Rough Start on Vile Campaign

[Dyskresiac]

I'm having trouble starting out a vile campaign.  Vile, not evil.  In my world, good and evil is entirely relative.  However, generally Vile beings do not work well in groups, and often prefer to work alone.

It seems that already when I give the group a decision, their personalities conflict.  It's interesting to have that happen, but the problem is finding a real reason for them to be together.

The warriors are set off to compete for a fabled crystal which is said to appear out of this monumental structure of immense power.  The crystal is said to have a fraction of the power of the monument, but what fraction is entirely unknown.  However, it's a risk that the king is not willing to take as the exhaulted would use it to annhialate the vile.  

The campaign is based off of the fact that the sole purpose of the "Good" is to eradicate the "Evil".  This crystal COULD give them the upper hand.  


Once this crystal is retrieved they are given no further orders.  It cannot be returned to the citadel for many reasons.  It's physically impossible given the world, and they don't want the crystal in one spot for too long because otherwise it would be an easy target.

Often Greed and personal gain takes over in the minds of the Vile and I'm worried about one person taking this crystal for themselves- or something along those lines.



Anyone have any ideas as to how to keep them together?  One of the players is on this board and I won't want to give too much away as to what the crystal is, etc.  If someone has any ideas, you can IM me at "ThePixyStixPimp."  Thanks... I had to cancel it this week before I put the crystal in their hands.

[Strolen]

The first problem I see is that you set out to run a Vile campaign and now it appears you succeeded. In your definition a Vile campaign is where characters don't work well together and now you are surprised that, well, your characters won't work well together and are selfish. Sounds exactly like your campaign description to me.

A Vile campaign doesn't sound like the greatest idea either when the object is good vs. evil either. Vild sounds self serving and so to each person good and evil is relative as you mentioned before. You probably need a more defined enemy that each of your players has a vested interest in defeating.

Without a lot of details it is hard to give a good in character answer, as least from my perspective.

You could wield the DM magic wand and have a game meeting and make them come up with a back story that can explain why they should work together.

Come up with an enemy that has personally effected each of the characters. Stole their favorite magic weapon, destroyed their town, attacked the group and almost wasted them together.

Come up with a reason for each of them to fight together. Power of the crystal promises each of them their greatest desire making them want to do something. When they take the crystal as a group, the entire group is somehow marked for death from another group (assassins, theives, other adventure groups, evil dudes, whatever) so if they split up the are under great danger of death and they have a better chance staying together.

Basically it sounds that you are going to have to give them selfish reasons to stay together because of the Vile angle of it all.

Maybe others have better ideas, but this one is mine.



((You better let us know what you did after it is all done ))

[Dyskresiac]

Well, I had a week off to think about my campaign (Thanksgiving) and trust me, I've changed alot of what I have planned due to what you said- it's impossible to stop the selfish desires of each of the party members.  

I find the whole "We need to stick together as a group because power in numbers" to be a completely legit reason, however it's not the way you would expect a vile one to think of.  

The common enemy is something that I have planned, of course.  Originally, I was thinking that the very person who sent them out on this mission set them out in such a small number because they'd be easy to pick off.  They all started at CR2.  (Some Level 1 with racial modifiers) Who sends CR2's out on such an expedition?  I'm surprised nobody questioned it.  The King has a sort of spy following the group making sure they accomplish their goal, and this way he not only knows how strong they are, but where they are.

However, I decided to scrap that whole idea because I don't think it's a good idea to put the crystal in their hands.  I think in the next few sessions I'll work on an individual character basis as to why to stick with this fiasco.  Over Christmas (Because of finals and such, time is tight for the players) I'm telling them to write a couple pages of character background.  A couple pages isn't much to ask over a month and a half break, and it'll help a lot with the creation.

I think my biggest problem now is to try and mix things up since my roommate is a seasoned P&PRPG player and he's played P&P's nobody's heard of.... and at the same time, we have 2 people who have never played before.  It's rough, but your ideas did help a lot Strolen.  Thanks.

After it's played out, I'll be sure to keep you posted if I have any more troubles.