Goals for the evil character

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Nylessa
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Re: Goals for the evil character

#21 Post by Nylessa » Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:58 pm

Okay, i can understand how being a villian and having goals for it might be hard on geas from my limited time playing; but, i'll put my perspective on villians, and how they can succeed, or work; this is mostly a perspective grown from outside roleplaying communites that aren't mud, mind you all.

First of all, I do not have a full understanding of the religions here, so i may get some things wrong but.

The first, number one rule to understand about a villian.

No villain ever acknowledges what they are doing is evil, unless its a joke/comical character. A villain does what they do because they believe it is right.

Second of all, Motivation? Motivation might be easier to find in geas due to how religions work; however, what about the people who aren't as religious? They need a motivation to do such. its important to remember that actions that are seen as evil are those that are seen as bad to the general public, but those actions could be seen as just, and right by the individual, to solidfiy on my first point.

Motivation is a big deal, Characters on geas start off as basically a fresh slate, and while they can have minimal background (my character did) i found it very hard to make an in-depth background and story with my minimal knowledge of geas's lore.

Without anyone to motivate people into eviler deeds, or an to give them goals of their own, there are very few potential villians (From my observations) For example, what if theres a character that finds the Taniel religion to be too -rigid- too restrictive off freedoms? order and light are good and all, but this person doesn't believe in chaos, or destruction, but rather freedom, and somehow, or somewhere, the taniel have shown to this person that they threaten peoples freedoms; thus ,they start to gather say, maybe a forces, and aim to make resistance against The Taniel because they believe it is right.

This makes the person a potential villian, but does that make them evil? Not exactly, theres more to being a villian and a 'bad guy' then simply being -evil-
Now, was this rebellion viciously killing all taniel worshipers and followers? or was it a resistance that fought the zealots and had honor? thats where things change. So to be simple, you do not need to be evil to be a villian, which, in passing glance of looking at this thread, is the conversation, being a villain; not being evil.


And from what i've seen, maybe its the lack of a big player base to make more varying characters, but theres no real 'motivations' to be created through roleplay to inspire a character into such actions.

I personally would love to play a villian character one day. Will I? Most definitely, but that is not for a long time coming, but will i just force a character down a villian path? No. I'll wait for the right motivations, the right reasons.

Three, Incentives; Oocly, I won't lie, this is a big deal, Incentive, incentives to be evil, and to tough through harder life of a villian; incentive needs to be there where there isn't any, its a game, people play games to have fun, it is NOT fun to constantly die, especially on a game where the penalty for death adds up, and up. Being a villian, again, is not for everyone.

I did not mean to necro this post or anything. But this is a subject that is commonly brought up in the other RP communities i'm involved in, and I'm really liking geas, so i thought i'd share a point of view thats been developed from RPing outside of muds :)

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luminier
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Re: Goals for the evil character

#22 Post by luminier » Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:30 am

For not having played Geas before you seem to have a good grasp on how things should work and how people who want to roleplay an evil character should go about it.

Frankly the people that are evil "just because" are kind of boring as they are pretty one dimensional. I am not very creative and impatient myself so I am guilty of this. However, I am sure there are times when people just want to roleplay an evil character and don't want to wait for the right motivations.

I really like how you outlined a difference between being evil and being a villain.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

mazarmormuk
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Re: Goals for the evil character

#23 Post by mazarmormuk » Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:43 pm

what you write, nylessa, and the motivation you describe, is quite the "semi-evil" position warclerics follow.

Evil or Villain or Rebel, these positions are rare.

for the main reason that
1,you are losing a lot (access to ressources and sozial groups)
2, and gaining hardly anything (you still cant do what you like without caring)

The hard coded part on that surely exists, there isnt any action that stops dragging you down on evil/nasty, but i guess the far bigger part is the roleplay.

It 's normal for a cruzader to think in one black and one white drawer, but i notice less fanatic characters following/accepting that standard, on one hand not to lose the benefits goodies have, on the other hand out of a quite stereotyped thinking of the characters (not the players!).

At least as warcleric i encounter the question a lot:
hell, what are you now, good or evil?

I guess the restrictions (punished for having been seen talking with someone that is "a known evil") in elvandar are in general ok, but it is that restrictions or better its common acceptance that make varieties like delmon or jade extremely rare.

So i would ask, what action is semi-evil and/or villainish in the inertial system of geas?

The second question then would be what can compensate the loss if someone is not following/accepting the highest rules.

just wanted to throw the view of a maybe semi-evil in here.

lanyara
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Re: Goals for the evil character

#24 Post by lanyara » Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:00 pm

One of the key problems with the portals is that they are designed in a perpetual capture-the-flag style. They are however assumed to be a "goal for the evil characters to attain" (and for the good characters to close them down, of course).

It should be changed to become a step of sub-goals that can be achieved.

No portal should ever be static. The sub-goals should be somehow announced though, so that players can "expect" the unexpected insofar as that they should do something about it. And if they don't do it, things like taking over Elvandar or Arborea should happen. (Also Asador of course, I don't like that only the evil have portals...)

If a portal is kept open for too long, the hordes should continue to seize more territory (but before that happens, the balance must be checked - especially the portal in the tundra is too difficult to close or too simple to open. See the note by PO Rex about this.)

I also think that there should be "good" portals - meaning that counterattacks are led. When there are invading hordes of evil beasts, there should be invading hordes of true lightbringers as well.

PS: Personally though I still am of the opinion that all the portals were a mistake to pursue. But if they are not removed, I think they should be changed to become dynamic - see also PO Zehren's note about a lack of dynamic in the game. With perpetual capture-the-flag style this is inevitable, hence my suggestion to change it.
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