Too Much Edge?

[Sabeta]

I realized I had some free time on Saturdays and decided to pick up a game with my friends. I've always wanted to play evil, but rarely found it compelling due to the token evil guy spot already being fulfilled. Thankfully I found a party of mostly neutrals who are plain as bread can be (Human Beastmaster, V. Human Totem Barbarian, Human Feypact of Chains Warlock)

So I'm entering the scene with this character:
Ahna, Aasimar (Volo's Fallen) @ Favored Soul (Death) Sorceress
Background: Undecided / Alignment: NE

I'll heavily abridge her story: She was a hero who got worn down by evil and corruption and eventually succumbed to it. Now she joins starry eyed adventureres to watch them fall in the same way she did, giving them gentle nudges in that direction if they need it. It's a sort of morbid curiosity, she's only in the adventuring game to watch this happen over and over again.

I'll spare you the campaign notes as well, as it boils down to "I'm helping the party, by either bouncing between CE or LN, but neither in the ways I feel like my character would have behaved". As for a character she's modeled after, her story is a mixture of Velvet and Magilou, from Tales of Berseria; and her current attitude is supposed to be close to Tanya Daugercheff from "The Saga of Tanya the Evil".

TLDR: I'm not satisfied with own roleplaying ability. I'm not entirely sure how to go about fixing this, but both the players and my DM have voiced that they like my concept, but not my execution. Ahna is still in a malleable state, but I would prefer her backstory stay intact. It's a cool concept and I like the idea behind it. I'm just having trouble representing that in game. By nature she's more of a passive observer, but that's entirely too boring to go through with, especially since the rest of the party are all lone wolfs. (leaving me as the default party leader it seems. Hell, the Ranger was given a quest and he asked me if we should take it without consulting the others. I think I can work the party leader role into my character, but it'll make it that much harder to play it Evil and still move around freely.)

Still TLDR: I suck at roleplaying, halp.

[Puh Laden]

I'm not really sure how to help or what kind of help you want. If it's trying to find character motivation, perhaps keep in mind what your character actually wants in the moment besides the satisfaction of seeing others fall. What was it that this aasimar actually succumbed to? It doesn't have to be one thing either. Wanting to see others fall would most naturally be a defense mechanism to justify her own fall.

Do you normally have trouble when time comes to act in character? Is acting in character the thing that's actually the most fun to you or is it other aspects of the game? If it's not it's okay. If you are normally good at it what is it making this character different from the others?

[Dappershire]

Why even hide it? If they are neutral, then they are adventuring for gold, glory, and sex appeal, aye? Just come at the DMs quest from an evil standpoint, explain the actions away as simply aimed for more of what they want anyways.
Its not like they should be going "Oh, the horrors! An evil comrade. However shall we purify ourselves?" Tanya is a good example to follow.
Be brutal in your actions. Lawful if you have to, following the letter. But hit things in the wince spot. You order the harsh consequence for those in your way, let your fellow players explain why they obey in their own backstory. And if they don't like it, well, there are plenty of barbarians on the plains, as they say.

[MrMcBobb]

I'm playing a Witcherhunter (someone else's homebrew from the DM Guild page) in a Curse of Strahd (ha, ha, ha) campaign and I've noticed him becoming more Evil as the campaign goes on by no intention of my own. This has happened because he got some pretty horrific scars on his face due to a near death experience, this meant he has +1 to intimidation and -1 to persuasion. While I could still persuade people it's easier for me, mechanically, to scare people into doing what I want. It might sound "anti-roleplaying" or whatever but I really like the idea of allowing your mechanics to lead certain parts of your RP. So take a high intimidation score and use that to pull information out of people, be a **** but don't be disruptive.

Also, allowing your character to be evil doesn't necessarily mean murder-murder-rape-rape-murder. I could be just little stuff, intimidating children into telling you where their parents are or ignoring an old ladies cries for help because you have more important things to do. Find good reasons for your comrades to not do good things, and they may end up being evil because it's pragmatic. Killing NPCs left and right is "evil" but it's also disruptive.

