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View Full Version : DM Help Setting demographics sans good/Good examples



Trekkin
2015-08-05, 11:58 PM
As my past threads have indicated, I'm gearing up to run an evil adventure path. The demographics of the AP as written have always bothered me: as an example, the plot revolves around two men fighting over a woman who never has a speaking line within the PCs' hearing or a described quality beyond her attractiveness. Her sole function is to give birth to the PCs' nemesis, and the entire adventure has only a bare handful of humanoid NPCs who are not able-bodied cis het white guys. It's painful to read and more so to play, and I'd like to do something different, not least because my players have cited a lack of diversity as one of the problems they had with a former DM.

In a more standard adventure I'd be confident in my own efforts to make a more diverse setting, but these characters are intentionally awful human beings, one way or another. They need to be: the PCs' best shot at success is to play to their adversaries' crippling character flaws. This leads me to my set of bad choices: either I relegate vast swathes of humanity to the background or every example the PCs come across is either a target to be killed or a horrible monster actively working to promulgate some dystopia or other, because those are ultimately the only types of character playing a role in the adventure. C'est la evil campaign. From what I've read about making villains diverse, actually assigning them flaws is risky enough (apparently every concievable combination of flaw and demographic has an impenetrably idiosyncratic trope name ready to describe its unfortunate origins), but if they are not flawed and deeply so the whole AP falls apart.

So, Playgrounders, what do I do? Do I keep going with the monotype rogues' gallery, or do I risk the unfortunate implication that some subset of humanity or other are uniformly horrible/obstacles?

In short, how do I tell a story about evil people doing awful things, where anybody with a shred of decency is eventually on the PCs' hit list, and not make anybody uncomfortable at my table? (Provided they're ok with the campaign -- and they are. Boy howdy are they ready to go be evil.)

I guess I could make everybody green again...

Geddy2112
2015-08-06, 01:20 AM
Talk to your players: some people see an evil campaign as the setting to roll up a bunch of CE barbarians and rogues, and go around murderhoboing and stealing their way into incredible power. Consequences be dammed! Some people want to become BBEG's, powerful rulers with clean hands and dirty money. Some people don't mind evil, but they simply don't want to roleplay a game where they pretend to murder innocent people for fun. Make sure you draw the line at "uncomfortable" roleplay topics and keep those off the table, e.g. rape, violence against children, incredibly sadistic torture.

Remind them that Even Evil Has Standards (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvenEvilHasStandards), and there are no evil police running around saying "well, sorry but you failed to meet your quota for puppy kicking and random murders, your neutral again"

You should incorporate all elements of all campaigns, good and evil. Heroic campaigns would not be heroic if there was no big bad evil to stop. Surely there are swaths of evil, dens of scum and villainy, and card carrying thugs, thieves, hit-men and plain old evil jerks. So in an evil campaign, there will be both good and evil people, along with all the shades of grey in between. Even the most extreme on both sides will interact with most of the shades in the middle. It does not have to be all the good guys vs all the bad guys and no middle ground.

goto124
2015-08-06, 01:32 AM
Roll for race, sex, etc.

Hawkstar
2015-08-06, 07:08 AM
So, Playgrounders, what do I do? Do I keep going with the monotype rogues' gallery, or do I risk the unfortunate implication that some subset of humanity or other are uniformly horrible/obstacles?
I strongly suggest the latter.

goto124
2015-08-06, 07:27 AM
APs have to cater to a large auidence, and take careful steps to to avoid offending some 1000+ people. That's why the white straight cis men thing.

Your auidence is much smaller, and a lot more intimate. They're your friends, they're literally sitting right in front of you. You know what makes them angry and what doesn't. Take that opportunity.

Hawkstar
2015-08-06, 07:30 AM
APs have to cater to a large auidence, and take careful steps to to avoid offending some 1000+ people. That's why the white straight cis men thing.
That white cis man is known as "Steve" in some circles.

But yeah... one of the great things about Steve is you can do anything to or with him, and the worst reaction you'll get from people/The Internet is continued grumblings about a lack of diversity. If you try using a non-Steve... the internet Hate Machine is brought down hard on you.

And people wonder why there's so little diversity in mass-consumed media.

MrStabby
2015-08-06, 08:29 AM
Selection Bias works wonders.

If the society in your world lets deformed babies die in the snow then disables people will not be visible in your world. If your society is violently homophobic then every clearly visible sexual relationship it heterosexual. If moral decency is perceived as a sign of weakness then where possible it will be covered up.

Where a lack of a certain type of character can make a game more shallow, the reasons behind that lack (and the ability to explore those reasons) can make the world deeper.

Yora
2015-08-06, 09:04 AM
That white cis man is known as "Steve" in some circles.

But yeah... one of the great things about Steve is you can do anything to or with him, and the worst reaction you'll get from people/The Internet is continued grumblings about a lack of diversity. If you try using a non-Steve... the internet Hate Machine is brought down hard on you.

And people wonder why there's so little diversity in mass-consumed media.

You can not win. The only thing you can do is to ignore those people and do what you think is right.