Items to bounce around

[Larry D. Hols]

Hallo,

>I've probably done about 8 evil oriented games.  Its alot harder but the
>morales are easier to control.  I mean kill everything in sight if you can get
>away with it kinda thinking.  Whereas my normal 'good' playing has moral
>conflicts.  You can get away with alot more in Evil type characters like
>backstabbing and such.

        Contrary to what a lot of my players think, when I get to _play_
characters, it's even odds whether the character will be good, evil, or
indifferent.  They can never tell when I'm playing an evil character,
anyway, because I don't care for
in-your-face-over-the-top-announce-it-to-one-and-all kinda evil.

Soapbox on...

        The most basic stances of Good and Evil that I can sift out in
games involve the character's most basic belief in how he fits into the
grand scheme of things.

        1)  Good creatures believe that Other can be as important as Self.

        2)  Evil creatures believe that Other is not as important as Self,
and Other only gains in relative importance if Self needs to use Other for
something.

...soapbox off.

        So, the evil characters I play are subtle in their schemes.  They
act much as a normal person, but are constantly scheming and maneuvering to
get others to help with plans both great and small.  Occasionally, overt
acts are called for, but as long as the character can manipulate others
into helping plans advance, so much the better.
        The character is thoroughly evil, in that he sees noone else being
of import.  Others are not important, but can be useful in attaining goals.
He will lie and manipulate to attain unwitting help from others, but if the
choice comes up between his goals and those of comrades, the comrades are
SOL.  And because others are not important, he will work to upset the plans
of others for no more reason than being bored and the other annoyed him.
        Now, this description was made with a particular character in mind,
but doesn't apply completely to all of mine.  They are all evil to some
degree, and all exhibit the evil in different manners.  This serves to
point out the insidiousness of evil, though, and show that it need not be
of the Villain In Black variety.

Larry