The problem with some cultists

I've been rping in Stormwind for a while now, and I've noticed what seems to be a problem with a lot of cultist/evil sort of characters. That problem being that they are way, WAY too obvious about their activities. I understand that the Slaughtered Lamb is meant to be a "shady" sort of tavern, but I don't think that makes sitting around the bar area, not drinking anything and talking very loudly about DARK POWERS and FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE an intelligent thing to do. There's also the matter of dress sense - the evil people all tend to dress like... Well... Evil people. By which I mean wearing armour with skulls on it, carrying staves tipped with fel fire, dread purple robes of the abyss etc etc. I just think it'd make a lot more sense for the evil/shady players to have... Well, a sense of subtlety?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

The "good" evil people rarely falls onto your description.

Fyi.

I didn't mean to imply that all evil players were bad at it either, I have seen a few ones that pull it off quite well.

My little Daerma is quite secretative and sinister actually.

What you are writing about are the people that want their characters to be 'black', instead of 'gray'. Then I am the kind of person that believes that the ideal characters, how sinister they may be, are infact 'gray'.
Then their characters are the stereotypical evil villains that people tend to see on children's programmes. With that I mean the types that look, behave and speak unrealistically 'bad' and will tell all in the world what their evil plans are.

So yes, you have simply encountered characters lacking character.

I'll quote myself (lols) from another thread, since I've said this same things many times so far:

Mandui wrote:As I see it, well RP'ed villains don't really become loud about their....evilness. That's one of the points many people don't get right when trying to RP an evil character. Most of the successful ones are actually rather quiet and might often conceal themselves behind good deeds in order to never have their true goals or ambitions exposed.

Sadly, too many of those wanting to play a cultist/thug/villain go about almost yelling "AAAARRRHH! ME SO EBUL!!!" with how they behave, which is...a huge letdown, even before getting to know their toons decently though RP.

And some of the most evil characters you never suspect or find out about. So technically, good characters you know of may in fact be horribly evil people who hide their deeds behind culprits and scapegoats. How's that for paranoia?

Some evil organizations even put 'holy' in their guild name to fool you!

How cheeky of them!

Some people prefer to be play badass evil dude instead of the secretely evil dude.
I try play along as often as is possible, meaning that I will let my chars be intimidated by such strange attire but I will not, not in the slightest, consider them evil unless proven otherwise.
"oh noes, why would I suspect this man bearing horrible skulls on his pauldrons to have ever killed anyone in his life?"

In the end it's a choice, I think, about theatrics... And it is difficult to balance it properly. There are also differences in preference. Imagine a Greek theater, where the "evil" entity is wearing a 4 foot large mask with evil marks and still manages to convince the hero he's a good guy. Then there's the thriller-story kind where nobody suspects a thing until the final plot is revealed.

Obviously, considering such an extreme context, people will cry out the greek approach is rediculous... Yet theatricalities on characters and controlled exposure of your intentions in emotes have proven great tools to help roleplay and improve the quality of it.

While I deplore shouting about a plot to assassinate the king... being a tad theatrical makes it easy to catch the style of a character.

Some people prefer to be play badass evil dude instead of the secretely evil dude.

Though if you ask me, in most cases it's simply a guy/girl who's new to rp/evil rp and does things "wrong". Sure it's perhaps not wrong, but he or she will gain more experience in cultist RP and think to himself "lol I gotta change some shit".

Edit: I think you should change the tittle to "The problem with some cultists."

The Shrouds Dark mages will be very discreet. We have a simple guild rule for DKs and mages, you are caught uing banned magic, you take the full ic response to that what ever it will be.

My shadowmancer carrys a small blade and it is all he will use to defend himself in the city. He will offend no one if he can help it and if threatened, likely run away.

All this having been said i have had ooc whispers about whether he is a "cultist" and wishes to take over the kingdom already! If they RPed with him they would soon know that answer.

To be fair, by my own experience of roleplaying a cultist, unless you practically cease existing and do nothing except bolster your own strength, you can barely survive.

