I find it difficult to play RPGs as an evil character. And the "good resolution" of most of the quests in modern RPGs are the most rewarding in XP and items.
Another Good guy here. I just feel bad when I'm Evil.
That is not to say that I always respect the law and never tell Imoen (or another thief) to rob a house of all its valuables (nobles and commoners alike), but I will not quickly stab somebody in the face because they looked at me funny. Unless they deserve it. Then I'm all for violent facial stabbings.
So Chaotic Good, mostly. Neutral Good at most. Even when I play a Paladin, I pretend my Paladin just happened to pretend he was very lawful to keep up appearances whilst Imoen stole the golden pantaloons from the rich noble who was distracted by his shining armour. Going 100% Lawful just seems... Well, like a bit of a terrible idea. Inflexibility seems like a bad thing.
@Mercure See I'm different with my Paladin. I TRY to play her as lawful good, but sometimes Imoen or a bard comes up to me and goes "look at this great thing I just found lying around." Or some other non-sense. My paladins usually have like 8 or 9 int due to stat rolls so my paladin just kinda nods at whatever story they throw at me.
True neural good to get the rabbit (best familiar)....but actually always play the game chaotic good. The realms is such an inequitable and corrupt place, anything but chaotic good just seems like a compromise. For example, the churches and law enforcement organizations throughout Amn are all corrupted by power mongers and devious plots. Only a Chaotic good charname is morally equipped to face down those hypocritical organizations. As a child of Baal, it makes sense for the charname to be guided by their own moral compass...considering they are on the path to godhood, to which ultimately they will guide their own worshipers. Of course, the evil alignments throws a monkey-wrench into this theory, but then there are plenty of evil temples in Amn. The realms seems to favor a wide spectrum of morality.
So Chaotic Good, mostly. Neutral Good at most. Even when I play a Paladin, I pretend my Paladin just happened to pretend he was very lawful to keep up appearances whilst Imoen stole the golden pantaloons from the rich noble who was distracted by his shining armour. Going 100% Lawful just seems... Well, like a bit of a terrible idea. Inflexibility seems like a bad thing.
Chaotic Good really seems to be the most adventurery alignment of the good ones. I wouldn't be surprised if "house looting" was one of the classes in the Neverwinter Academy :P
I'd have to say evil but not Edwin's "murder the witch for me" brand of evil or Shar-Teel's bloodthirstly kind of evil... but rather Xzar and Monty's kind (2 characters who almost always have a spot in my group). Xzar belongs to an evil organisation but he is a *mostly* polite madman with a silently threatening thug (Monty) for a partner.
I'm usually That Guy in a D&D group that wants to play an Evil character. And, having been burned in the past, other players and DMs are like "whoa, we can't have some psycho killing the rest of the party in their sleep." I then proceed to assuage them by playing a more sensible Evil character who needs to be promised a lot more than a few hundred gold or a single magical item to betray his new and powerful minions.
Soon, I'm going to be playing a genasi Blackguard of Evil alignment in a steampunk-themed 4E game where genasi are magically manufactured super soldiers. Most genasi in this world are incapable of thinking for themselves or having ambitions or emotions, and my character is one of the few who is more or less entirely sentient. His lack of empathy makes his newly cognitive self quite ruthless, but he finds he cares so much about being this perfect, artificial superman that he is ruled by others' perceptions of him, and is thus largely harmless, because villains aren't popular or loved. It's essentially the Frankenstein/Golem type of story, except instead of becoming this gentle, ugly giant he is a greedy, vain, and arrogant ceramic-skinned prettyboy.
I've played numerous (numerous) games that allow you to choose your path (i.e. good/neutral/evil), ranging from Baldurs's Gate to Icewind Dale to Jade Empire to KOTOR to TOEE to whatever! The problem I have is (as a player) I am unable to follow through with an "evil" party. I find that it takes and enourmous amount of willpower to force myself down those paths. Sometimes I have simply stopped playing becuase I was unwilling to make those choices (even in a game which has no "real" consequence). Now as a DM or Gamemaster, I can play one nasty SOB without any problem! I've seen this in online games (MMO's) as well. There are some people (despite the anoymous nature of MMO's) that will not nor ever be "that guy" that ruins everyone's fun. I was also one of those guys that went ballistic when Seperioth killed Aerith during disc 2 for FF VII! I actually threw the controller, screamed profanities at the screen, and had to go through the "7 Steps" in order to accept that Aerith had gotten whacked!
good, mainly on the count that most people would never actually perform evil actions in real life, at least not to the extent that videogames portray them. DayZ is a perfect example of this: if there was a zombie apocalypse, i can guarantee you people would be happy as hell to find another survivor. it wouldn't be some hellish nightmare where every russian tries to shoot you on sight for the lolz.