It's also easier if your DM throws some "evil" quest hooks in there too. You get sent to rescue a child from a hag, when you get there the hag offers you a deal "leave me alive with the child and I'll move away from here. You collect the reward and I still live, owing you a favour" so you can convince the party to do the "evil" thing. Just trying to be evil without any assistance from the DM can be quite challenging and end up with you going a bit murder hobo. So have a chat OoC with the DM

We had an evil character in our group for a bit who referred to the rest of the party as his "worthless minions" and did "evil" stuff. We had to have an OoC chat with him after just two sessions because it became unbearable.

[Dappershire]

Also, allowing your character to be evil doesn't necessarily mean murder-murder-rape-rape-murder.

However, we at the Playground, support this concept.
Sometimes you just need to make your DM leave the table feeling dirtier than when he arrived; game night is a success when it ends, a player is just staring blankly off into the distance, and he says "Im going home to hold my children".

[Sabeta]

My DM specifically mentioned that he would like to avoid a rape campaign if he could, but wouldn't shy away from it if it was.

However, looking at Tanya some more made me realize that Soldier is the perfect background. It will let me have Intimidate, and the horrors of war serve as good, if not generic, fuel for her motives and her fall.

I'll also ask my DM for a detailed breakdown of the laws and make sure I stay within them while continuing evil deeds. If Tanya can legalize the mass murder of innocent civilians by issuing an evacuation order I'm sure I can make something work.

Any more good advice?

[MrMcBobb]

I'll also ask my DM for a detailed breakdown of the laws and make sure I stay within them while continuing evil deeds. If Tanya can legalize the mass murder of innocent civilians by issuing an evacuation order I'm sure I can make something work.

I love the idea of being legally evil. Love it.

Think of a good evil character from a movie (or even one of the "heroes") and emulate them. Disney villains are pretty solid foundations. Theatrically evil without being too disruptive.

Maybe play like Liam Neeson from the first TAKEN movie? He's brutal in that, it's all torture and executions but because he's doing it to "baddies" it's OK. Maybe that's how your character justifies it to the rest of the party. "It's not torture if I'm doing it to a criminal" Guantanamo that ****.

Let us know how your next session goes, I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle it. Being Evil in D&D can be really tricky.

[Sabeta]

Well we're skipping this weeks session due to a player having school or something silly like that, so I've got time to refine. I'll necro this whenever the next game comes around. I'll probably do detailed session notes just for fun.

[Herobizkit]

What you might be looking for is "nihilism".

It can be loosely defined as "the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless." It can also manifest as pessimism.

If your character's goal is to prove to starry-eyed adventurers that nothing they do amounts to a hill of beans, sometimes by deliberately sabotaging their plans, your anti-hero character isn't much of a team player and it's a miracle that the players want you on the team. Now, if you're on a party of alleged lone wolves and they're coming to YOU for leadership, you've got a wolf pack and you're the alpha male/den mother. They will follow you into all sorts of nonsense.

If your alignments appears to be bouncing between LN and CE, it's probably LE. You like to manipulate people into furthering your own ends and you're not against playing dirty to make it happen - but you're not a monster. You have some limits on what you're willing to do to get your way.

Important to note: As a character, you're never tied to one specific alignment, but it's useful as a RP guide.

Indirectly, by forcing adversity on the party, you're actually forging Heroes if they're able to overcome and succeed. It's a great dichotomy.

[Sabeta]

Indirectly, by forcing adversity on the party, you're actually forging Heroes if they're able to overcome and succeed. It's a great dichotomy.

This will be the crux of my character development, but I think I miscommunicated what my character is all about. I have no intention of sabotaging the players, I will never play someone who is disruptive to the group because one of my first experiences in D&D was an entire party of people who were that.

Introduction: We were told we could do anything we wanted, so several
Fighter: Immediately tried to climb a tower. He fell, and then fought the guard who came to check on him.
Ranger: Killed a shopkeeper for no reason and took his stuff.
Rogue: Broke into the Mayor's house and took his stuff
Werewolf: (Close Friends With DM, Homeberwed a WW Class): Spent the session ERPing with the DM at a whorehouse.
The Rest: Arrested for being friends with wanted criminals...

