clarify, killing people/animals/creatures/plants/sentient abstract constructs/whatever in normal combat doesn't count. It's not that it's not something that most people (hopefully!) oppose. It's just so common in rpgs.

Greylond
2012-12-10, 05:41 PM
Of course! To me that is the whole point of Role Playing. In D&D terms I've RP'ed just about ever alignment at one point or another... :)

To me RPing yourself all the time would get boring. :)

Kelb_Panthera
2012-12-10, 06:02 PM
It's an understandable trend. It's something many aspiring actors struggle with too.

I've never had a problem with it. I'm pretty good about seperating myself from my characters.

One character concept that I'd love to try and get into a game (3.5 D&D since that's what I play) is a LE mastermind that's made a contract with a harvester devil to become a liscenced soul broker. That is, he's made a deal to gain benefits in exchange for acting as a proxy to that harvester and draws up faustian pacts to buy and sell the souls of other mortals.

Naturally, this is something I'd never even consider IRL, even if I really thought I could come out ahead in such a deal, but I really enjoy exploring the nature of alignment and human behavior. I haven't yet played under a DM that I thought could handle such a character though.

NichG
2012-12-10, 06:26 PM
Well even characters that match my morality perfectly are occasionally put in difficult or strenuous situations in which their choice in the moment would be something I'd oppose. But as far as a character's basic inclinations... I have played characters that I would hate, fear, or be repulsed by from time to time, but I had less fun with those characters than the ones who matched my own inclinations a bit better.

That said, I do often play characters who would be opposed to things that I'd do in the same situations, and that can be quite fun. A character who refuses to lie, a character who has a moral objection to magical healing (I suppose the real life equivalent would be someone with a moral objection to the tools of modern medicine), etc. I just find it more entertaining to slip into the mind of someone with a more stringent, ambitious, or noble set of values than my own than to slip into the mind of someone who embodies things that repel me. Of course this is all as a player; as a DM, I run all sorts of characters. But thats for short periods of time.

CarpeGuitarrem
2012-12-10, 06:36 PM
To me RPing yourself all the time would get boring. :)
Well, to be fair, there is a vast amount of difference between RPing someone different from yourself and RPing someone whose actions you oppose.

Greylond
2012-12-10, 06:38 PM
Well, to be fair, there is a vast amount of difference between RPing someone different from yourself and RPing someone whose actions you oppose.

I understand what you're saying, but to me, it's pretty much the same thing. IMO, if you are only RPing things that you agree with, then you are pretty much RPing yourself in a "Funny Suit"... :)

NichG
2012-12-10, 06:47 PM
I understand what you're saying, but to me, it's pretty much the same thing. IMO, if you are only RPing things that you agree with, then you are pretty much RPing yourself in a "Funny Suit"... :)

You can roleplay someone who lives up to a higher standard or different standard than you'd be able to. Or just someone with different drives. 'I would not do that' is different than 'I oppose doing that'. I've played a character who thinks its fun to get bashed around by stuff to see how strong things are - I wouldn't oppose that in real life but I'd never want to do it myself. I've played a character with strong familial and clan ties, something I don't oppose of but also not something that really applies to me in real life.

navar100
2012-12-10, 07:43 PM
Aside from killing people and taking their stuff?

Eldonauran
2012-12-10, 08:03 PM
No, can't really say that I've had a character do something I oppose. Each character I design (yeah, thats an apt word) is merely a facet of my personality in one form or another.

Have they done something I'd never do in the real world? Oh my, yes.

The human mind is a deep and imaginative place. Light and shadow both exist in that place.

Raimun
2012-12-10, 10:30 PM
To me RPing yourself all the time would get boring. :)

There's a difference between playing yourself and playing a fictional character who acts in a way you would accept.

I mean, there's more to the character than just his willingness to kick puppies or not.

Still, come to think of it, I've played a few characters who were smokers. That's something I really oppose and will never even try. :smalltongue:


I understand what you're saying, but to me, it's pretty much the same thing. IMO, if you are only RPing things that you agree with, then you are pretty much RPing yourself in a "Funny Suit"... :)

Think of a fictional character in a book, a film, a tv-series or a comic who is, by your very own definition, heroic. Are you anything like him or her?

