PCs as minions of the Dark Lord

[Steve]

29 minutes ago, assault said:

I think this game would be improved by it being possible to overthrow the Dark Lord. Not easy, but possible. And within a reasonably short period of play time. 9-12 sessions, to pull a number out of my hat.

 

The less astute players might not realize this, and just keep committing atrocities, but the smarter ones will, and that's when things get interesting.

Obviously, Kal-Turak wouldn't be a suitable Dark Lord for this kind of game, but I find him supremely uninteresting anyway. I suppose he could be used if you include a suitable Deus Ex Machina to take him out for a millennium or so. "He comes back!" is fine if it is long after the PCs and their meaningful descendants are dead.

Politics could also make this even more interesting. Evil organizations could keep the PCs quite busy without them ever leaving the Fortress of Doom.

Does the Dark Lord have children? Are any of the PCs his children? Are there other lieutenants or henchmen? Do they plot and scheme against each other? Will they try to involve the PCs? Do they want to get rid of the PCs and usurp their place at the Dark Lord’s right hand?

The Dark Lord’s beautiful but treacherous daughter may try to use her femme fatale wiles to ensnare a PC in between her time spent pining for the unattainable Hero. Does the PC get jealous and sally forth to stomp on their Hero rival? Perhaps the Dark Lord has more than one daughter from his various mistresses, and they are struggling with each other in the pecking order. Perhaps the Dark Lord’s eldest son is a powerful brute but dim of wit, but the younger son is clever but physically weak.

 

Are there rival factions in the Legions of Doom trying to pawn off their failures on the PCs or get them to do the hard work? Do the PCs have someone lower in social status trying to suck up to them?

 

You could get quite the soap opera going with only a little bit of effort. The PCs may end up having so much going on in the Fortress of Doom that they don’t seem to have much time to get out and enjoy some looting and pillaging.

 

And then there’s the paperwork. It’s all fun and villainous to march around and tyrannize the peasants, but you haven’t seen real evil until you’ve had to deal with the Dark Lord’s bureaucrats. They have ways to make you suffer without ever lifting a sword or wand.