Post/Author/DateTime	Post
club2bash 03-28-06, 08:30 PM	I can't roleplay an evil character very well, I'm too nice. Once I gave my gang members a raise. I truly suck :weep:
Shaggy_Shaggs 03-28-06, 10:03 PM	Evil's easy enough, you just have to get the right mindset for it. Think of the worst, most painful, horrible thing that ever happened to you because of someone else. Think about how it made you feel. Picture yourself in a room alone with this person. Narrow down and focus your mental picture - there are no other people, no other things, no consequences, no karma, no heaven or hell - nothing exists in the universe except you, your frustration, and the person that caused it. Picture yourself following your heart, and then suit action to thoughts. :devil: To get evil easy, do all that, but project the identity of the one who most wronged you onto the person in front of you instead.
JulesCARV 03-28-06, 11:21 PM	You can be evil and take care of your friends, family, and associates. I think that, on the balance, "loyalty to friends and kin" is a good thing, but it isn't good enough to outweight evil done in other areas. So just concentrate on doing bad things to people you don't care about, but keep caring about your friends and family, and you can still be evil. :devil: This reminds me of the thread I posted a while ago in which I invited people to make up fake paladin sob stories. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=586958) (Of the "I protected a pregnant woman from being slain who happened to be carrying the antichrist. My DM says that I lose all of my powers. Was he justified?" variety) One story was of an evil blackguard/ninja who killed all of his (evil) team-mates, and his DM ruled that, as punishment for ridding the world of so much evil, he was converted into an LG paladin.
1984 03-29-06, 04:31 AM	Evil can love. Evil can care about people. Evil in DnD means that you can do things others cannot. You talk with your friends about how cute puppies can be, then you murder several people. Caring about others can be a selfish act(you're kind simply because it makes you feel good.), but what you're capable of doing is far from good :evillaugh
aleshandre 03-29-06, 02:17 PM	See, I know "how" to play evil, but don't have the capacity. Evil at its root is very simply about doing what is right for self. Carried to extreme, this can even involve torturing and killing your closest freinds, family and "loved ones". Ultimately, what evil is very simply put is "if I see benefit for me, I don't care what the concequences are for anyone else, good or bad." This means that although a person may do good (like make massive donations to charitible institution), he has a selfish motive (I ge a massive tax break that returns more than I actually paid, plus it improves my reputation, which gives me more power in negotiations).
club2bash 03-29-06, 07:10 PM	Evil's easy enough, you just have to get the right mindset for it. Think of the worst, most painful, horrible thing that ever happened to you because of someone else. Think about how it made you feel. Picture yourself in a room alone with this person. Narrow down and focus your mental picture - there are no other people, no other things, no consequences, no karma, no heaven or hell - nothing exists in the universe except you, your frustration, and the person that caused it. Picture yourself following your heart, and then suit action to thoughts. :devil: To get evil easy, do all that, but project the identity of the one who most wronged you onto the person in front of you instead. this isn't really my problem. I can rip the fricking head off that palidin that's between me and that pile of gold. My problem is that I can't do :devil: evil :devil: just for the heck of it. good plan though. I'll try it sometime.
Dex 03-30-06, 02:44 AM	The point of being evil is not being evil for the sake of it (unless you're an antipaladin). "EVIL" is the outcome of a brain that makes thorough (or not-so-thorough) calculations based on a number of factors you deem important. For example: DM: There are small kittens trapped in that building! Player (you): How much fire damage will I take? DM: Lots. Player: They can burn. They're only kittens. DM: The corrupt official is trying to bribe you to cover up the cult's sacrifices. Player: How much? DM: 100gp Player: I say, "150 and it's a deal." DM: The evil god is trying to talk you into betraying the rest of the party and beginning the End of The World. Player: Won't that kill me? DM: The evil god says you can stay with him in the afterlife. He says they have great dental. Player: Good dental, eh? Throw in comprehensive health care and it's a deal! Practice these and you'll be rolling in demonic sacrifices in no time. :devil:
TcK 03-30-06, 06:41 AM	In a recent session I played in we were a party of 3 evil guys(Urb. Ranger, Rouge, Cleric) and one neutral Rouge. We just accepted a job of assassinating 5 people (without knowing who they were), but first there was a test to see if we were up for it. The job; kill the 3-year-old child of a Lord. The CE rouge in the party got to the kid`s room, but almost got very unlucky as the mother of the child came into the room. He managed to hide well enough for her to see him though. She fell asleep next to the kid so the rouge did what he came to do: Stabbed the kid in the throat and then in the heart "just to be on the safe side". We learned later that the kid was ressurected, but atleast we did our job.:devil: So yeah, you just have to remove whatever you personally would have thought or done in the situation.