Ravens_cry
2012-12-10, 10:52 PM
Quite frequently, it's part of the joy of role playing. Heck, given a typical role playing game involves killing other sentient beings at one point or the other, it always happens.

Knaight
2012-12-10, 11:01 PM
Yes. Even putting aside the horrible things NPCs have done when I was GMing, I've played terrible people who did terrible things. They generally show up more in games where one sticks with a character more temporarily, and once those are gone the worst acts go with them (e.g. participation in several massacres), but even without that PCs routinely break my moral codes.

valadil
2012-12-10, 11:09 PM
Of course. I'd never kill a kobold.

Being someone other than myself is the whole point of roleplaying. Sometimes I like being a manipulative bastard. It's good mental exercise and I don't get to do it in real life because I don't approve.

That said, all my successful characters have something in common with me. I need some similarity or else I can't relate to the character. I've had no luck whatsoever playing religious characters because I just can't get into their heads.

scurv
2012-12-10, 11:16 PM
I have had chars do some very very foul things that would make me rip out my own eyes irl if i saw it.

Now that being said I accept that what ever a char of mine does may very well be venting some aspect of my self, I am the player behind the toon after-all. But it seems my limit to what I can RP is based on my ability to compartmentalize.

<edit>
One trend i have noticed in roleplay servers online. Is that many people use roleplay as a proxy for their irl jerk quality's. I have met a few who could be civil in the OOC, But half of those I suspect that was just another layer of rp for them. But the players who can play a jerk, But they who themselves are not, Have my highest respect.

Krazzman
2012-12-11, 03:24 AM
Yes, this a character of mine did which I oppose:

Raping (especially succubi... [insert more sexuality-things here...]), Slaughter, Cannibalism (after he was a ghoul for some time some habits stay...), Murder

Yeah all in one campaign... 2 things of this list in another campaign too... I liked that DM... but he and the other players would out-evil-me...

Totally Guy
2012-12-11, 04:16 AM
My characters have done things that they oppose.

You know... if they were real.

Lucid
2012-12-11, 04:58 AM
Yes.
Played a follower of Zarus once, a human supremacist. Didn't really hate nonhumans, just saw them as lesser beings.
Always acted nice and polite, but also was a cold-blooded torturer.

I don't know if it makes any sense, but I enjoyed playing him while severely disliking his character.

prufock
2012-12-11, 07:21 AM
In a strictly literal sense, no. I'm controlling the character, it's impossible for the character to oppose my will.

In a thematic sense, sure. I've played evil campaigns with evil characters, I've had alignment shifts, I've used characters to do lots of things that I personally would never do. One character, a devotee of Bahamut, once disarmed a cleric foe of his MacGuffin Sword of Godslaying (which in itself was a crowning moment of awesome), but then made the mistake of grabbing it to use... one failed will save later and he was trying to bring about the apocalypse.

Raimun
2012-12-11, 08:52 AM
I asked this because I've only really played characters who could be (very broadly speaking) classified as either "heroes", "anti-heroes" or "regular joes".

Even these three broad archetypes offer lots of freedom. I can always think of a more spesific kind of character I've always wanted to try out and not feel even a bit squeamish. Still, I've noticed they've always been people who could, more often than not, see eye to eye.

Don't get me wrong. Even though I've been perfectly happy playing these types and never really been bored, I still always like to try playing different kinds of characters, in this case villains. The problem is that I don't really have a taste for commiting stuff I'd call atrocities. It would be hard to find the right motivation to do more evil stuff.

Also, none of the other players in my circles haven't played ouright villains. I have the nagging feeling it might be a bit disruptive, if I started suddenly kicking puppies and singing a Disney-style villain song. :smalltongue:

NichG
2012-12-11, 09:04 AM
You can ease into it by playing a villain who isn't cartoonishly villainous. In fact, whenever playing a villain I feel you should always be able to give a sensible answer for the question: Why should the other PCs still choose to adventure with me (if they find out)?

