I don't know where to take the story anymore

[JoshBraggs]

The party has managed to get the main villain to join them after defeating them, a serial killer who has killed children, men, and women, tortured them and done several unspeakable horrific things. And now the party has dressed up as guards and are using the "law" against regular peasants to extort them for gold and randomly beat people up for "Justice."

I had anticipated the party killing the serial killer or getting him arrested, not letting him join the party. This is all..... very different from what I expected.

[RGTraynor]

A couple responses.

First off, you're better off asking your players, not asking us. What are they comfortable with playing? Where would be some directions they'd like to take the story?

Then consider: if your sense of what's proper requires that your parties follow a particular moral code -- or if you usually run a game world where actions really do have consequences, even to PCs -- have you articulated that to your players?

For my part, I'm more comfortable GMing good guys than bad guys, but I've run for an "all-evil" group that indulged in revenge torture and whose reaction to the Sick Evil Ritual was "Cool! Let's complete it!" There's a level of depravity I won't buy into, but if I ever had players wanting to push that envelope, I'd use my words.

[whswhs]

I think you have three basic options:

* Accept this as what your players want, and run it for them, allowing their characters' crimes to progres as they gain power.
* Accept this as the premise of the campaign, and run a realistic response of the surrounding society to this sort of thing: not so much a holy crusade to put them down, but surrounding domains guarding against incursions (you can kill your own peasants, but not ours), their own people trying to escape their domains, their own economies declining from shortages of labor and trade (maybe, for example, everything costs twice as much because merchants are reluctant to travel there).
* Tell your players, GM to player, that you're not comfortable with running this sort of campaign and you're going to shut it down; and when you offer future campaigns, spell out the ethics you expect of player characters.

(Vampire: The Masquerade offers a fourth option, where the player characters struggle against their own loss of humanity, but it doesn't sound as if your players were looking for that sort of drama.)

[Opellulo]

As other have said there is a clear misunderstanding in communication with the players; so first address that and then move according to it.
Maybe your players were simply looking for a cheap laugh or they ere bored by moral codes and or "mercenary" work. IMHO this sudden turn of choice is the signal of something already brewing with you group.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by JoshBraggs

The party has managed to get the main villain to join them after defeating them, a serial killer who has killed children, men, and women, tortured them and done several unspeakable horrific things. And now the party has dressed up as guards and are using the "law" against regular peasants to extort them for gold and randomly beat people up for "Justice."

Sometimes you just have to roll with it. I see a few possibilities:
- Any town that hired a group to take care of one killer can hire another group. Bring in a new team of "heroes" to deal with the last. You can even ask your existing players which group of characters they want to play.

- Introduce an invader (army, monsters, rival gang, etc). If they want to keep the rule the town as tyrants, they will have to defend it.

- Have the townspeople revolt. This can be overt (mob attack) or a series of guerrilla actions.

- Someone shows up to offer them a tempting quest (or perhaps even threatens them with consequences for not taking a quest).

- The main villain starts acting out either against the party or doing things they can't overlook.

[Varyon]

"Corrupt authorities exploiting the populace" is a pretty common theme for stories. Typically, you end up with a ragtag group of heroes showing up to put them down - although sometimes, it's just one guy.

Now, normally the role of these heroes is played by the PC's, but reversing things is certainly an option.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by JoshBraggs

The party has managed to get the main villain to join them after defeating them, a serial killer who has killed children, men, and women, tortured them and done several unspeakable horrific things. And now the party has dressed up as guards and are using the "law" against regular peasants to extort them for gold and randomly beat people up for "Justice."

I had anticipated the party killing the serial killer or getting him arrested, not letting him join the party. This is all..... very different from what I expected.

Whose guards have they dressed up as? How does this person/organisation feel about being false-flagged? How much gold do peasants have anyway?

But the way most campaigns run, the PCs have now become the sort of thing that adventuring parties get hired to hunt down and kill. I don't have anything against evil PCs - I've occasionally played on myself - but villains are another thing altogether.

Oh, and just how much can they rely on a serial killer? Especially one that only joined them to save his own life? I wouldn't want to try to sleep with him on sentry duty.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

But the way most campaigns run, the PCs have now become the sort of thing that adventuring parties get hired to hunt down and kill. I don't have anything against evil PCs - I've occasionally played on myself - but villains are another thing altogether.

See The Seven Samurai for a classic treatment of this scenario . . .

[thrash]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Whose guards have they dressed up as? How does this person/organisation feel about being false-flagged? How much gold do peasants have anyway?

In a DF-type setting with manifest Good and Evil, it's conceivable that the peasants' prayers could result in an Avenging Angel to set things right.

There's also the possibility that they are muscling in on some other, more evil organization's turf. It's all fun and games until one of the Demon Lord/Capo's lieutenants shows up with a goon squad and demands His cut...

... and future services, to be named later.

Then work them like the lapdogs of Evil that they are. Much less fun to be the bullied, than the bulliers.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by thrash

In a DF-type setting with manifest Good and Evil, it's conceivable that the peasants' prayers could result in an Avenging Angel to set things right.

Speaking of which, I'm assuming that, if this is classic fantasy, their healbot cleric stopped working some time ago... this may crimp their style when faced with peer combat.