Corrupt character [Archive] - Wizards Community

Corrupt character [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
scips
12-06-04, 09:18 AM My friend is planning to start up a new FR campain.
It's a long time since the last time we played. For a time we played about 24/7 :) Miss those times

I had an idea for a character where I'm not the person I pretend to be, and secretly my intentions and goals are different from the rest of the group.

I want to hear if any of you have ever tried anything like this, and what did you learn. Is it very hard? Fun? What was the outcome if/when you got caught by the group leader? :confused:
zioth
12-06-04, 11:57 AM This can be one of the most fun and rewarding situations that can occur in a party, if:
- You're confident in your role-playing abilities.
- You play with a mature group that won't turn party-conflict into player-conflict
- The other players like to role-play.
- The DM's willing to cooperate.

If any of those things aren't true, this can destroy a campaign. A lot of players and DMs don't like intra-party conflict.

Of course, all this depends on how different your goals are. For example, if the rest of the party wants to save the world, and you just want to pick up some cash, that's a conflict that's easily managed. If the rest of the party wants to save the world, and you're a LE character who wants to sacrifice the party's cleric to the god of Overarching Badness, that can be a lot more complicated.

Could you describe the situation more precisely?
scips
12-06-04, 12:08 PM I have not worked out any details yet, and I don't think the DM has made a story.
The only thing I probably know as of yet, is taht I want to be a psionic, since that could be good in many situations. (taking the focus away from me by controlling nearby NPCs, or even PCs minds, even if that would reveal my characters true alignment, or goal for the other players.)

I do not know how the rest of the players play now, since it is such a long time since the last time.
A possibility could be to observe the other players for a session or two, then decide what side my character really is on.
zioth
12-06-04, 01:32 PM If you're planning on controlling the minds of other PCs without discussing it with the players, the chances are your character will be dead very soon, and I could even see the other players kicking you out of the group.

If you want to do this, I'd suggest you find a really good role-player who's willing to play along, and control his PC. Using enchantments on other PCs can be a dangerous thing if the controlled player is against it.

Personally, I'd love to be the player whose character is controlled by another. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I think most people would disagree.
scips
12-06-04, 01:50 PM true

But you must not forget that a character can't do anything dramaticly without any reason. Say, if I control PCa. PCb does not know about this, but PCbs' player does. What can he do about it? If he would try to kill me, the other characters had to act as if they did not know of my actions, and would eighter investigate, or they would think he is a coldblood murderer :D

Of course, IF i would ever do anything like this, it would be at dramatical points in the campain, for example if the group was fighting an enemy, which was my (secret) master, so I would have to protect him. In that case, it would be strategically smart to take control of a fellow group member. This would of course destroy all faith in me as a player, at least with that character. So I would probably have to create a new one, or work da** hard to get my confidence up again. at last: it would be **** fun! :D

am I just babbling?
Mirikon
12-06-04, 03:02 PM 1) Talk to the DM before you start with this. Some DMs don't like that kind of thing, and for good reason.

2) Remember, ICA = ICC. In character actions = In character consequences. You go controlling the local sheriff, and he's not going to be happy with you.

3) Invest heavily in Bluff.

4) Always have plausible explainations at the ready, just in case someone starts to suspect you.

5) Whenever possible, do your sneaky stuff behind the other player's backs. The less they know, the better.

6) Don't be the team leader. Try to shift as much of the focus away from yourself as possible.

7) When they eventually find out, have more excuses at the ready.

8) Keep the full range of your abilities secret, unless you have no other choice.

9) Invest in spellcraft and knowledge skills, so you have a better chance of finding the good stuff in loot piles.

10) Out and out lie to other characters about religious practices, etc.
Nephandi
12-12-04, 03:48 PM I have done this with all of my characters in the past and I think I have learned some things some good and some bad.

1) Talk to the DM and make sure that the two of you have an understanding about what your character wants and why he is lying to the other PC.
2) Do NOT involve the other PCs directly. I say this for a couple of reasons. First it ruins the surprise for if/when they are able to with no Player/PC knowledge conflicts figure you out. Second no matter how well the others in your game distinguish between PC and Player knowledge once the player knows they will look for reasons why their character knows or can easily figure it out. If you have to take the heat off your character or want to bring PCs to the darkside do it through third parties.

