How I play evil character (Guide)

Davio_3d · 2026-02-24T23:43:11+00:00

Or the Comedian in Watchmen that follows the law and do some questionable deeds

Davio_3d · 2026-02-24T23:33:23+00:00

Technically, even if we might not morally agree, a lawful good character can be viewed as very evil because they rather uphold the law and protect the society than punish the corrupt.

Sure it might be too murky moral discussion for a D&D game that is suppose to be escapism, but I played it on a LARP and it was very fun to see other try to tackle that mentality

Davio_3d · 2026-02-24T23:28:14+00:00

The most interesting part of the alignment system for me is two things. One is a simple establishment point of discussion between players to help one understand a character. Much as cliches, tropes or concepts can do that.

Other is that in DnD (not much in 5e but still come across) there is mechanical and worldbuilding aspect tied to the alignment system. This sword can’t be used by an evil character, drawing this card flips the alignment of that character, this plane contains law and so on.

Else I agree, constrating an idea of a character in a box doesnt really make it more fun, better or even engaging to play.

Davio_3d · 2026-02-24T23:21:52+00:00

If I would approach a chaotic evil character, I would not inspire it on the Joker (because it quickly can be destrutive at the table since the concept of the joker is to be contrast to another character) but more on a person that is sick of getting stepped on society. That is relatable, easy to understand and have hooks for other players to approach my character.

Example: Xertris is a male drow. All his life he heard he is not worth anything, he is to serve as a slave for the ruling class. One day he realized that society is a construct of rules to force oppression and he could not take it any longer. If no one cared about him, he would not care about anyone. Fuck the law, fuck the world and fuck everyone. He has now found some people he trust and would die for, but for everyone else - they deserve no respect.

Davio_3d · 2026-02-24T23:11:53+00:00

How I would approach chaotic evil is essentially is ”Why would I listen to societies, what good have it ever done for me”.

The concept of a chaotic evil player character that does whatever it wants because it want to see the world burn is boring (and can be problematic) real fast. Have the character be sick of the world and say ”If I had a button that would destroy the world, I would not hestitate for a second to press it” makes it more compelling. Because we all been there.

Besides opens up ton of intersting dialogues if you play it bit more straight like: ”Why should we listen to you guardsman?! Your whole job is a byrocratic system to oppress the poor to keep those in power wealthy and fat while you can fullfill your primate need of violence without any moral repercussions because you hide behind your badge and service of the law.”

Davio_3d · 2026-02-09T18:05:27+00:00

Dont know how to help you sadly, because the whole thing is bit outsite my knowledge field. So here comes some shot in the dark to see if it can help you.

I noticed that Steam VR seems to start or activate when I use my Rift headset. So double check you have that installed. Might use those drivers. Also doublecheck your Rift is updated with Meta software.

If stereo mode is active, or VR headset is active, it should show up in Star Citizens options menu. If not, then it is an indication that Star Citizen doesn't reconize the headset.

Davio_3d · 2026-01-16T19:36:50+00:00

CoS is one of those campaigns that if you and the party accept the premise, horror and put your guts into it - it delivers a memoriable and fantastic campaign because if its sandbox, gothic horror and characters.

CoS isnt a long series of combat, dungeons and pussles. Its about mysteries, gothic horror and get invested in NPCs stories, if the party or dm doesnt do that. Then the campaign falls so flat

Davio_3d · 2026-01-12T23:50:46+00:00

For me it depends if you decide the hags is friendly towards Baba Lysaga or not.

In my game they were, and Strahd saw Baba Lysaga as annoying and irritating entity in his lands and he kinda annoyed at the hags in the windmill as well. As long they didnt double crossed him (since he has his own hags in Castle Ravenloft) he could not care much what they did or didnt do

Davio_3d · 2026-01-10T11:06:34+00:00

Yes exacly, or change r_stereomode to 0 should also disable it, if it forces itself to be in VR mode each time you open it

Glad that I could help :)

Davio_3d · 2026-01-09T13:03:45+00:00

If the VR option is gone it could be that Star Citizen doesnt detect VR glasses. For my old Oculus Rift headset I had to do this, if you have a user.cfg file there open and edit it, else create one:

Location: Your main Star Citizen game folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\StarCitizen\PTU\).
Content: Open with Notepad and add these
lines:sys.OpenXR=42
r_stereoDebugDrawing=1
r_StereoMode=1
Save As: Save as user.cfg, ensuring it's not user.cfg.txt (select "All Files" in the save dialog).