But how people react in real life isn't really a compelling argument when most people play video games to get away from real life.
How we play video games (when no one is looking) says more about our true nature than anything else we do. When covered by the cloak of the internet, we allow the masks we present to the everyday world to slip. I would imagine many of us have seen those gamers who exist simply to cause grief and those willing to help for no other reason than to be helpful.
I also get riled up when someone says that games aren't real life! Most gamers I know (including me) expend an enourmous amount of energy, time, and sometimes money in pursuing their hobby either online or at a tabletop. This part of their life is a real as duck hunting, fishing, or playing golf.
How we play video games (when no one is looking) says more about our true nature than anything else we do. When covered by the cloak of the internet, we allow the masks we present to the everyday world to slip. I would imagine many of us have seen those gamers who exist simply to cause grief and those willing to help for no other reason than to be helpful.
I also get riled up when someone says that games aren't real life! Most gamers I know (including me) expend an enourmous amount of energy, time, and sometimes money in pursuing their hobby either online or at a tabletop. This part of their life is a real as duck hunting, fishing, or playing golf.
Totally disagree. That seems to be a terrible case of generalization. Are you suggesting I'm (and others who choose to play evil alignment) an evil person because I play an evil character? Sorry that is really far from the truth, and there are just as many douche-bags playing good as there are playing evil.
My favorite group involves my main character doing good things because it's rewarding and because I can't stand roleplaying evil.
Regardless, I usually have many evil characters along for the ride. Kagain, Edwin, and Viconia are all fantastic ... sometimes I also have Shar-Teel and/or Montaron, too. A lot of the Evil characters are statistically fantastic characters.
Good. Meaning I'm a bad role-player: in the game, I still want to help people and make Faerûn a better place to live, just like I try to with Earth IRL. I have a very hard time forcing myself to do evil deeds in-game.
Can't believe no-one's mentioned the cheesiest reason for being good yet. It allows you to use super-munchkin Drizzt's super-scimitar +5 when you use super-cheesy tactics to waste him .
Can't believe no-one's mentioned the cheesiest reason for being good yet. It allows you to use super-munchkin Drizzt's super-scimitar +5 when you use super-cheesy tactics to waste him .
?? what's Good about killing Drizzt?
He has the "Scimitar +5, Defender" sword which is actually lying. It's +3. But anyway, +3 Scimitar that gives you a -2 to your AC. You can only use it if you are of good alignment, that's what Miloch meant. Anyway it's pretty much the most beast weapon in the game.
How we play video games (when no one is looking) says more about our true nature than anything else we do. When covered by the cloak of the internet, we allow the masks we present to the everyday world to slip. I would imagine many of us have seen those gamers who exist simply to cause grief and those willing to help for no other reason than to be helpful.
I also get riled up when someone says that games aren't real life! Most gamers I know (including me) expend an enourmous amount of energy, time, and sometimes money in pursuing their hobby either online or at a tabletop. This part of their life is a real as duck hunting, fishing, or playing golf.
Totally disagree. That seems to be a terrible case of generalization. Are you suggesting I'm (and others who choose to play evil alignment) an evil person because I play an evil character? Sorry that is really far from the truth, and there are just as many douche-bags playing good as there are playing evil.
There is a vast, vast difference between a roleplayer assuming the persona of the evil character and those looking to satisfy their inner urges to cause grief. Roleplayers look to explore an alternate persona (often with the assistance of a DM or friends), while a few others are simply seeking to "Live at the expense of others" and ruin the enjoyment of a game for everyone.
Good, because the rewards are almost always the same or better than the evil path. Plus, a high reputation gets you a discount in stores..
However, I'm fine with breaking into every house and business in Beregost and Baldur's Gate to rob them blind, and pickpocketing every single character I meet. That kind of behaviour has no effect on alignment at all!
In a CRPG it doesn't make a lot of difference but trying to realistically role play Chaotic Evil characters means either the Party or the CE character will end up dead. It is the nature of Chaos, only Lawful and Neutral Evil types are capable of the rationalization of working for a mutual goal, and even then....its a strain. I also think that those people who relish choosing the evil paths in the CRPGs have been kidding themselves with the rationalization that "it only a game" yes to a point...but there are some deeper issues involved if ANY of my psych classes taught me anything at all.