To that end here are my tips

1) Max out bluff for obvious reasons
2) Diplomacy, Gather information, and the other people skills are good to have beefed up to. It is always good to able to know people who can get you what you need and to be able to speak with that silver tongue to take the suspicion away from you.

I was once playing a Disciple of Asmodeous in a game and in every city our party went to I sacrificed some street people. Through careful planning the party never even heard about the murders but one time I got sloppy and became a suspect. When the party questioned me about it I was able to bluff my way out of it and then hit the streets to set up some other poor bastard for the crime which my party being so convince of my innocence proceeded to hunt down.

3) Never reveal the true extent of your powers. It is in your best interest to make the party and the players think that you are a weak character.

The Disciple rarely if ever summoned the HellCats he could and never when the party had any chance to hear about that. To them he was just the young mage looking to make a name for himself.

Playing the subversive character involves a lot of you and DM interaction. If the DM is not in to it you wont be able to get that much done.

I love to play character like this I find it’s the most rewarding style of play and it give the DM an extra plot line. I have played another character that has been one of the worlds biggest evil bad guys and the players have no idea. From time to time I have brought in floater players that have been in on the grift but never let the core players know. It has brought joy to DM and myself to have this character so I highly recommend it if you can build a character that can pull it off
scips
12-12-04, 05:11 PM Nephandi, that sounds great.
Were your character ever caught?
If so, what did you do then?

Also, if you were to kill a person without the other players to know, how would you do it? would you take a mini session with your GM without the other players?
Nephandi
12-12-04, 07:20 PM As of now he has never been caught. This is where the communication with the DM comes in to play yes I did have some email sessions with DM talking about what my character was doing when he was away from the party. But that was not always needed because. The character had his way to go about doing things and all I really need to do was to make a few rolls representing some skill checks and I was able to bag me another one so the game was then not bogged down. What happened was that the party would go on our adventure and then eventually come back to town and the rest of the party who loot the bodies before they hit the ground want to go shopping and that all gets roll played out but my character never really goes shopping he just goes to church. (if you know what I mean) Plausibility and half truths are your friend. My favorite session was one where the party was staying in bad part of town where there had been a rash of murder/robberies that I had nothing to do with but the rest of the party said that I should not go out that night to go shopping with them because it was to dangerous for me and they had urgent business that they had to attend to and they could not protect me. Later that night I bagged me some robbers

I did have one character in another campaign where he was found in an underground church of Bhaal. The other PCs bust in after following him because they were some what suspicious and all he was doing was praying. Then they confronted him for worshipping an evil god. At that point there is not much use in denying it. But he was lucky because he was the party tank the only tank. All I had to do was tell the truth well partly. “Yes I am praying to an evil god, yes I am evil. What are you going to do about it? If all of you attacked me you may be able to stop me but I will not be the only one dying to night. Which one of you is willing to offer up their lives to my sleeping god. On the other hand you could realize that you all need me (goes on to point out example from the past that I cant remember) and I have no goals that contradicts your goals I have never done anything to subvert out missions. Blah blah blah” Well after some decent intimidation and diplomacy rolls the rest of the neutral party decides that it not really all that bad having me around after all Bhaal is dead right?

Do you have any more idea of the kind of character you want to play or what the plot of the game will be?
RadicalTaoist
12-12-04, 11:38 PM Later that night I bagged me some robbers:bow: :ayyyy!: :angelhide :dancin: :clap:
easterbunny
12-14-04, 03:14 PM hey i got a question for you guys.
you played a corrupt character
what did you do (actions)
what jokes didi you do
Nephandi
12-14-04, 06:35 PM Well pretty much just evil stuff murder, double crossing NPCs for fun and profit, and other things that are to evil to mention on this board.

If you need acctual events... One time before my party knew my fighter was evil we were stumbleing through the streets drunk with a sizeable part of some of the treasure we had just liberated from some evil miner. Then we stumbled on top of this begger boy literly. After picking up and dusting him off he tells us some story of his horrible life and how hes begging so that he can make enough money to hire some adventures to rescue his sister and other kidnapped children. Well my party deside to give him all the money we had on us to help him out. We had more dough on us that was really needed to hire even us as an adventureing party and we were pretty high level. Going along with the party and being drunk myself I handed over my cash too.

Later that night while the rest of my light weight party slept it off I had my fighter track that little sob down. First he beat the boy for getting in his way and making him fall then he beat him for failing his sister and letting her get kidnapped then he beat what was left of him to death for thinking he was going to be able to keep that money.

