How to play "Evil"

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Juniper Onyx
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How to play "Evil"

Post by Juniper Onyx »

I relly struggle with Evil RP. So, after talking to some GM's and almost being punished myself, I have decided to post this:

People that play Evil characters are at a disadvantage. No-one wants to be forced into their evil RP. Bandits have to sneak up to their victims and they never want to give up what they have. It sucks to be attacked, I know, but it's in the nature of Evil to do that. Illarion shouldn't be safe 24/7.

I propose a few OOC guidelines for the wanna-be evil character.

1. Avoid using Building Shadows at all costs! GM’s hate those.
2. Always RP “something” and use 2 clear emotes before attack. Players hate when you don’t.
3. Allow the other person to RP or run away before you attack. Macro Emotes not good enough, allow some time.
4. When they ‘Stumble back” – emote something before you cloud them
5. Make sure the Ghost can reach a cross. Be helpful if you can.
6. Never attack again right after revival. Going away for a while is best.
7. It’s all about having fun for all players, don’t forget that!
8. Always PM players before a major attack or raid on their village or guild. Be cooperative.
9. Fires – Always RP and send a message “Where and Why” to GM’s when you start some. Senseless Arson will get you banned.
10. When a GM pulls you to talk, be polite and admit what you did, be helpful.
11. Always accept the finding of the GM. Always accept the punishment. Be a good sport about the situation. Just don’t do it again.
12. Evil is really hard to play, so try as best as you can. Ask for advice.
13. Emote a description of some kind before battle, even if cloaked.

Does anyone have anything to add, so we all can have fun together? These will be part of our "Evil" guild I am putting together, but may help others. What do you guys think?
Last edited by Juniper Onyx on Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mesha
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Post by Mesha »

1. Avoid using Building Shadows at all costs! GM’s hate those.
Actually, it is forbidden to abuse the building shadows, and any purposeful abuse of the building shadows will result in either a warning or a ban, depending on your past. :wink: Just so we are clear on this.

On the rest of the guidelines, they seem rather...Useless to me. Perhaps other people find them really helpful, I do not know. For me they are mostly no-brainers.
I like the last though: "Ask for advice". Something people should do on any new RP venture. Ask some other players on MSN, on the boards or wherever some advice. And, when you do ask for advice, atleast be so kind to take it all in consideration.
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Aldan Vian
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Post by Aldan Vian »

Always Emote a char description of some kind even if they are cloaked. THen it is at least possible for somebody to Identify you even if it is the smallest chance. People hate it when you don't.

I would know...I got attacked earlier today...
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Juniper Onyx
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Post by Juniper Onyx »

Mesha wrote:
1. Avoid using Building Shadows at all costs! GM’s hate those.
Actually, it is forbidden to abuse the building shadows, and any purposeful abuse of the building shadows will result in either a warning or a ban, depending on your past. :wink: Just so we are clear on this.
Actually, that's why I immediately wrote these.

It's a "No-Brainer" that thieves should hide in the shadows, it's not abuse, just good Gaming. Apparently not good for this Game, so just helping others to realize this.

I got in trouble for using shadows to sneak up on a victim. I didn't see it as 'abuse'. So now...I just avoid them altogether.
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Post by LifeWonder »

It's because in real, the character would see you.
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Juniper Onyx
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Post by Juniper Onyx »

Aldan Vian wrote:Always Emote a char description of some kind even if they are cloaked. THen it is at least possible for somebody to Identify you even if it is the smallest chance. People hate it when you don't.

I would know...I got attacked earlier today...
With the "Examine" feature now, Is this really necessary?

I don't think your description will really make a difference in the dark, in the heat of a battle. I could be wrong.
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Aldan Vian
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Post by Aldan Vian »

Remember though. With the examin you only see what they are wearing not actualy what they look like.
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Evan Ross
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Post by Evan Ross »

I think he means more of an rp thing. For example, you notice a scar, he's quite short or you notice some blond hair hanging out of his hood. Things that could be used to identify the character later on without the PO saying "I was cloaked, You don't know what I look like" (Not that I think you would do that).
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Juniper Onyx
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Post by Juniper Onyx »

ok...good points.

I'll add that guideline too.

13. Emote a description of some kind before battle, even if cloaked.
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Aldan Vian
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Post by Aldan Vian »

WHat I mean is if they are cloaked they should make sure to RP it. If they are not they should describe the appearence of the person.
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Bellringer
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Post by Bellringer »

Your post about 'evil' ignores evil entirely.

Evil is not theivery and assassination - evil is a way of thinking and acting all the time, it is a different world view. To be evil, one does not have to kill hundreds of people; one only has to entertain the idea that such a thing may be good, if it helped you acheive your goals.