Pegasos989 03-30-06, 12:08 PM	Bah. Evil does certainly NOT mean that you would have no moral! The example given in BoVD: The evil villain might have a moral code that denies harming children, for example. I think that the whole "evil" can't be well used with ANY non-demon/devil/etc. characters but I understand that it is a part of DnD. So... In my campaign I allow the evil characters to: -Risk their lives for their team. A evil outcast dwarf who has spent the last century wandering with a duegar might really be loyal enough to risk his life for him. -Risk their lives for their loved ones. Who the hell says that the evil necromancer can't be necromancer to find a way to give life back to his loved one? And if he resurrects the loved one and has just spend 50 years in finding out how, can he not risk the life to save the woman? -Spare lives of won enemies. "I do not kill weaklings!" is a decent ideal for a throughout evil barbarian. Hell, if there was a player who said that he has an evil character who can't stand watching suffering and so gives money to the poor, I would let him. I know that many people disagree "But that makes him aligned Neutral or maybe even GOOD!". Sure that idea might do him good, but what if he is an wizard that sees poor people everywhere and feels awful about it. Then he thinks "This place wouldn't be like this if the kingdom next to this wouldn't have attacked this!" and then decides that he goes on a quest to find a powerful artifact to destroy the other kingdom with. So, he... -Pities the poor and wants to help them -Is going to destroy the other kingdom for revenge (killing hundreds of thousands of civilians) Is he good evil aligned? Hell yeah. This was a poor example and poorly written post, but the idea is: Don't just think that evil char does whatever he wants to just to gain profit.
Elderich 03-30-06, 12:50 PM	I can't roleplay an evil character very well, I'm too nice. Once I gave my gang members a raise. I truly suck :weep:After the Romans captured jerusalem, they used them as slaves. In long campaigns there were strick rules about how many jews could die per day and they often doubled the rations, while the soilders may still be on reduced rations. Why? It was hard being a slave, and hard to replace you if you died far from Rome. If you fed them better and didnt beat them they didnt die as fast. So giving a raise CAN be a not good act. I sympthazize tho. Evil is hard for me too!
1984 03-31-06, 05:32 PM	Bah. Evil does certainly NOT mean that you would have no moral! What he said. If you play evil in the most dangerous fashion, nobody will ever know. Evil can be defined as what you're capable of doing, not what you do every day. I ran an evil campaign a couple of months ago. The leader ended up with owning a small kingdom, where he improved everyones life. He did everything he could to make his people happy, and they loved him. Still he was evil, because he didn't hesitate to kill anyone who opposed him. He also killed 300,000 people and stole the soul of every single one, so that he could use them for item creation.
aleshandre 03-31-06, 09:21 PM	Like I said, at it's root, all evil is about "what benefits me?" It is that simple. The most mild form of evil is "I can take pens and pencils home from work and not return them, because I really need the pens and they won't miss a few of them." or "I really want to get there sooner, so I'll just go 50 mph above the speed limit." In the above examples, it may not seem like evil, but they lead down the path. Justifying your actions helps even more. After enough time and enough personal increase due to "little" things, eventually, the person who practices evil is murdering, raping and pilliaging with the worst of them.
JulesCARV 03-31-06, 11:45 PM	There can be evil people motivated by things other than selfishness. For example, someone who really, really hated gay people could beat up a gay person, knowing full well that it's against his own self-interest to do so, and end up in jail having a very unpleasant time. He'd still be evil for hatefully assaulting the gay person, but he wouldn't be selfish. I think that all people who are motivated exclusively by selfishness are evil, but someone could also be totally unselfish and still be evil. So, selfishness is a type of evil, but evil includes things other than selfishness.
