Here is my heretical way I am gonna totally alter the Oerth in my home campaign. It shall be an unrecognizable disaster when I am done.
The players I judge in our Ravenloft/Age of Worms combo have turned their characters evil. The characters are essentially alter egos of the real life players - jerks. I don't know why, but they have decided to despise all of the good NPCs and always promise to return to destroy this place and that person. One of the players has an elf wizard (currently at 7th-level) that fancies himself the next Vecna. He always talks about ascending to godhood, and the other players act like his supplicants. He constantly pesters me about "finding the rules" that will allow his character to become a god. I was gonna stop playing with them and find a more heroic-minded group to play with. but, I had an idea.
I'll play their little game - since that's all it is, right? They are on their way to Alhaster. I am gonna let them play out the adventure, dropping in frequent tips and information indicating that this elf can eventually take Kyuss's place as a god on Oerth if they defeat him when he arrives in Dawn of a New Age. I am gonna sandbag them at the last fight against Kyuss, though.
I am gonna have the Essense of Shothragot show up as a "herald" of Kyuss, first. He should soften them up a good bit. Then, I'll have Kyuss enter the world to finish them off. They shall not be able to fight both of them in a running battle.
The moment these characters are defeated shall usher in the Age of Worms. I'll introduce the elements of evil holding total sway on the Oerth via Midnight 2nd Edition - changing everything to match up with the Flanaess, of course. The entry of Kyuss into the world tears the solar system the Oerth in from the fabric of time and space, effectively cutting off all other forms of divine influence and power. Kyuss's clerics (the legates) shall be the only ones with access to divine spells.
Kyuss shall destroy Iuz and Wastri. Any other evil that does not align with Kyuss shall likewise be destroyed. Magic users shall be hunted to extermination and any use of magic is banned. No more clerics; no more wizards or sorcerers. No paladins or druids. Kyuss shall attune magic to himself and his legates, giving them an affinity that tells them when and where it is being used.
One hundred years later, the Night Kings shall rule the Oerth. Perhaps I'll make Grennel the Night King of the Flanaess, with the four others holding sway elsewhere. He fights an eternal war against Celene and the Vesve - which are connected by an immense forest that sprang up when Kyuss's evil dominated the fools that opposed him upon his arrival at Redhand. All the while, Kyuss seeks a physical form and searches for a way to undo the Sundering that ripped the world from the multiverse.
Seems like a lot of trouble for characters I don't really care for. But, it shall be worth it to allow them to progress so far (18th to 20th-level), then rip it all from them and have their character's names remembered as those that foolishly destroyed themselves and the world - eternally cursed and hated, because they allowed themselves to be used as pawns by an evil greater and more powerful than they could ever have hoped to be.
Have you read AEG's book "Evil"? In the intro to the book, the author notes how in one campaign all of his players were evil, and after that campaign ended those evil characters were the villains in the next campaign. Very fun... _________________ Greyhawk is dead; long live Greyahwk! It is not heresy; I will not recant!
When ever I have evil player characters I always punch'em in the face with something that really counts. They want to be evil, fine. I always tell my players I'll give them alllllllll the rope they want to hang themselves with. Theres two ways to do this.
First off you start by saying that from now on, in order to prevent people from constantly cycling characters, new characters will be coming in the at start several, maybe three, levels below the other players.
As your guys are running amok acting like total **** hats, through an occasional group of Paladins at them. Paladins are the Elite of the Elite so they are going to just charge in like barbarians, they'll enter battle with a specific objective and they will stick to that objective. Send them all after one character. Make sure he is the most vile of the group. If these wannabe villains are worth their salt they should have had plenty of opportunity to commit some pretty heinous crimes, if he hasn't, give him some rope. Then use the Paladins. Kill him. If he complains about the level drop, just say that there has to be consequences to having a character die, after all a new character is a clean slate, he hasn't had the time to make enemies or end up with curses. Besides, this makes combat more exciting. If you know that your character may actually die there is that much more of an adrenalyn rush when you make that Reflex save (or Paralyze/Poison, what ever edition you're running).
They other way to deal with it is to actually turn them into hero's. This take time and a lot of work on your part. Give them an antagonist that they can't possibly beat. Make sure to underscore what ever it is that may personally effect them. Start putting little clues in that have to deal with the fate of the entire party. Only give that information to one guy. Keep doing this over and over again. Now give clues to big treasures and magical items. Again, only give this information to one guy. Eventually someone will get greedy and **** up. They'll either A)
Straighten up or B) All die trying to slit each others throats.
This works especially nicely when you have an antagonist offer a reward directly to the players (Secretly so that each feels special and like he is the only one) to have the leaders head brought in on a platter. When they do so have the evil overlord kill the traitor. His reasoning being, "If you would betray your most trusted ally, why would you stay loyal to me?"
After all that you can sit back and say "See what happens when you don't trust each other?"
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