Rolepaying TOEE

Do you roleplay your alignment when playing TOEE?

When the game came out I spent a lot of time defending the replayability of TOEE on the Atari boards. And after seeing the fallen paladin thread it occured to me to ask how many of you are playing your alignement even at the expense of XP/rewards? I, personally, would never join the Temple of Elemental Evil with a good group and never help people altruistically with evil groups. I think that playing the different alignments adds to the game by allowing you to see the different aspects of the adventure. What about the rest of you?

 

If i am playing chaotic evil i help people out...it makes it more fun to kill them later



Edit: Am I strange?

 

I definitely agree that role playing adds to the experience, though I'd hesitate to say that's true for all people. I think, though, that role playing can be very complicated. For instance, saying that a good group would never join the evil temple sounds right, but if you take them to be working under cover and playing the different factions against one another, then it doesn't seem all that bad. Consequently, I think the fallen palladin thing is over-simple, albeit probably impossible to improve at least in this respect without a live DM.

That said, one thing I do find annoying is the forced civility of many conversations for an evil party. If you speak with people you expect to get nothing from and have no interest in impressing, you, as a chaotic evil barbarian, are probably not going to wish everybody in sight to have a nice day.

 

Agreed. All this game really lets you do is stick to the spirit of things within the framework.

 

I always try to play in the alignment of the party and its members.

 

LOL. Dude, you must be lawful good! :thumbsup:

 

I'm really sorry to disapoint you Avf :shrug:

But excuse me! A true Role-Play in TOEE? It some kind of mistake, I think - a game when you get more XP for kiling monsters than for taking quests it can't be a true Role-Play. When I want a true-role-play, then I just take a real-live P'n'P RPG, not cRPG.

In the other hand - I tried to role-play party aligment - you know - when party join
the temple of earth and bring a letter to this stable-boy in Nulb Waterside Inn my dear bard speak with bartander and told him, that stable-boy is a spy (not a temple spy - but a Veluna or Furyondy spy - or some kind of that) - then told the stable-boy the same shit about bartender. It is quite cool - isn't it? After that (taking XP for this quest) my lawful good party can kill them all - after all, they aren't a spy of good forces - they are spy of Temple Of Elemetal Evil! It is quite cool - isn't it? :grin:

 

You now - there is a one novel (a romantism one - telling a story about middleages) called the "Conrad Wallenrod" - it's leader hero is a lithuanian nobleman, who join up the Teutons (in XIV century Teutons was a deadly enemies of Lithuania). He became (after many year of serve) Teutonic Great Masterknight - only because he want revenge on teutons - and finally he betreyed they, when they trust him the most. And this novel said "You have to be a lion, and you have to be a fox - if you want to destroy your enemies. Sneak silently - and strike deadly..." (or some stuff like that, I don't remember everything of this novel)

So I agree with Heavydan85, and Plothos too - life in ToEE isn't black and white only - many oportunities are possible. I prefer to join up all of four elemental temples - and finally slaughter them all. Then join up the Greater Temple - and finally kill them all. Even with my lawful good party - because they are all the bad guys. So first of all - colect all quest (like real role-player should), then destroy the evil. A lion and a fox - remember ? ^_^

I know it sound more like chaotic-neutral party aligment, but... Conrad Wallenrod was also lawfull good (his was a knight, after all) - and after his own traitory he became like a paladin - the fallen one... :cool2:

"- KILL THEM ALL! DESTROY THE DEVIL INSIDE!!!
- Uhm, but sir - there could be a innocent peolple in this Temple...
- INNOCENT?! WHAT KIND OF INNOCENT?!
- And if they really are???
- well, then... KILL THEM ALL!!! ST. CUTHBERT WILL RECOGNIZE HIS OWN FOLLOWERS!!!" :twisted:

 

I think it's been made pretty obvious that it's pretty useless to try and roleplay in this game. The fact that there is practically zero storyline and that the consequences for your actions are barely present(reputations don't really affect gameplay to a great degree IMO) pretty much proves this. But you can still try I suppose for your own sake. But I think it's a mistake to say that all cRPG's can't be truly roleplayed. I think games such Baldurs Gate and Planescape Torment ( where you start out as true neutral and your alignment constantly shifts back and forth between your actions in the game) can provide excellent opportunities to truly roleplay. To me, the storyline is the key, and by choosing actions during dialogue between you and the NPC's you can be granted much more experience (for example, 1000 xp for helping some guy come to terms with his recent lack of faith in his own God, or 65 xp for killing him). Perhaps there could be a way to mod the game to not only add a lot more content storywise, but also grant more xp depending on the actions they take according to their alignment.

 

The role-playing is pretty limited, especially for evil alignments. A pc of evil alignment doesn't have to be evil in everything they do or say. I played neutral evil with a true neutral cleric and got all the Hommlet quests. You have be careful in the dialogue, especially with Terjon. It's a little tricky but you can play evil and be successful at it. Trying to play with strict adherrance to alignment is kind of difficult. The game wasn't designed for intense role-playing anyway. I just get Scather for Fruella and away we go.

 

I understand what you people are saying but to me the role-playing in CRPGs comes from how you view the story and interact with it and not what dialogue/quests that are presented for you. That the Chaotic Evil opening vignette starts with slaughtering innnocents sets a tone for my CE group. I like to play the different groups based on their alignment and I think it gives the game more depth to see it from multiple angles. That my good groups won't join the temple doesn't rob me of any of the game because my evil groups all join ASAP. I'm not condemning people who play the way they want, I'm just curious how many other people add the role-playing element by the way they play.

 

You have absolutely wright Scorch - and I didn't speak about Palnescape or BG - Planescape was great, one of the best cRPG in history...

Torment rulez!!!

BTW, even in IWD2 there was some XP for using Diplomacy skill in dialogues with NCP - and in ToEE there is many options for using all those "social" skills, but none of XP in reward...

 

Certainly not. I think we're just saying that you can role play good and still joing the temple, if you're looking at the game through the proper lens, as it were. What I find annoying is the enforced over-simple goodness for paladins and over-simple badness for some evil parties in conversation. This is a comment that some lenses aren't available for viewing that should be.

 

A certain neutral evil fighter raped and killed Riana and got the Defiler of Women reputation and everyone said bad things to him but they still traded. It didn't have any effect on game play. Curious.