Any interest in Evil RP?

bloodypriceless · March 2014

Greetings and welcome fellow Maskers! I posted a thread over in the Guild Forum asking this, but since this is the RP forum I felt the need to at least post -something- here as well. With all of the guild's I've seen out there, I have had little luck in finding any -evil- RP! No slavers, bandits, or even really evil drow houses have I met... So I have to ask, is there any interest in this sort of thing at all? I wont post a poll here, but will direct to the other thread I created... Feel free to respond, or private message me if you'd like.

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?633761-Judging-interest-for-an-RP-Guild(Please-look)

ambisinisterr · March 2014

I love role-playing and actually prefer to roleplay the gruffer characters.

I have role played truly evil characters such as drow and a fallen paladin but I have not had the opportunity to roleplay much in Neverwinter.

Typically, though, I like the more indirect approach. I like characters which have no qualms in torturing, killing or putting personal gain above anything else. However despite that they typically have a loyalty to their companions. I think Drasek Riven put it best, "I have two rules in combat, my side survives and their side dies." While they are definitely dark characters interested in power and personal gain rather than morality I don't know if my typical characters can be called "evil."

But that's the magic of RP. Especially since the stupid alignment system won't give any spoilers in Neverwinter.

So as a too long didn't read,
I hope you can see at least I do have interest in role-playing.
Unfortunately I am not interested in joining a guild to roleplay though.

kattefjaes · March 2014

Would you follow "ianthewizard" around, going "MUAHAHAHAHAH" and casting Steal Time?

angrysprite · March 2014

ambisinisterr wrote: »

I like the more indirect approach. I like characters which have no qualms in torturing, killing or putting personal gain above anything else. However despite that they typically have a loyalty to their companions. I think Drasek Riven put it best, "I have two rules in combat, my side survives and their side dies." While they are definitely dark characters interested in power and personal gain rather than morality I don't know if my typical characters can be called "evil."

THIS.
It's more a question of ethical morality than outright sadism the way I see it. It's about my character having their own agenda and using whatever means to that end. Though my characters could be called "evil" at times, they easily could appear to wear halos over their heads. I'm not sure I'd call it a "chaotic" because there is always genuine rhyme and reason to it all.

@OP I'm interested, but not in making other players' live miserable and being an HAMSTER$Hat, but at genuine "can this one be trusted at all?" kind of thing.

I'll follow this thread to see what else turns up in it.

onecoolscatcat · March 2014

There's a reason "Tired of Being the Hero" is so popular.

kattefjaes · March 2014

onecoolscatcat wrote: »

There's a reason "Tired of Being the Hero" is so popular.

Yep. it was an easy way to get the daily done quickly.

sockmunkey · March 2014

While there are a rare few who can pull off evil RP well. The vast majority simply do it badly. Either being evil just for the evils, and ending up with a level of chaotic stupid instead. Or simply being evil in RP as a thinly veiled way to be a complete dink, and treat other players poorly.

Call me jaded, but I honestly see little appeal to it.

xdamned4life · March 2014

Well, In a previous Role-play community prior to this one, I had ran a guild of one hundred and twenty five people who were all role-players with quite a decent storyplot, shame though however that the Roleplay seems to be restricted to the Moonstone mask which wouldn't really make for a great role-play if all the antagonists did was sit in a tavern all day, the Role-players of the dragon shard really need to start spreading out a bit more. $:\$

angrysprite · March 2014

sockmunkey wrote: »

While there are a rare few who can pull off evil RP well. The vast majority simply do it badly. Either being evil just for the evils, and ending up with a level of chaotic stupid instead. Or simply being evil in RP as a thinly veiled way to be a complete dink, and treat other players poorly.

Call me jaded, but I honestly see little appeal to it.

Hello, Jaded. I'd like to meet with you in-game about a wonderful opportunity coming our way and we can work together to real benefit. There's this amazing material they are calling "Black Ice" and if I can speak with you about obtaining some for me, oh and do note there may be some naysayers about, but I really do need you to bring it all to *me*...

(You do make good points. But experienced role-players know their shiznat.) ~winks~

bloodypriceless · March 2014

While I understand there are some reservations about such a thing, the Guild would obviously not be the type to walk into the Mask attempting to burn and murder everyone. That's just Stupid Evil. Just like noone wants to be Lawful Stupid.... The guild I had in mind would focus more around the subtler, and typically more nuanced things. Things that are morally grey areas, or outright illegal, but kept into the shadows.

