If I wanted to play an evil character, I'd want to play someone like JR Ewing. Not only tortures his enemies, but uses his family and friends to achieve his goals, but with a certain charm. His enemies hate him, but admire him at the same time. So evil, you love the guy. Anything else would be boring.

I played an evil character pretty well.  It did eventually delve into me torturing people, but I never did it for the kicks.  It was only when I could gain actual intel and eventually magic powers from sacrifice that it went that far.

All in all I prefer good campaigns (ie everyone is playing a hero with altruistic inclinations, even reluctantly so), but I knew from the DM's style exactly what kind of campaign this was going to be by high level (save the world from supernatural evil!), so I made a character as unsuited to that task as possible, and it was a blast.

I would describe my brand of 'evil' as a kind of exuberant, lunatic cynicism as opposed to the bizarre and unadulterated misanthropy of most fantasy evil.

See, my idea of evil is either World Domination types (conducive to grouping), or Kill the World types (not a PC option).
Torture and backstabbing would be counter-productive; I want the masses ruled to love me, and my enemies to fear, yet respect, me.

It's a lot harder to be usurped, if no one can suggest a better alternative to your (seemingly) benign dictatorship. It's worked for thousands of years in the real world, why would fantasy be that much different?

EDIT: I guess I like "smart" villains, rather than punks.

The last evil character I played was a Terrorist. Done more in the fashion of Just Cause 2, destruction for a cause and less Murder Hobo.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;557011Everyone I've ever met who wanted to do what they thought was a "proper" evil campaign meant "Get our Manson Family on!" in the worst way.

This is why I disallow evil alignments for player characters in my D&D games.

I ditched alignment early on even before I switched away from AD&D to Fantasy Hero in 1986.  What stopped people from turning into murdering thugs was the fact folks knew the NPCS could and will fight back. Plus by the time they got to the mid levels in my campaigns they were starting to build their legacy and avoided actions that would trash that.

With that being said I did have a handful of campaigns where the players played unsavory characters that would be of evil alignment. Because I had details on this aspect of the Majestic Wilderlands the characters had reasons for being what they were which moved the campaign beyond player torturing and maiming for the hell of it.

Also I glossed over any despicable aspect. "Fine you torture the guy, make a roll. A 5? OK he dies before you get anything useful." and there some things we just didn't get into like rape, anything involving kids, etc.

But these campaigns were few and far between as playing evil just plain sucked compared playing one of the mainstream cultures of my settings. Now the caveat is there there are a lot of what would be considered LN or LE cultures that are featured in a lot of my campaigns and that players based characters on. For example the Church of Set. But even these cultures have rules and boundaries. For example the Church of Set is focused on killing anybody or anything associated with demons. What sets them apart from the Church of Mitra is their authoritarian ethos, their willingness to kill everybody associated with a demonist, and insisting on obidance to authority and killing those who don't bend the knee.

Most of my PCs are evil, but they're not raping torturing murderers, they're generally just greedy/amoral/ruthless, or Cugel-esque boobs.

When I DM, if an evil PC behaves outrageously around the NPCs they tend to acquire a really really shitty reputation which can result in being mocked in the tabloids, being mocked by children on the street, mercenaries/hirelings/specialists refusing to deal with them, or outlaw horsemen (biker) gangs trying to off them for PR/juice with the community.

Quote from: talysman;557005Did either of the PMs remember to add "ignore the Wizard vs. Fighter Balance Bullshit thread"?

Also, if he does come, I hope users here remember that the thread would be about memories of things that actually happened "back in the day" and not an opportunity to debate the rightness or wrongness of those things, as frequently happens on the other forum... and also not a thread for people to discuss or even casually mention 3e or 4e, as did indeed happen in the "So..." thread on the other forum.

I mean, come on, guys.

I simply asked if he would create a similar thread as the one on TBP. Also suggested a bit of help/exposure for his kickstarter.

Quote from: Marleycat;557165I simply asked if he would create a similar thread as the one on TBP. Also suggested a bit of help/exposure for his kickstarter.

Sorry but I must ask:

What is 'TPB'?

The Big Purple.

Comes from the color scheme of RPGnet.

Quote from: Nahualt;557352Sorry but I must ask:

What is 'TPB'?

Quote from: Kaldric;557353The Big Purple.

Comes from the color scheme of RPGnet.

And all this time, I thought it stood for "The Banning Place".

I'm going to stick with my interpretation, kthxbye.

I always enjoyed reading Old Geezer's comments about the early days of the hobby and would love to see him back here, but to be honest, I don't think I'd find the type of game he describes in that thread (or that's written about here) all that enjoyable.  If other people do, that's great, but it's not my thing and I don't have any strong urge to run out and start playing that way.

Quote from: talysman;557358And all this time, I thought it stood for "The Banning Place".

I'm going to stick with my interpretation, kthxbye.

I think I prefer that interpretation too.  

JG

Quote from: John Morrow;557360[...] to be honest, I don't think I'd find the type of game he describes in that thread (or that's written about here) all that enjoyable.

This part alone...

QuoteWhile playing, Gary would open the drawers of the file cabinet and sit behind them so that the players COULD NOT SEE HIM. They only experienced the Dungeon Master as a disembodied voice.

During games, cross-talk was discouraged: the party caller did most of the talking, and other players only talked if they had something to contribute. If the players chattered too much, they'd miss what the Disembodied Voice was saying, and that would be, as Mike put it, "suicide". "You could feel the tension in the room," he added.

...would have had me backing slowly towards the door.

Quote from: daniel_ream;557419This part alone...



...would have had me backing slowly towards the door.

Only slowly? You have a set sir.

Oh yeah, "The Banning Place" works just fine.

Quote from: Marleycat;557424Only slowly? You have a set sir.

It's best not to make any sudden moves around people that unhinged.