So yeah, being disruptive is the last thing I want. The idea of a Tanya-esque character appeals to me the more I mull over the idea, actually.


Tanya is a Military Officer, and a Combat Mage with unusually high specs granted to her by God. She's an Atheist reincarnated by God in a pseudo WWII Germany in a very roundabout contest to force Tanya into believing that God isn't just some crazy alien with strange powers. She wants to use her wicked intelligence to be a strategic officer, but unfortunately her (literally) God Given powers merit her a spot on the front line doing reckless and impossible missions one after another. Here's a list of her wickedness in action.

She once had two soldiers that she decided must be suicidal, as they would constantly disobey direct orders from HQ in favor of risky plans designed to cripple the enemy forces. ie: Being ordered to hold the line, and instead rushing forward to take out an artillery. She sent those soldiers to the rearguard in a pillbox. The military treated her as a kind leader, choosing to send poor soldiers to an easier job. Then they got hit with an Artillery Shell because Pillboxes make easy targets, and it was confirmed that she planned that to happen when news of their death arrives and she already had their post-mortem awards packages written.

She abuses the fact that God reincarnated her as a newborn to Enlist at the age of 9. Specifically to take advantage of people not wanting to hurt a child in war. ie: LOAC says that if they're going to attack a civilian structure then they need to issue a warning first. So she puts on her cutest little girl voice for the warning, which of course the civilians laugh off as a child's prank. Then bombs the building killing everyone inside.

She then takes advantage of LOAC in a far more brutal method. When one of the captured cities rebels the Empire didn't know how to response, since the town was mostly civilian minutemen mixed in with noncombatants it would have been a war-crime to attack indiscriminately. Tanya circumvented this by simply announcement their strike in advance, and telling all Civilians to evacuate. Then saying that anyone who remains after 30 minutes will be treated as an enemy combatant; followed shortly by carpet bombing the city, and even ordering one of her junior officers who felt guilty about it to pull the trigger on a kid. All while saying "We're just following orders from above. You don't need to feel responsible for anything you do."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Ai4_nG0zY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtLa8O5OkQ

I think these two videos adequately capture her character. The first is how she treats enemies. The second is how she treats her own men and women. WARNING: Gratuitous amounts of anime, I know some people are sensitive to that kind of stuff.

TLDR: Tanya is providing a very good base model. I don't want a clone, of course, as Tanyas feats and character work better for her specific environment. I'm just a fan of her specific brand of evil, and want to apply that cold rationale and ruthlessness to a D&D setting, all framed on the backdrop of a fallen hero who can rise back to her former glory as the PCs triumph time and time again; proving that maybe this crapsack world doesn't have to always be this way.

[Cespenar]

I'll heavily abridge her story: She was a hero who got worn down by evil and corruption and eventually succumbed to it. Now she joins starry eyed adventureres to watch them fall in the same way she did, giving them gentle nudges in that direction if they need it. It's a sort of morbid curiosity, she's only in the adventuring game to watch this happen over and over again.


This will be the crux of my character development, but I think I miscommunicated what my character is all about. I have no intention of sabotaging the players, I will never play someone who is disruptive to the group because one of my first experiences in D&D was an entire party of people who were that.

The second quote needs to be made clear to the DM/players. If you told to them like in the first quote, it might be why they didn't like the execution.

Also, think about changing the alignment to LN or TN. The "Evil" flag, however people might say that they ignore alignments, may throw flags in your party's head that you'll play a card-carrying evil character.

[Addaran]

I understood that quote this way. She wants them to "fall" like a paladin would fall. She's not interested in sabotaging the missions or making the team fail/die. She just wants them to become not-heroes, that will use evil methods cause (they think) it's more efficient. Like letting the hostage dies in order to kill the BBEG.



I'll heavily abridge her story: She was a hero who got worn down by evil and corruption and eventually succumbed to it. Now she joins starry eyed adventureres to watch them fall in the same way she did, giving them gentle nudges in that direction if they need it. It's a sort of morbid curiosity, she's only in the adventuring game to watch this happen over and over again.

