Demon Game in Hades

[Zamion138]

Well Hades use's slaves and modes coins wich are aobut the size of a hguman fist of gold. they do have a conversion of cost in the book. Demons dont have to eat they only do so for pleasure. And then its usaly humans/elves/dwarf/ect.
A sub demon or lesser demon is probaly under the orders of a greater demon and then that is under a prince who is under commander on up to a demon god. So they leave hades when ordered to or when bored and not under orders. As demons that are killed off hades come back to hades to be reborn they dont worry as much about dieing out of their home diminsion.
Hades has much better description as it only has to cover one world, dyval has a crap ton of levels all of wich are planet sized. I think a "Demon" game would be easier than a "Devil" game.....they do not mix.

If your running it during the time of "megaverse in flames" IE the hight of the hades/dyval wars probaly a good place to start would be the great rift in palladium. its basicly a warzone that has been under seige by the two for thousands of years and is basicly a proving ground for the two as no one ever wins they just trade yards of land.
They could be sent on a mission where they have to get some rune sword or magical artifact or some demon priest that knows something important from any diminsion you could think of as they are worshiped everywhere.

A lesser demon moves up the food chain by promotion and gaining followers like a god, so make payment lackies and mortal worshipers/slaves. dont let them just buy gear unless they are brodkil the lowest of the low that actualy gets cybernetics. Pay them in minor magic items, spells, knowledge. Never give up your real name and constently be jokingy to find out your fellow demons true names. Demons are not known for their great team spirt, but will work togeather when ordered to make sure you dont expect them to be helping each other with problems not directly related to the mission or orders. Its un-natrual for them.

Reward cruelty and cunning and brutality.

Give them a side quest where some shifter or summoner summons them. see if they can win the battle of the wills and either be forced to work for the shifter or destroy him/her.

Your a demon fighting mortals should be easy and more of a means to an end not a long battle, unless they are "heros" . let them slughter some peasents now and then.

[flatline]

Sounds fascinating.

I don't think I ever played in a group that could stomach playing a whole party of brutally evil characters for more than a session or two.

--flatline

[Athos]

Hi all,

First time post but a long time Rifts GM and player, about 20 years. I'll be brief...I've done the whole adventuring group of heroes, CS military group, mercenaries etc... This time I'm committing to running a game set in Hades where the players are lesser and sub demons. Oh yes indeed.

I was wondering if anyone has done work in demons, characteristics etc...Creative writing would be great too. I have both Hades and Dyval, but those books are written with the perspective of adventuring groups going briefly through hades etc... Naturally there are a LOT of holes to fill in when you talk about a group of demons interacting with each other.

Like what do they like to eat? How often does the typical demon get off hades? Economics? How much does stuff cost? Anything like that.

I know this is odd as hell, but if anyone can help point me in the direction of demon info that would be amazing!

Thanks

Krrang

This sounds like it could be a really cool campaign or a short and unpleasant experience, depending on the path chosen...

If the party is a bunch of kids playing demons to be stupid brutes that just want to hurt and be "bad", then I don't think it will last very long, and I would bet someone's feelings get hurt when their PC is brutalized. But, and this would be the hard part, if the party has some focus that is pulling them all together, so they set aside differences and work as a team, then it could fun. I can think of a couple situations where the group would work together: 1) they are trying to raise an evil old one that will take over hades and be its new ruler and hopefully reward those that brought it back, 2) they are in a battle with dyvals on some neutral location, like Rifts Earth, and the war is focused on defeating the hated dyvals and not on infighting, and 3) they are neutral or aberrant, and have some kind of scheme to set up their own kingdom/plane/planet where they will rule those demons that will follow them.

For me, the 2nd scenario, fighting dyvals on Rifts Earth would be the most fun. You would have diplomacy with locals to help against the dyvals, you would have skirmishes and raids against the dyvals, you would probably be after the same artifacts and such the dyvals want so there could be a race element to see who gets to it first. There are lots of things a GM could give a party to do, and if "in-fighting" started, you just have to have the dyvals attack and hopefully that will pull the demonic forces together and remind them who the real enemy is.

Also, I would not force everyone to be a demon. If someone wanted to play a dragon hatchling, a demigod, or some other creature on par with demons that would be "respected" by demons, I would allow that just to give the party some mixture and flavor. Best of luck and hope it works out for you guys.

