Campain Help

[TheWerdna]

ok, me and my friends have decided to run a D&D campain. note of us are good DMS but i know the rules better then them, so i have been made the DM.

I have a probelm though. One player wants to be on his own side away from the others. Would this ever work, or should i force them to be on the same side? If you had to run them on dif sides, how would you go about it?

Basic facts

Useing Eberron

City based adventure in Sharn

Charecters

LE Changling Level 5 Rogue/ 3 Assasin (guy who wants to be on dif side

NG Half Elf level 2 Fighter / level 6 Sword Sage

CG Half Elf level 3 Rogue/ level 5 Urban Ranger Varent

N Human level 8 Bard

[jiriku]

Don't risk it.

If you are a REALLY good DM, and if your players are REALLY good roleplayers, and if EVERYONE endorses the idea, and if, if, if, if, if....then it could work. But the usual outcome is that people get annoyed with the player who's working against him, and get upset, and pretty soon the PCs are fighting each other instead of adventuring, and people's feelings get hurt.

Tell the player that his character concept is interesting but difficult to manage, and you'd like to get some DMing experience under your belt before you take on a challenge like that. Assure him that it's an option for a future game, but for now ask him to set that character aside and roll up someone who'll be highly motivated to cooperate with the other characters.

Edit: If he's attached to the character concept he's created, you could even ask him to give it to you as an NPC villain, and work it into the plot of your game as a recurring enemy under your control. He can play (for example) a good-aligned family member, friend, or former colleague of the villain and try to put a stop to or redeem him/her (darn changeling genders).

Extra Edit: A common bit of advice given when people ask a question like yours is "let him try and make sure he fails horribly. Then he'll learn his lesson and never try again." This rarely works out well. It's usually better to play it safe and get all the sharks out of the water BEFORE you jump in for a swim.

[Shadwen]

Its actually very hard to do it...if he tries..then throw him into situations that require a party as dnd wants it to be....and he will die. After that happens he may realize that he needs a party..or he will quit going..either way you win.

[root9125]

Whether you beat your characters over the head with the plot or not, it is rarely, if ever, a good idea to have a consistently warring group. There is something to be said for a war-game, where a party of 4 squares off with another for an awesome one-shot, but as far as one guy in the group of 4 wanting to be against the others?

Meh. You can't exactly stop him, except by reminding him he's in a city and people don't take kindly to murder. Or that there are 3 of them, and they will slaughter his puny little butt if he tries violence.

Let that particular problem resolve itself (with the assassin's death, 75% likely), and if he insists on rolling a new character exactly the same way, tell him he's being disruptive.

This is not to say I'm against alignment conflict; one of my best ever games had alignments ranging from NG to CE. So don't force him to act a certain way or be nice to the other PCs... just don't spare him when he isn't. Cities have level 12 guards for a reason. For that matter, cities have police forces and high-level wizards for a reason.

[Shadwen]

If he wishes to do his own thing..and not let you talk to him about his character..and he insists on doing what he had in mind...then let him...but dont be nice..as the others said. It does cause alot of problems and hamper the story.

[Bagelz]

by "side" do you mean he wants to be associated with a specific faction or alignment? could you convice the other players to do so as well and run an evil party campaign? or is the player determined to be an antagonist to the other players?

or if he's really set on being an opponent of the party, convince him to dm the game, on the condition that you'll help him with rules. (pvp really doesn't last more than one session.)

[TheWerdna]

He wants to run a Assasins guild and fight the players.

[Godskook]

Oh hell no. You don't run before you walk, ever. Ever play an Mmo? Pvp is always harder than pve, by its very nature, and paper&pencil is just the same. Start with pve, and get everyone some skill, especially yourself, since you've admitted that your qualifications are exactly as good as mine(read: never DM'ed before).

[Tyndmyr]

He wants to run a Assasins guild and fight the players.

This is possible, but difficult. Not a good first game.

[Fendalus]

Hm... Maybe try to convince him to, while controlling an Assassin's guild with a contract or personal problem against the other players, have him be infiltrating the party to find out how they work by himself. He might do it because he doesn't trust his underlings, or because he wants to kill some of the part himself when the time comes for the reveal.

How to get him to be able to infiltrate and work with the party while still allowing him to pit his group against the other players would be a bit tricky though... So getting him to switch to a different character concept or moving him to a co-DM position or something might be an easier solution.

[Tyndmyr]

Frankly, it seems like a power play. Running an assassins guild? Hunting down everyone else? Even if it involves him "infiltrating" them, it's going to inevitibly lead to pvp, and player deaths. Odds of campaign imploding at that point are high.

[Lysander]

Here's the problem. You can't have a plot if you have PvP. You'll be too busy just going through the back and forth warfare amongst your friends.

Why not let your friend play this evil character, but give him a valid reason for working WITH the party? Maybe they need an expert rogue to get past traps guarding a holy treasure, and they're willing to put up with an unsavory character for the greater good. In exchange he can earn seed money needed to start his assassins' guild.

Just make clear two things.

1. You can have in character arguments, but for the most part this must be cooperative play.
2. If you are evil, you must be smart evil. No random acts of murder or violence that make the plot about unnecessarily running from the city guard rather than dealing with the actual story.

[Voldecanter]

DON'T DO IT

if you are an unexpierienced DM , this will over-whelm you and not end in an enjoyable way . not to mention if you are starting at level 1 , what type of people would follow a 1st level 'assasin' ? Maybe later on that Player can manage to get leadership and form his own Criminal Organization .