What you've posted is basically an explation of what to do when attacking someone sneakily, or just attacking in general...it has little to do with evil. You're right when you say you struggle with evil RP, if you can't even grasp what it is.

This is not Evil. This is not useful.
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Juniper Onyx
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Post by Juniper Onyx »

Bellringer wrote:Your post about 'evil' ignores evil entirely.

Evil is not theivery and assassination - evil is a way of thinking and acting all the time, it is a different world view. To be evil, one does not have to kill hundreds of people; one only has to entertain the idea that such a thing may be good, if it helped you acheive your goals.

What you've posted is basically an explation of what to do when attacking someone sneakily, or just attacking in general...it has little to do with evil. You're right when you say you struggle with evil RP, if you can't even grasp what it is.

This is not Evil. This is not useful.
I'm sorry you think this way. This post is about how to "Play" at being evil, and unfortuantely, most people "Cntrl click" as a way to express being evil.

I see this post as being helpful. At least to me.
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Tinya
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Post by Tinya »

Most of the post covers just to read the rules of Illarion.
4. When they ‘Stumble back” – emote something before you cloud them
Or don't cloud them and assume you have won. :?
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Bellringer
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Post by Bellringer »

Juniper Onyx wrote:I'm sorry you think this way. This post is about how to "Play" at being evil, and unfortuantely, most people "Cntrl click" as a way to express being evil.
Anyone that CTRL-clicks to express their character's personality in an hardcore RP game is doing it wrong anyway, though the FAQ tells us that already. What I said is that 'playing' evil is not about what buttons you press or how you stay in the GMs good books, but about how you act, what you say and why you say it - roleplaying evil is about building a personality. But, to cut it short, I agree with Mesha - most of these are rather obvious, or already written about on the homepage.
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Post by Pellandria »

13.Never attack someone who is willing to rp.
14.Never ever cloud anyone

Clouding is useless, knock someone down if you want, if he doesn't hand his junk over call a gm on his ass, clouding will just make people angry because its ~useless~ and just delets skillpoints.
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Post by Youchimitchu »

sometimes people deserve a good clouding to knock some humility into em.
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ogerawa
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Re: How to play "Evil"

Post by ogerawa »

Juniper Onyx wrote:4. When they ‘Stumble back” – emote something before you cloud them
More like, give them the option to be clouded or just hand over whatever you want that they have. The reason there is this "Stumble back" is that so people doesn't have to cloud the others so much, because it is very frustrating when you lose skills.
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Bellringer
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Post by Bellringer »

If people fail to cooporate after being knocked back, it makes sense to cloud them. Despite Pellandria's suggestion, GMs are not always available, and even so it ruins the RP atmosphere to bring in a completely OOC entity - cloud them, if they cling to their gold at death's door.
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Post by rakust dorenstkzul »

15. I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

16. If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.
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Post by Mr. Cromwell »

Ignore the instructions and be villain instead of a thug.

Edit:
The evil in illarion has, according to my observations, evolved further. The list seems to be more or less "how to cloud people and get away with it, rule-wise".

People should learn to differentiate between clouding (stupid) and evil. Over and out. Juniper managed to sum up how to be a "****ing retard" quite nicely.

Please, have at least SOME ambition..
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Post by Zarakerel »

There should be nothing wrong with roleplaying the plain old axe murderer, violent thug, or bloodthirsty killer. If there is, then there is a problem here with player mindsets. Perhaps some players just can't bear the notion of suffering a loss to their cyber skills or -gasp- worse their cyber pride!
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Post by Djironnyma »

There is no evil char or such thing. There is only your role /your char and the goals of your role. Some other chars may think your char is evil. But if you start to create a "evil" char, if you plan to bee soooo.... bad, you lose - such a char will never be authentic.

Play no "evil" (or "good") char, play your char - and all rules you need to know for that are:

http://illarion.org/illarion/us_rules.php

http://illarion.org/general/us_rpg_guide.php
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Post by Pellandria »

Zarakerel wrote:There should be nothing wrong with roleplaying the plain old axe murderer, violent thug, or bloodthirsty killer. If there is, then there is a problem here with player mindsets. Perhaps some players just can't bear the notion of suffering a loss to their cyber skills or -gasp- worse their cyber pride!
An ax murderer is insane, not evil, an evil person does something evil out of a ~gasp~ mindset, out of his morals and because he was brougth up in a certaint way, if someone is a mass murder and psychopat killer, he does not need to be evil, he is simply insane and if he does not know the consequences of his actions he cannot be called evil.

A person who does aveng his family, that was killed by creatures, is he evil or not, depending on how you see it he will either be an evil or a very good person.

