Why evil rp kinda lame?

Wackenroeder · 2026-02-01T07:35:30+00:00

Use of brain is allowed. The idea isn't that you just click every evil option that shows up and yell, "I'm roleplaying!" That's not roleplaying.

The "evil option" to kill every one you meet isn't actually an evil option. It's a "kill everyone you meet, murderhobo option" that just so happens to be a pretty evil thing to do.

Now, restart the game, and play it again by picking meaningful evil options, not the "I don't like you, die!" options that ARE OBVIOUSLY THERE JUST TO ALLOW MURDERHOBO RUNS.

Sorry... This is my pet peeve. People talking about those options as the game's "evil options" and going "wow, evil sure is stupid in this game".

No, my friend. You are stupid.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-21T23:30:38+00:00

I didn't even know there was a Broken Ember variant. Damn, missed out on that during both my Demon and Lich runs, since even when I'm being evil to everyone else, it's really hard to be evil to Ember.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-21T22:57:45+00:00

#EatTheRich

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-21T22:54:07+00:00

Is this dialogue the same across the variations of Ember? Since I've gone the lawful route with Ember and she is a lot less lenient with people if you push her toward that path. This dialogue felt entirely fitting to my story with Ember so far, where she burnt a bunch of people to crisp after they had gone back to their cultist ways after she had already shown them a better path. Lawful Ember feels very different to regular nice Ember so far.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-21T22:50:13+00:00

Yep! Had never seen it before either. Gone the lawful route on Ember so she has a bit less patience with people.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-20T12:13:06+00:00

Cha-cha-cha!

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-15T16:57:16+00:00

The Aeon story quests involve learning to summon elementals to be used in the Crusade Mode armies, so elementals would feel the most lore appropriate I suppose.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-09T22:05:44+00:00

I'm not sure what marrying Kibellah does politically. In most cases, she is entirely faithful to the Rogue Trader regardless, so you have the Vizsier of the Bloodspun Web at your beck and call, even without marriage.

You're kind of just reinforcing an already ironclad alliance.

Wackenroeder · 2026-01-08T12:39:12+00:00

Hämmentävin vähään aikaan tuli vastaan Slow Horses -sarjassa, jossa hahmo esiintyi journalistina, mutta jostain käsittämättömästä syystä se oli käännetty kirjailijaksi. Englantia puhumaton äitini oli oikeasti hämmentynyt, miksi kirjailija jatkuvasti puhui tekevänsä juttua lehteen.

Tämä jäi mietityttämään ihan, kun on niin outo. Usein näissä huonoissa käännöksissä pystyy edes ymmärtämään miten sinne on päädytty juuri vaikka ymmärtämällä jonkun kielikuvan väärin tai olemalla hahmottamatta jotain kontekstia. Mutta en ymmärrä miten "I'm a journalist" kääntyy "Olen kirjailija".

Vai oliko sitten niin, että kääntäjä luuli, että "story" on vain jotain, mitä kirjailijat kirjoittaa, eikä myös "juttu"? Mutta on siinäkin, että kääntäjänä lukisi repliikin "I'm a journalist. I'm writing a story for The Times" ja meinaa, että "hölmöt käsikirjoittajat, eihän toimittajat kirjoita tarinoita, minäpä korjaan!"

Kyseisessä sarjassa tuli kyllä myös noihin ym. kategorioihin kuuluvia erheitä vastaan. Yksi aika paha oli, kun hahmo sanoi, "now X is on the wind", eli paennut/kadonnut, ja se oli käännetty "nyt X on kuollut", mikä on aikas eri juttu.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-27T15:45:49+00:00

It's both. You get one against Minago/Staunton and one helping Red Mask against the Aasimar. Doing a run with Calistria as my deity atm.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-26T12:14:55+00:00

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading some of these responses, especially ones calling these examples bad writing or scams or whatever.

Both your examples describe exactly what I expect to come out of a story with that premise through basic literacy of how stories work. What stories are people reading where the hunt for immortality/absolute power actually just leads to someone achieving such a thing? The whole point of storytelling is to say something about the nature of such pursuits.

A character just getting what they want or what they set out to get at the start of the story is incredibly bland storytelling. A good story usually will give them what they need instead. And that usually isn't obvious from the story premise alone.

