Monday, December 16, 2013

FAQ for If You're Going to Be Evil

Why was the shop a "Magic Weapon Walmart?"

From what I've been able to tell the reason why the DM, Little Boy, decided to have a magic shop with that many wondrous items in it was so that he could feed us monsters out of the well and we would have somewhere to shop. Unfortunately most of his plans went out the window when we went completely off script.


This seems like a clear-cut case of "Stupid Evil" alignment to me. There are blood relatives of the village victims in other towns, no? And a Lord or King who benefits from taxes collected at this village? They will investigate and put a bounty on the PCs heads. The PCs will spend the entire campaign exiled from the polity, evading bounty hunters, and fending off parties of knights dispatched from the Lord or King.

The thought process, at least on my end, was that once we had started the killing we had best do as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible, to prevent the Dungeon Master from getting back on his feet. We had staggered him and if we were to keep that advantage we had to press the scenario as far as we could. 

Things of course got a bit out of hand, but that's true of every campaign, regardless of alignment. 

In all the evil campaigns I've played in the sessions devolved into in-fighting and psychopathy. It appears that this campaign is heading that same way.

While we did engage in some in-fighting (the ever fun killing and re-killing of Neverwas' characters) it was mostly due to a pre-existing animosity that a majority of us have towards anyone who self-elects themselves as leader. There were a few others player characters who were killed by party members, but usually those incidents were done with either "just cause" or through accidental misfortune (see Thief 1's Druid in If You're Going to Be Evil Part 2).

What's with all the odd names?

While I am, obviously, okay with people knowing my name not many of the people I game with are. So I always make it a point to disguise their identities by using pseudonyms. 

How many players were involved in the campaign?

We had nine players and one Dungeon Master. By our campaign standards at the time it should be considered a small and intimate affair as most of the campaigns going on in our area had between twelve and twenty-two actively involved players.

It seems like you dislike most of the people you play with? Why do you play with them at all if that's the case?

I only disliked two of the ten people that I was playing with, and I do not freely associate with them to this day. However, when it comes to games of Dungeons and Dragons you don't always have a say in who is being invited - especially when you're not the Dungeon Master - so I will more often than not play nice with them so that we can all enjoy our game.

Was everyone evil, or did that change as the game progressed?

Everyone started out as evil. 

Most of the party marked themselves as Chaotic Evil and never did anything chaotic or particularly evil. There are exceptions to that, though, as Biggboy did both. He's a hell of a lot of fun to play with, by the way. 

How much have you exaggerated the Dungeon Master's pomposity?

I've tried to stay as true to him as I can. Little Boy loves to talk shit and will do it as both a Dungeon Master and as a Player. The best part is that he can usually back it up.

How many episodes will appear in this series?

Eight.

How do you feel about me sharing, re-posting, or publishing these posts?

I am fine with you re-sharing these posts as long as you give me full credit and link back to my original posts. You may not, however, publish these for profit without getting additional permission from me. 

Feel like you've missed something?

2 comments:

  1. Twenty-two active players? At the same time? How did you manage? I've played 7th Sea and Deadlands with eight active player and while it worked, it wasn't easy.

    I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got really, really good at managing my players and keeping everyone involved. I also learned how to save a session that starts going off the rails, as long as I can recognize the signs early (which I got good at doing as well).

      I'm glad you're enjoying the series!

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Closing Comments.

Due to the influx of spam comments on Dyvers I am closing the comments. I'm not currently doing anything with this blog, but I don'...