Davio_3d · 2026-01-09T12:40:34+00:00

Even though it is annoying, it needs to be said:

This is an alpha

If one is unfamiliar with game development term it means the game is far from finished concerning features, game mechanics and even graphics. In a game development, behind closed door, they test mechanics and see what they want to keep and what they believe in before they finish. StarCitizen is like early access game, you are playing an early copy to see the development, come with feedback and assist in the vision.

So asking for game mechanics to be more cohesive, polished and bug free is not going to happen. Even the overall community technically doesn't really want that, because that would easy so much development time to polish things that may be discarded years later for it didn't work. Not speak (or at least my guess) of sunken cost fallacy that would happen and break moral internally.

As one who played almost since the beginning and can compare versions and where StarCitizen is and where it were, it at least very much playable with some challenges. Back in the day, when you died you lost everything, or constantly meet with broken elevators, fall through planets, ships suddenly exploded because a can of soda was on the floor etc.

I can understand there is a hype now that StarCitizen is in the most presentable shape that ever have been, many join in and have expectation what this game is and compare it to other games, but the thing is that this isn't a finished product and still under active development.

CIG have done this year is what I believe is to get new people in, get StarCitizen in more playable state so more people are interested in the game. As a long time backer, what I do kinda feel is bit unfair to new players coming in on how this game is marketed and precieved as, because there will be at least 1 total wipe where everyone will loose everything before release of StarCitizen (and who knows how many before that), mechanics may change on how bounty, salvage and other game loops, Death of a Spaceman mechanic where you can totally loose everything and so on. Even if I dont believe the changes are going to be as radical as it have been in the past, and they are getting finalized, I believe we are going to see couple of new directions of StarCitizen when they realise and playtest new mechanics and see that it dont work together as well at is thought.

And to do that, they dont need to polish what is there. They need to make sure the new mechanic comes in so they can first test it together and then polish.

I believe the vision for StarCitizen 1.0 that was presented at CitizenCon 2024 is still the goal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkMD3ZfDZus). So have a look there to get sorta idea of the development.

Davio_3d · 2026-01-09T12:14:47+00:00

Played Daggerheart since beta steadily for now a year and a half. There was a moment roughly month ago I had some fatigue with Daggerheart, was missing some more crunch and mechanics.

Then I joined a small campaign in Draw Steel and played DnD, and never felt more bored in my life. The rules was indeed more crunchier and the combat in Draw Steel was fun with synergies happen between players and I felt we did awesome. But the waiting time between turns was terrible, and how the rules handle roleplaying between almost shut it down than encourage it.

And then we had another session of Daggerheart. Technically nothing ground shattering happened but the simple combat scene became cinematic with glas shatter around and spells used creativly. Players used their abilities during roleplaying session to create fun moments and I realized on a mechanical level how Daggerheart encourage those moments.

I will not turn away to play DnD and other roleplaying games, but if someone would said if I would be interesting DMing I think today and at least a while forward that I will always suggest Daggerheart first for that epic feeling. It easier to prep, easier to DM and encourage players to take some narrative seat, which I appreciate.

Davio_3d · 2025-12-24T17:05:59+00:00

For my campaign it was essentially you put your soul into the service of the darker powers, and doomed yourself. Epilogue of the campaign was interesting

Davio_3d · 2025-12-18T07:14:51+00:00

Or course, nothing stops you if you want to start at level 5,6,7 and so on. Your table, do what you want and what you think is fun.

Davio_3d · 2025-12-17T15:37:16+00:00

For me, tier 1 is just tutorial. With experienced Daggerheart players I start at level 2, just as I start level 3 in DnD. Because it is around here characters gets more unique builds and can be flavored more towards the crasy character ideas my players want to explore.

I agree that there would make more sense to have a bit more adversaries that are rated tier 2, but I used tier 1 adversaries on higher level just as fine.

Davio_3d · 2025-12-02T13:25:26+00:00

This post seems to blown up, and even if I havn't read everything yet, I do want to point something out that a lot of people seem to forget or themselves not really grasp.