The problem we have with "evil" character in general is that they have no idea how to play one, they simply think that an evil character just gives a bullcrap on rules and acts like a drunken asshole with a machine gun in his hand, useless and sensless violence without a goal or gain is barely evil, its just stupid.

"Being evil" is something you ~decide~ on, you are not born evil, you might be brougth up in a certaint way, but being evil is still a decission of your own.
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Taylor
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Post by Taylor »

Mr. Cromwell wrote:Ignore the instructions and be villain instead of a thug.

Edit:
The evil in illarion has, according to my observations, evolved further. The list seems to be more or less "how to cloud people and get away with it, rule-wise".

People should learn to differentiate between clouding (stupid) and evil. Over and out. Juniper managed to sum up how to be a "****ing retard" quite nicely.

Please, have at least SOME ambition..
Sure all the evil chars are like this? You should step outside the normal circle every once in a while. And look towards the subtle hints :) Dji and Pell have said it correctly. I've played many evil chars. And many good chars. All ends of the Spectrum. Holy, Lawfull good, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, Lawfull evil. All of these chars evolved from playing IG with chars that had a only a character concept. I never made a character with an advanced storyline. Simply a concept. Half the time I had no idea what the char was going to be. Simply chose a name, Race, and Age. and Logged in. The first char that rped with me, and how I reacted at that point in time, is how that character acted.
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Mr. Cromwell
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Post by Mr. Cromwell »

Taylor wrote:
Mr. Cromwell wrote:Ignore the instructions and be villain instead of a thug.

Edit:
The evil in illarion has, according to my observations, evolved further. The list seems to be more or less "how to cloud people and get away with it, rule-wise".

People should learn to differentiate between clouding (stupid) and evil. Over and out. Juniper managed to sum up how to be a "****ing retard" quite nicely.

Please, have at least SOME ambition..
Sure all the evil chars are like this? You should step outside the normal circle every once in a while. And look towards the subtle hints :) Dji and Pell have said it correctly. I've played many evil chars. And many good chars. All ends of the Spectrum. Holy, Lawfull good, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, Lawfull evil. All of these chars evolved from playing IG with chars that had a only a character concept. I never made a character with an advanced storyline. Simply a concept. Half the time I had no idea what the char was going to be. Simply chose a name, Race, and Age. and Logged in. The first char that rped with me, and how I reacted at that point in time, is how that character acted.
Recap after sobering up.

I know. My character has evolved as well, though he never was a mister nice guy. However, what Juniper has summed up there is, as intended, a 'very' (very) basic list of ooc-dont's that in my opinion should be already clear to anyone who is capable of self-managing his or her own oxygen intake. ;) Furthermore, Juniper's group is a "purpose-created" "evil group" and as such I think it's fair to set the bar and expectations a little higher. If the sole raison d'etre and manifestation of evil for the group is clouding people, I yawn.

Ensuring that nobody's fun is ruined is of course admirable, but when there's an ooc-created "evil group" around, I hate to see the guideline revolve entirely around clouding and related matters as that is not very promising. It's yawn-tastic. What I said about ambition sticks in this particular case.

When you purpose-make an evil group, please be more than just a bunch of cutthroat thugs. Try to be real villains instead, because that's where cooperation between characters is needed. Being a thug really doesn't need such an ooc-partner search, unless of course you're a real wimp and want to ensure that the victim stands no chance at all.
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Post by Aegohl »

I keep meaning to comment here but I'm too busy learning the Hoedown Throwdown.

In any case, could we keep it friendly? You folks have been awfully peachy lately. No need to ruin a good thing.

*countryfies it*
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Post by LifeWonder »

\o\

/o/

\o/

\o\

/o/
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Post by Llama »

*sigh*

I hate 'made to measure' evil beings... seriously.

You know what's really evil? Throwing lizard babies out of the window. That was evil, and that could have started a war, but he didn't do it because he's evil AHAHAHA *twists moustache*, but because his character has a reason.

There's nobody (sane) who does evil things just because they're evil. Even those who try to genocide a race do it because they think its right.
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Post by Pellandria »

The baby thing is actually a good thing to decide between things.

An evil char will never say "Hey I'm evil, better go and clubber some seal Babies" an evil char will think "Hell that was alot of fun, lets go clubebr those defensless baby seal again !".

As allready mentioned, there is a line between being evil and insane and being evil evolves from decissions, not because someone is the best swordfigther..
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Post by AlexRose »

Pellandria wrote:"Being evil" is something you ~decide~ on, you are not born evil, you might be brougth up in a certaint way, but being evil is still a decission of your own.
I disagree.
Djironnyma wrote:There is no evil char or such thing. There is only your role /your char and the goals of your role. Some other chars may think your char is evil. But if you start to create a "evil" char, if you plan to bee soooo.... bad, you lose - such a char will never be authentic.
I agree.
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