In a CRPG it doesn't make a lot of difference but trying to realistically role play Chaotic Evil characters means either the Party or the CE character will end up dead. It is the nature of Chaos, only Lawful and Neutral Evil types are capable of the rationalization of working for a mutual goal, and even then....its a strain. I also think that those people who relish choosing the evil paths in the CRPGs have been kidding themselves with the rationalization that "it only a game" yes to a point...but there are some deeper issues involved if ANY of my psych classes taught me anything at all.
There's a huge difference between Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Stupid. Sarevok is a good example of Chaotic Evil, he's not subtle all that often, but he clearly has followers he actually trusts and are more than willing to help him become a god.
@Luge @Miloch Your character isn't Good if you do those things. -_-
There's a huge difference between Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Stupid. Sarevok is a good example of Chaotic Evil, he's not subtle all that often, but he clearly has followers he actually trusts and are more than willing to help him become a god.
. -_-
Thats where I think you are wrong, yes they are not Chaotic Stupid, They are insane/crazy (aka Chaotic) Evil and maybe a little cunning but the CHAOTIC part means that they will NOT be able to consistently do that which is the right thing to do toward their goal..... That would be a LAWFUL thing.....CHAOS vs LAW Evil is the morality, the method is CHAOS or LAW After reading about alignments for so long in so very many dragon magazines and on the early bulliten boards of the internet it became very clear that Chaotic Evil is a Brute Force unreasoning force to spread evil in all manner at all time.
The prime examples can be seen in The Lawful alignment "Devils" who were the ones who could work for/with non evil persons while they were seeking their own personal agenda, where as the Chaotic "Demons" were all about destruction and maximum entropy and couldnt consistently work with each other let alone a cogent group of non-evil beings.
If the Chaotic Beings WERE capable of working together in large groups for any period of time they would over power all else, as Entropy always wins.
I normally play as close to chaotic good as I can. Every time I try to use evil characters I just can't seem to make it very far without restarting. Now that I think about it, not one time did I go the Bodhi route in BG2... perhaps I'll take an evil party through and do that before BGEE is released!
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That is not to say that I always respect the law and never tell Imoen (or another thief) to rob a house of all its valuables (nobles and commoners alike), but I will not quickly stab somebody in the face because they looked at me funny. Unless they deserve it. Then I'm all for violent facial stabbings.
So Chaotic Good, mostly. Neutral Good at most. Even when I play a Paladin, I pretend my Paladin just happened to pretend he was very lawful to keep up appearances whilst Imoen stole the golden pantaloons from the rich noble who was distracted by his shining armour. Going 100% Lawful just seems... Well, like a bit of a terrible idea. Inflexibility seems like a bad thing.
Xzar belongs to an evil organisation but he is a *mostly* polite madman with a silently threatening thug (Monty) for a partner.
Soon, I'm going to be playing a genasi Blackguard of Evil alignment in a steampunk-themed 4E game where genasi are magically manufactured super soldiers. Most genasi in this world are incapable of thinking for themselves or having ambitions or emotions, and my character is one of the few who is more or less entirely sentient. His lack of empathy makes his newly cognitive self quite ruthless, but he finds he cares so much about being this perfect, artificial superman that he is ruled by others' perceptions of him, and is thus largely harmless, because villains aren't popular or loved. It's essentially the Frankenstein/Golem type of story, except instead of becoming this gentle, ugly giant he is a greedy, vain, and arrogant ceramic-skinned prettyboy.
I also get riled up when someone says that games aren't real life! Most gamers I know (including me) expend an enourmous amount of energy, time, and sometimes money in pursuing their hobby either online or at a tabletop. This part of their life is a real as duck hunting, fishing, or playing golf.
Regardless, I usually have many evil characters along for the ride. Kagain, Edwin, and Viconia are all fantastic ... sometimes I also have Shar-Teel and/or Montaron, too. A lot of the Evil characters are statistically fantastic characters.
However, I'm fine with breaking into every house and business in Beregost and Baldur's Gate to rob them blind, and pickpocketing every single character I meet. That kind of behaviour has no effect on alignment at all!
L.
@Luge
@Miloch
Your character isn't Good if you do those things. -_-
The prime examples can be seen in The Lawful alignment "Devils" who were the ones who could work for/with non evil persons while they were seeking their own personal agenda, where as the Chaotic "Demons" were all about destruction and maximum entropy and couldnt consistently work with each other let alone a cogent group of non-evil beings.
If the Chaotic Beings WERE capable of working together in large groups for any period of time they would over power all else, as Entropy always wins.