Way of the Wicked

[kuthulu]

I was just made aware of this adventure path, Way of the Wicked (https://firemountaingames.com/products.html), where the PC's play evil characters. There are additional party options in Book: II that allow the PC's to play as goblins. My players are pretty excited about it. Has anyone else run this before? Seems like a good story and they deal with the problem of inter-party conflict. That has always been the issue when running an evil PC campaign.

[Blahness98]

If you are willing to ride the choo choo, it can be fun..

[KingofKlubs]

Ive run it and Ive played it extensively. In all honesty, it's a terrific AP both to play and to run. I would thoroughly advise you to inject your own creativity into it though. There are points that seem rather slow or rail-roaded (like the nine trials of Thorn in book 1) and while having the players run their own dungeon in book 2 can be really cool, it wears thin after 3 OC months.
I would advise you read through the first 2 books ASAP and see what you like and what you dont like. There are some real gems as far as encounters go in this AP and because the party will tend not to get chatty with the NPC's (seeing as theyre villains), the RP tends to turn inwards. Twisted plots and brooding conversations murmured behind closed doors and in dark rooms tend to occur and more so than most AP's I've played, party members are going to play the role of introverted, largely selfish bad-asses. Inter-party conflict is largely inevitable but this isnt necessarily a bad thing. The Villains can be villains to each other. This is why I personally allowed for PvP to occur when I ran this --villainous paranoia begins to seed. So long as everyone else knows the capabilities to the man on his left and right, fear and respect tend to keep people in line. Roleplay could get heated and things could get crazy fast at certain points in the campaign though. Very intense, very cool and exciting but needs to be watched closely lest things get out of hand.
Also a word of warning: this AP allows for a tonne of player-controlled NPC's to start roaming around. Combined with the possible introduction of undead templates into your group (depending on how you feel about your players shooting for Vampirism or Lichdom) character power could easily skyrocket like the Challenger. Towards the middle to end of book 2, your party may feel unusually strong and may well walk through what you first assumed will be be a tough fight.

In summary, if you run it, it will be one of the most memorable games youve run and your players will remember it for years. However, it can be a challenging beast to try and tame so go in with your eyes open and work hard in running it. Seriously, if you put a tonne of effort into the delivery, your players will have some of the best D&D experiences of their lives. Case in point: I was in tears by the end of book 1 when my sorc died, so dramatic, so freaking epic, SO intense!

[kuthulu]

Thanks for the great info!

[ryeookin]

I have played and run this as well but only up to the 2nd book sadly. Wish I got to play more of this as a player honestly. I loved the idea (which is why I ran it for over a year).

The main problem with players who are new to playing evil alignments I think is they tend to think CE instead of LE, that when they first try on the 'evil' mantle for the first time they tend to think "I'm evil, I can kill anyone.. so why not! Lets kill everyone!". That's why WotW disallows CE as an alignment. If players can wrap their heads around how a LE character would really see things and act (which enables them all to work together) then this can work marvelously. BTW The author addresses this issue pretty well in the ap too I think.

[KingofKlubs]

I have played and run this as well but only up to the 2nd book sadly. Wish I got to play more of this as a player honestly. I loved the idea (which is why I ran it for over a year).

The main problem with players who are new to playing evil alignments I think is they tend to think CE instead of LE, that when they first try on the 'evil' mantle for the first time they tend to think "I'm evil, I can kill anyone.. so why not! Lets kill everyone!". That's why WotW disallows CE as an alignment. If players can wrap their heads around how a LE character would really see things and act (which enables them all to work together) then this can work marvelously. BTW The author addresses this issue pretty well in the ap too I think.

I overcame this quite simply --let the players make the mistake. Give them a tiny unimportant village to hide out in and give them free reign. If they start butchering people, word spreads of their location and they blow their cover. They get into tough fights only just managing to get away. If you force them to think strategically, showing them that the Chaotic Evil villain is a short-lived villain, then it will feel less like rail-roading and will teach the party that if theyre going to be bad guys on enemy turf, then Lawful Evil tends to get the job done far faster and smoother

[Callum]

Paizo have just released the first volume of their Adventure Path for evil PCs, Hell's Vengeance (https://paizo.com/products/btpy9j6n?Pathfinder-Adventure-Path-103-The-Hellfire-Compact).

[kuthulu]

Wow. Looks like this year will be all about the evil. Thx Callum!

[ryeookin]

I overcame this quite simply --let the players make the mistake. Give them a tiny unimportant village to hide out in and give them free reign. If they start butchering people, word spreads of their location and they blow their cover. They get into tough fights only just managing to get away. If you force them to think strategically, showing them that the Chaotic Evil villain is a short-lived villain, then it will feel less like rail-roading and will teach the party that if theyre going to be bad guys on enemy turf, then Lawful Evil tends to get the job done far faster and smoother

Hey, that sounds like a good idea KingofKlubs! Ha, wish I thought of that when I ran WotW.;)

As for Hell's Vengeance.. ha that's actually what got me to come to FG and sign up this past week! I'm hoping I can find a group on here that might run that. I so want to play it. :)