Oppositional Parties

The paladin and the dark lord, the wizard and the technophile: there are times when the characters in a party will seem so hopelessly opposed that nothing can make the party function.

Going to the most obvious set of problem characters- every edition of Dungeons and Dragons ever published forbids the Paladin from working in a party with an evil character. Of course, this rule should never supersede common sense.

However, when there is a rule like this or an ideological difference this strong, it is up to the Game Master to provide a reason sufficient to override the character’s ideology or moral qualms.

Maybe the evil character (even though a PC) is the only character who has ever escaped from the villain’s castle and without him the party will never reach said castle in time to stop the villain from unleashing his army on the party’s nation. The character might be evil, but he has family and property and national loyalty tied up in country the same as the rest of the party does.

Character’s such as Jedi and Sith, or Soviet and American spies, could join together to fight a new third enemy that threatens them both. Characters with radically different game play approaches, such as the mystic and the hacker, may not get along, but will generally work together with enough incentive. These cases make for good buddy movie moments, where the players are forced to rely upon the skills of the other (which they dislike) and then acknowledge the debt and wait for their turn to repay it.

As long as the Game Master gives such party a variety of challenges that allows each character to shine, everyone is easily satisfied.