Hypothetical: Bioware Makes A Game Where You Play A Supervillain

[Leliel]

By which I mean, are the leader and/or high-ranking lieutenant of a traditionally villainous organization, not one where you repeatedly try to drive down your karma meter.

Just a little brainstorming inspired by Nekro, a Dungeon-Keeper like game that recently finished its Kickstarted, where you play an alchemist-turned-lich trying to gain personal revenge on a tyrant with the traditional "noble king" aesthetic. Neither faction is particularly nice, but the Nekro, at least, doesn't want to destroy the world, only the King, so that he may finally completely die instead of being stuck in a horrific half-life.

Seeing as how that's the kind of fairly deep and understandable motivation that Bioware likes to give its playable evil characters, I began to wonder what would happen if they made a game entirely about those kinds of characters.

And the karma meter can be Magneto vs. Doctor Doom.

So, any brainstorming as to how this might work?

[Geddoe]

So, like the Saint's Row series with fantasy hats?

Because you get pretty supervillain-ish as you gain more rewards for doing stuff.

[Leliel]

So, like the Saint's Row series with fantasy hats?

Because you get pretty supervillain-ish as you gain more rewards for doing stuff.

Perhaps.

Knowing Bioware and their squeamishness when it comes to writing outright player evil, more than likely they'd play it for drama...and just as importantly, would probably avoid the real evil stuff and save it for the antagonists. Your PC and his/her party are greedy and vengeful, not genocidal.

[VanBuren]

By which I mean, are the leader and/or high-ranking lieutenant of a traditionally villainous organization, not one where you repeatedly try to drive down your karma meter.

Just a little brainstorming inspired by Nekro, a Dungeon-Keeper like game that recently finished its Kickstarted, where you play an alchemist-turned-lich trying to gain personal revenge on a tyrant with the traditional "noble king" aesthetic. Neither faction is particularly nice, but the Nekro, at least, doesn't want to destroy the world, only the King, so that he may finally completely die instead of being stuck in a horrific half-life.

Seeing as how that's the kind of fairly deep and understandable motivation that Bioware likes to give its playable evil characters, I began to wonder what would happen if they made a game entirely about those kinds of characters.

And the karma meter can be Magneto vs. Doctor Doom.

So, any brainstorming as to how this might work?

I'm supposed to read that sarcastically, right? I remember how morally complex the Closed Fist choices were like 80% of the time in Jade Empire.

[Leliel]

I'm supposed to read that sarcastically, right? I remember how morally complex the Closed Fist choices were like 80% of the time in Jade Empire.

I meant the party members, not the karma meter. That's one of their flaws.

[Mando Knight]

So, like a single player, Empire-only TOR, right?

[Leliel]

Yeah. A lot like Empire-only TOR.

Also, speaking of characters, how about this idea I've had clanking about my head for a while?

Count Stirge, The Night Lord of Owls:

A monster hunter turned Roman vampire, Count Edmund Bathory (yes, that Bathory-don't remind him) is a case study in how seductive and ultimately tragic the line of logic "Then Let Me Be Evil" is. Ostracized and exiled by his infamous mother, the dampyr who would eventually become Count Stirge was distrusted and abused all his life, if not for his heritage and occult abilities thereof, then for his bisexuality (how the villagers found out is a story of its own-suffice to say there was one less blacksmith when they were done, and one less executioner). This would be a common motif throughout his life, even as he joined the Catholic Church and its Order of Penitent Knights (a successor to the Knights Templar). Regularly scapegoated and hated for things beyond his control, Edmund eventually tried to find a friend who would accept him despite the poor hand fate dealt him, but was used and betrayed by the only person who seemed to accept. This caused him to decide that no matter what he did, he was apparently damned by birth, so he decided that he would rather be damned on his own terms (if you inquire further about this in game, you'll also find he's made peace with being condemned to Hell-"if Mother Church was right about...anything back then, then that's where all the nice people are. I'd rather suffer in sympathy with Galileo and Bruno then twiddle my talons while enduring the screed of Torquemada and Savonarola"). He dissappeared for about a decade, and when he returned to claim vengeance on the mortals who mistreated and attacked him, he had abandoned his mortal side and become a stirge, a vampire with an instinctive ability to communicate with birds associated with death, and the ability to turn into an owl. Besides that, his own shadowy magic and necromancy abilities had amplified a hundred-fold, and as per the strange code of honor among vampires gained the ability to request the assistance of other sapient undead.

Personality-wise, I'd best describe him as Minister Malack's counterpart from the Mirror Universe. He's emotional, rude (though he comes off as eloquent due to his slightly antiquated manner of speech), and very much a loner, though it is possible to earn his trust. Digging a bit deeper will reveal that he's actually a fairly nice person-he hates any sort of prejudice, an advocate for general freedom, and absolutely horrified by the idea of large-scale death and destruction. Yes, he loves being a vampire (or so he claims-personal quests reveal he's extremely ambivalent about the whole thing), but he doesn't disrespect mortals, time and peace having quelled his anger and pain. As might be obvious from the mention of his sexuality, he's also a romance option for both sexes, in which he does everything in his power to politely turn you down and avoid his own growing feelings-he never makes his romantic interests vampires, on the basis it usually reduces them to mindless and monstrous spawn. Needless to say, it's never fun when his current spouse eventually dies. He also despises Twilight with a passion, both because it makes his kind a sex object for easily-manipulated tweenage girls, second because he has to fend off said tweenage girls. Pedophile he is not, particularly when he's over three centuries old.

In the hypothetical game, he'd be the "shoulder angel", being one of the initial party members and a voice of reason and (relative) compassion. He joined the organization primarily to help prevent real psychos from coming to the helm, both because (again), he's still a Penitent Knight with a sense of chivalry and noblisse oblige, secondly because a psycho-run crime syndicate with political ambitions is usually a massively stupid and self-destructive one. Of course, this hasn't made him any friends, but really, he's more of an associate and attache than a real member-he has no political ambitions of his own, he's just the adviser. Though, on the off-chance you become the Chairman, there's always a position for the Vizier...

Thematically, he being a necromancy-inclined vampire lord with a knight's code of honor is for ironic effect-the most obviously evil member of the group is also the most classically heroic. More thematically, his existence is supposed to clue you in to how morally grey the world actually can be-just as a villain can have a lot of heroic traits, so can a "hero" be undeserving of the term. Not all your caped enemies are like that-in particular, the ones you can spare as a moral choice, leaving only hurt pride as you do the traditional escaping laugh, but definitely the case with some of the main leaders of the superhero teams, and thus the climax bosses. Think an idealistic (the public isn't actually that fascist or naive, it's corruption in the news media that prevents word of how much of a psychopath some of the capes are) deconstruction of the 2011 Wonder Woman pilot-but don't ask me, ask Linkara (http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2012/01/wonder-woman-2011.html).)

[Leliel]

Also, we would need a minion mechanic.

Can't be a proper master supervillain without minions.