When lighties or so see a cultist guild, all they see (by my experience mind) is "Another target to eliminate!" letting the guild not bolster their numbers before setting events with them, of which usually the 'good guys' win. Of course, this will greatly demoralize the cultist group per se and then they quickly die out.

But eh, that's just my two cents.

I agree Timna. It happens to alot of evil guilds. There is a blood lust to be the person/group to crush them.

Ive seen it with ic death too. Once word gets out a char is killable then everyone is mobbing them to put the last cut into him. IC death should be Treated better than a rush and spam to death.

Well, whether it's somebody new not quite understanding the art of subtlety, or someone that outwardly wants to RP the obvious badass cultist/thug/evil genious... there isn't anything anyone can do without proof of them being so.

So, unless said person jumps in your face and exclaims "BITCH PLEASE, I'M A MO'FACKIN' CULTIST. HOLLA!" there's bugger all you can do about it, thus rendering it a mute point. It affects nothing.

Ledgic Caan wrote:So, unless said person jumps in your face and exclaims "BITCH PLEASE, I'M A MO'FACKIN' CULTIST. HOLLA!" there's bugger all you can do about it, thus rendering it a mute point. It affects nothing.

I disagree with this, tbh. If people are dumb enough to make it obvious they're cultists or whatever... Well, my character's aren't stupid. They're going to figure out the obvious

glilya wrote:

Ledgic Caan wrote:So, unless said person jumps in your face and exclaims "BITCH PLEASE, I'M A MO'FACKIN' CULTIST. HOLLA!" there's bugger all you can do about it, thus rendering it a mute point. It affects nothing.

I disagree with this, tbh. If people are dumb enough to make it obvious they're cultists or whatever... Well, my character's aren't stupid. They're going to figure out the obvious

Shadow users and to a minor extent, warlocks, are accepted in Stormwind these days. IC'ly, sure, you can look at someone dressed like that and immediately point the cultist finger, but it doesn't mean they'll just admit it.

Well, unless they go through the whole holla routine I mentioned.

I would suggest anyone wearing skulls only has themself to blame if they get into trouble. I would suggest plain clothes is a better idea.

Lexgrad/Dreth wrote:I would suggest anyone wearing skulls only has themself to blame if they get into trouble. I would suggest plain clothes is a better idea.

Sure, it is. My point is, even if you walk up and see "Mr. Skull3000" standing in a bar, there is sod all you can do just by judging his fashion sense.

Well if you become suspicious then there are ic ways of moving the story onwards. Go find a priest or a guard for example. This is why My shadowmancer is very keen to keep below the radar of the guards/inquisitors.

I laaaaav my favourite target in SW. Not only does she perform rituals where she's walked in on too easy, she starts chucking fel fire at us right outside the Pig, then proceeds to WALK calmly by the front door as if she's a god. XD

To be fair however, if you rp as a fel warlock it is likely a matter of time before you lose your mind XD

And that's why Orcs are supperior. An orc with skulls decorating their shoulders get respect, not murdered! More so if it's human skulls!

But I'd agree that many who Roleplay "evil" do it rather badly since they are far to obviously evil, instead of being subtle.

... that explains why the rated bg mount has no skulls for the alliance, but has skulls for the worg. It al makes sense now.

...Wait what? You might want to take another look.

Lexgrad/Dreth wrote:The Shrouds Dark mages will be very discreet. We have a simple guild rule for DKs and mages, you are caught uing banned magic, you take the full ic response to that what ever it will be.

But the Shroud's death knights don't have a problem with the dark and evil armor. Discreet doesn't just mean 'not using banned magic', it means not looking like you're someone that does, too.


Drustai occasionally wears dark outfits with skulls on them. She is not a cultist seeking the end of Stormwind or anything, though. For her, it is both a fashion statement (a way for her to reference her being a necromancer, which she takes pride in, without outright stating it) as well as an aid to her casting, as the skulls on the armor are there to aid her in channeling shadow energies.

Even then, she doesn't wear those kind of outfits all the time, and is frequently in non-evil outfits... which has, funnily enough, gotten her yelled at by fellow DKs for 'pretending to be living'.