As for reservations that Evil would have nothing to do.... I've played in several 'evil' guilds before, the beauty of this is that you can make enemies! Yes ENEMIES! No longer would 'Good Guy' guilds have to fight NPC's, they could have actual PC Rivalries! All sanctioned of course by the guild...we want to make sure noones just trying to give us a bad name! But again, this post is about drumming up interest in such a thing or not.... Please keep the feedback coming!

sylvialynn · March 2014

Myself and some friends are actually in the talks about creating a guild to host evil characters for RP. Seems most of the characters are followers of Cryric at the time, but do hope to expand. Plots and such are worked out so it's not stupid evil, but proper evil characters. We been wanting some RP conflict.

bioshrike · March 2014

I always thought of the stereotypical "mustache twirling" type of evil to be dumb - just being evil for evil's sake is a poor and boring excuse. What interests me are characters who are "evil" in a pragmatic sense - you're short on time and can't waste hours trying to trick your way into a fortress - so you threaten some peasant that makes food deliveries to sneak you inside - you may or may not have to go through with your threat, but the alternative is to waste more time and potentially fail at your mission. Another thing that irks me is when the "hero" seriously disadvantages themselves because they will not kill under any circumstance - it's one thing to kill unnecessarily, but it's another if killing a few guards prevents, for instance, the death of a bunch of your allies that are systematically being executed within the castle...

bloodypriceless · March 2014

Of course! Evil isnt stupid, and stupid evil(Highschool bully style comic-book villain evil) would in all reality never last very long. In terms of Evil, it's very easy to look at the D&D setting and pick good examples. The Iron Throne, The Zhentarim, The Red Wizards of Thay. All three of the examples are typically business-men, who have less morals than other business, which helps them to get ahead. They have no qualms with killing, but it would be much easier to buy up all of your opponents resources and leave him to starve than get your hands dirty that way.

angrysprite · March 2014

bioshrike wrote: »

I always thought of the stereotypical "mustache twirling" type of evil to be dumb - just being evil for evil's sake is a poor and boring excuse. What interests me are characters who are "evil" in a pragmatic sense - you're short on time and can't waste hours trying to trick your way into a fortress - so you threaten some peasant that makes food deliveries to sneak you inside - you may or may not have to go through with your threat, but the alternative is to waste more time and potentially fail at your mission. Another thing that irks me is when the "hero" seriously disadvantages themselves because they will not kill under any circumstance - it's one thing to kill unnecessarily, but it's another if killing a few guards prevents, for instance, the death of a bunch of your allies that are systematically being executed within the castle...

Agreed. I'd call it more like being an "anti-hero" rather than an all-out white-coat as some like to portray. Hell, even the new Superman movie skirts this issue. It's about doing only what I need to do to reach my immediate (or even long-term) end result. If it calls into question my morality or ethics then so be it. What is moral to me may or may not be to you.

Pirates Skyhold: one of my characters has no qualms about stealing or killing - to her it's just one group of bad apples against another and I choose to side with the one that will help me get closer to my goals. I'm not there to help those Pirates (or Neverember, for that matter) just because I'm nice. There are personal agendas that allow me to put on that plastic smile when furthering your goals helps me further mine.

I concur there are some people who choose the "unlawful/evil" routine just so they can be jerks. But someone who embraces that aspect knows that to be truly "evil" you don;t run around like Valindra, rather you use others and will them to your own private goals. Sometimes that means throwing a little sugar at them. If that sugar turns out to be poison, well then 'whoops!' - but so be it. That does;t mean it has to be poisoned. >:)

I think having a guild is a good idea because other, more experienced role players can help guide newer role players OOCly and help set a defining paradigm on what this kind of role play is really all about. Hence, I'm for the Arcane Brotherhood, Ten Towners be damned! (Well, at least for a couple of my characters, anyway!)

azahron · March 2014

ambisinisterr wrote: »

While they are definitely dark characters interested in power and personal gain rather than morality I don't know if my typical characters can be called "evil."

But that's the magic of RP. Especially since the stupid alignment system won't give any spoilers in Neverwinter.

It's why the DM usually has the final say when it comes to alignments; in DnD you have a very clearly defined good and evil, with the extremes being the gods and beings that are good and evil incarnate (Demons, devils, celestials...), the afterlives; heaven and hell aren't a matter of religion - they are actual places in a DnD setting.
And also why online RP can get very messy very quickly; I once saw someone argue that their character wasn't evil - because she only ruthlessly murdered those who weren't of her race, and sticking adamantly to that opinion.
I've personally always found "the Book of Vile Darkness" (3rd Ed sourcebook) to be a good read when it comes to defining evil in a DnD setting.

