So, in my latest dnd session, I had one of my players meet with an old NPC friend from his bounty hunting days. The NPC had just recently joined the evil origination, and the whole point of the meeting was to introduce the evil organization and give the story some flavor. I wanted to pose some conflict in the player but not actually have him join the evil group. I really do not want to railroad my players, but having one of them become evil really just messes up the entire campaign. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep my players good but without forcing them to do something they don’t want to? I guess I had misjudged my player’s character and thought he had more of a conscious, but apparently not. The only way that I could think of to show the player that the evil organization is... well, an evil organization, is that the person he’s supposed to find and kill works for the good organization that is employing the party. I was hoping that, once the player knew that killing this person meant losing the support of a very strong ally, or even making a very strong enemy, he would choose not to be apart of the evil group. Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions? If so, that would be very much appreciated!
From a story writing perspective this sounds like an awesome intro to a "fall and redemption" plotline. The character gets involved with the evil organization and eventually receives a job (or several) that put their moral to the test. E.g. after several "normal" jobs the characters old friend joins a "good" organization fighting to help orphans or the poor or restore justice in the medieval dictatorship and the character gets a job to dispose of his old friend.
From a gameplay perspective this is quite bad, since it turns that character into the main protagonist of the story.
Personally, I would ask the other players if they are ok with going through this kind of redemption storyline (note: redemption is optional. It might as well happen that the entire group falls. Or even half of it goes down the evil path and half goes the good path).
If they are ok with it / like the idea: go for it.
If they don't want a main protagonist / redemption story: talk to the player. Tell them that in this case it is not possible for their character to join the evil organization and remain a part of the group. So either they refrain from joining the evil guys, or their character becomes an NPC.
Btw. the "PC becomes NPC" way allows for the redemption story to play out with the party staying in the good side. The player in question can create a "temporary" PC while the group tries to redeem his old character. Due to the close relationship between the "fallen character" and the PCs, the "fallen one" also makes for a great BBEG that the party feels personally connected to.
In addition to everything Naresea mentioned above, if the party (or some members) fall to evil, let them. It's their story as much as yours and if they want to be tempted to evil acts then let them do just that.
This can bring in a whole slew of problems for the character as well as their still good friends. Have a good aligned group come after the evil NPC for his crimes. Will the party protect their friend and be punished or killed for his/ her actions, or will they try to help bring them in.
It can make a great story, especially if it turns out they were secretly a double-agent, working with a good aligned organization to infiltrate and destroy the evil group, or a face heel turn is a standard trope that a lot of movies, shows and books use to bring about a memorable villain.
Every DM knows that anything you have planned out lasts about 5 seconds after it's introduced to the party, and you have to be able to adapt and go with whatever happens.
So true, and thanks for the feedback! The one problem is that the story is literally about the forces of Light vs. Darkness - quite literally, so having an evil PC is going to be challenging. I think the main thing I should adapt is the willingness to let my story change. It’s not about me, it’s about the story of the players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So, in my latest dnd session, I had one of my players meet with an old NPC friend from his bounty hunting days. The NPC had just recently joined the evil origination, and the whole point of the meeting was to introduce the evil organization and give the story some flavor. I wanted to pose some conflict in the player but not actually have him join the evil group. I really do not want to railroad my players, but having one of them become evil really just messes up the entire campaign. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep my players good but without forcing them to do something they don’t want to? I guess I had misjudged my player’s character and thought he had more of a conscious, but apparently not. The only way that I could think of to show the player that the evil organization is... well, an evil organization, is that the person he’s supposed to find and kill works for the good organization that is employing the party. I was hoping that, once the player knew that killing this person meant losing the support of a very strong ally, or even making a very strong enemy, he would choose not to be apart of the evil group. Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions? If so, that would be very much appreciated!
From a story writing perspective this sounds like an awesome intro to a "fall and redemption" plotline. The character gets involved with the evil organization and eventually receives a job (or several) that put their moral to the test. E.g. after several "normal" jobs the characters old friend joins a "good" organization fighting to help orphans or the poor or restore justice in the medieval dictatorship and the character gets a job to dispose of his old friend.
From a gameplay perspective this is quite bad, since it turns that character into the main protagonist of the story.
Personally, I would ask the other players if they are ok with going through this kind of redemption storyline (note: redemption is optional. It might as well happen that the entire group falls. Or even half of it goes down the evil path and half goes the good path).
If they are ok with it / like the idea: go for it.
If they don't want a main protagonist / redemption story: talk to the player. Tell them that in this case it is not possible for their character to join the evil organization and remain a part of the group. So either they refrain from joining the evil guys, or their character becomes an NPC.
Btw. the "PC becomes NPC" way allows for the redemption story to play out with the party staying in the good side. The player in question can create a "temporary" PC while the group tries to redeem his old character. Due to the close relationship between the "fallen character" and the PCs, the "fallen one" also makes for a great BBEG that the party feels personally connected to.
In addition to everything Naresea mentioned above, if the party (or some members) fall to evil, let them. It's their story as much as yours and if they want to be tempted to evil acts then let them do just that.
This can bring in a whole slew of problems for the character as well as their still good friends. Have a good aligned group come after the evil NPC for his crimes. Will the party protect their friend and be punished or killed for his/ her actions, or will they try to help bring them in.
It can make a great story, especially if it turns out they were secretly a double-agent, working with a good aligned organization to infiltrate and destroy the evil group, or a face heel turn is a standard trope that a lot of movies, shows and books use to bring about a memorable villain.
Every DM knows that anything you have planned out lasts about 5 seconds after it's introduced to the party, and you have to be able to adapt and go with whatever happens.
So true, and thanks for the feedback! The one problem is that the story is literally about the forces of Light vs. Darkness - quite literally, so having an evil PC is going to be challenging. I think the main thing I should adapt is the willingness to let my story change. It’s not about me, it’s about the story of the players.