[StoicLeaf]

I think your char would benefit from a bit more work.

Specifically: you say she wants to see others fall, but why, exactly?e. G.

1) is she in denial about failing her celestial patron? If yes, she desperately wants to see others fall to not feel bad about herself. To not have to face the consequences of being too weak/gullible/careless.

2) was she corrupted by evil? If yes, what is she getting out of seeing or helping others fall? Does she have a new patron rewarding her? Is she a sadist?

Both of these examples explain your char's motivations but aren't necessarily inclusive. I think if you wrote that down you'd have an easier time RPing.
Having said that though: that sort of story is pretty heavy. Most players that I've met don't do serious-sad that well.

[Sabeta]

Alright, well I promised to revive this once I had my next session, and I'm quite pleased with how everything turned. Before I dive too deep into this, my DM uses Matt Mercer's "Hatchmark" system, which apparently awards players bonus experience in the factor of 15 * Player Level * Hatches. A Hatch is awarded for good roleplaying, solving puzzles, story advancement, etc. Our DM told us the base xp awarded for the session was 450, and anything beyond that was a hatchmark.

Me: 630
Ranger: 600 (This is the player who comes to me for help)
Barbarian: 540 (This is the player who thinks she's Alpha Wolf, but teeters dangerously close to catastrophic failure at every point.
Warlock: 510 (Did almost nothing the entire session)

Based on that, I'm going to assume my DM was a fan of the revisions I made. So thanks to all the help this thread provided me.

Ahna Starborn: Fallen Aasimar @ Favored Soul (Death Domain) Sorceress
Background: Soldier (Officer) / Alignment: Neutral Evil (Leans towards Lawful)
Personality: I put no trust in divine beings.
Ideals: I like to know my enemy's capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle.
Bonds: I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy.
Flaws: My fascination with death compels me to seek it out, even if it means watching friends die.
Note: Yes, I mixed in Haunted One traits into my Soldier. I felt it was appropriate.

Origin: Auspiciously born, Ahna was given a fast track to a succesful life thanks to the pooled resources of her hometown. She was commisioned at 18, and shortly appointed over a a group of Paladins. 10 years prior to current events, her kingdom declared war. Her side was completely decimated by the advanced technology of one of the southern kingdoms. She saw firsthand that the gods were powerless before technology, and combined with losing every single soldier under her charge she ended up emotionally broken.

She now has a morbid fascination with death, and as such sore herself to Lady Death. She joins adventuring parties to continue being apart of that eternal struggle. She enjoys death of all kinds and has fun inflicting it on anything from small creatures to evil henchmen, but her favorite brand is watching starry-eyed adventurers breath their last. However, she believes that pushing them to their death would be too easy and boring. She's also willing to save lives if she thinks there's still more fun to be had, or if she thinks she can find a more despairing death for them.

Roleplaying: Ahna is calm, collected, and reserved; however she'll take action once she's formed a solid assessment of a situation or developed a hunch that needs to be acted upon.
--> Corollary A) Ahna is inherently helpful, but is more than content to watch impetuous fools leap into big mistakes. Especially if it may be lethal to the person involved, doubly so if Ahna won't suffer harm as a consequence.
--> Corollary B) Ahna's plans are inevitably the best plan. Anyone who disagrees had better have good reason.

Combat: Ahna will always attempt to inflict pain, humiliation, or psychological trauma upon her enemies. She's always looking for ways to injure her opponents besides just physically.
-->Corollary A) Ahna is willing to buff, or even protect allies, especially if it will help emasculate her enemies.
-->Corollary B) For similar reasons, Ahna is more than willing to debuff enemies.
-->Corollary C) Ahna will never hurt her own party. There's no reward for creating too many enemies at once. However, if the mood is just right she may not prevent a death.

