Rapture the Destroyer

It's very lonely to be evil.

That was my revelation playing the Neverwinter Nights expansion, Shadows of Undrentide, last night. Who's going to adventure with you? Most of the henchmen will balk at what you do. Moreover, the evil assassin stalks her prey alone, so even an animal companion or a familiar - like the fire-breathing Hell Hound, which would be a perfect choice for any evil character - gets in the way. With that triple-damage sneak attack and stealth, it's easy to walk up to the unsuspecting and knife them in the back. Even easier if they're not hostile to begin with.

And once you've killed all the townspeople and the guards, who's around to talk to?

Okay, maybe I go to great evil lengths - more than normal even for evil. I racked up the "evil" and "chaotic" points, maxing out after about twenty minutes of play. I almost never play evil - it's not in my nature. But when I'm a villain, I'm a villain all the way. I went on something of a bender last night - a massacre, a killing spree. I was alone, at home, playing with the sounds turned up high for atmospheric intensity. It started as simply an experiment. Who would I be allowed to kill?

It started small, with the guard dogs. Once you attack one, the others turn hostile and you're forced to kill them all. Now the town has no dogs. If the guards see you killing the dogs, they'll attack you, too. I was stealthy enough to kill without attracting attention, but then I got curious. How about the guards? Would the game allow me to kill them too?

Yes, I can kill the guards, no problem. They give me pretty good XP, and I can even take their stuff! That's how I got a helmet of light and a Crusader's Blade - which I can't use because of silly alignment restrictions.

Then I went into the Community Hall. The mayor's lovely assistant wouldn't talk to me anymore because I was too evil - earlier I had threatened the mayor in an attempt to intimidate her. So I drew my ice blade and killed her instantly. The mayor was next. He went down fast, too. Then I leisurely drew my crossbow and slew every single peasant in the Community Hall.

Except the children. The game wouldn't let me kill the children. And the children were totally unfazed by my actions. I spoke with them after all their parents lay dead and disappeared and they giggled and asked if I'd learned how to do that in school.

I got too lonely with no one in Hilltop, so I saved my character and loaded up the original story, the one that takes place in the city of Neverwinter itself. Lots of innocent unfortunates to murder there!

I picked up the only evil henchman, the creepy monk Grimgaw who follows the Order of the Long Death. He used to freak me out before when I played peace-loving rangers and the like, with his battle cry: "The Silent Lord take you!" But this time we were a team. Sure, he's lawful, I'm chaotic, but when everyone else attacks you on sight, you let the small stuff slide.

Together we took on the town of Neverwinter. His bloodthirstyness surprised even me. I'm sure he was happy to finally have a companion willing to send everyone to the Silent Lord. We even killed the nurses in the Temple right under Aribeth's nose, and she didn't bat an eye. With great pleasure I killed the very annoying Tomi Undergallows ("Oh, I can pick that open easy!" will forever ring in my ears) for only 50 xp. (The nurses, on the other hand, gave me 72 xp! Nice!)

Pretty soon the town was empty and it was just me and Grimgaw, wandering around aimlessly. We didn't kill anyone we needed for any quests, (I don't think the game would let you) although we did attack that guy guarding the first tomb of Halueth or whatever it is. Our weapons couldn't damage him, but he turned hostile and followed us around attacking. His weapon could do just a little damage. It was amusing for a while but ultimately I grew impatient and quit the game to load up the expansion game again.

I continued on the missions, a bit listlessly. I freed the slaves in the gnoll caves but wasn't allowed to kill them, although one of my conversation choices was, "I think I could used some target practice." I killed everything that moved. I made a mistake when I freed the kobolds, though, by choosing to say - "You must die for what you've done!" That put me three points towards lawful, and the game told me, "You have been stripped of your title of Rapture the Destroyer."

At that point I quit. I had fun being evil, but it was also making me feel creeped out, too. You can surely get a lot more money - and, I think, xp - for being evil; sometimes I'd complete the quest for the xp and then murder the quest-giver for a little extra. But it takes a great deal of energy to maintain that "Destroyer" status. I needed a break! Back to being a goody two-shoes, at least for a little while. My ranger/druid Thistle can perhaps make up for Rapture's wicked misdeed. Thistle will save the woodland creatures, she'll help the mayor's assistant, she'll give money to the poor widowed Nora Blake. She'll free the slaves and offer to escort them to safety; for although Rapture's universe is destroyed, Thistle's has hope for the future.

