To Evil, or Not to Evil

[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]

Comments

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The whole germination of this discussion started with the idea of starting an Anitaverse type of game. I've gotten away from the idea of being tied to someone else's universe, though. I'm contemplating a modern gothic fantasy/horror type setting. Magic, vampires, werewolves, all mingled with the modern day life.

And hey... "Look mom! I started a pretty deep discussion!"

[7th-son.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is my lack of reading in the area, but the Modern Gothic Fantasy must be one of the most difficult of all genres when it comes to doing something new and original. I've done a few projects with vampires, ghosts, and other traditional monsters and I always spend hours staring at a blank screen trying to come up with something fresh.

At the same time, I have known one or two people who were really wonderful at the setting. And I suppose that, in the end, it would all come down to interesting characters. But if it were up to me, I'd probably end up doing something more Occult Conspiracy oriented than Gothic.

JT

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the desire isn't necessarily to do something 'fresh' as it is to do something playable. Specifically, in a MU* setting.

I've found that most of the settings that combine the modern with the gothic horror elements of magic, vampires, werewolves, etc., struggle with making the game viable. Oh, I know plenty of people enjoy WoD in a MU*, but I don't. I find it constricting and limiting with all the structure and stereotyping done in the source material for the game. It works great for a tabletop game, but in a MU* there are too many concepts lost under the crushing weight of the stereotype people are expected to play.

I think MU* offers a particularly interesting challenge when it comes to developing a setting for a game. There need to be broad strokes peppered with detail that draw players in, but enough flexibility and room to maneuver that the stories the group as a whole create can be interesting.

I've always enjoyed the mix of the fantastical with the modern. It's probably one of the reasons I'm fond of the superhero genre (Dude, we crushed an airport!). With the modern gothic horror, you can get into exploring the nature of humanity, morality, mosntrosity all in one.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

If a game is based on our current RL understanding of mythology... then Ii suppose the new and original parts would have to be the setting, the dynamic, or some internal cultural identity for the various character types.

Seems like it would be tough to have a "fresh" take on the powers and weaknesses that would be associated with the supernatural vampire mythos, for example.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Actually, a 'fresh' take on it could be to actually go back to the original myths that inspired the current mythology. In a little bit of the research I did, it was mentioned that in the original legends, werewolves were not vulnerable to silver OR tied to the cycles of the moon.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Mmhmm. And I hear the old vampire legends mysteriously never mention the Camarilla or Malkavians. ;)

I could definitely see the fun in taking a specifically-timed slice of a culture's mythology and play off of that for a game. Sort of a supernatural equivalent of a game set during a certain real-life historical period.