Re: Back to the Drawing-board

[Cid]

Eugh, don't remind me of the Soviet Union model... It was nothing but megalomaniacs that wanted to buff their own egos to make them seem more important IC, it had nothing to do with good 'evil' RP. Their only desire was to make everyone around them statues while they themselves were center-stage.

Still, I see where you are getting at, Helmut. Real life do provide a number of examples that can be used for such roleplay. The trick is how to 'translate' it to WoW and use it in a proper manner (Bush invading Iraq looking for WMD, we could look for manabombs etc).

[Guest]

Invading Mulgore to look for Manabombs confirmed.

[Helmut]

Yeah. Start calling the Horde "terrorists", specially those who often come and raid your cities. Or maybe start a racist movement to persecute all pandaren because you don't know where they came from otär who they have allied themself with before! How do we even know if they are who they say they are, or if they are the age that they claim?
Maybe build a super tall and long BATTLECADE to keep them out!
By doing so you can start RP around not only persecuting these people, but also RP around protecting them! All sides win this way!

And, as I want to add to Skarain: We play and stay in a setting where, in the end, chaotic evil can't really win. A evil force can't be the new, dominant factions that takes over the city and then stay there forever. It does not go with the lore and game. Lawful evil gives you more room to act within the law and you get small, evil wins. I mean, you can start the mass emmigration of pandaren but in the end you will have to come with a solution that serves the lore and Blizzards world building.

[Izzifix]

Chaotic evil isn't all that impossible either, it just becomes more about the small, everyday, random acts of evil than about the grand gestures. I know several characters like that and rp a few myself.

More like an opportunist predator-mindset than marching in like darth vader and all his troopers. The obvious and ambitious evil plans tend to end up at the recieving end of a great hero and his 24 best friends. That generally doesn't end well.

[Drecain]

So I just got back to wow from a long break since cata, and planning to get the < Twilights Hammer > on its feet again.

Check the description in the registry part of the forums. My thoughts are pretty much what others have been saying in this thread already. In order to be "evil" and be the catalyst character that everyone will enjoy RPing with, you need to be the hero of your own story even if you end up opposing many characters.

[siegmund]

Yeah. Start calling the Horde "terrorists", specially those who often come and raid your cities.

Ah yes always fun to do that. Sadly sometimes them filthy pacifist people want to negotiate peace or a surender, screw that. These days you got a special opportunity with this as Greymane himself is leading the good old fight. Sure the burning legion is about but damn hard to defend against them and not get hit by plague barrels at the same time, no need to divert all attention to the Horde, but surely someone has to have some time to smack some sense into those uncivilized pack of barbarians.

[Helmut]

Exactly Siegmund! Those Horde people wants to destroy the Alliance's way of life. A bunch of barbarians who are jealous of the FREEDOM and PROGRESSION of the Alliance! They are a threat to the families and businesses of the Alliance! Never forget Theramore! Make the Alliance great again!

[Skarain]

More like an opportunist predator-mindset

I have a character: a Half-Elf Bard/Musican who sold their soul to the Legion in exchange to the ability to steal memories and live through them. A very cheerful, dancing, living-fully character. Meet up an interesting character, befriend them, get somewhere private and steal their memories, leaving them confused behind, with no memory ofthe encounter and lost some of their more heroic or intense moments.

Outside that, sow seeds of discord whenever they can.

Very nice predator char concept, but sadly not enough time to play that one.

[Reynard]

Inspired by this thread, I just posted [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Would be interested in feedback (on that thread).

[Littlepip]

Wow this thread blew up! It is great to see that the post is serving its purpose of inspiring people to bring conflict back into the world of Azeroth and to see that people still believes that IC conflict is great for the combined realms.

Reading through everyone's posts, to give your permission for others to peer into your perception is a very kind gesture of you all and I thank you all for supporting change.


Now to reply to some of your posts and most my own thoughts on the subject.

Evil, as many of you have said before is indeed a matter of perspective and a good example for this is in fact those that has been working with the system for personal In character benefit. To make their character stand out for either personal gain, or to create a lot more roleplay. Either way, the amount of In character drama it created was glorious and fueled the realm like throwing gasoline on burning coal.

We can honestly not create a good character, either evil nor good without stepping on a few toes. There will always be a few people who are jealous of others, of the popularity they have gained thanks to their hard effort. Because make no mistake, to make a good villain, who follows the law is very difficult and definitely not something for everyone, especially not beginners. It is why, very often I tell people new to roleplay not to take certain classes, such as Demon Hunters, Warlocks, Shadow Priests or Death Knights. Due to them being inherently evil.

Well, that's my ramble on the subject!

It is still very much appreciated that you give your time on the subject!

Two points, sort of on-topic:
1. Conflict does not have to come from one party being evil. Guild conflicts between sides that generally speaking are equally "in the right" can be amazing. Good people who just happen to screw each other over and begrudge each other too.

2. The largest barrier for a villain character is when a "hero" character's player starts perceiving the villain as an antagonist in his character's story, instead of as a protagonist in a story of his own. If people start perceiving and treating your character like an event, then the scenarios Cid describe with good roflstomping over evil and going to the inn for celebratory tea and biscuits will soon come real.

(that second one is kind of why evil characters don't always create more conflict etc. a well written evil character has plenty of his own things going on without air dropping bodies over Stormwind or heading over to stab  guard every night. finding a good balance of private and public evil is crucial)

I love the short summary you did here Caldwyn, and your statement is correct. A villain, my good friends is not there for your entertainment unless he has stated so specifically or is a part of an event. The man or women behind that character has created her or him for his own entertainment. He is not part of your personal story, but to create conflict between the two of them together.

A good example of this is simply; "When knitting, you need two things; The needles and the fabric. If you have those two, you can make anything from the simplest scarf to the most fantastic embroidery."

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