Plot Threads

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I'm working on a World War II module based on the assault of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. I am also thinking of rebuilding the adventure I ran a while ago of SOE Agents drops into France a few months before the D-Day invasion, with order to contact the resistance, and help them prepair their attacks against the German infrastruction to disrupt communications and rail transport on & after D-Day.

I'm also trying to get my friends into a standard D&D game, but they are all lazy buggers!

I basically had the cult kidnap all of the children in the town one night. The townsfolk were besides themselves as you could imagine. To make matters worse, the authorities were tied up in red tape with the nearby city's politics.

What ended up happening was the party discovered that the cult had kidnapped the children, and were planning to "brainwash" them into killing machines. This threw an interesting curveball into the mix, as the party was strong enough to mow through the "mmoks" as it were, and gave extra motivation to fight the cult.

My advice to anyone is: When playing evil, think evil. Make the villan dispicable. Make the party REALLY want to deal with the villan. Do not be afraid to use underhanded tactics, do not play fair, and when your players defeat them, they will be much more satisfied.

Sandeman

If that was really evil, the kids would have been brain washed to also kill the characters - thus the characters would have to 'disarm' the kids while the poor little brain washed sprogs are trying to stick em with sharp pointy sticks...... Ooohhh nasty!

[kalmarjan]

What makes this even more nasty is that the PCs did not want to kill the kids. The kids were flanking with the BBEG. Can you say sneak attack? With a double sword +1, bulls strength and an unhallow spell? Nasty indeed.

Unfortunately, this ended up with a TPK. In retrospect, a little too evil.

Sandeman

[Oberoten]

For sheer Evil during WW II I have yet to encounter an adventure more horrible (and I mean this as horror-inducing and thought provoking) than
"Hard as Steel" which can be found on www.rpgarchive.com it is VERY much not for the faint of heart though and deals with some very adult themes in the violence and sheer evil department.

[Kalan]

For sheer Evil during WW II I have yet to encounter an adventure more horrible (and I mean this as horror-inducing and thought provoking) than
"Hard as Steel" which can be found on www.rpgarchive.com it is VERY much not for the faint of heart though and deals with some very adult themes in the violence and sheer evil department.

You mean they tied everyone down and made them watch Barney 24/7?

Seriously tho - evil is always a matter of perspective. After all, if the person truly believes what they are doing is for the better of society, could that truly be called evil? Or is it just being misguided?

Ahh crap...me gone done gotten all philosophical now...sorry gang

I can't say as I've done anything truly this evil - well...unless you count in my one d20 Modern chronicle where the main PC ended up bein lied to by everyone she loved (including her father), who all ended up being Shadowkind. And she found this out after her classroom was blown to bit by battling mages.

The police ended up ruling it was a gas leak

[Oberoten]

You mean they tied everyone down and made them watch Barney 24/7?

Seriously tho - evil is always a matter of perspective. After all, if the person truly believes what they are doing is for the better of society, could that truly be called evil? Or is it just being misguided?

Ahh crap...me gone done gotten all philosophical now...sorry gang

I can't say as I've done anything truly this evil - well...unless you count in my one d20 Modern chronicle where the main PC ended up bein lied to by everyone she loved (including her father), who all ended up being Shadowkind. And she found this out after her classroom was blown to bit by battling mages.

The police ended up ruling it was a gas leak

*grins* I'll not reveal too much but the adventure is indeed QUITE evil by your definition too.

[Kalan]

I feel evil also tends to be better served when its personal to the PC's. Sure, Doc So an So could be taking over the world - but human nature tends to ignore those evils until it has become very very personal (9/11 comes to mind).

That's also why I tend to get as much background from my PC's before play begins - all the better to twist my pretties....

[mr_h]

I'm running a D20 (3.5) campaign that's pretty basic. Dungeon crawling and the like, we haven't done much character development, but that'll come.

So far the PC's have been sent out by a benefactor to recover some artifacts, the goal being that they get to a 'high enough' level. After that the plot really begins (One of the PC's reads these boards so I won't tell to much).


After this campaign (it should get them to about 10th level or so), I'm thinking of moving us over to a modern espionage using Top Secret SI rules (just need to make the ruleset).

[kalmarjan]

Evil... Evil...

The best way to go about playing the villans as evil is to stay away from cliches. Just think, "If I was this evil bastard, what would be the most diabolical, selfish thing that I would do?"

You would be surprised at what you come up with. Your players will be surprised as well.

I'll give you an example:

In the shackled city adventure path that I was playing, Kazmojen had one of the boys as a hostage from the party. (This was after Lord Orbius had spirited away Terrem.) The party was trying to negotiate with Kazmojen for the release of the boy. Things went a little sour after one of the party members blasted him with a magic missile.

Check. Chaotic Evil. Check. What would I do in that situation? Looks like my leverage is not working, it is just hindering me. How can I make these guys understand I mean business? One knife accross the throat of the boy got the message across. (Please note: I do not think like this, but I am playing up the villain.)

You should have seen the look on the players' faces. They killed Kaz and were pretty distraught over the loss of the boy. They were happy about killing Kaz though. So that is what I was talking about there.

Sandeman

[Tailz Silver Paws]

The best evil NPC's are the ones that think that they are doing good.

the "true beliver" syndrome

[acmer]

The evil guy / good guys plot gets a little repetitive after a while. How about making an overly "good" scenario. A very strict police state that has plenty of rules and laws to protect its inhabitants from harm and to prevent criminal actions. Common people might get a little frustrated with that after a while, but how would YOU start solving this problem? Certainly there is no single evil guy to slay. Lawful Good against Lawful Good