Shield Forthcoming: A Villainous Tale

[Snikle]

Remember too, that what is evil in one man's eye, may not be evil in anothers. To many, a Duke who strives for power and complete control of his subjects and land, sometimes to the point of being 'cruel' in their eyes, may seem like he would be evil, but in reality he is just a self serving power hungry Duke.
It will be interesting to see how this campaing progresses. If the players are just outwardly evil and killing, pillaging, raping etc across the lands, then I would suspect someone would come after them, perhaps allot of people may. Do they continue with their murderous rampage, or do they settle down and take over land and become the ruler? Do they side with some evil mastermind who hires them to do his bidding (could open allot of mini-adventures there)?
Keep us updated on how it prpgresses, personally I would not want to DM this game other than as an experiment in gaming, but hey, to each his own! Good luck!

[Alkaven]

Well, essentially, yes. This is a bit experimental.

Well, the alignment is considered part of the personality. Simply saying the duke is a self-serving power-hungry duke doesn't really make him good or neutral, because there's not enough there.

If he inspires fear in his followers because he'll do them harm otherwise, that is evil. If he believes in merciless world conquest, that would be evil. If his definition of power is a threat, then he is most certainly evil.

However, say the scenario was that he was good. If he's got loyal subjects because he cares for them, and protects them, he is good. If he never fires the first shot, or supports a rebelling against tyranny, he is good. If his definition of power is that power is bestowed, he is most certainly good.

If he's a tactical expert, and acheived his power through political influence and intelligence. Perhaps he's a good talker, and a great leader by nature, but he does what he thinks is best for his people, and does not acheive this through causing harm, he is neutral.

Also, yes. I even do this in my good campaigns. After an adventure or two, if the players have even killed one person (specificly an NPC), they tend to run into bounty hunters or even vengeful relatives. It's happened a few times in my adventures. I expect to be doing ALOT for evil characters. Unlike good characters, you've not only got the opposite alignment of foes against you, but even the same alignment of foes.

I'm a fairly clever DM. I find that every action a player makes will tend to have both benefits and consequences. Ayla Zisel decides to purchase the four slaves from the evil slave-trader, only to find that now she has to take care of them since they have nowhere to go.

[Snikle]

Yeah I agree, that is why I am not a big enforcer or believer in Alignment, I tend to run only good campaigns anyway, but I strive more for the players to define their characters by their actions in the game, I feel that saying you are good you are somewhat placing a limiting factor on the player to have his character be who he wants them to be.

[Alkaven]

I find that to be the case with the lawful and chaotic ranges. But there's still a solid definition there. Lawful means justice, and chaotic means anything. If your lawful, you live by order and the balance of rewards/punishments. If your chaotic, you live by no order. You go by your own (commonly unfair) rules.

Lawful characters tend to be more compatible than chaotic characters, because chaotic characters are like: "Let's go! Comon! Comon! Quit wasting time! Planning? Screw that. I'm going solo then! See you later!"

I've always had a difficult time with chaotic characters... They're usually the first to die... Meaning the first players to quit... *sigh*

In the event of a 'change' in the character's alignment through their actions, it's applied at the end of the adventure, for the purposes of spell effects and influence.

[Snikle]

I agree, I just don't like to limit my player to an alignment, never had any problems with it, but I am sure that is not always the case.
As for NPCs, I almost always use an alignment, just for the point of helping to describe an NPC's demeanor. Helps in running the character I think, especially when I come abck to an NPC that has not been seen in a long time.

[Alkaven]

Well, (sorry about the excessive posting btw) I find them necessary because it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense when a player who initially decides their whole life they've become a neutral good character, and all of a sudden in the middle of the adventure, they decide to be spontaneous and do something evil. The alignment is decided during the making of a description for the character.

The limitations are not entirely there though since it can change between adventures. And it certainly helps to give npcs alignments, especially since PCs will go through meeting hundreds of NPCs in their lifetime. I usually try to stick to the 20-Good, 30-Neutral, 50-Evil ratios that are listed in the DMG.

If less than 3 people show up this Friday, I'll probably have to shelf this adventure and start a good-aligned one instead.

[Snikle]

it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense when a player who initially decides their whole life they've become a neutral good character, and all of a sudden in the middle of the adventure, they decide to be spontaneous and do something evil. The alignment is decided during the making of a description for the character..

And I say that is a basic responsibility of a player and really is dependant upon the maturity of the player. I make all my players do up a background, and have never had a problem with a player suddenly doing something totally out of character. If I had players that suddenly went crazy (without a good gosh darn reason) and started acting out of character, then I guess we would have an open slot in my game! :shock:

[Alkaven]

Feels alot like I'm going to have to shelf this one. Not many players interested. Oh well, I've got many other game ideas shelfed if nobody shows on Friday.

[Asuril]

Friday as in the 9th?

And what would 7 MST be in EST?

And what books are you allowing?

I might make a True Necromancer.

[Alkaven]

MST is -7 hours GMT. And EST is -5 hours GMT. So 7 MST is 9 EST.

Also, the core rulebooks are used. However, there are special rules for prestige classes. Pretty much, you can't take the prestige class unless it exists in the adventure. Unfortunately, True Necromancer isn't one of them. I feature 1 prestige class every 2 adventures.

I CAN start as early as 7 pm EST if that makes it easier for most people.