Thats because there's a social pressure for them to accept your character since you're all playing a collaborative game, so its somewhat unfair to say 'I'm going to be a villain but you have to accept me anyhow'; even if you don't say the last it is implied at many tables.

So because of that, cartoonish villainy is usually a really bad choice. Internal antagonism (e.g. playing a jerk) is similarly a bad choice. But if you're just playing e.g. a callous person, it can still work. We had a campaign where many of us were sort of bleeding heart types, and we had one guy who was absolutely cold and callous. So sometimes things needed to happen and we kind of turned away and he made them happen. None of us liked it, we all felt horrible for being complicit in it, etc, but also none of us would have say kicked him out for his acts - we needed him to do the dark stuff we couldn't bring ourselves to do. Of course, it could just as easily have been that we were all paladins with rigid codes and we could not have tolerated the situation.

One easy kind of pseudo-villain you can usually get the party to accept is a character who goes in for horrific things but doesn't use them maliciously. The usual 'whats wrong with undead?' or 'hey, aberration grafts are awesome!' or 'yeah I made a deal with Mephistopheles for my soul, but thats just standard operating practice - its all to help you guys anyhow' types. Those are more anti-hero than villain of course (but thats the first step on that continuum). And as far as being able to accept the character's actions, if there's actually a rational reason for them it becomes a lot easier to mentally work through than if its just 'haha lets be evil!'.

Yora
2012-12-11, 09:32 AM
I played a chaotic evil demon cultist in a party of chaotic evil demon cultists. So yeah, pretty much everything we did was stuff I wouldn't actually do.

But I think we never had situations where the players had their characters do things even though as players they would prefer that the character acts different.

Jay R
2012-12-11, 10:49 AM
I certainly prefer to run a character whose actions I can be proud of. But...

Any character who believes in multiple gods does something I oppose. Of course, they live in a universe with multiple gods.

Any character living in a nation with slavery who isn't trying to free the slaves is doing something I oppose. Of course, they live in a world in which slavery is accepted.

Any character in a kingdom who doesn't try to replace it with a democracy is doing something I oppose. Of course, they live in a world in which the vast majority have no education in civic responsibility and political issues.

SowZ
2012-12-11, 11:07 AM
I always try and decide my character's value and moral system in depth. Sometimes they have specific values, sometimes they are more emotional and less predictable. Either way, I have almost never played a character with my same value system. Occasionally, I will play a character that is more moral than myself but usually I enjoy playing believable characters either just south or just north of evil. I usually toe the line where the other players don't really know if I am 'evil' or not, but yeah, I usually do things my character is able to justify but I would be unable to.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2012-12-11, 11:18 AM
Whenever I really get into a character, I tend to completely divorce myself from that character. It's sort of odd, actually: I've gotten good enough at it that with really strong characters I'm almost just along for the ride.

So yeah, this happens to me a lot. The best example is probably from an Eberron campaign, where my character had been a dedicated member of the Cyrian national guard and a huge Cyre advocate, and had woken up from what was supposed to have been part of an experiment on a method to end the Last War (complicated plot stuff here) to find herself in the middle of the Mournland, her entire country destroyed, and herself corrupted as a result of both this and the experiment.

She sort of snapped, and, when we found the man who seemed intimately familiar with and definitely associated with (although possibly not responsible for) the destruction of Cyre, she refused to even speak to him, grabbed him away from the party, strapped him down to one of his own machines, smashed a few key parts of it, turned it on, and watched impassionately as the now-malfunctioning machine basically slowly tore him apart.

It was an interesting end to part of her character arc, although after the session ended I felt really uncomfortable, and a bit annoyed, since that guy had the information that would have furthered the campaign's story. But Tamis had her own ideas, and she sort of took over. :smallbiggrin:

Lord Raziere
2012-12-11, 12:31 PM
Nope!

