Personally, I like my villains to be backed by players, as long as everyone knows the ground rules and can follow ICA = ICC.
One approach, albeit one that has its own issues, is to have the same group (or very nearly the same group) of players play their own villainous nemeses. We did this for a bit back on CoH, where the Nemesis Council was locked in a struggle with the New Porter Institute. Almost everyone in one group played an alt in the other, and both sides schemed against the other in plotlines. No one wanted to destroy anyone else's character because, of course, that would lead to massive IC Consequences, so it was a lot of tit-for-tat villainy and heroic thwartings thereof. It was fun while it lasted; what killed it was the SGs growing with people who didn't want to participate. I've seen this arc work (while it lasts, anyway; the success of the guild concepts independently usually spells its demise) in EQ and EQ2 as well.
You can do a similar thing with allied guilds, though it seems eventually either everyone tires of the PvP or someone takes things too far (killing another PC) and there's no way to enforce IC consequences.
All that said, though, if someone or someones were going to be a group of magical terrorists and looking for a group of mages to heroically oppose them in a long-term game of cat and mouse, we should talk.
One approach, albeit one that has its own issues, is to have the same group (or very nearly the same group) of players play their own villainous nemeses. We did this for a bit back on CoH, where the Nemesis Council was locked in a struggle with the New Porter Institute. Almost everyone in one group played an alt in the other, and both sides schemed against the other in plotlines. No one wanted to destroy anyone else's character because, of course, that would lead to massive IC Consequences, so it was a lot of tit-for-tat villainy and heroic thwartings thereof. It was fun while it lasted; what killed it was the SGs growing with people who didn't want to participate. I've seen this arc work (while it lasts, anyway; the success of the guild concepts independently usually spells its demise) in EQ and EQ2 as well.
You can do a similar thing with allied guilds, though it seems eventually either everyone tires of the PvP or someone takes things too far (killing another PC) and there's no way to enforce IC consequences.
All that said, though, if someone or someones were going to be a group of magical terrorists and looking for a group of mages to heroically oppose them in a long-term game of cat and mouse, we should talk.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
