To Evil, or Not to Evil
Mar. 21st, 2006 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orikes... That is the question.
What place do villains have in the community style roleplaying on a MU*? Everyone loves a good villain, but it’s very hard to get and keep good players for them. Too often the players who want to play them don’t have any understanding of the word subtlety. Or, conversely, your good players of villains end up burning out from dealing with the OOC grief they get for being bad.
I’ve played on games where anyone can create anything and what you are is what you are. I’ve played on games that specifically allowed players to apply for characters designed to be antagonists. I’ve played on games that declared villains would be NPCs and that’s that. Ultimately, I haven’t been happy with any one choice. I still can’t decide if having villain player characters is a good thing or a bad thing.
With players running your bad guys, you can get some amazingly inspired roleplay happening. With mature players behind the antagonists and the protagonists, the stories take on a whole new dynamic. Players realize they no longer have the safety net they act like they have when the bad guys are NPCs. The interaction between good, bad, and the gray stuff in the middle takes on a life of its own.
With that, though, you get all sorts of potential staffing headaches. There are the bad players who make everyone’s life miserable by playing a bad villain. I don’t mean a person who has evil in their hearts, but simply a poorly played character. If they don’t let the power go to their heads of being a bad guy, they start acting like they’re a good guy and get upset when people start plotting against them.
Then there are the players who can’t separate IC from OOC and start taking the insults of a character as insults against them instead of their own character. Combine that with the eternal ‘white hat’ and you burn out some very solid players trying to play antagonists. I’m sure anyone who played on Aether during the heyday remembers Altair. He went through what, two Princeps, three Khalids, and countless Praetorians and Agni Haidar.
Is there a happy medium where you can promote dynamic stories without having to run every single NPC to drive conflict, but avoid the worst of the OOC headaches that come from villain PCs?
I’ve wondered if perhaps a mix of NPC/PC would work for this type of thing. With NPCs, even if played with a character bit, players seem to know that the NPC is tied to the life of the plot they’re part of. They have a shelf life that will expire at some point, thereby making the danger less real. Perhaps making some ‘feature’ villains would solve the problem. The character itself would be ultimately owned by staff, but under the immediate control of the player behind the bit.
Someone I used to play with ages ago had written an essay on the art of playing a villain. One of the things he suggested is that when you play a bad guy, keep your RL and OOC identity quiet. This serves two purposes. It keeps the mystery of the character in tact, and lets the other players focus their enmity at the character rather than the player. I’ve always thought this was a wonderful idea and would love to see more people practice it.
So what do you think?
[Poll #695508]
What place do villains have in the community style roleplaying on a MU*? Everyone loves a good villain, but it’s very hard to get and keep good players for them. Too often the players who want to play them don’t have any understanding of the word subtlety. Or, conversely, your good players of villains end up burning out from dealing with the OOC grief they get for being bad.
I’ve played on games where anyone can create anything and what you are is what you are. I’ve played on games that specifically allowed players to apply for characters designed to be antagonists. I’ve played on games that declared villains would be NPCs and that’s that. Ultimately, I haven’t been happy with any one choice. I still can’t decide if having villain player characters is a good thing or a bad thing.
With players running your bad guys, you can get some amazingly inspired roleplay happening. With mature players behind the antagonists and the protagonists, the stories take on a whole new dynamic. Players realize they no longer have the safety net they act like they have when the bad guys are NPCs. The interaction between good, bad, and the gray stuff in the middle takes on a life of its own.
With that, though, you get all sorts of potential staffing headaches. There are the bad players who make everyone’s life miserable by playing a bad villain. I don’t mean a person who has evil in their hearts, but simply a poorly played character. If they don’t let the power go to their heads of being a bad guy, they start acting like they’re a good guy and get upset when people start plotting against them.
Then there are the players who can’t separate IC from OOC and start taking the insults of a character as insults against them instead of their own character. Combine that with the eternal ‘white hat’ and you burn out some very solid players trying to play antagonists. I’m sure anyone who played on Aether during the heyday remembers Altair. He went through what, two Princeps, three Khalids, and countless Praetorians and Agni Haidar.
Is there a happy medium where you can promote dynamic stories without having to run every single NPC to drive conflict, but avoid the worst of the OOC headaches that come from villain PCs?
I’ve wondered if perhaps a mix of NPC/PC would work for this type of thing. With NPCs, even if played with a character bit, players seem to know that the NPC is tied to the life of the plot they’re part of. They have a shelf life that will expire at some point, thereby making the danger less real. Perhaps making some ‘feature’ villains would solve the problem. The character itself would be ultimately owned by staff, but under the immediate control of the player behind the bit.
Someone I used to play with ages ago had written an essay on the art of playing a villain. One of the things he suggested is that when you play a bad guy, keep your RL and OOC identity quiet. This serves two purposes. It keeps the mystery of the character in tact, and lets the other players focus their enmity at the character rather than the player. I’ve always thought this was a wonderful idea and would love to see more people practice it.
So what do you think?
[Poll #695508]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 04:16 am (UTC)Well, I guess not ALL of the problems can happen if inter-PC conflict is banned. But the whole "Oh nooo, I can't lose or look bad!" attitude... that's definitely a twit factor issue across the board.
Anyway, yeah, definitely a different philosophy and approach to gaming! Reminds me a lot of tabletop-style. Nice that it works for you.