And doesn't that feel good?

Comments

[Bastian]

More games need quality Evil play. That's part of what I loved about Fallout 2, and it's tempting me to go buy and Xbox just for that Knights of the Old Republic that Tycho's on about lately.

[Dunsany]

It's why I stopped play the Ultima series back at U4. I hate being forced into being a goodie goodie. Three cheers for evil!

[eric]

the real gold of NWN isn't from the bioware-created modules, but the community created stories. some are specially tailored for whatever evil needs you may have...

[Bowler]

I love that "make your own fun" aspects of games, and it's especially charming that they have it built in in the Neverwinter series.

One of my favorite things to do when playing Goldeneye for the N64 was to take the mission where you had to infiltrate a science lab and blow up a bomb/satellite part. You failed the mission if you killed too many scientists, but they still let you attempt to finish the mission anyway. We would have a laugh riot shooting the scientists in the hands when they held them over their heads, shaking and quivering in fright, or shoot them in the buttocks and make them jump. Eventually we'd kill them all (hey, they MADE the BOMB, so in all senses of the word we were killing the bad guys here) ;)

[Jason]

The real fun of being evil in the Shadows of Undrentide campaign didn't come until the Interlude. Heck, I had a lawful neutral character I'd been roleplaying who turned neutral evil because I was so impressed with one of the evil NPCs in the Interlude. Nice rewards, too.

[Mnemnosyne]

Being evil in most games that claim to allow that choice isn't very easy, which is a significant problem. The games are, in general, designed to make you the good guy. There is rarely a temptation to be evil, rather, there is usually a temptation to be good. In most games, being evil gets you less XP (almost no quests completed results in less xp, and there's rarely any reason for an evil person to complete quests), less money (while you would think it's the other way around, being good always gets you the best rewards, with a *few* exceptions) and so on. The closest most games offer to being 'evil' isn't evil...it's...greedy. That is, they seem to think that being rude, demanding payment for your work, and so on, equates to evil.

Evil should not only be equally beneficial to 'good', it should be far superior. You should gain far greater benefits of all sorts by playing the evil character rather than the good one. After all, one does not become a hero or a 'good' person by following the path of least resistance, one becomes such a person by following a high moral standard, even in the face of far more beneficial, but morally repugnant opportunities. There is no goodness in good if it is also the easiest path to follow. One should have to sacrifice benefits of power and money in exchange for the more esoteric 'benefit' of simply being morally correct, being *good*, or good is meaningless.

Neverwinter Nights is one of the few games where you can find evil paths, and that's simply because there are player-created modules that *are* designed to include evil characters, not just rude, greedy, or mercenary ones.

[Anubis]

Neverwinter Nights is based on Dungeons & Dragons rules, and in D&D, evil and good are not so distant...

Actually, playing an evil on D&D histories is not the way to play but more the goal you want to achieve.

In Neverwinter Nights, you are in charge of saving the Neverwinter city (I do not have the extension). ok that's the story... You can play it the way you want. Defining your character as evil is just changin the goal of this mission.

An evil own just want to handle others evils in order to take over the city... And the way he does it is not so important (it depends on your other alignment, loyal or chatic).

What I am trying to say is that an evil character as we think is not playable in a D&D game...

Everybody know that a level 20 evil rogue will be easily handled by Elminster ;-).

The only evil character that is playable in D&D is the f***ing bast*rd that will help everybody during the campaing, and sneak his "friends" at the end to be the last one stading... And that is not possible in computer game since the end of the campaign is the end of the game.

So just use you imagination ;-).

[Brent]

What Anubis said!

I think some of you have incorrect ideas of what it means to be "evil" in the D&D universe. It does not mean to be a psycho/sociopath and kill everyone for pleasure/sport. It means to follow a different, self-centred ethic in order to get what you want, which is more power for you and/or your deity/church.

Evil and good are distinguishable by how you treat neutrals and the powerless, and by what methods are allowed, to some extent, but mostly it's just a combination of religious rivalry and aesthetics. For example, it is evil to torture, but it is not evil to kill. It is evil to kill your superior when you can get away with it and take his power. Evil is all about getting away with it, I think, and if you do not take opportunities to further the mandate of your deity, in any alignment situation, you risk getting outcast. An outcast can try to join another cult, but there is always the possibility of being rejected by all cults, especially if you are a non-commital member of more than one. Being without a cult/deity, a pure true neutral I guess, is the real alternative lifestyle in D&D.