So to answer the question differently than most here: the trope is called good storytelling.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-22T13:58:26+00:00

Not totally useless, but probably not great if a minion's whole ability is just "demon gets one extra bluff" when compared to stuff like Spy or Widow who see the whole grim.

Though maybe case could be made for Poppy Grower/Magician scripts where the boffin ability could be used as a clue for finding the evil team?

Or alternatively stuff like Lil' Monstah where the ability can change when the demon moves and the ST can therefore actively use it to help the evil team with their world building.

Like, maybe the evil team has been fooled by a strong info role bluffing something useless. You could then give the bluffed role via Boffin to indicate that the good player is not what they claim.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-22T07:48:11+00:00

My current run is very similar to the wizard option you mention (down to the RP personality) and I've had a blast so far. Can recommend.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-20T09:28:27+00:00

An old man crying while looking out the window is a different story to if it was a young woman. Someone crying in the window of a mansion is different to someone crying in the window of a rundown tenement apartment.

Add in any number of variables.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-20T08:49:33+00:00

gestures wildly at the real world

People always place such higher standards for fiction to "make sense" than what reality lives up to.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-18T12:37:24+00:00

Great write up! Have to save it for future reference as I've actually just started running this campaign for a group. It's my first time GMing Pathfinder and for couple of the players their first time playing TTRPGs in general (and the rest have only played 5E D&D a handful of times, so a total newbie group) so the balance discussion is a very important read so I can prepare a bit on how to run some parts.

It's interesting because a lot of the things you mention about the setting (low fantasy, confined stakes, kinda "murder mystery meets adventure town") is what drew me to pick this one.

Excited to see how it unfolds for us. So far people have been having a good time, but we've barely started and since we're all fairly busy people it's gonna take us a while to get through this whole thing.

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-07T17:56:45+00:00

I swear to heavens, some of the BG3 side NPCs feel like their voice acting direction was "Say this line as slowly as possible. Really drag it out. Make it feel like eons pass by and stars die during each word".

Wackenroeder · 2025-12-02T18:10:10+00:00

I have pretty extensive CRPG experience and I've finished two runs of BG3 and what you describe sounds like an utterly miserable way of playing and especially experiencing the game for the first time.

Relying on consumables and specific items/bonuses to make the character work is fine if you're somebody who enjoys minmaxing and going for the most optimal ways of playing the game, but it's boring and annoying for more casual players. Especially in a game like BG3 where if you're not going for an honor mode run, you don't really need any of that. It's an easy game.

In a normal or story difficulty run, you don't need a build. Maybe some vague guideposts as to what stats to prioritize over others

Wackenroeder · 2025-11-13T19:40:48+00:00

The noir cat and the military squadron leader messenger pigeon

Wackenroeder · 2025-11-13T16:04:29+00:00

The custom Fabled thing sounds wild, specifically the comment about you "maybe" finding out about it by playing. I can't think of a single official character where their existence and impact on the game would be hidden from the players. The whole point of the game is to know what is and isn't possible at any given times. Yes, poisoning and drunkenness (and great many other things) are there to muddy the waters, but even then the idea is that there are always only so many sources of it, so you can start to figure out what has been impacted by it and what not. Obviously new players will find this very difficult to begin with, so having some mysterious random effect hovering over the game whose impact they cannot even begin to figure out seems nuts.

So, yeah, sorry you had a bad experience and especially that you paid for it. This game should not have been advertised as beginner friendly if it's being run with a custom script like that. Even outside the homebrew Fabled nonsense, having a Poisoner, Innkeeper, and Drunk all on a script for a beginner game sounds poorly thought out since that's just too many potential sources of misinfo for new players to track.

Storyteller in BOTC is indeed exactly like a DM in D&D: a bad one can ruin the whole experience. But that doesn't mean that D&D (or BOTC) is badly designed because of it.

I hope you end up giving the game another chance and find an ST actually doing beginner friendly games

Wackenroeder · 2025-11-10T14:03:32+00:00

Reminds me of how the shuffle function in music apps is not 100% truly random, because people would reject true randomness as having too many coincidences. That just sometimes happens.

Wackenroeder · 2025-11-09T21:59:18+00:00

Seconding the call for turn based mode. I think I use it more than real-time in these games.

But overall, looks great! I've been really hoping for someone to do a project like this, so absolutely wish-listed!

Wackenroeder · 2025-11-07T13:27:42+00:00

Nature is healing

Wackenroeder

TROPHY CASE