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[FantasticDorf]

A simple proposition, i sidestepped adding it as a question to the FotF thread on the basis it was very suggestion'y of itself regarding corruption mechanics, which i thought to extend to the players character interaction with villians.

The principle is that the player can be the orchestrator, antagonist or the agent of a plot for the benefits and intrigue that goes with being within that close to a powerful villian who will bequeath you rewards and riches for doing evil quests from the mundane to crucial plot driving actions like killing a specific obstructive person or persuading more agents to join your organisation from within a town.

Some triggering conditions

> Must be approached by a fellow agent, or perhaps have a agent in your party that will attempt to broach the subject interrupting you while you sleep, the other party members will be unconciously sleeping nearby as to be unaware of your discussion.

> Defeat the villian, make them reveal their plot and prompt that you wish to join them where they'll join your party and ask to go back to their hideout if they aren't there already.

> Be defeated by the villian and yield, it is unlikely they'll let you live but they might be merciful if you accept the offer you'll have a mission to regroup.

To stop railroading adventurer's completely towards the path of a apocalptic event, there is always a way to fail the quest which might be considered 'neutral' or 'good' based on the context as to double cross or impede the plan of your master if not just revealing the plot publically or to important authority figures.

However if the villians plan succeeds anyway and its of any large scale, it is most certainly worthwhile to be on their side rather than against it when hordes of the dead, or wrathful newly crowned monarchs sends numerous assassins or depopulates a good chunk of the world in a act of revenge.

[GoblinCookie]

The player is already supposed to be able to plot themselves, that I think was planned.  I'm not so sure about the adventurer joining an existing plot though, it raises the issue of whether multiple plots of the same objective should be able to merge together. 

[FantasticDorf]

I meant in the context of joining the bad guys for a forseeable outcome or benefit just as a quest employer, but joining plots together I think would be mess without some kind of seniority succession, where you become the new plot organiser and the new collaborator a important agent with pre-recruited peeps.

Run some jobs for a necromancer, get a free slab of death apprenticeship and diplomatic immunity from the undead apocalpse you might be responsible for by helping them progress their plot as i alluded to in the latter half of the OP. Rewards as a mean of stringing you the adventurer along.

[GoblinCookie]

I meant in the context of joining the bad guys for a forseeable outcome or benefit just as a quest employer, but joining plots together I think would be mess without some kind of seniority succession, where you become the new plot organiser and the new collaborator a important agent with pre-recruited peeps.

Run some jobs for a necromancer, get a free slab of death apprenticeship and diplomatic immunity from the undead apocalpse you might be responsible for by helping them progress their plot as i alluded to in the latter half of the OP. Rewards as a mean of stringing you the adventurer along.

Joining plots together is mostly needed only for when plots are able to become more than a few guys plotting, for pure underhand plotting having multiple redundancy is an advantage, but if you are trying to transform into something more like an uprising then joining together works. 

The question is what happens if you are plotting against your own companions interests? 

[FantasticDorf]

Position or goal grabs typically are a form of uprising (usurpal from the rightful owner) if you can say that with villian goals, if its a singular artifact they want to steal, you can just deny it and pick it up/plot against the villian at a later date.

If its against your companions interests, when they find out they might try to attack you based on any number of variables, meaning you might want to pick up some more morally ambigious characters to take with you beforehand.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Position or goal grabs typically are a form of uprising (usurpal from the rightful owner) if you can say that with villian goals, if its a singular artifact they want to steal, you can just deny it and pick it up/plot against the villian at a later date.

If its against your companions interests, when they find out they might try to attack you based on any number of variables, meaning you might want to pick up some more morally ambigious characters to take with you beforehand.

I imagine your companions will be as morally ambiguous as you are considering you'll be able to freely swap between them.

People you pick up later might react differently though.

[GoblinCookie]

Position or goal grabs typically are a form of uprising (usurpal from the rightful owner) if you can say that with villian goals, if its a singular artifact they want to steal, you can just deny it and pick it up/plot against the villian at a later date.

If its against your companions interests, when they find out they might try to attack you based on any number of variables, meaning you might want to pick up some more morally ambigious characters to take with you beforehand.

That is not an uprising, more like what we call a coup; that is a small number of already powerful people plotting to seize the ultimate power above them.  This is different from a mass uprising where the aim is to get as many people as possible to simultaneously seize the objective in opposition to the people in charge.  They are not however an absolute difference, there is considerable overlap between the two concepts in practice.  If you break down an uprising it is really reducible to a lot of separate conspiracies (in DF terms) that have joined together since they have the same general objective and the uprising then frequently breaks down into infighting as the different conspiracies find they don't really share any goal anymore. 

For instance some evil vampire wants to get rid of some tyrannical king because he wants to be king instead.  The plot fails causing the vampire and his plotters to be tracked down and imprisoned.  However as they are being transferred to the jail, other rebellious elements mover to rescue the vampire and the original plotters release the vampire with his first group of plotters in order to thwart the king.  Once the people see that the king has been successfully defied, all sorts of other groups jump on the bandwagon and the tyrannical king is overthrown.

At this point the vampire makes himself king supported by his followers, but the others were only supporting the vampire to get at their king.  They don't want a vampire to be king and so the uprising breaks apart.  There is also the element of the supporters of the deposed tyrant, they don't want to be punished for their crimes/keep their power and wealth and if the conflict is set to result in a deadlock they make sign up with one faction or the other.  In effect they are a conspiracy with conservative aims, they aim to keep what they already have and by banding together they can lever influence by better exploiting divisions among what are actually their enemies to prevent their enemies from actually harming them.

I imagine your companions will be as morally ambiguous as you are considering you'll be able to freely swap between them.

People you pick up later might react differently though.

The people we pick up later is what I was referring to.  If you sign up to certain goals, your NPC companions ought to launch conspiracies against you and potentially depose you, taking over your group with not only it's property but it's reputation.  But if there are only a few NPC companions they should instead leave since they have no chance of winning an prospective uprising.