Unfortunately, games depend on stories to make complex character interactions interesting and "believable". Thus, choosing any type of alternative path in a game pretty quickly leads to nothing interesting to do. In Morrowind, if you screwed up the major quest, you could wander around, pillaging and looting, but you could not finish the game or do anything else particularly interesting, since it was impossible to have complex relationships with the characters in the game. Once you tired of the scenery, you were tired of the game.

[Dave]

I tried killing children too, but couldn't.

However, I think live children walking around with arrows sticking out of them is more freaky than a dead body could ever be.

[Jason]

Actually, the developers for Shadows of Undrentide had intended even more evil options in the beginning of the game. A slight spoiler follows...

You know the woman whose husband and child are in the building beset by kobolds? While you can tell her you're going to keep her baby, originally there was an offer to sell the baby as a slave to the Red Wizard elsewhere in town. Unfortunately the policymakers higher in the company said that might be a little TOO much, so the conversation with the Red Wizard got commented out.

[jane]

hm, very interesting ideas on evil from all of you.

i have a question though: can there be such a thing as chaotic neutral? i mean i know there is, but i have a lot of trouble imagining how one would actually *be* chaotic neutral...

[anton]

I'm always chaotic neutral in games like that! Not just my playing style, but simply the way I think; if I don't like the way someone looks at me, I'll kill them, but if they make me laugh, I'm willing to give them all my gold.

So, yeah, keep writing funny articles.

[ourchair]

A more useful definition of role-playing evil would focus on players tendency to follow their own agendas, which is in contrast to the good guy's tendency to sacrifice his self (in the form of time, money, resources and skills) in the service of somone else's agenda.

This exists right now in role-playing games, but only in the sense that following your own agenda means just breaking stuff up (and sometimes, breaking the game) which is a pretty shallow way of articulating that independent spirit.

[Cyber_Ant]

Anyone here ever played the Fallout series? You could have an evil character in that one.
In Fallout 2 you could sell companions to the slavers guild and work for crooked mob bosses. Hell, in fallout 1 you could join the evil guy at the end rather then fight against him.

I guess most of this is about a certain degree of freedom. In fallout you could get through the last area of the game without fighting a single person and you could convince the final boss that he is mad and he'll realize it and commit suicide. Much different then typical games where fighting is mandatory.

The same applies to evil. Not many games have enough freedom of choice to allow a truely evil character. Usually you are eventually forced to do good to procede with the story, rather then building the story with your actions regardless of how good or bad they are.

[jane]

i'm glad you brought up Fallout; that's one of my all time favorite games. it has a special place of honor in the j-team gaming palace.

[Rip3001]

I never played Fallout 1, but I loved number 2 (and Tactics wasn't so bad either even though it wasn't as engrossing as the RPG aspects in the first two.) I thought Fallout 2 had perhaps the best ending ideas of any game I've played...you're actions REALLY did affect the "people" you came in contact with.

I'm an aspiring game designer and it's easy to make a game centered around being good and even a game centered around being evil...but designing a game that's equally engrossing to both at the same time can be a bit of a brain bogger. As stated by you guys before, most games that try to do both end up lacking in the evil department.

Anyways Jane, the one estabilished character that I personally identify as "Chaotic Neutral" would be Lina Inverse from the Slayers anime series. She seems Chaotic Neutral about 75% of the time, but does occationally suddenly slip to either Chaotic Good or Neutral Good.

[Haanz]

Chaotic Neutral..

That sounds a bit like some who would say..

If they found a bag of gold on the ground, they would grab and keep it.
If they found the person who dropped it was looking for it, they wouldn't tell them and keep it.
If they found out the person was poor and needs the cash to survive, they would give it back.

Or, we'll take the Chaotic Good Robin Hood example and put a twist. Steal from anyone. Keep the cash. Not necessarily evil. But not good either. And far from evil moderately lawful.

That's how I'd consaider a Chaotic Neutral. Do you play any PW's on NWN, jane? Mine.. well. Died. And my efforts to find a new one are far from successful. Dammit.