This is from Baldur’s Gate 3? I don’t remember anything like this from Baldur’s Gate 1.
Yes, sorry. It’s the only one I’ve played so far.
Baldur’s Gate did have hamster violence though.
The dead eyes of a psychopath…
It’s not fun for me to play simply “be a jerk to everyone”. The character I play has to have some over-arching goal. Thinking back to some games I love…
Saints Row (multiple version, but 3 is the best): I definitely leaned into the murderous thug role, but I stayed extremely loyal to my homeboys. I’d not let them get killed, even if that meant some missions objectives failed. At plot branch-points, I always choose my friend over other rewards. And yet I had a no threshold to killing anyone else. You know, driving about the hood, singing to the radio, running over pedestrians, as you do. So, evil, but not a complete asshole.
Baldur’s Gate 3: I’ve done lots of starts and stops, but on the one playthrough I did to completion, my character’s goal was “destroy all illithid” (succeeded by killing the Emperor and the Prince). I helped others when I could, but ignored them otherwise, and killed them if they were in the way. So, good, at least if you consider illithid to be a moral abomination, but with some serious ethical issues.
City of Heroes: my primary villain character is a mind-control Dominator, who is all about gaining personal power. No morals at all. Typical mission is stealth to the mission goal, then mind-control the opponents so they kill each other. And finish off what’s left. Very focused. But I’ll also randomly mind control random people when outside missions, just to watch them fight their friends. Hehehe. So, definitely evil.
Crusader Kings (multiple version): I’ll typically play to the personality of my current ruler. Which can very from saintly to sadistic. The fun part of the game is both saints and sadists can have trouble maintaining a kingdom. Sometimes your brother or uncle really should be eliminated for long-term stability, sometimes you shouldn’t be an asshole to your dukes. The “optimal” ruler needs to be able to go either way. So when you roleplay the destruction of your kingdom, you eventually get to play your heir and hopefully rebuild.
Baldur’s Gate 2 allowed for evil characters to participate in infanticide by stealing a silver (I.e. good-aligned) dragon’s eggs so the drow could sacrifice them to summon a demon.
Then there’s the quest where you hunt down a serial killer who’s trying to make a suit of leather armor out of human skin, which you can choose to complete and requires the blood of that same silver dragon.
I don’t have much problem. In Counter-Strike, for instance, it’s often funner to be the terrorist setting the bombs than the side defusing them.
I remember, ages ago, playing this freeware game where you played out the Battle of Britain from the German perspective. I think part of me kind of raised an eyebrow that someone would go to the trouble of creating a game where you got to play the Nazis, but that didn’t stop me from trying to turn London into a pile of rubble.
I like to be the Good guy, altho i dont mind playing a Thief.
Games like Grand Theft Auto do not interest me.
We were playing Betrayal at Baldurs gate once, and I got picked to be the bad guy, and people noted I was pretty creepy and scary. (I can do a scary Peter Lorre).
Well, yeah, if you are playing a wargame, and you are the Nazis- you try to win.
I posited a tank RPG a long time ago. Basically “Tigers in the Mud” The Game. basically you just try to survive the war and get home. Featuring such controversial elements as:
The Americans are really dumb at first
The Soviets are the real enemy who won the war
And the open-air starvation camps for German POWs at the end. IRL, the author of “Tigers in the Mud” got some hidden clothes from visitors, snuck out and just went home.
Edit: My City of Villains character was a guy called Philadelphia Freedom who was a hero, but then was framed and his fellow heroes didnt believe him
In my villain run in Fallout New Vegas. I just rationalized the bullet I took scrambled my brains.