The Joy of Villainy - Roleplaying Evil

By: Brent Waldher

          Now many of the people in Britannia know of the blight that is pkers and thieves and consider that as role-playing evil. Sorry, but while mass murder is not a way to make friends it still won't put you in the evil category, to me it just means you are greedy. Thieves, especially bank thieves, are seen just as an annoyance and in most cases no where near the evil it takes to be a villain. To make it as a villain you must play the part to the hilt. If I am to tackle this epic role-playing genre I must explain it in pieces. First I will give the basics to role-playing any character previously existing because I know that no one wants to make a new pker or thief right (all that macroing =P).

          So how do you role-play? First of all you are not your character. Your character knows nothing about UO as a game, what his stats are and is clueless when some one asks him for his ICQ number. Its true you will annoy most of your so-called friends with this kind of blatant ignorance but such is the ways of role-playing. Your character knows absolutely nothing about the other characters you might play on UO unless you have them all related some how like they are your cousins or brothers or something. Don't talk like a street thug out of the 20th century for crying out loud! Avoid abbreviated phrases like"u" and "WTF" and such, That kind of talk just confuses you... or maybe that's what triggers your need to kill (heehee). NEVER sick another character from your account on someone who just got the better of you! Saying "thee" and "thou" as the great Warik put it "is not role-playing". Its not enough to talk like a britannian you must have depth. Make up a story about your life. Why are you so evil? Abused as a child? Orphaned at a young age? Denlor Darkblade, and assassin on Sonoma I play was brought up in the Britain cemetery by the thieves and murderers that frequent the area after his family was killed in a raid by Blackthorne troops on his village. Twisted by the evils he has seen he turned to the dark art of poisoning to survive. Simple enough but an effective back story. Did it actually happen? No but that is what role-playing is all about. I know that some of you out there were smoking something strange when you made you characters and named them something stupid like BobaFett or Insane Clown. Try to work it in to the story some how. Why were you nicknamed that and what is your real name? So now you have a back story, but how to act the part of a villain?

          Well there are many different kinds of villains to play. You can role-play a mass murder but most likely you won't have many friends. Avoid friendship like the plague they can only discover what the rest of main stream Britannia considers a grotesque act that you commit. Do something with the corpses once you kill them. In the case of this mass murderer maybe you cut up the body and arrange it in a pattern at the front of the local dungeon letting everyone know it was you. Distinguish yourself by committing to a pattern of killing. Maybe you take one piece of the body from all of your kills just to place them all at a horrific shrine at your abode. As for mass-murdering guilds its time to create an Identity. Why to you hunt in a roving pack? Are you just a band of thugs that just want equipment? If so, they you should hijack people on the road and ask for their stuff before turning them in to a pile of ash. Maybe you worship the Guardian from days gone by and to honor his name you claim a dungeon for your ilk and slay anyone who you attempt to harm the dark ones minions (the monsters). Denlor is a murderer but he is very sophisticated and gentlemanly like. He doesn't kill people he is displaying his art for the world. Murder is just a way of life, how he puts food on the table as it were. He doesn't blindly kill either only contracted people or people who have offended his guildmates or thieves. He loves his guild dearly and would die for anyone of them because they are the first family he has had in a long time, remember his story. But he is cold and calculated and would never show this to any of his guildmates. He keeps his distance from relationships because that is, in his mind, a weakness someone could exploit. Creating a story and following the part you have created is what role-playing is all about.

          But, your saying, I am a thief and I still want to role-play. Well what kind of thief are you? Bank thieves are beyond help because trying to role-play a person who constantly dies is impossible. Thieves need to have one thing in mind before anything else. self-preservation. Getting away after pulling the heist is the hard part. The best thieves I know are the ones who get away and leave the victim seething. Stealing is only one way of being a thief, Warik made a great point to me, you can only run so many scams before finally getting recognized as a scam artist. He is right but Britannia is a big place with lots of names to remember and lots of different faces. Scams can be a great way to make cash and also role-play at the same time. It's the same as above, create a story, give your character depth, and stick to the script you have written for yourself. A great scam is that I have yet to see is run a lottery and demand 100 gold pieces for each ticket. Then when the day comes to give the money away announce that the winner is named so and so and can collect the winnings as such and such a place. When in reality that winner doesn't even exist. You don't even have to leave town and you are a whole lot richer. Maybe you are a thief, well then use all of the tricks in the book. Extortion is great! Demand money for stolen keys and then if they pay you can give it back....or you can rename a blank key to name of the key and crawfish'em. Thieves can be fun but role-playing such a villain you can be a sniveling coward, a lackey to a greater guild of thieves and subservient to their will, or a man who thinks he is the greatest thief of all time and does the most daring things. The best one I ever heard what a thief worked his way in to a guild and finally got his own key and then looted the place blind, but left one book behind in the center of the floor with nothing but his signature in it and disappeared. Last I heard he was in Trinsic working his way in to another guild. Britannia is a big place. If you can't talk fast, think on your feet, and be willing to ditch your "friends" don't bother with role-playing a thief. Thieves are the hardest class to role-play.

          That's the basics. Create a story and a personality and stick with it. You will find that is much more enjoyable and harder to do than slay any person on UO. People that are around you usually begin to role-play as well as long as you stick with it. Rule numbers one. NEVER BREAK OUT OF CHARACTER. You can do anything in character, anything. If they ask for ICQ look confused or simply ignore the stupid comment. With any luck the guy will give his number anyway and you can add him without breaking character. I wish you luck with you role-playing and if you have any questions please contact Warik or me.

Brent Waldher a.k.a. Denlor Darkblade