Later in the morning two of the other character that remembered the previous night said that we should help that little kid. So we went looking for him and just as we were going to give up looking we heard that something horrible had happened to him that he was vissciously killed. Being that we had no reason to belive that the kid would have been targeted for the money we thought it was the kidnappers that got him then we proceeded to track them down and kill them all. Supprisingly we did not find the cash that we had assumed the kidnapper/kid murders had obviously taken off the begger boy after murdering him. The party assumed that they spent it and left it at that.

There has not been much in the way of jokes though except for that Disiple character falling down alot feigning clumsiness
Earl Power
12-15-04, 10:10 AM in my friends recent FR camapign i did something similar which worked a treat. it was an evil campaign and we had all been brought together to form a new thieves guild in Thesk.

our first mission, sneak into the merchant house courtyard where wagons stopped overnight and steal a box of precious silks, then get away.

one of the party got a job as a guard in the merchant house and he was on his very first guard duty on the night the heist happened.

now getting in wasnt too hard, we went through the sewers, came up under cover in the courtyard and then i scouted ahead inside some wagons to find the silks while my accomplices stayed back under cover. i entered a caravan, only to be attacked by an animated rug. i killed it then pocketed all the valuables before finding a note saying "keep the silks in a safe place until we are leavng". so i went back and me and the party agreed to search a building in the corner of the copmpound. i

inside the building were loads of boxes and a trapdoor downstairs.....after searching upstairs and finding valuables, but not the silks, we all went downstairs.

downstairs we searched through all the boxes and found the silks, but our stupid half orc party member had broken their box to get to them. i took them upstairs, explaining to my party members i was "getting an empty box to cary them in", then covered the trapdoor with boxes and scarpered after saying "i always preferred to work alone".

now, my character, a 14 year old CE assassin known as "ghost" ran up onto the walls and dropped off using his ring of feather fall.

the half orc jumped up the ladder and broke the hinges on trapdoor, only for that and all the boxes to fal down on him. by the time my party members get out they have been discovered and the guards are all running to their position as i make my escape through the streets.

this has greatly enriched our campign now, ghost is an npc, running away from the party with the silks. i have made a new character...a shou thief, and our party is now hellbent on finding the troublesome teenager ghost and repaying him for his betrayal.

