Depending on how this goes if and where board monitors move this will be an interactive guide to playing an evil PC. We will start with the basics and expand allowing others to have their own words, just no painting targets for board trolls and we will have much fun. :)

What is evil?
- Evil is the opposite of good. With both sides there is the extremes of evilness and goodness. The extremes of good is the destruction of a large city to save the entire continent to a paladin arresting a known criminal. The extremes for evil go from the saving a group of children from near death and after they realize they are safe then torturing them with very nasty tortures TO kicking a cat because it crossed your path. Evil is part of the four axis of balance in the universe; there is good, evil, order and chaos. When there is too much good there will be a lot of bad things. When there is too much order there will be chaos. To be evil is to understand and accept it as part of the universe.

How to be evil?
- To be evil is a choice you should make the very moment you exit the character manager and the only time you should change it would be before he/she would walk the starry road. If a person decides one day they will be evil and go through the things that is labeled evil then the next morning act like nothing will happen is giving us evil people bad PR.

Now that I am evil, what next?
- First off know every nook and cranny in the game. When things get messy the next rule is for every cause there is an effect. Logging to avoid conflict is bad par with players and also bad par with other evil characters. If you know of places to hide go there and only actually HIDE when they start to figure out your hiding spots.

What should I do when I have a sword pointing at me?
- If your a cowardly evil character then you may beg for your life because there is still hope to avoid combat. With some people it would only make them angrier other times it may let you off the hook depending on the crime. You could always make a mad dash for another secret hideout at the very least fight your way out. Before this point it is always good to have some assistants from people friendly to the cause to drag your body, rejuv, heal whatever to keep you going. If you do die while fighting your way out you may be able to convince a few people to join your cause giving you more strength in numbers.

You mentioned hideouts, what should I look for?
- Hideouts is a place for you to go to be safe. Also note that this place should not be a spot where combat is not allowed and is lockable where they can't get in. Guild only places is also a no no because this is mech abuse and will make yourself look like a cowardly snert. Both sides love the chase and both sides love it when there is a twist of advantage to either side.

Also it will be a good time to mention to look at what the actual policy is for everything. People have their rights and so do you. Do not try to find the loopholes to policy and when things go bad to cry foul and report like crazy. This is why there has been problems in the past. Only time to cry foul is when a person is trying to walk your character, or is trying do mechanic abuse like drag your body into a no drag room. The moment people report is the moment the fun has stopped so keep in mind that you are not the only one having fun.

Player of Ceranos Lefir

Well to be evil in RL would more than likely violate many laws in your home country/state and as it stands the best way to be evil is to find a legal means to vent out such evilness like TF.


Ceranos Lefir

-Evil is more than just an artform, it is a frame of mind.

That sight scared me. I changed my mind; I don't want to be evil anymore.

>>Well to be evil in RL would more than likely violate many laws in your home country/state and as it stands the best way to be evil is to find a legal means to vent out such evilness like TF.

Not necessarily, look at managed health care, lawyers, and anyone selling something to the government (ie, medicare). Everything that happens in the above instances is purely legal yet might not be moral or just.

Then you got the politicians who can legalize bad behavior (drug-forfeiture laws, for instance, where they can take everything you own if a drug law was violated on that property--even if you have no knowledge of the crime committed (ie, the DEA busted a drugdealer on your front lawn while you were off at work)).

J'Lo, no that other one

Just remember that if your going to roleplay the bad guy, that most likely you will come to a bad end. Most of the time the bad guy doesn't win.

Jim

evil will alway triumph, because good is dumb - Lord Helmet, Spaceballs.

Yamcer <--

LOL! I am so going to have to watch that movie again. Its been years and I've seen a few posts where folks have mentioned Spaceball things lately. Darn you people!

Jim, give me some paw!

<evil guild leader -> despite your lack of knowledge in the following subject i still feel you will not have a chance in this guild or anyother and there for i am deducting #of ranks for your stupidity, know go forth and sacrifice a goat in my honor.>

We already have evil guild leaders:

Kssarh -> "So, you've been waiting 20 [real] months for your 100th promotion? I think you've been too lax. You need to train 50 more Power Perception and 50 more Scholarship and ... oh, you've been playing Ranger ... in the next 3 months and maybe I'll consider it.