Divorcing yourself from your character is the surest way to play it badly. Every character is in some way a little part of me, and they wouldn't exist if in some way there was some potential for me to be like that character. I play my characters with my soul, and within my soul there is room for tons of possibilities.

SowZ
2012-12-11, 12:46 PM
Nope!

Divorcing yourself from your character is the surest way to play it badly. Every character is in some way a little part of me, and they wouldn't exist if in some way there was some potential for me to be like that character. I play my characters with my soul, and within my soul there is room for tons of possibilities.

But you don't have to divorce yourself from your character to play someone totally different from yourself! At least, I don't. Good ol' method acting.

Morithias
2012-12-11, 01:10 PM
Of course when my flame mage torched the elven forests and single handily turned their greater god into a demi-god, and ensured their extinction.

...Oh wait, I would do that in real life.

What about that time, that in order to prevent mass war and chaos, my bounty hunter kidnapped a princess and forced her father to kill himself in order to save thousands of lives, and free the lower classes from oppression, then killed the Princess too, in order to keep the royal line dead.

No..wait I'd do that too in real life.

Basically no, even my evil characters follow belief systems and causes I believe in, or take the forms of hatreds that I heavily hold.

When I'm a DM though? All bets are off. I'll do things even I find dark and repulsive as a DM if it means telling a good story.

PaperMustache
2012-12-11, 03:29 PM
Well one time my character killed a group of defenseless commoners who were sitting down to dinner with their own soup that had been laced with a contact poison. They didn't eat the soup. They figured out what was happening and she threw it at them. She did this so she could disguise their corpses as herself and the rest of her party so they could collect the bounty that had been placed on their heads.

Pretty sure I would have just left the city...

Dimers
2012-12-11, 08:48 PM
As per the title, have you ever played a character and decided to make him/her/it do something you personally oppose?

Nah. Too much mental work. Of course, there are lots of things that I don't OPPOSE that I wouldn't actually do myself.

No, wait, I take it back. Few of my characters care at all about recycling, and I would oppose consistent waste IRL. But that's it, really.

Kid Jake
2012-12-12, 12:53 AM
Me and a buddy of mine used to play a pair of swinging, bi-sexual brothers/lovers in a MUD. They were the bastard love children of Don Juan and Borat. Quite literally every word that came out of their mouths made me feel dirty, and yet I get the feeling that if the entire playerbase hadn't banded together to make sure we'd never be accepted into an organization again, we'd still be playing them because they were hilarious.

BlckDv
2012-12-13, 04:07 PM
Frequently. I usually start a new PC with a core motive and some backstory events that will inform how he sees the world, and then try to let the personality evolve organically. Some PCs end up as pretty classic fantasy epic hero types, others not so much.

I recently played a Void Genasi who was truly ruthless and left friends to die more than once (and would even send party members into danger then suggest to the rest of the party abandoning them) on the grounds that it left more treasure for him, and their death did not materially lower his odds of making it out alive; he did plenty of other bad things, but that is a quick example of something that as a person I would never tolerate in myself or those I associate with.

What is far harder for me, but also amazingly rewarding is doing so in a LARP. I have played a couple of PCs over the years that were very alien to my morals/ethics, and often would require a period of "Decompression" after playing to shake out of my head and feel alright with myself.

Kane0
2012-12-13, 06:58 PM
My current character is a Charismatic, Lawful Evil, multiple-personality, selfish, greedy, backstabing d!*%. So yeah, quite often.

Just last session he took over a local fight club (nearly with his bare damn hands) just to turn in some profits and have a place to recruit bodyguards/enforcers/hitmen.

And he's only level 2, so a lot is left to do in this campaign. :smallamused:


Edit: If you are having trouble playing an evil character, consider it from their perspective as much as you can.
In D&D, evil is a tangible and powerful force, roughly equal to good. It is only natural that some pick evil as a legitimate source of power and happiness in their lives. If a neutral peasant was offered the chance to escape his lowly life by either good or evil he would likely grasp the chance with both hands, and commit to it. Similarly, if a neutral npc of more learned origins would likely have a more informed opinion, and chase the way that suited him best. Both sides have both moral and tangible power. It is what the person is personally seeking that often tips the balance.