we all really enjoyed the game.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
scips 12-06-04, 09:18 AM	My friend is planning to start up a new FR campain. It's a long time since the last time we played. For a time we played about 24/7 :) Miss those times I had an idea for a character where I'm not the person I pretend to be, and secretly my intentions and goals are different from the rest of the group. I want to hear if any of you have ever tried anything like this, and what did you learn. Is it very hard? Fun? What was the outcome if/when you got caught by the group leader? :confused:
zioth 12-06-04, 11:57 AM	This can be one of the most fun and rewarding situations that can occur in a party, if: - You're confident in your role-playing abilities. - You play with a mature group that won't turn party-conflict into player-conflict - The other players like to role-play. - The DM's willing to cooperate. If any of those things aren't true, this can destroy a campaign. A lot of players and DMs don't like intra-party conflict. Of course, all this depends on how different your goals are. For example, if the rest of the party wants to save the world, and you just want to pick up some cash, that's a conflict that's easily managed. If the rest of the party wants to save the world, and you're a LE character who wants to sacrifice the party's cleric to the god of Overarching Badness, that can be a lot more complicated. Could you describe the situation more precisely?
scips 12-06-04, 12:08 PM	I have not worked out any details yet, and I don't think the DM has made a story. The only thing I probably know as of yet, is taht I want to be a psionic, since that could be good in many situations. (taking the focus away from me by controlling nearby NPCs, or even PCs minds, even if that would reveal my characters true alignment, or goal for the other players.) I do not know how the rest of the players play now, since it is such a long time since the last time. A possibility could be to observe the other players for a session or two, then decide what side my character really is on.
zioth 12-06-04, 01:32 PM	If you're planning on controlling the minds of other PCs without discussing it with the players, the chances are your character will be dead very soon, and I could even see the other players kicking you out of the group. If you want to do this, I'd suggest you find a really good role-player who's willing to play along, and control his PC. Using enchantments on other PCs can be a dangerous thing if the controlled player is against it. Personally, I'd love to be the player whose character is controlled by another. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I think most people would disagree.
scips 12-06-04, 01:50 PM	true But you must not forget that a character can't do anything dramaticly without any reason. Say, if I control PCa. PCb does not know about this, but PCbs' player does. What can he do about it? If he would try to kill me, the other characters had to act as if they did not know of my actions, and would eighter investigate, or they would think he is a coldblood murderer :D Of course, IF i would ever do anything like this, it would be at dramatical points in the campain, for example if the group was fighting an enemy, which was my (secret) master, so I would have to protect him. In that case, it would be strategically smart to take control of a fellow group member. This would of course destroy all faith in me as a player, at least with that character. So I would probably have to create a new one, or work da hard to get my confidence up again. at last: it would be ** fun! :D am I just babbling?
Mirikon 12-06-04, 03:02 PM	1) Talk to the DM before you start with this. Some DMs don't like that kind of thing, and for good reason. 2) Remember, ICA = ICC. In character actions = In character consequences. You go controlling the local sheriff, and he's not going to be happy with you. 3) Invest heavily in Bluff. 4) Always have plausible explainations at the ready, just in case someone starts to suspect you. 5) Whenever possible, do your sneaky stuff behind the other player's backs. The less they know, the better. 6) Don't be the team leader. Try to shift as much of the focus away from yourself as possible. 7) When they eventually find out, have more excuses at the ready. 8) Keep the full range of your abilities secret, unless you have no other choice. 9) Invest in spellcraft and knowledge skills, so you have a better chance of finding the good stuff in loot piles. 10) Out and out lie to other characters about religious practices, etc.
Nephandi 12-12-04, 03:48 PM	I have done this with all of my characters in the past and I think I have learned some things some good and some bad. 1) Talk to the DM and make sure that the two of you have an understanding about what your character wants and why he is lying to the other PC. 2) Do NOT involve the other PCs directly. I say this for a couple of reasons. First it ruins the surprise for if/when they are able to with no Player/PC knowledge conflicts figure you out. Second no matter how well the others in your game distinguish between PC and Player knowledge once the player knows they will look for reasons why their character knows or can easily figure it out. If you have to take the heat off your character or want to bring PCs to the darkside do it through third parties. To that end here are my tips 1) Max out bluff for obvious reasons 2) Diplomacy, Gather information, and the other people skills are good to have beefed up to. It is always good to able to know people who can get you what you need and to be able to speak with that silver tongue to take the suspicion away from you. I was once playing a Disciple of Asmodeous in a game and in every city our party went to I sacrificed some street people. Through careful planning the party never even heard about the murders but one time I got sloppy and became a suspect. When the party questioned me about it I was able to bluff my way out of it and then hit the streets to set up some other poor bastard for the crime which my party being so convince of my innocence proceeded to hunt down. 3) Never reveal the true extent of your powers. It is in your best interest to make the party and the players think that you are a weak character. The Disciple rarely if ever summoned the HellCats he could and never when the party had any chance to hear about that. To them he was just the young mage looking to make a name for himself. Playing the subversive character involves a lot of you and DM interaction. If the DM is not in to it you wont be able to get that much done. I love to play character like this I find it’s the most rewarding style of play and it give the DM an extra plot line. I have played another character that has been one of the worlds biggest evil bad guys and the players have no idea. From time to time I have brought in floater players that have been in on the grift but never let the core players know. It has brought joy to DM and myself to have this character so I highly recommend it if you can build a character that can pull it off
