Creative evil?

[makelovelikewar]

Saw a good "Ask the Team" and it got me thinking...Can anyone (Team or player) offer some advice for those who wish to show their evil side without risking cheese or rule breaking? (Killing NPCs is a fast/easy way to evil on Avlis. Not illegal but frowned upon as cheesy.) I may be wrong, but I think we have enough dark siders who would appreciate some suggestions on how to be creatively evil on Arkaz.

My thoughts:
1. Try to figure out why you're evil. Once you got your "flavor," some ideas may come up.
2. Don't be afraid to talk to the Team about any question or plot ideas.
3. Evil is conquered by good. Be prepared to lose gracefully. (At least, lose gracefully OOC.)

Anyone else? Especially the successfully evil folk out there?

[soulkey357]

As a player I have two main characters One good one evil. Good is mostly easy to play. My evil character.. Tries very hard not to show her evil side. I do not flaunt my evilness. To do so would be acting suicidal ((sp?)). She even has friends who are good. If Rayne where to walk around killing every Tom, Dick, or Harry or slaughtering Npc's she would be hunted. Wich would give very little rp oppurtunities. Succesfull criminals in rl do not flaunt that they are evil. They would get caught very quickly. To be succesfull at evil you must sheme and plot and hide your true side. To rule the world you must have followers. You must get people to like you. IMOP...sometimes you even have to kiss a little A$$ to succeed.

So Noor this is how I think someone should play evil . If you are ready to join the dark side we are ready for you.... Jk, hmmm, maybe.

[Lucifershex]

Ok well it depends on the evil you are talking about...IMOO NE....Is evil but mixes well with others because they tend to act good when others are around that they might get caught doing something otherwise...CE...well now...this is a chore...Will do whatever to whoever if it suits them or brings them to an advantage that they want.....LE would be....umm like the Godfather advance but have a stoic set of Morales and rules that if aren't followed the rest come and get you..*shrugs* hope that helps..

AND umm you can do this your way......or OURS...either way you will be looking at others from our side..... Got it....LOL..

[makelovelikewar]

soulkey357

So Noor this is how I think someone should play evil . If you are ready to join the dark side we are ready for you.... Jk, hmmm, maybe.

LOL The question is purely academic. Noor's alignment will be affected by IG play, not the player making an OOC choice. Right now, she's firmly gray. Though thanks for the invite, Aunty Rayne!

[Gumby_Cat]

Keep in mind that Evil is generally (I would even go as far to say always)
self-centered. So you have to keep a "How is this going to benifit me" frame of mind.

But you also have to balance that with the OOC need to make sure everyone around you is having fun. Just like evil does not mean going around killing every NPC you find, it also doesn't mean you should be starting CvC with every PC you meet either.

Often being evil means looking at the bigger picture and keeping the good guys from discovering your true intentions.

As for ways to show your darker side, maybe think about the deadly sins as you RP. A little bit of lust, a little bit of greed, a hot temper, or just sheer lazyness will give hints to other characters that you're no angel, without screaming "Hey! I'm evil!" and giving them an excuse to smite you.

My favorite character that I've ever played was an evil sorceress from a PnP campaign. I managed to keep her alignment hidden all through several sessions until the final battle. By that time, she'd seduced the Paladin, stolen the treasure, and betrayed the rest of the party to the NPC villan. Good Fun!

[corwink]

Well to be honest I'm not very good at playing evil, it's not in my nature. I usually just do what Rayne tells me to jk

The majority of people play good characters, so when you decide to play evil you start out knowing that the deck is stacked against you. If you're just going to hack and slash, kill everything in sight then maybe you should stick with the main bioware campaign as this server and ALL Copap servers are roleplaying servers. No one likes to be pwned on sight and the only justification for it is "I'm evil" thats just plainly cheesy and IMHO a good way to get a grief filed against you. The few times I've cvc'd with people on Arkaz has been for a legitimate ig reason, and i hope the other people had fun with it.

Me and Rayne play our characters as the people you like even though they are evil. We have our goals and have instigated a few plots with the dm's to stir up trouble for the good pc's. Things that we hope everyone has fun with and gets everyone involved. We also like to be the tools of the dm's so that every plot doesn't have to be npc based like a pnp game. Not that there's anything wrong with those all the plots i've been involved with on Arkaz have been awesome, but sometimes it's fun to contend against fellow pc's IMO. I loved the end of the murder plot when Rayne killed the npc who was murdering the girls, it was a masterful piece and brought out some awesome rp from everyone involved.