Also, the way death works is different. Death is not as absolute as in RL, so people have different opinions of it. Some see it as a favor, others a curse and others still a distraction or obstacle to overcome. The afterlife is real and interactive.

Coming from this, the sanctity of life and other things is less (or more, depending) debated. There is more than one sentient race in the game, and each has their own (often valid or more correct than a human's) view of things. Interactions between these races is common and thus what humans have developed to see as evil and bad in general may simply not apply in these different circumstances.

I could go on, but I guess you get the idea.
TL:DR Evil is a real and valid choice alongside good, and the world will have different perspectives accordingly.

KillianHawkeye
2012-12-13, 09:31 PM
This is a pretty stereotypical answer, but one character that I'm playing right now is a CN Elven Ranger/Scout who, unlike myself, is a total racist. He thinks all orcs are sub-humanoid filth, no better than rabid dogs, who should all be put to death. Now, he's not into torturing them at all, nor does he enjoy slaughtering them mercilessly, but he also doesn't have a problem murdering them in their sleep or executing a bound, helpless prisoner. He just views it as doing a job, eliminating a pest problem. He hasn't run into any orcish women or children yet, but I imagine he'd be in favor of killing them regardless of the situation.

Of course, this viewpoint is abhorrent. I'm personally of the opinion that characters have free will and the ability to change their alignments if given the opportunity and motivation to do so. The gift of mortal creatures in D&D is that they are never really beyond redemption.

kardar233
2012-12-13, 11:48 PM
Whenever I really get into a character, I tend to completely divorce myself from that character. It's sort of odd, actually: I've gotten good enough at it that with really strong characters I'm almost just along for the ride.

So yeah, this happens to me a lot. The best example is probably from an Eberron campaign, where my character had been a dedicated member of the Cyrian national guard and a huge Cyre advocate, and had woken up from what was supposed to have been part of an experiment on a method to end the Last War (complicated plot stuff here) to find herself in the middle of the Mournland, her entire country destroyed, and herself corrupted as a result of both this and the experiment.

She sort of snapped, and, when we found the man who seemed intimately familiar with and definitely associated with (although possibly not responsible for) the destruction of Cyre, she refused to even speak to him, grabbed him away from the party, strapped him down to one of his own machines, smashed a few key parts of it, turned it on, and watched impassionately as the now-malfunctioning machine basically slowly tore him apart.

It was an interesting end to part of her character arc, although after the session ended I felt really uncomfortable, and a bit annoyed, since that guy had the information that would have furthered the campaign's story. But Tamis had her own ideas, and she sort of took over. :smallbiggrin:

This is the kind of situation I always look forward to. Unfortunately, it doesn't come up nearly as often as I would like.

When I make powerful characters they take up some kind of permanent residence in my head and so I can reach any of my previous longer-lasting characters with a few mnemonics. My method acting classes have helped this as well, so my characters are now little self-contained people who I occasionally hand over control to.

It's to the point where it actually takes me some time to return to my "usual" self after playing one of these characters for a session. My friends have mentioned that for about half an hour after we end the game I react to stimuli in a noticeably different way.

Mono Vertigo
2012-12-14, 08:24 AM
Yep.
A couple of them have consciously taken, or regularly take, very stupid decisions that even I wouldn't take if I was drunk, sleep-deprived, and delusional. Coincidentally, they're among the most fun characters I have.
Concretely, I have one character who has attachment issues and a huge ego; she manipulates guys just so she can dump them or betray them at their most vulnerable point. (She's not having a lot of success because she overestimates her CHA score.)
Some other characters of mine are also quite ready to betray, harm, or even kill their friends or obvious heroes for a sufficient reward (which doesn't even have to be large for this).
And that's not even taking in account current or previous occupations, when these occupations were discontinued against their will (thief, hitman, anthropophagic abomination).