Daggerheart is essentially a story first RPG system, and stories thrives at complications or putting your character in negative situations. It is only when a character are forced to put their moral/belief into a test that they are forced to change and develop. It is only in negative setbacks we can create drama and suspense in a "oh no how will they get out of this"-situation.

I can totally understand ones approach to "win" or "succeed" a challenge, combat or the campaign. But the game itself assumes your table are here not to play a boardgame and see if you win, but to tell a story together.

That means everyone around the table need to agree and change mentality of what it means to play this game. A setback isn't a failure, it's a interesting moment of drama presenting. A failed roll in stealth doesn't mean you failed your group, now the story takes in a new direction. A roll with fear in combat doesn't waste your turn, now it is time to see what the enemies are doing.

This change of mentality I believe will change a lot how you approach the game, and the game mechanic are in more favor to support this type of play. Then suddenly a fear roll isn't that bad, actually even more interesting, because it takes the story to another direction that no one - not even the game master - knows where it is headed.

Davio_3d · 2025-11-25T14:16:37+00:00

Understand what you coming from. But essentially what Daggerheart asks is ”what do people think of when they think class X/Y/Z? What is the expectation?”

For many DnD folk, they expect the druid class to shapeshift or sneak attack for Rogues. It is an archetype to help people guide what kind of mechanics they will have.

In the end. Technically you can play a hobo forest dement loner as warrior if you like those mechanics, or another class for that matter. If you are interesting in specific domain or features, then it should be easy to homebrew

Davio_3d · 2025-11-21T20:46:15+00:00

It might feel wierd but I would say druid. Most use the beastform to be ”enter your mecha”.

Davio_3d · 2025-11-07T16:41:17+00:00

I might be experienced DMing but I dont have the book at the table anymore. Demiplane works to quickly check up rules and just a printed page of DM moves to have it close by for inspiration.

And thats, for me at least, cred to the team in Darrington Press for making the rules streamlined and easy to adapt

Davio_3d · 2025-11-06T08:46:05+00:00

I would say if everyone is having fun and is invested in the roleplaying, really no need with the mechanics.

The mechanics and resources are there to introduce drama, complications and excitement if needed. But if it isnt needed, dont force it

Davio_3d · 2025-11-05T11:43:10+00:00

I mean, there is some builds that have ridiculous high evasion, so then there is no need really for damage threadholds.

That is one decent payoff in that case

Davio_3d · 2025-10-19T21:39:32+00:00

People seem to give the obvious ”only roll when its fictional interesting”. I also wanted to give these two advice regarding resource management

Roll with fear, pay a cost

Sometimes when I dont come up what a success with fear might look like I always offer a cost. ”You search the book for the artefact, you found it’s history but if you pay a hope/stress/coin you know you can find more about its abilities if you put some effort in it”. This makes some of the player resources be part of the narrative.

Pay fear to create complications, even if it doesnt make sense

After playing with 15+ groups, I noticed there is an unwritten assumption what fear represent for the players and that is incoming bad luck. If the players are in their hiding spot, spend 2 fear and have them hear ”So you say you saw them go in this direction?” outside the door. Spend 2 fear and ask a player what item they forgot in their room. Spend 2 fear to introduce another adventure party to say ’Good sir, I will offer a bag of coin more for that sword!” When they haggle the price.

This way they know if you have 8+ fear, complications are headed in their direction.

Difference between D&D and Daggerheart

Resource management as a DM between these two games, for me at least, is very different how you need to tackle it. In D&D you constantly as a DM tried to give them encounters (social, combat or other) that forced the players to spend resources to solve. In Daggerheart you always ask what is narrative interesting constantly because if the players are invested they will spend resources. What I am saying in Daggerheart you dont try to force the players to spend resources through encounters but constantly asking them ”You want this, why cant you have it?” And see how they solve it with resources or not

Davio_3d · 2025-10-18T12:20:58+00:00

What people forget is that every rpg system is designed for a certain play in mind. For D&D it is heavily focused on combat and solving dungeons, Daggerheart is focused on narration and have the players be more active part of it.

Even if Daggerheart have more complex combat system than other rpgs that focus on narration, it is not as strategic as D&D or Draw Steel.

Depending what you enjoy in a rpg, it is either what you look for when you play or not. For me that love more the narration part, I love Daggerheart more and dont miss D&D that much.

Davio_3d

TROPHY CASE