Aminar 04-01-06, 12:11 AM	I'm in an evil campaign right now, My character is a NE Changeling Master of Many forms. So far his evil acts have been to kill two brothel owners for money, Be very Bisexual(Without doing anything, and isn't really evil, except that the target had no clue he's actually not a rediculously hot Elven women. Also I love changelings and need to play them far more often.) He also only knocked out a prostitute, she didn't have anything he wanted, and subdually beat the crap out of a mind controlled party member. He likes money, our campaign seems to be very low money, but shares it with accomplices. He also tryed to save the town guard from a CE party member who decide to start throwing explosives around, but ran at the last second. His method for trying to svae the guards was to turn into a harpoon spider, and scare them away, he failed. In other words don't be evil, be a selfish arseface with good intentions, and be a bit too greedy. (Most of what really was evil about his actions was his method for killing the brothel owners was to suck out their brains in mindflayer form, a favorite tactic of mine for the signature kill feel.)
aleshandre 04-01-06, 08:50 AM	Without getting into hate-crimes in general and beating up gay people specifically, any act that is founded on hate, lust, greed or deception is selfish in nature. Using your example, the guy hates gay people, so he beats them to stop them from doing something that offends him or simply because it makes him feel better about himself to beat up on people and they happen to be the group that he hates the most. As I said in my first post, Evil at its root is very simply about doing what is right for self. Carried to extreme, this can even involve torturing and killing your closest freinds, family and "loved ones". Ultimately, what evil is very simply put is "if I see benefit for me, I don't care what the concequences are for anyone else, good or bad.
Lord of the Ninth 04-03-06, 12:27 AM	When roleplaying evil don't try to be evil. Realistic evil does not do this, realistic evil does whatever it wants and lets the ends justify the means. This doesn't mean selfish, at least not all the time. You can help people with evil. Perhaps you believe some causes to be worthier than others so you do horrible things to the elderly and then donate to help children, odds are you are still evil. Mostly you just have to ignore that little part of your mind that tells you not to do things.
Tlazcotl 04-03-06, 02:34 AM	I can't roleplay an evil character very well, I'm too nice. Once I gave my gang members a raise. I truly suck :weep: I once thought as you do. Truth is: I don't *like* playing evil. I can do it if need be, though. But I'm a dungeonmaster most of the time. Can't run an effective campaign for the heroes if you can't present real evil sometimes. I've played in an evil game once too, though. The easiest way that I found to roleplay an evil PC is by following three simple rules: 1.) Your character must think of herself first at all times. HER well being and advancement must fuel her actions moreso than any other factor; (although she might give others the illusion of consistant altruism in order to dupe them for the sake of her own survival). 2.) When presented with the opportunity to cause others pain, loss, or death (and you're pretty sure that your character can get away with it,) do so. She should derive joy from the suffering of others. Beware those who would betray her or avenge the target of her sadism, though. 3.) Always have goals. What is evil without standards? It doesn't matter how grandiose these goals get... just make sure that your character has one or two big ones to give her purpose. Good Luck! :)
Quenditar 04-03-06, 03:05 AM	There are lots of types of evil, but I find it easiest to categorize them into three rough types. No character falls completely into one type, but this might help. 1) Selfish evil. I find this evil the easiest to play, because it's only an extension of normal cost-benefit calculations. Basically, "will this be of net benefit to me?" This sort of evil allows for charitable donations (to keep up an image), raising comrades (you need them, they'll owe you), and other non-evil acts as long as you remember to foreclose on widows and keep orphans as debt slaves. Usually LE or NE. 2) Devotional evil. This is meant to cover evil clerics and others with a philosophical devotion to evil. I don't understand this type very well, but the basic idea is devotion and servitude to an entity with a greater evil agenda, whether that agenda is "exterminate all non-orcs" or "rule all you survey." Many followers of a certain German dictator would fall here. In the real world, these types often think they're doing good (unlike the other two, who know they're evil or just don't care). Any evil alignment could fit. 3) Sociopathic evil. A large fraction of cartoon villains fall into this type; evil for the sheer fun of it all and because it can be done, not as part of any calculated plan. This type works very poorly in parties, because if the sociopath doesn't slaughter the party in their sleep for the sound they make when they wake up dying, they'll set fire to the paladin barracks and stand there roasting marshmallows. Usually CE.