In fact, I feel uncomfortable when my character is too much like me, in behaviour, background, or personality. I have the most fun when my characters oppose me to a degree.

Grim Portent
2012-12-14, 12:46 PM
In Dark Heresy my Inquisitor ate a Dark Eldar Mandrake alive as an impulsive way of killing it. Managed to avoid gaining corruption by stating that I spent the next few minutes vomiting in the corner. The rest of the party had to make WP checks to avoid being horrified by my acts (and the psychic transformation that made it possible for me to do this).

Delwugor
2012-12-16, 07:52 PM
I had a character who wanted to spend three nights with a Succubus as a reward from an evil demi-god. I repeatedly told him it was a bad idea, we argued for 20 minutes but he was stubborn and did it anyway. He had to chase her away with his sword on the third night. I laughed in his face afterwards, teach him not to listen to the Player.

What may seem contradictory to many, most of my good epic heroes bother me. My personal view is that goodness which really counts is close and personal. Small people loving and helping those around him is much more powerful than some epic hero out on some good cause.

Hylas
2012-12-16, 10:20 PM
I once played Maid RPG.

So the answer is yes.

She was a Pure/Pure character who rolled up as a mistress. She was ditzy, clueless, regularly had no idea how to do something or what was going on, and couldn't understand innuendos. I had more favor than I knew what to do with by the end of the session whereas everyone else nearly lost their jobs.

The most interesting part is that every player was gender-swapped with their characters, with the DM being a girl playing a guy.

Doxkid
2012-12-16, 11:24 PM
Occasionally, I've been forced to let enemies live.

RPGuru1331
2012-12-16, 11:38 PM
Considering that I've played a murder hobo, yes.

That aside, also yes, but aside from an increased willingness to kill, it varies more. There are taboos I basically won't cross, either as player or DM, but those aside, yeah, characters I play as do stuff I vehemently oppose. Perhaps not as often as they should, but more than never.

Cerlis
2012-12-17, 02:42 AM
I want to see less "Yes, i've played a horrible murderer and I'm not a horrible murderer"

And more "i really hate restrictions, see the police as pigs and have no respect for superiors who are more incompetent than i am.......And i enjoyed playing a super lawful (though not lawful stupid) paladin"

PaperMustache
2012-12-17, 02:52 AM
I want to see less "Yes, i've played a horrible murderer and I'm not a horrible murderer"

And more "i really hate restrictions, see the police as pigs and have no respect for superiors who are more incompetent than i am.......And i enjoyed playing a super lawful (though not lawful stupid) paladin"

Be the change you wish to see in the thread.

Knaight
2012-12-18, 10:49 PM
I want to see less "Yes, i've played a horrible murderer and I'm not a horrible murderer"

And more "i really hate restrictions, see the police as pigs and have no respect for superiors who are more incompetent than i am.......And i enjoyed playing a super lawful (though not lawful stupid) paladin"

Sure, why not. I've played characters that operated within organizational hierarchies loyally, fully believing in their goals. Said organizational hierarchies have often had obvious real world analogs which I detest; on top of that I generally don't consider unthinking obedience virtuous at all, whereas said characters generally did.

RPGuru1331
2012-12-19, 02:10 AM
"i really hate restrictions, see the police as pigs and have no respect for superiors who are more incompetent than i am.......And i enjoyed playing a super lawful (though not lawful stupid) paladin"

That strikes me as blazingly political, which is why I didn't mention similar.

ghost_warlock
2012-12-19, 02:51 AM
Though I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a pacifist, I'm not a violent person, don't really care for weapons, and have never been in a serious fight in my life. Meanwhile, I've played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons over the years... :smalltongue:

LadyFoxfire
2012-12-19, 08:55 AM
I tend to base my character's personalities on facets of my own, like my chaos mage's love for random silliness, my bard's love of music and stories, or my druid's love of animals. But beyond that I've got no problem giving them traits that I don't have, and playing evil can be fun sometimes. The trick with playing evil characters in a good group is basically to keep your evil directed at the enemy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0687.html), and don't impede the group's goals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0570.html) just for the evulz.

