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Doresain
2008-02-06, 02:52 PM
sometime in the near future, i have plans to run an evil game...and i have encouraged the group to play the most sadistic and loathed individuals for said game...

the plan is, they started off in prison and are released by an emissary of a death cult dedicated to Atropus (elder evils)...they want these truly twisted person to collect the components for a ritual that will cause the skies to rain blood and healing magic to go screwy, thus hopefully bringing the big evil moon monster mentioned earlier down to finish off the rest of the world

the question is, what would be the best motivation to get the players to actually play the game and not go on random killing sprees...they are all fairly decent players, but other than myself i dont think any of them have actually played an evil character, so im a little worried to say the least

serok42
2008-02-06, 02:56 PM
You could have the emissary put some sort of curse on them. If they stray too far from the mission at hand something unpleasant happens to them. It worked in a game I ran where the good party was working for Umberlee to imprison a demon for her. I won't go into details though. Personally they never strayed, thank god because i had no idea what the curse could actually do to them :smallbiggrin:




sometime in the near future, i have plans to run an evil game...and i have encouraged the group to play the most sadistic and loathed individuals for said game...

the plan is, they started off in prison and are released by an emissary of a death cult dedicated to Atropus (elder evils)...they want these truly twisted person to collect the components for a ritual that will cause the skies to rain blood and healing magic to go screwy, thus hopefully bringing the big evil moon monster mentioned earlier down to finish off the rest of the world

the question is, what would be the best motivation to get the players to actually play the game and not go on random killing sprees...they are all fairly decent players, but other than myself i dont think any of them have actually played an evil character, so im a little worried to say the least

Doresain
2008-02-06, 03:00 PM
You could have the emissary put some sort of curse on them. If they stray too far from the mission at hand something unpleasant happens to them. It worked in a game I ran where the good party was working for Umberlee to imprison a demon for her. I won't go into details though. Personally they never strayed, thank god because i had no idea what the curse could actually do to them :smallbiggrin:

hmmm...i like that idea...well if anyone else has any ideas feel free to jump in...dont want this to become a waste of a thread so soon

SadisticFishing
2008-02-06, 03:03 PM
You can't give someone motivation to play good Evil.

I'm playing in an evil campaign on Friday, it's our first session. I'm playing either a LE Kobold Eldritch Theurge (Sorcerer/Warlock) or a NE Grey Elf Archivist/Fiendbinder.

Either way, the discussion between the 3 players has really made everything seem more and more evil. Our plans are coming together, and the Master of Shrouds of Wee Jas and the Ruby Knight Vindicator actually have a reason to be together - I'll just be tagging along.

One thing: Chaotic Evil is oh so very rarely played right, so try to discourage it unless you think they won't eat babies - except, of course, in specialized rituals. Just don't let it become a habit.

Yeah, get them excited about their characters - try to find some cool "Non-good" or "Evil" prestige classes, even let them try out the Book of Vile Darkness and/or Exemplars of Evil and the Fiendish Codex feats.

A couple classes/prestige classes that are cool, in flavor and in mechanics:

Base classes:
Hexblade (CWar)
Warlock (CArc)
Paladin of Tyranny (UA)

Prestige Classes:
The obvious ones: Blackguard, Assassin (DMG)
Disciples or Thralls of Demon and Devil lords (BoVD)
Soul Eater (BoVD)
Hellfire Warlock (FC2)
Fiendbinder (ToM)
Tenebrous Apostle (ToM)
Eye of Gruumsh (CWar)
Cancer Mage or any other prestige class from the book, really (BoVD)
Ur-Priest especially. (BoVD/CDiv)
Ordained Champion (CCha)


There are surely more that I can't think of at the moment, but this should be a decent amount to start with.

If they already have characters planned, get them into a room to start bouncing eeeevil ideas off each other, but you may be screwed.

Good luck!

Edit: Oh, and forcing people to be evil (by the curse thing) is a bit too rail-road-y. For evil, just make sure you have a stack of random villages to burn, and some cops on their arses.

sonofzeal
2008-02-06, 03:04 PM
Killing sprees are more of a CE thing. Making the PCs LE, or giving them good motivations for finishing the quest, should suffice. Same logic that prevents Good PCs from running off an volunteering at orphanages when they should be questing, really.

Doresain
2008-02-06, 03:08 PM
well the motivation was to keep them on track with the main story...and while im encouraging them to play (any) evil, they dont have to if they dont want to...

the funny thing is, you mentioned baby eating...one of the players is basing his character off of orphan harvest...

Severus
2008-02-06, 04:05 PM
Tell them that Evil doesn't mean 'evil stupid'. If they go on random killing sprees, then they're going to get caught and killed. Or the rich uncle of one of their victims will pay to have a curse cast on them, etc.

Perhaps the bored High Templar of the Temple of Kissing Babies will come and kill them.

It's an evil campaign. You, as GM, don't have to be fair. Tell them what you want, and tell them that the world will hurt them if they try to go Charles Manson on everyone.

I think GM setting expectations goes a long way with a competent group.

mostlyharmful
2008-02-06, 05:58 PM
The best way in my experiance is to flat out tell the PLAYERS to come up with an in character reason for them to be working towards the campaigns goal in a group, doesn't have to be working amicably, doesn't have to be working co-operatively, but put it down to Them to come up with why and play that through. Outside forces are all well and good but they're often inadequate to controlling PC actions and easily forgotten. There's nothing so soothing to motivating PCs as getting them to do it to themselves. Often nothing so bleedin hard either.