[Zamion138]

Personaly id try to keep it all demons, there are over 15 of them on the hades side, not counting the spread out ones. And if they are playing lesser and sub demons a dimie god and a dragon are over powered almost.
The other thing is the fear of death and the ideals of a dragon or dimie-god are not inline, the near prison mentality of dominating thoose around you and aceserting your domminace is part of the their being.
I agree though a "lets be bad to be bad" game will degrade ultra quick. The frist few games as they sort out the pecking order of whos top demon will be like that id assume. But as hades stated a coherent military platoon of demons are rare like the brass guard (the squad of tech and magic using balrogs ) they are the ultra elites.
Gargoyles are the exception as they work as a family/tribe and will even take mortals as part of the tribe if they are treated as such. (Something about that was in the tolkeen books).
Part of the way the game will play out will be the type of demons you have, some work in the shadows pulling strings, some wade into combat and bash heads. A Succubus and a plague demon work out missions very diffrent as do say lasse and gargoyles do.

[Athos]

the near prison mentality of dominating thoose around you and aceserting your domminace is part of the their being.

I think in order for the game to work, you have to overcome that stereotype somehow. If not, and everyone is stab everyone else in the back and I can pee higher than you, it won't be a game that lasts more than a session or two.

When you look at sub-demons like gargoyles, they have up to 700 mdc and bio regenerate. A dragon hatchling with 400 MDC I don't think is that much more powerful than a gargoyle which is one of the sub-demons, or weaker demons. A demigod is weaker than a dragon hatchling, at least at low and medium levels, and could be a son or daughter of one of the demon princes/gods giving a connection that the GM can use for game purposes. I can think of other monster races that would fit in as well, and could give some "balance" to an all demon party and yet still be part of the plot.

YMMV, but I have played in evil games and it is my experience that you need very mature and capable RPers to pull it off.

[Zamion138]

the near prison mentality of dominating thoose around you and aceserting your domminace is part of the their being.

I think in order for the game to work, you have to overcome that stereotype somehow. If not, and everyone is stab everyone else in the back and I can pee higher than you, it won't be a game that lasts more than a session or two.

When you look at sub-demons like gargoyles, they have up to 700 mdc and bio regenerate. A dragon hatchling with 400 MDC I don't think is that much more powerful than a gargoyle which is one of the sub-demons, or weaker demons. A demigod is weaker than a dragon hatchling, at least at low and medium levels, and could be a son or daughter of one of the demon princes/gods giving a connection that the GM can use for game purposes. I can think of other monster races that would fit in as well, and could give some "balance" to an all demon party and yet still be part of the plot.

YMMV, but I have played in evil games and it is my experience that you need very mature and capable RPers to pull it off.

I see what you mean by the power levels, kinda the point of a demon game to me is playing a demon ....to me at least, your milage many vary.
That said i think having an ultra domminate leader as npc would be the best, at least to start. They will eclipse him/her after a bit but by then they will have worked togeather for a year or something. Also the pc's are probaly not new to being demons, ie freshly born/created. Maybe a good back story that they were all trapped for a couple hundered years under some evil summoner or such. Unless they are gargoyles wich do get born often.

[Zamion138]

So krrang what type of demons are the pc's going to be?

[Zamion138]

I dont think chaos demons are hades based/aligned so no hades.
By the way worm wood has a few good demons they might want to check out for bipedel demons......you can always just say you a micro contingent of that demon that is hades bound or aligned to make it work for game play

[Jay05]

The problem with a campaign like this in my estimation is that you're dealing primarily with diabolic and miscreant alignments. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't know if I'd want to RP alongside anyone who could correctly play characters that evil long term. I mean, as occasional npcs, that's something GMs do, but to RP a character every week for 4+ hours a week? I couldn't do it. Aberrant is the farthest I can go long term, and yeah that qualifies as evil enough for demons, but a bit unrealistic for a whole group. Just my thoughts.

[Jay05]

The problem with a campaign like this in my estimation is that you're dealing primarily with diabolic and miscreant alignments. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't know if I'd want to RP alongside anyone who could correctly play characters that evil long term. I mean, as occasional npcs, that's something GMs do, but to RP a character every week for 4+ hours a week? I couldn't do it. Aberrant is the farthest I can go long term, and yeah that qualifies as evil enough for demons, but a bit unrealistic for a whole group. Just my thoughts.

Role playing evil is always a bit "iffy". But the PCs could be aberrant demons, and the Shifters diabolic or miscreant, wanting the PC demons to do something they find no honor in.

That would be a way to do it that would work

[flatline]

That sounds like a lot of work for the GM to set up.

--flatline