Personality: Ahna's default mood is "bored". She doesn't particularly care about things that are happening around her, but fancies herself an intelligent sort. She will become interested in puzzles, mysteries, riddles, or anything else where she can apply her vast wellspring of knowledge; however she'll grow bored of these quickly if she gets stumped. Typically, by dismissing the puzzle itself as dumb.


The session begins with Barbarian (Barb) deciding we'll be investigating a murder mystery which occurred near a mansion about half a day south; which is a couple hours from a nearby town. Ther reason being; our Ranger is still suffering exhaustion levels and this should be a safe enough quest for him to participate in. A mysterious riddler walks in and gives us a riddle, for seemingly no reason at all. Ahna solves it with help from an INT Check (DM provided a second hint for a high roll), and the Riddler gives us a story hook as a reward. It's very low priority.

The trip to the manor was uneventful, and upon arriving we begin asking guards some questions. They state that they were posted there after the murder occured at the request of the Manor's Lord, and were willing to show us inside. Based on the Lord's account of what happened (He discovered the bodies) I began to feel he was suspicious, and believed him to be a Werewolf. I asked the Ranger to check out the murder scene, and succesfully identified days old bipedal beast tracks. Together, we concluded a werewolf was certainly involved, but did not press the issue further. The Barbarian and Warlock were invited in for tea; which I declined to further question the guards. While I did so, the Ranger went looking for Wolfs bane, but couldn't find any.

The guards didn't provide any useful information, and instead seemed to shut down when they realized a werewolf may be loose in the area. Barb and Lock were able to learn that manor's previous lord passed away in a hunting accident some time ago, and that the lord was a very skilled hunter himself. That night took nearly two hours of roleplaying everyone's prep time as werewolf paranoia crept in, but ultimately nothing happened. Ahna's metasense told her that would happen, so she went to bed early while other people were interrogating maids at midnight. (This interrogation nearly caused the entire house to become hostile, as the maid nearly reported us for suspecting her Lord of foul play)

The next morning the Lord was happy to show us all around his trophy rooms. He had successfully hunted many powerful creatures, things that were outside of even our league. He prevented us from heading to the basement, saying that's where his previous generation's trophies were held, and that it contains many bad memories for him, so he didn't want us down there. I, quite plainly asked. "Have you ever hunted people?". He assured us he hadn't, but Ahna so throroughly believed he was lying that she didn't waste time on an Insight Check.

Later that same morning, the Lord called me off to follow him. Alone. I complied, where he questioned me further about my rather strange statement. I deflected, saying "I'm a former soldier. In a way, Humans are the most dangerous game." He gave a wry chuckle (and a hearty laugh from the DM), but that was also the moment that I realized he was baring fangs at me. I decide to defuse the situation by pointing out the impressiveness of his basement, including several experimental potions and even one of the rifles used by the high tech nation 10 years past. It wasn't working, so I opened up the book I was using to write down information and tore out the pages concerning him. I said; "As a show of good faith here's my notes. I've already pegged you as a Lycanthrope, but I assure you I'm on your side here."

He was quite pleased to hear that, and revealed what was truly going on. We were being tested by him to see if we were trustworthy. The other adventureres (not the Ranger) nearly screwed everything up by constantly badgering him with questions when we're investigating a murder (or rather, asking him personal questions. The only question Ahna ever asked of him was if he hunted people). As it turns out he comes from a cursed bloodline, and has succesfully controlled his lycanthropy enough to not present a harm to society. His grandfather however, relished in his power. When the Lord (then, just an heir) said he didn't want to kill people, his grandfather attacked him. His father intervened, and died in the process. Now, his Grandfather returns to finish what he started, and the murder from days past was the warning sign.

Ahna, was quite frankly disappointed he wasn't some cool evil guy she could bargain with, but accepted the proposed werewolf hunt anyway since "it's not every day I get to kill something magical." Ahna then informed the party of what was going on, and managed to acquire alchemical silver which could be used to treat our weapons for a day. The Ranger got 3 arrows, and the Barb got a silvered axe.

