Anti-Heroes

[Bartmanhomer]

How do you deal with having an anti-hero in your party or even facing an anti-hero as an enemy in your roleplaying games?

[Max_Killjoy]

How do you deal with having an anti-hero in your party or even facing an anti-hero as an enemy in your roleplaying games?

In the party -- what is the character doing that rises to the level of needing you to "deal with" the issue?

As an adversary -- what makes the antagonist in that case an anti-hero, as opposed to a sympathetic villain?

[Slipperychicken]

How do you deal with having an anti-hero in your party or even facing an anti-hero as an enemy in your roleplaying games?

If you're talking about a player being antagonistic and disruptive in a team game, I talk to them about it OOC, perhaps see why they think that's acceptable, and make sure they understand why it is not. That should solve the problem.


As for facing an anti-hero enemy, I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean "a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, or morality", then it doesn't really follow. A villain or NPC is not likely to be a protagonist, because he is not necessarily the central character of the story. What do you mean?

[Quertus]

People who do good things for bad reasons are my bread and butter. Well, not really, but it is an archetype I like to run.

So, when a player wants to run an amoral jerk in a party of rainbows and sunshine, I give him a reason to be ticked off at the BBEG, and to work with the party to bring said BBEG down. Just like I would work with the player of the fat hobbit who just wants a cozy burrow and some good food. Because that's what I'd want a GM to do for me.

For using one as an enemy, when Mr paladin wants a moral challenge, I might give him someone who is on his side, but whose methods are... questionable, at best. If you just kill him outright because he is evil, then the forces of good will suffer. So this requires some... finesse... to find a good solution.

Does that answer your question? Or were you trying to ask something other than what I interpreted your question to be?

[Anonymouswizard]

How do you deal with having an anti-hero in your party or even facing an anti-hero as an enemy in your roleplaying games?

My most common character type is a lighter variety of antihero, specifically a shifty guy with loose morality and good intentions. This is partially due to the fact that it meshes well with my own morals, which are looser than what &D classifies as good (although not outside those encouraged by society), although I did enjoy my last character where I used disadvantages to create a more traditionally heroic character. The first time I really played an antihero the character was rather childish, although my last one just did not see the problem in receiving punishmentcleansing of sins in order to use more underhanded tactics, although he dropped the necromancy near the beginning of the campaign due to personal doubts and the other characters/players not liking the idea. The dammed operative was significantly more heroic than me.

As a side note, my antiheroes are rarely loners and generally decent team players (or can at least fit in if nobody else covers their specialty). I just don't see the point, I'll play Sneaky McDarkmage, but he'll team up with a paladin and avoid using black magic without the party's permission if that makes a better game. The fact that I actually give them social skills might have something to do with it, although I can't quite pull off gambits yet (slightly better at playing speed chess though).

I tend not to use antiheroes as enemies, or even allies. Characters who aren't PCs will generally fall into 'goody/baddy/mixed', with mixed closer to doesn't care neutral than most antiheroes. I just don't have the desire to add such a complex character, although one might develop if I ever run a long campaign.

[Knaight]

I play the occasional anti-hero, and deliberately set up characters to play off other characters, which sometimes includes an anti-hero. There's no dealing with it involved, it just works. With that said, it is an area where you need to know what other players are doing. I was once in a game where everybody decided to play an anti-hero (three players, so not all that many), and everyone was assuming they would be the only anti-hero. Two of them descended into outright villain protagonists, and somehow my character ended up the moral center of the group. Said character was a dangerous zealot who, had the game used an alignment system, would have been assigned somewhere on the south end. It was a fun game, but it's the sort of thing that would have been nice to see coming for the GM.