Hm, quite a ramble. I guess in short if you're going to play evil, play smart evil. Work in the background with the team to get your goals accomplished, the team here is deliciously evil be conniving, get the other pc's to trust you so they will be less likely to look at you when your plans start coming together.

Last but definately not least, this is what I consider the golden rule when playing evil; If your plans are going to affect other pc's Always Always Always ensure that they will have fun with it too.

[Daemona]

As I read through these posts I see the high quality of the players here and remain impressed.

I agree with alot of what I read. Evil does not mean everyone has to hate of fear you. It has nothing at all to do with killing an NPC or having CvC with other PC's. I see evil as placing your personal benifit above that of others where good is the inverse. As for which is hardest to play? I am not at all sure and am not in a postion to judge. I had a blast with Scarlet being chaotic and still miss playing her a lot. If you want to observe the epitomy of playing evil well watch Rayne and Layl.

Needless to say Dae is L/G as a monk must be lawful and the blue eyes is a give away. She is 97/100 and each and every one of those hard earned lawful points were gained not by the guild she was in C/G but hard RP without ever asking a DM to watch her. They were accidental increases when caught being herself and they are her crowning glory.

Now my only part of disagreement for all the above posts. I am willint to bet that if Terry pulled specs on the last save of each character who played Avlis the L/G-C/E would be closer to 40/20 on an average. It is tough playing evil I will grant you that but it is also tough playing good when you are the only one for months who is good and the other 10 are evil.

[Psye]

But you also have to balance that with the OOC need to make sure everyone around you is having fun. Just like evil does not mean going around killing every NPC you find, it also doesn't mean you should be starting CvC with every PC you meet either.

Often being evil means looking at the bigger picture and keeping the good guys from discovering your true intentions.

I agree with alot of what I read. Evil does not mean everyone has to hate of fear you. It has nothing at all to do with killing an NPC or having CvC with other PC's. I see evil as placing your personal benifit above that of others where good is the inverse.

These two comments are the most relevent to me. As a player, I find evil PC's all to often a good reason not to log in - not because they're evil, but because they're OOC'ly a headache. It ~is~ hard to manage a well played evil PC, but at least when it's done properly, it's done well.

One of the most annoying things i've found since playing NWN and on PW's generally, are those that fall into the category of 'stupid evil'. These are the people that will massacre commoners, loot every corpse they can and initiate/instigate CvC at every given opportunity. They're disruptive to the point of frustration and they often ~obviously~ care little for the enjoyment of those they're playing with. I would never need to name such people, as they're generally well known. 'Infamous' is not a good way to be known OOC'ly...

Subtle evil, or well played CE are a pleasure to play alongside and watch, I just wish there was more that could manage it. Some can, some can't. All too often I honestly believe you need at least an element of 'nasty bastard' in your RL persona to really manage it IC'ly (and by the way, that's not a bad thing, otherwise we'd all be pushovers ). Plotting, manipulating and fooling/tricking/subterfuge should be the largest part of any evil PC's repetoire and will carry them far.

Enough of my ramblings for now

[kazlaan]

.... to show their evil side without risking cheese or rule breaking? (Killing NPCs is a fast/easy way to evil on Avlis. Not illegal but frowned upon as cheesy.)

Have a look in the rules of Avlis...thread name is "abuse of AI" (or something like that) and there are the rules about killing commoners and stuff like that.
..and actually it is very easy: It is against the rules!

I really like the way NH4 describes that rule and I totally agree with him (as can clearly seen in my answer in ATT)

My personal view on how a evil PC should be has been state by many of you by now.
I like PCs who stay in the background, weave a web of intrigues, manipulate other peoples or even events and strike unseen to achieve their goals....(e.g. Cleopatra)

If you play or want to play an evil PC I suggest to get in contact with one of the DMs around and tell the DM what are your aims and plans to achieve them. It makes it much easier for the DMs to judge your actions IG.....and maybe there is one or two cookies ... or even a special event for that player.

But one thing I can assure you all...if I ever see a PC killing randomly NPCs I will make it a challenge for that "evil" guy/girl .... a real challenge!

[Alphonse]

Its easy!!!

Wear totally matt black armour, and emote sneering or cackling every few seconds.

Job done!!








Seriously though, well played evil tends to get a lot of DM attention of the good kind. Killing everything in sight because you're 'evil' tends to draw the bad kind of DM attention