The fight was incredibly uneventful; however, there was a twist. The werewolf who showed up wasn't his grandfather, but his "replacement son". When that son proved he wasn't up to the task, the real grandfather walked in; lamented the kids uselessness, then transformed. Into a Weretiger. Which we promptly thrashed. He tried to run, and I told the Ranger (who was out of arrows) "You don't need to worry about fighting now, but get ready to track him." Wasted words, as he died before he could escape.

I successfully convinced the Lord to part with his family's treasured Rifle on the grounds that "We only agreed to kill one werewolf, so I think we deserve a bit of a bonus." The Lord mentioned that it was a relic of his grandfather's, and with his passing it was just a tool of misery to him. He much preferred hunting in his bestial form anyway, and the gun was hard to use like that. We spent the night at the manor, Ahna complained that the fight was too boring (DM had poor rolls. the Barb took 4 total damage, and nobody else had so much as a scratch), and returned the next day.

According to the DM, the Hatches i earned were
Solving the Riddle
Guessing at, and then confirming the Werewolf (Shared with Ranger)
Suggesting Wolfsbane (Shared with Ranger)
Allowing the Lord to guide me alone through his manor; no questions asked.
Giving him my research notes to win him over
Convincing him to give up his family heirloom.

As an aside. Ahna now has nothing but contempt for Barb. While the rest of us were investigating she decided she would sprint to the next town over ( a 4 hour trip shortened to 1), but was then shunned by the town for being a weird, sweaty, half naked chick wielding an axe and sprinting through town asking about werewolves. She then sprinted all the way back, exhausted. She also nearly sabotaged us all with her constant complaining, and even stole the Warlock's book in an extremely metagamey way (Barb shouldn't have even known the book was magical and contained a riddle puzzle; which is the only reason I haven't attempted to solve it for him) in order to ask the book-loving maid to solve it for her...at 2am...while naked. She then slapped her and gave her a kiss as a goodbye; which according to the DM "was a miracle it didn't start a brawl. I was giving her Wisdom saves on how much of you she could tolerate. That one had a DC 18)


Pardon my Spelling & Grammar. This took a quite a bit to write, and I only proofread it once.

[Arcangel4774]

At first I thought she (you) were gonna end up a seducer styled evil. Not necessarily sexual, but more tempteous. Kinda like those movies where the evil deeds start out small with thousand dollar rewards but end up making you a murderer to be set for life.

But I like this cold more observant/scientific view. Your character seems to have. Really goes well with death fascination

[ShikomeKidoMi]

This will be the crux of my character development, but I think I miscommunicated what my character is all about. I have no intention of sabotaging the players, I will never play someone who is disruptive to the group because one of my first experiences in D&D was an entire party of people who were that.

Introduction: We were told we could do anything we wanted, so several
Fighter: Immediately tried to climb a tower. He fell, and then fought the guard who came to check on him.
Ranger: Killed a shopkeeper for no reason and took his stuff.
Rogue: Broke into the Mayor's house and took his stuff
Werewolf: (Close Friends With DM, Homeberwed a WW Class): Spent the session ERPing with the DM at a whorehouse.
The Rest: Arrested for being friends with wanted criminals...

So yeah, being disruptive is the last thing I want. The idea of a Tanya-esque character appeals to me the more I mull over the idea, actually.


Tanya is a Military Officer, and a Combat Mage with unusually high specs granted to her by God. She's an Atheist reincarnated by God in a pseudo WWII Germany in a very roundabout contest to force Tanya into believing that God isn't just some crazy alien with strange powers. She wants to use her wicked intelligence to be a strategic officer, but unfortunately her (literally) God Given powers merit her a spot on the front line doing reckless and impossible missions one after another. Here's a list of her wickedness in action.

She once had two soldiers that she decided must be suicidal, as they would constantly disobey direct orders from HQ in favor of risky plans designed to cripple the enemy forces. ie: Being ordered to hold the line, and instead rushing forward to take out an artillery. She sent those soldiers to the rearguard in a pillbox. The military treated her as a kind leader, choosing to send poor soldiers to an easier job. Then they got hit with an Artillery Shell because Pillboxes make easy targets, and it was confirmed that she planned that to happen when news of their death arrives and she already had their post-mortem awards packages written.

