Hitting a Balance Between Good and Evil: When to Catch a Bad Guy

Hey, guys!

So this is something I've come across on nearly every site I've RPed. We all love a good, sympathetic-yet-dark antagonist. It adds drama to a site, focuses purpose and drive for the "Good Guys," and gives a more well-rounded area to explore. (Sites can't all be comprised of Do-Good-ing Elves wandering the forest on quests, after all.)

Usually, I've found that the sites I'm on get a assortment of mixed characters: "good" characters with morally-ambiguous motivations, "bad" guys with good motivations... But I've found that particularly in Harry Potter RPGs, where some people play law enforcement characters (Aurors), it can be very difficult to strike a balance between letting a bad guy/criminal/shady character thrive and live in the dark and having law enforcement personnel just look totally inept at their inability to apprehend someone. It comes with IC and OOC hangups:

People create fun, fleshed-out, interesting criminals that they aren't anxious to kill off or retire. Sometimes they never want to. As a mod, how do you balance this? We certainly can't require a character be killed off (at least I think it's wrong to do so), but people who play the "Good Guys" will get frustrated if they're forever in the position of having to look the other way to let the villain slip through their fingertips once again.

I usually play both good and bad characters, and I can say, it can be frustrating on both ends! How have you guys managed this? I'd love to know!

 

For my site, we've been around for a lot of years and I've seen many villains come and go! A few of them have stuck around for a very long time - but the most important thing is either finding what their story arc will be, and what your possible end goal is for the villain/bad guy in mind. Most, from what I've seen, have a few different common endings/changes to their story arc:

A. Bad guy becomes good.
B. Bad guy changes how he does things/lays low/comes back later on.
C. Bad guy retires.
D. Bad guy dies.

There aren't many ways to keep a bad guy bad without ending up like Batman/Joker; but there are ways to make it more interesting. For example, if you want to keep a bad guy bad for a very long period of time, go with option B - keep things interesting, keep things changing. Make it unpredictable, both to the players and characters, though I would advise not doing this with every bad guy because... well, then even plot twists can become boring, haha. xD

It's really up to you and how you run your board, but this is just an observation from an oldtimey oldtimer who's been doin' this for too many years, hahaha! Would love to see what others say. <3

 

I think its almost impossible to justify keeping the bad/evil guy around forever. For example one of my main boards does Stargate SG1, we picked up from the end of season 10 and some member back at the beginning wanted to play one of the Goa'uld who hadn't been killed off during the course of the show. That was fine, but only up to a point. Because inevitably you do have to kill them off eventually, just as in whatever genre or fandom you're RPing in, good triumphs over evil every time. The only other way out, if a player is determined to keep that character, is to have them withdraw for a period of time as if in defeat; sometimes prison works as well.

 

As a lover of the bad guy type, personally, I've learned that the best way to get to play your baddie and keep everyone else happy is a combination of two things: communication, and the staff having a few rules in place to defend both sides. But, most important, is communication.

Primarily, what I have noticed about whether or not a bad guy plot works our or not involves being open about your intentions. Sure, you want to be a little mysterious, because that is the point of writing, and all, but be very, very up front about what you will be doing with this character. I feel like a lot of players OOCly become worried about bad guys, because they are afraid for their own characters and the world their character lives in. This is totally understandable! The best way to alleviate this worry is to be very straightforward with all other players about what your "bad guy" will do.

Beloved, for instance, is a character I play who has MPD, and some post traumatic stress disorder related to past events, and has not handled it well, to say the least. The resulting character is volatile, hard to predict, and liable to participate in violence. I've never run into a lot of issues with her assaulting people (which she does) because I have contacted the person playing the character she is hurting OOCly, either at the time the action in the thread turned sour, or beforehand. Any decision to hunt her down and punish her is plotted out during these conversations! It leaves both me and the other player feeling more comfortable and in control of the situation, which I feel is the main issue that players run into when letting other characters hurt or deceive their own.

As far as time lines go, I usually want to have a little while to allow my character to be victorious, unless a plot is better if they get caught right away... it's mostly a story by story basis, for me! But, regardless, if communication has been laid out between any players involved, and there are rules put in place to plot alongside, everything should go great!

As a side note, this advice doesn't work if players don't properly communicate with one another. I've had a few plots go south due to people jumping into plots unexpectedly, or the other writer not abiding by the OOC terms we'd discussed previously, and, very rarely, the other player not respecting my plot ideas, and simply utilizing the situation to "advance" their character. In these situations, more communication! xD Either with the other player(s) or staff, if you feel like you are being taken advantage of or bullied. Talking and planning are some of the best ways to keep your stories straight and on track.

 

Over the long years I've played a number of bad characters and I think in those same years I've ended up killing every one of them at some point. Unless your board is focused on the bad being the hero of your game, logic dictates that the rotten character meets his or her end sooner or later.