(03-16-2014, 01:53 AM)UltraFennec Wrote:(03-15-2014, 10:13 PM)Illira Wrote: Part of the challenge is though, that 'evil' characters tend to be very self-serving, and don't often have a desire to work even amongst their own kind outside of what directly benefits them. They often don't trust each other as far they can throw each other, at least at first meeting.Â
I feel this is a kind of comic-book-ish, stereotypical vision of evil that Final Fantasy uses often, but doesn't really lend itself to good roleplay. People who are 'evil' are often just so in the eyes of their society, and even when they are legitimately terrible people willing to do terrible things...I really doubt the people who succeed at it are going to do this kind of backstabbing if they actually want to make good on their aims.
You only get to be a total dick when you're at the top of the power structure, and safe from most reprisal.
Hence the 'evil'. I roleplay antagonist characters as characters, not a means to an end. Which is unfortunately what many of these amalgam 'evil' guilds are. They aren't self-sustaining because they don't have a real, motivating reason to work together. They try to hard to say, "ALL THE EVIL THINGS" and don't move outside of that box. Sure, there are arcs, but they often don't make much sense in the larger picture of things.
The point of what I was trying to say is that, antagonistic, unlawful characters work with each other in a different manner by necessity, and yet still need a mutual goal to work towards like any other guild. Those are challenges that have to be addressed when creating an 'evil' aligned guild.
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As an example, one of my characters is a corrupt Brass Blade captain. While I only have one friend whose RPed as a Blade in that office, there are interesting dynamics of my captain working hard to keep the machine oiled so that the bribes roll in un-noticed by the higher ups. He gets frustrated and has to discipline an unruly member of the 'family' who isn't careful enough to pay attention to who is around when she is talking about things that she shouldn't. Her doing that is not only a threat to her, but to him, and his whole office. That's not the sort of thing that a 'good' aligned group has to deal with. Its a completely different dynamic to explore.
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