She abuses the fact that God reincarnated her as a newborn to Enlist at the age of 9. Specifically to take advantage of people not wanting to hurt a child in war. ie: LOAC says that if they're going to attack a civilian structure then they need to issue a warning first. So she puts on her cutest little girl voice for the warning, which of course the civilians laugh off as a child's prank. Then bombs the building killing everyone inside.

She then takes advantage of LOAC in a far more brutal method. When one of the captured cities rebels the Empire didn't know how to response, since the town was mostly civilian minutemen mixed in with noncombatants it would have been a war-crime to attack indiscriminately. Tanya circumvented this by simply announcement their strike in advance, and telling all Civilians to evacuate. Then saying that anyone who remains after 30 minutes will be treated as an enemy combatant; followed shortly by carpet bombing the city, and even ordering one of her junior officers who felt guilty about it to pull the trigger on a kid. All while saying "We're just following orders from above. You don't need to feel responsible for anything you do."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Ai4_nG0zY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtLa8O5OkQ

I think these two videos adequately capture her character. The first is how she treats enemies. The second is how she treats her own men and women. WARNING: Gratuitous amounts of anime, I know some people are sensitive to that kind of stuff.

TLDR: Tanya is providing a very good base model. I don't want a clone, of course, as Tanyas feats and character work better for her specific environment. I'm just a fan of her specific brand of evil, and want to apply that cold rationale and ruthlessness to a D&D setting, all framed on the backdrop of a fallen hero who can rise back to her former glory as the PCs triumph time and time again; proving that maybe this crapsack world doesn't have to always be this way.

I'm pretty sure it's Pseudo World War I Germany. They're not Nazis, they just have some of the insignia that those guys later inherited. You can see it by them not knowing what a world war is, some of the helmets having those stupid spikes on the top, all the trench warfare, some groups not having understood what air power is about and sending actual mounted cavalry against the pseudo-Germans, you see too many biplanes for WWII, etc. And the fact the war was started by a smaller power provoking the Pseudo-Germans and then Pseudo-France jumping in on the smaller power's side before other great powers got involved.

But the biggest proof is probably that Tanya is "The Devil of the Rhine" and that's where much of the early fighting is taking place, against the pseudo-French. World War 1 was largely a slugging match in France, whereas in WWII, the Germans curbstomped the French so fast they barely had time to realize they were at war before they lost.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Wait wait wait...

You want to know how to best roleplay an Evil character?

Hang on...

Red Fel!

Red Fel!

Red Fel!

[MrMcBobb]

SNIP




Loved it, also let your DM know I'm stealing a load of ideas from that session. Already got a vampire session mapped out, I love the supernatural monster hunt style of play so I'll purloin that one for later.

[Sabeta]

I'm pretty sure it's Pseudo World War I Germany. They're not Nazis, they just have some of the insignia that those guys later inherited. You can see it by them not knowing what a world war is, some of the helmets having those stupid spikes on the top, all the trench warfare, some groups not having understood what air power is about and sending actual mounted cavalry against the pseudo-Germans, you see too many biplanes for WWII, etc. And the fact the war was started by a smaller power provoking the Pseudo-Germans and then Pseudo-France jumping in on the smaller power's side before other great powers got involved.

But the biggest proof is probably that Tanya is "The Devil of the Rhine" and that's where much of the early fighting is taking place, against the pseudo-French. World War 1 was largely a slugging match in France, whereas in WWII, the Germans curbstomped the French so fast they barely had time to realize they were at war before they lost.

It's a mix, some people call it WW 1.5. Timeframe is undoubtedly WW1, but then they do things like invade Not!Russia in the winter and use what appear to be Panzer IVs. It's a hybridization either way, with elements of both. The only thing keeping her from being literally a Nazi is a lack of concentration camps, and that can be neatly explained away as just something Tanya doesn't know of or get involved with, so neither does the audience.

Not!Japan is also absent because it's illegal, but it would kind of be interesting to see Tanya interact with them, possibly even get wrapped up in nationalism and try to hop sides.