For example: My CE demonologist loves setting things and people on fire. She works as an adventurer because it's a socially acceptable way of causing mass destruction, and it provides experience so that she can learn new and exciting ways to destroy things. Her party isn't entirely comfortable in how much fun she has raining fiery destruction down on her foes, but as long as she doesn't kill innocents or enemies that need to be taken alive for whatever reason, they tolerate it.

Masaioh
2012-12-19, 12:28 PM
Often. One of my first characters was a half-incubus former prostitute who was obsessed with sacrifice, rape, and self-mutilation. He was the back-up healer, for whenever the cleric was indisposed or incompetent.

Reathin
2012-12-19, 03:01 PM
I have a rogue design who works for a disease cult, modeled heavily on the Masque of the Red Death, one of my favorite stories. I am reasonably sure I would not do anything like her. Murder, spreading disease, turning into a self-aware malevolence held together by will alone, be able to focus on a goal for more than twenty seconds etc.

I also had a very "pay evil unto evil" style wizard who'd come up with this scheme for extracting large mounts of magical power from demons before obliterating them utterly for one last bit of juice, then taking that power and making potent magical items for Good Adventurers, leaving them where they'll find them like a twisted Santa Claus. The fact that he used oodles of torture for the whole process doesn't bother him a bit.

Need_A_Life
2012-12-19, 05:32 PM
Genocide, murder, theft, kidnapping, torture, (magically induced) brainwashing, breaking and entering, cruel and unusual punishment and maiming.

Apart from the genocide one (a special occasion), most of them crop up in the average D&D campaign. Invading orc territory, murdering them, using Charm Person and/or finger-breaking to gather intel, burning people to death and so on is really standard for D&D.
To be fair, I no longer even pretend to be of Good alignment, but rather write down Neutral Evil and go back to firebombing my enemies.

:smallsigh:

JaronK
2012-12-21, 03:25 PM
I've done it a bunch. Sociopathic necromancers who will do almost anything to be liked and appreciated with a near fetishistic love of farmers, hellbent on creating a necrocommunist state? Playing that right now. Dragon-idolizing Kobolds whose primary mission is to run around yelling about how much more awesome they are than everyone else (unless someone else is a dragon, of course), who are basically just dragon-centric racists? Yup. Half Dragon Orcs who believe that might truly makes right and that bigger things should be respected while small things should be crushed (and who just can't understand why gnomes and halflings haven't died out already...), who will gladly use violence on all those smaller than him to get his way? Played that too.

My real life morals have very little to do with the characters I play. I just like playing characters that will make for an interesting story.

JaronK

Joe the Rat
2012-12-21, 11:30 PM
Murderhoboing aside, I've had a few characters that - as fitting the character - do things I'm pretty set against. Malicious torture and cruelty are big no-nos in my book, but as a chaotic little nasty beastie in need of quick answers and a new leather cloak, helping the drow extract facts and flesh from fallen foes is par for the course. Me? Not on your life.

The worst of it tends to fall in the comedic sociopathy camp. I tend to avoid gaming that requires me to decompress psychologically. Probably why I never got into Wraith.

Chilingsworth
2012-12-22, 12:42 AM
Yup, definately. My first ever attempt at an Evil character was severely stupid evil. Different character, helped my party burn down most of a city's slum district. Current character is working towards getting Tyr's church erradicated in his home country and replaced by an Asmodean theocracy. (Actually, it's only the establishment of a theocracy that I oppose in that one. The Tyrans in this campaign are horrible hypocrites that deserve what's coming to them, if I was in my characters position, with his history, and had the power... well, I'd likely do many of the same things.)

Jeff the Green
2012-12-22, 05:00 AM
Murder. Worshipped a FR god rather than try to overthrow that damned tyrant Ao. Torture. Used mind-controlling magic. Let a murderer escape. Left a colleague to be eaten by dire maggots.

I really rarely play a character with very similar morals to me. I don't like playing truly evil characters, but my preferred system of ethics makes for boring roleplay.