Generally when I play "evil" characters they tend be much like what you described, they are very much in it for themselves, and entirely willing to step on others to get what they want (whether it's power, wealth, revenge, etc...).
For me what defines a character as evil is how they go about achieving their goals, their willingness to hurt innocent people to better themselves.
In a DnD setting there is no question about it that the Orc berserker that's going around killing, HAMSTER and pillaging is evil - no matter how much his player claims "You can't say he's evil when he's just doing what his culture believes to be the right thing to do!" :P

azahron · March 2014

angrysprite wrote: »

I concur there are some people who choose the "unlawful/evil" routine just so they can be jerks. But someone who embraces that aspect knows that to be truly "evil" you don;t run around like Valindra, rather you use others and will them to your own private goals. Sometimes that means throwing a little sugar at them. If that sugar turns out to be poison, well then 'whoops!' - but so be it. That does;t mean it has to be poisoned. >:)

Valindra probably didn't always "run around like Valindra" either.
I imagine she's done her share of sucking up, smiling, scheming and backstabbing while gathering her power. :cool:

destinyknight · March 2014

I have a few evil aligned characters. They havent gotten much interaction lately simply because there hasnt been much open opportunity for such characters to get involved with anything.

reilz1981 · March 2014

my idea of evil is calculating planing bringing someone down from within themselves making them doubt their own alignment encouraging them to harm those closest to them true evil is innocent

mittias · March 2014

To me, the fist in a silk glove was always more of the evil, than the Iron Gauntlet....

But then, that was how I used to play my NE human female Psionicist in 3.5 AD&D, She wasn't always able to deal with things herself, but She would make sure you did it for her...

And sometimes doing something nice, really can a better way to disguise your intent

varetmarkush · March 2014

True alignment is not about the actions themselves but more about the reasons and ideology behind them. An example of this would be Szass Tam, he 'seems' evil but is he truly??
He wants to destroy the universe and re-create it..but why? For power, or because he believes that the universe is 'broken' and he tries to fix it? IMO he is mostly chaotic neutral.. and most of 'evil' chars are not truly evil. This is why it is difficult to RP true evil chars and ppl tend to do mostly stupid evil, or crazy (not Cyric-like crazy, just assylum crazy).
I myself like to RP dark avengers chars, those who given the reason would relentlessly slaughter whole kingdoms (innocent peasants included) in order to get to their true target and kill them in the most painful and slow way possible.

bloodypriceless · March 2014

An update! The guild has been created! For more info please go to the recruitment post!

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?639791-Onyx-Trail-Trading-Company(An-Evil-Guild-for-all-your-nefarious-deeds!)&p=7621501#post7621501

lukeminherexx · April 2014

I believe it is a good idea to have shadier characters for any good rp situation. I also agree that too often people play "evil" very wrong, and sometimes come off as simply chaotic stupid, if that is an alignment. Many evil characters do not know they are "evil", they simply "know what they want and will do what they need to get it". A perfect example is Raistlin (sp) who if I am not mistaken cried out when he saw the dark moon. Well, to see it, you are considered "evil".
It makes sense if one knows what evil actually means. Evil means can be done on other evil characters, not just on the good and wholesome. Many "good characters" have done "evil" time to time. Many evil characters perform good acts. Tchazzar, the red dragon, did some good, but was by and large an evil character, as well as chaotic. However, he did not consider himself evil, he considered himself a god, above the entire thought process.

With all of this said, I am opposed to the concept of an "evil guild", instead, why not form an rp guild that is available to both. By forming an evil guild you are declaring the characters something that they may not view themselves as. My mage, Hughe, would never join an evil organization, as he does not consider himself evil. However, in his blind lust for magic he will commit almost any act.

We need a bigger collection of rp'ers, with the guild simply there to focus on rp, not on anything particular. Giving people a chance to plot out their own course while being able to instantly find rp, besides the tavern HAMSTER that passes as rp (of course this is said by a guy who owned a tavern on a strict rp UO shard). Neverwinter, and D&D as a whole, has handed us the tools, including the foundry. Maybe we are thinking too small with a guild dedicated to something in particular. Just a thought. Don't bother with "your idea why dont you do it", I really dont have the time, but I would love to join something like that.

Any interest in Evil RP?

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