scips 12-12-04, 05:11 PM	Nephandi, that sounds great. Were your character ever caught? If so, what did you do then? Also, if you were to kill a person without the other players to know, how would you do it? would you take a mini session with your GM without the other players?
Nephandi 12-12-04, 07:20 PM	As of now he has never been caught. This is where the communication with the DM comes in to play yes I did have some email sessions with DM talking about what my character was doing when he was away from the party. But that was not always needed because. The character had his way to go about doing things and all I really need to do was to make a few rolls representing some skill checks and I was able to bag me another one so the game was then not bogged down. What happened was that the party would go on our adventure and then eventually come back to town and the rest of the party who loot the bodies before they hit the ground want to go shopping and that all gets roll played out but my character never really goes shopping he just goes to church. (if you know what I mean) Plausibility and half truths are your friend. My favorite session was one where the party was staying in bad part of town where there had been a rash of murder/robberies that I had nothing to do with but the rest of the party said that I should not go out that night to go shopping with them because it was to dangerous for me and they had urgent business that they had to attend to and they could not protect me. Later that night I bagged me some robbers I did have one character in another campaign where he was found in an underground church of Bhaal. The other PCs bust in after following him because they were some what suspicious and all he was doing was praying. Then they confronted him for worshipping an evil god. At that point there is not much use in denying it. But he was lucky because he was the party tank the only tank. All I had to do was tell the truth well partly. “Yes I am praying to an evil god, yes I am evil. What are you going to do about it? If all of you attacked me you may be able to stop me but I will not be the only one dying to night. Which one of you is willing to offer up their lives to my sleeping god. On the other hand you could realize that you all need me (goes on to point out example from the past that I cant remember) and I have no goals that contradicts your goals I have never done anything to subvert out missions. Blah blah blah” Well after some decent intimidation and diplomacy rolls the rest of the neutral party decides that it not really all that bad having me around after all Bhaal is dead right? Do you have any more idea of the kind of character you want to play or what the plot of the game will be?
RadicalTaoist 12-12-04, 11:38 PM	Later that night I bagged me some robbers:bow: :ayyyy!: :angelhide :dancin: :clap:
easterbunny 12-14-04, 03:14 PM	hey i got a question for you guys. you played a corrupt character what did you do (actions) what jokes didi you do
Nephandi 12-14-04, 06:35 PM	Well pretty much just evil stuff murder, double crossing NPCs for fun and profit, and other things that are to evil to mention on this board. If you need acctual events... One time before my party knew my fighter was evil we were stumbleing through the streets drunk with a sizeable part of some of the treasure we had just liberated from some evil miner. Then we stumbled on top of this begger boy literly. After picking up and dusting him off he tells us some story of his horrible life and how hes begging so that he can make enough money to hire some adventures to rescue his sister and other kidnapped children. Well my party deside to give him all the money we had on us to help him out. We had more dough on us that was really needed to hire even us as an adventureing party and we were pretty high level. Going along with the party and being drunk myself I handed over my cash too. Later that night while the rest of my light weight party slept it off I had my fighter track that little sob down. First he beat the boy for getting in his way and making him fall then he beat him for failing his sister and letting her get kidnapped then he beat what was left of him to death for thinking he was going to be able to keep that money. Later in the morning two of the other character that remembered the previous night said that we should help that little kid. So we went looking for him and just as we were going to give up looking we heard that something horrible had happened to him that he was vissciously killed. Being that we had no reason to belive that the kid would have been targeted for the money we thought it was the kidnappers that got him then we proceeded to track them down and kill them all. Supprisingly we did not find the cash that we had assumed the kidnapper/kid murders had obviously taken off the begger boy after murdering him. The party assumed that they spent it and left it at that. There has not been much in the way of jokes though except for that Disiple character falling down alot feigning clumsiness
Earl Power 12-15-04, 10:10 AM	in my friends recent FR camapign i did something similar which worked a treat. it was an evil campaign and we had all been brought together to form a new thieves guild in Thesk. our first mission, sneak into the merchant house courtyard where wagons stopped overnight and steal a box of precious silks, then get away. one of the party got a job as a guard in the merchant house and he was on his very first guard duty on the night the heist happened. now getting in wasnt too hard, we went through the sewers, came up under cover in the courtyard and then i scouted ahead inside some wagons to find the silks while my accomplices stayed back under cover. i entered a caravan, only to be attacked by an animated rug. i killed it then pocketed all the valuables before finding a note saying "keep the silks in a safe place until we are leavng". so i went back and me and the party agreed to search a building in the corner of the copmpound. i inside the building were loads of boxes and a trapdoor downstairs.....after searching upstairs and finding valuables, but not the silks, we all went downstairs. downstairs we searched through all the boxes and found the silks, but our stupid half orc party member had broken their box to get to them. i took them upstairs, explaining to my party members i was "getting an empty box to cary them in", then covered the trapdoor with boxes and scarpered after saying "i always preferred to work alone". now, my character, a 14 year old CE assassin known as "ghost" ran up onto the walls and dropped off using his ring of feather fall. the half orc jumped up the ladder and broke the hinges on trapdoor, only for that and all the boxes to fal down on him. by the time my party members get out they have been discovered and the guards are all running to their position as i make my escape through the streets. this has greatly enriched our campign now, ghost is an npc, running away from the party with the silks. i have made a new character...a shou thief, and our party is now hellbent on finding the troublesome teenager ghost and repaying him for his betrayal. we all really enjoyed the game.