Getting away with it
-
Whether it's being a cultist and conducting demonic rituals, or a necromancer hellbent on creating their undead army, these generally evil beings have to put in a lot of careful planning into what they do in order to stick around long enough to see their plots unfold.
What are some tips or general guidelines that you found that might help someone "get away with it"? How do they gain allies they can trust, or how do they find/create the opportunities to conduct their hobbies? Etc.
-
When you are playing a high risk, high reward concept- the goal is to let EVERYONE know what you're up to, and how you're going to do it, and laugh at when they fail.
Of course, if you're in it for long haul, take a page out of the Thayan playbook...
-
As someone who has played a decent amount of villains, prominent ones too, there's a few guidelines I think:
-
Partner in Crime: It REALLY helps having someone come in with your concept to either duo or minion with you. One that's loyal, etc. Two people draw more attention than one, not only to dms but to other players as well for gathering allies.
-
Don't be afraid to go balls to the wall. DM's like that. Players like that. Everyone likes that. Doesn't matter if you spend 3k worth of supplies in a random 1v1 vs a private in the Spire for 30 minutes. Worth it for the rep.
-
Forum recruitment: big important thing here. OOC posts and IC posts regarding recruitment draws attention, whether that be good or bad attention.
-
Presence/reputation: build presence. it's really damn important. All about having players FEAR you. That's what makes it interesting and risky to try and face you. Sure, they may be able to beat you in the end. But if they have to spend 6k gold and you still flee, makes them more worried and hesitant.
-
Don't have a gimp build as a leader: sure sure, you can be like some weird build or whatever. But you will struggle. Best to eliminate what struggles you have as an evil person that has the ultimate struggle as it is anyways.
-
Don't be a dick: No one likes FD's. You may end up getting wordlessly FD ganked. But don't be that person. In fact, criminals that rarely FD or never do are best I think. Ending other concepts is a big blow, and you'll get some leeway from other players if you show respect.
-
Learn to PvP: Consumnables are your lifeblood. My advice is keep at least one inventory tab dedicated to potions, and another for combat consumnables (combine the two if you don't have enough). Smart pvp = best pvp.
-
Praise Spiffy.
-
Subdue verk every time you see his PC.
-
???
-
Profit.
-
-
As a side note,
Right now is kind of a bad time for evil folk, they're losing a lot of support in Old Town. Chaos Brigade, while many disliked it for it's confusing goals, gave Team Evil a lot of benefits and help (rip brigade powers). Plus with the heavy Stone nerfs, you have to be a lot smarter as a villain. Especially with the heavy goldsink that team evil is.
-
As a former member of many evil factions, you need three things:
- Be able to PvP.
- Have loyal minion(s).
- Don't get too attached to your PC.
-
You don't have to be able to PvP to play a good evil PC, but it certainly helps. You just have to tailor your playstyle on your PC to what you think you're actually able to accomplish. If you don't like PvP, you could play a cowardly sneak who is all about acquiring information and doing others to do his dirty work, having a figurehead that they think they work for when he is actually in control. Though obviously that takes a lot of success and intrigue to reach that level.
-
Everyone plays it differently.
In general, my advice:
- Don't be a dick.
- Understand that the story develops at the pace you set.
- Give people a way to interact with you other than fight to survive.
- Roll with punches.
- Don't become paranoid. It makes things not fun, and when it's not fun you stop playing.
- Involve others. Playing with other people, even enemies, is what makes CoA fun.
- Play to lose. Everyone loses in CoA. Good guys lose in CoA. It's how you lose that matters.
PvP is great and all, but relying on it too much will lead you down the path of red till dead. Give yourself a plot, and let your rivals work against that plot.
-
One of my best pieces of advice for people who ARE "Good at PVP" is, when you use it, try to use it sparringly.
And if you are confident you can win a fight, and this might sound crazy, but, don't win it.
And I don't mean intentionally get arrested and executed.
I mean, fight, then when you take a hit or five, don't uber buff rofl stomp. Flee, cursing your enemies, vowing to defeat them next time, or destroy their sacred grove/temple/friends face.
Even if you do manage to leave everyone on the floor, don't stand there and gloat over their wrecked mechanically challenged avatars, leave a hint to your next plan (you know, the cool thing your doing that isn't just wrecking face, cos you have that right? I mean... you must, otherwise your character literally sucks) and then "Hear a noise" or "spot the militia in the distance" or use one of your characters flaws/fears, to have to leave hastily without robbing them of everything (unless you need an item of thiers to further the story)
Basically, if you are SUPER AWESOME and CAN BEAT ALL COMERS!!!!!!111!!
Then use that as a tool to make things fun for the -players- who your fighting against.
Don't use it as a way to bully -players-use it as a tool to make things interesting, and make people want to fight you next time.
Only pull out the big guns when your against odds that actually legitamately threaten you.
It's way better. You don't end up stalking the server solo or just in your own group with no-one else wanting to be involved in your tale for fear of "What's the point, they are just OP"
-
Part of being feared is reputation. If you kill all who come against you- who is going to be scared of you? :)
-
Yeah, having a crew / buddy always helps. IC and OOC having someone else to bounce stuff off is key, so go and make evil friends!
But remember - you WILL get ganked, you WILL come out of the experience wondering what the point was and you WILL be left with a sour taste in your mouth.
Playing "interesting evil" is the best and worst thing about CoA and I have found you need to be very thick skinned to actually enjoy doing it.
Have fun, bro!
-
In my experience playing covert evil tends to be boring. Way too little action and it's near impossible to hide without limiting your actions and shenanigans with the player base being as low as it is if you don't start with at least another person. Not to mention how a lot of mechanics in nwn makes it not so fun (for instance you can't hide face).
However, I would very much RECOMMEND being overt evil as it speeds everything up, even death (that's the downside). The more things you have going the more fun it is ;D Ppl will know who you are and that means like-minded evil will suddenly get out of the bushes to join your cause while you are being chased by a crowd of pitchforks and torches.
Anyways hope you play evil, in my eyes the server can always use more evil as the more good a server is the less intrigue there is, and the more DM reliant it becomes. -
You can always be an evil mofo and be on the law side. Helps to stay alive.