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View Full Version : [4e] First game, evil party, I need ideas.



TheLoneCleric
2008-06-09, 09:02 PM
Let me set this up for you:

The PCs are agents of the Whisper Wood Consortium, a cabal of planer wizards who have contacted each other through the local weakpoints in the Planes and transport questionable goods back and forth into the Whisper Woods town of Whitebark. The PCs are of varied...alignments...with tact and skill being the only two true job requirements. The Consortium pays well and offers advancement for loyal agents. PC friendliness is enforced by very dangerous men who can melt your brain if you betray the Consortium.

That being said, the local Consortium proctors are mostly Drow and Shadar Kai who run the local drug trade through a semi-stable portal to the Shadowfell. The PCs have been hired recently due to some outside competition eating into the profits. They'll find themselves doing heroic, merciless, and strange things for their employers.

The Group so far (Not actual names):

Drow Lex Luthor- A CE Wizard looking to use the Consortium to further his advancement in the study of forbidden magic. A skill monger who keeps taking Skill Training Feats to open up new options of power as he advances.

The Lawyer Warlord- A E Dragonborn who is a young brash bloodthirsty leader in training. She enjoys out thinking and slaughtering her foes while touting her ever growing skills in battle and tactics.

Dark Sailor Moon - A unl Half-Elf Star Pact Warlock who specializes in a mix of close in fighting and powerful radiant attacks. She worships the moon and find polarizing morality limiting to her way of life. She is mostly in for the adventure and some money on the side.

The Ubiquitous Ninja - A unl Shadar-Kai Fey Warlock with Rogue Multiclassing, interested in his deadly talent and never...ever...being...caught.

So, where would you take these agents of a criminal organization. I was thinking about having them free slaves because the slavers don't cut the Consortium a cut, stopping the local drug peddlers from becoming hooked on a rival organizations drug, fighting a Fomorian power growing in the magical underworld. So many options...but I'd love some input for evil...*koff*...heroic things they can do. The more morally twisted the better.

Xuincherguixe
2008-06-09, 09:34 PM
The characters need to protect workers as they assemble an orphanage. The orphanage however is just a cover for... well something suitably evil.
slave market?
drugs?
evil magic items?
temple of evil?

A princess has been kidnapped by bandits. Except the bandits are a local resistance front, and the princess hired them to take her away so she doesn't have to marry some nefarious evil person who she doesn't particularly like.


A group of Orcs, Goblins, or some other standard mook evil race is approaching the town. They're actually just traders, heavily armed because lets face it, people tend to kill them in large numbers. Which is what you're supposed to do, because they didn't pay the protection fee.


There's a rich merchant, who is disliked. The party is to break into his house take a bunch of his treasure, and give it out to the poor. It turns out he's actually a pretty nice guy but he's a strange wizard and unfounded rumors started. He's been causing problems for the establishment the party is working for. Distributing it to the poor is to maintain the illusion that they're not complete and total bastards when in fact, they are. It will all work out in the end, because since they control so much, they'll end up with the money anyways.

EvilElitest
2008-06-09, 10:15 PM
Well evil isn't hte focus of 4E, so good luck (where are my books)

But i have to say, a drow named lex luther? WFT?
from
EE

Xuincherguixe
2008-06-09, 10:16 PM
Lex Luther isn't really it's name, it was a description.

wodan46
2008-06-09, 11:12 PM
Luther is Lawful, not Chaotic. I mean, he's the freakin president of the USA.

Have your characters be assigned to commit an atrocity, frame a rival group for it, then kill them for the subsequent bounty. Make sure that your organization gets something out of the atrocity as well (elimination of a good aligned nuisance, stealing a magical item, etc.)

TheOOB
2008-06-09, 11:23 PM
Couple of things, chaotic evil means that you cause destruction and and kill things simply because it's fun and evil, which a clever manipulator defiantly wouldn't. They do bad things, but for a very good reason(at least to them).

That said, anyone who does evil things is evil, whether or not they devote themselves to evil or even think of themselves as evil. An unaligned person is someone who is a fundamentally good person, they don't harm others for no reason, they are opposed to needless killing and such, they just aren't willing to make sacrifices to be good.

Ryuuk
2008-06-09, 11:35 PM
Well, if the PCs were hired because outside competition was eating away at their employers profit, why not have them deal with that said competition? This is probably the simplest way to go, pick one of the cabals opponents and make an example out of them. Beat their men off your turf, disturb their deliveries and storm their headquarters. You end up evil vs evil, not because of altruism, but because it's just business.

The whole idea behind this would be to show the cabal's other opponents to know their place. Off course, there's a good chance the plan backfires. The remaining opponents could gang up on them, force the cabal into the bunkers, so to speak, as their enemies wage open war against them.

...pretty much just watch the Godfather to see what I mean.

Ned the undead
2008-06-10, 01:02 AM
Luther is Lawful, not Chaotic. I mean, he's the freakin president of the USA.

Have your characters be assigned to commit an atrocity, frame a rival group for it, then kill them for the subsequent bounty. Make sure that your organization gets something out of the atrocity as well (elimination of a good aligned nuisance, stealing a magical item, etc.)

Not since Superman goaded him into telling his evil plan to the world via live broadcast.

HeirToPendragon
2008-06-10, 01:10 AM
Well evil isn't hte focus of 4E, so good luck (where are my books)

But i have to say, a drow named lex luther? WFT?
from
EE

The PHB tells the players to steer from it, but they still give you all the options you really need.

I mean, other than deities, what more do you need to make evil characters?

HeirToPendragon
2008-06-10, 01:11 AM
Not since Superman goaded him into telling his evil plan to the world via live broadcast.

Wasn't his evil plan that "I really want to piss off Superman" ?

Or was that just the TV series

Jothki
2008-06-10, 01:27 AM
If you want an simple mission to start them off, I'd suggest having them raid a caravan and then requiring them to somehow smuggle the goods that they've stolen past the people who were originally supposed to be receiving them.

TheLoneCleric
2008-06-11, 04:57 AM
All great ideas. Thanks for the input.

Funkyodor
2008-06-11, 09:17 AM
Slip them some info about another group that is planning to steal some art / rob a magic shop / pull off an impressive heist. Let them plot and attempt to swipe the "mcguffin" while the other team takes the wrap. Then, see if any truly rotten-evil PC's show who try and swindle the other PC's for the loot.

There was a good Shadowrun story I read in these forums where they intercepted and stopped another group from kidnapping some important person, and instead of getting "rewarded", they held her for ransom. I think the broad was ditzy or something though, because she thought it was a reward. But the big-wig manager knew otherwise.

You can really push the envelope for players of evil PC's through descriptive narration. Fully flip how good a player feels when his Paladin rescues the damsel, trounces the bad guy, and gets the big reward; to make a player feel utterly Evil by seducing the damsel so that he can get close to the good guy to frame him for murder right after marrying the damsel to get the reward then "arranging" her assassination while he's out gathering an alibi... Good guy gone, Reward (check), Damsel disposed of.

Kidnap plots work well too. Someone is going to testify against a high-up member of some society. Kidnap family/significant other to keep the guy quiet. Have a cat and mouse chase where the PC's are trying to stay one step ahead of some Lawman that catches wind of the plot.

Revenge plots. Someone whacked Vinnie and the Don is not happy, he was his favorite nephew. The PC's have to kill Tony in a way that satisifies the Don, leaves no clues that it was a hit, and that it frames Fat Luigi's Crew in the town over so The Don can justify raiding some Luigi drug warehouse. Throw in some intrigue trying to find out who really killed Vinnie and what's going on with the powers upstairs.