Other guilds have and are having worst experiences. Oddly enough, this may also be considered a Good act, the making of a stronger guild [or more sustainable gaming experience]. Even though the presentation is Evil in that it intends to harm the recipient.

Seriously though, Evil and Good are what we make it as players. I consider Good the harder of the two characters to play. Good characters have to answer to a conscience and usually a stricter moral code than Evil characters. Good is not being just not-Evil.

Player of Cloudcrest

I would like bring something to the table about this discussion of RP'ing an evil character. I hope that what I say is fresh because I have not, until recently, taken any interest in this topic and so have not attended any of the seminars or followed any of the threads that were probably influencial in creating the idea of an evil PC as it currently stands.
That being said I believe the phrase "RP'ing an evil character" inherintly prevents a person from acheiving the influence of evil. In real life what really makes a person evil is not the fact that they commit crimes but the nature of the crimes they commit. There are people who steal because they are hungry, or cheap, or arrogant, but there aren't a lot of people who steal, hope for a worse case scenario, and then revel in the pure malevolence of negatively affecting as many people as possible through violence or fear etc. If you want to honestly play a character that has the same sort of effect in DR then you have to figure out how to affect other players in the same way.
The nature of DR is such that heinous acts like murder, theft, and assault are toned down so that it is impossible to truly have an evil influence on other characters because the psychological effects that make things truly evil are practically nil. The only truly effectively evil character is going to be the character who is able to actually make the other players forget about their PC's and begin taking things personally. To that end, such actions like rape, racism, and other crimes of that nature are going to be the most effective avenues for achieving the type of far reaching evil that people seem to desire judging from the posts that I have read.
These things are, of course, against policy and, even more importantly, far to wretched to even consider. The fact remains that RP'ing an evil character will always be difficult because the only way it will work is if people choose to let the "evil" actions of a character affect them. The bottom line is that you can only be truly evil if other people are willing to let you and, in my experiance, even those who are willing to "RP" along will only do so to a point and then will simply refuse to let you be evil to them.
As a case in point, during an altercation in the Thieves Haven a Novice asked a fellow thief about the Order he was a member of. The more experianced player told the Novice to stuff it and words were exchanged. After a while the Novice began making attacks that were clearly meant to insult the personality of the player and not the PC. The novice was killed, departed, and returned with all his equipment in about 60 seconds. Now, even though the more experianced player commited an act of murder, the Novice was the more evil of the two because he successfully caused the other player to commit a crime that basically had no adverse affect. If the more experiance player had chosen not to murder the Novice then there would have been nothing evil about the encounter and the Novice would have been labeled a snert.
Another example would be the Demi's who used to play DR several years ago. They were some of the most annoying people I ever had to play a game with. They murdered others frequently, were abrasive to 90 percent of the people they met, and just were generally bad guys. But they weren't ever described as evil. They were called all sorts of names but never evil because no one was ever really harmed by what they were doing. My favorite "evil" character was Rock, who played a Dark Paladin but even he wasn't ever truly an evil influence on others. He very nearly succeded once when he tried to start a brothel but no one attended it or the GM's shut it down or something. The point is when he truly started to have an genuinly evil influence on others it didn't work. Rock was brash and seemed like a very big jerk but just never got around to the genuinly evil character.
The bottom line is that truly evil influence can only be attained in DR by getting people to react to you on a personal level and not because they're RP'ing off of your character. Because other players always have the ultimate decision about whether that can happen or not you are clearly left at their mercy. Because many generically evil acts have had the sting taken out of them, which is only right, the nature of the actions you would have to be willing to commit would hopefully prevent you from actually seriously being evil.

>>I thought the more "difficult evil" to handle was when the "evil person" believes they are doing the correct/right/necessary action.

The more difficult one to handle would probably be the person who knows a given action is necessary but is loathe to do them and in fact because of the inner conflict surrounding the event may not even be able to do them until goaded. The person who resorts to an evil deed as the correct or right reaction probably won't have things to make them pause and consider their actions (ie, the vengeful father who skins the rapist who attacked his daughter).

J'Lo, no that other one