So just to start off I'm a new DM and iv started a new campaign with my friends (4) and it's a darkside Campaign and most if them are heavy Roleplayers

Anyway we're still in the prolog of my campaign

The campaign is set 20 years after return of the Jedi Luke has rebuilt the Jedi order and the new republic is now the dominant power in the Galaxy with the imperial remnant controlling a small portion of space in the outer rim

The party are all Jedi padwans and are on the planet tython about to complete there Jedi trials, there at the end of there trials and about to go up against a fallen Jedi padwan then they are about to go to Illum to get there lightsaber crystals where the get traped in the ice caves and come across an ancient sith tomb were they find an ancient Sith Lord frozen in carbonite

(Darth Malgus)

Darth Malgus is going to ask them to join him and he will teach them the ways of the darkside/sith and they will retake the galaxy

I'm trying to tease them with the darkside but I don't know what the best method of doing this is because I don't want to railroad my PCs in to turning darkside if there characters don't want to when it comes to them meeting Darth Malgus

so if anyone has any ideas on what the best method of this is pls let me know

I don't think there's really a good way to do this in such a short time. When you look at the examples we see in Canon and Legends, most of the time the Sith has leverage over the target or is manipulating them long-term.

Perhaps Malgus is the only one powerful enough to help them escape, but he will require something from them in return? A deal with the devil of sorts?

So... you say it's "a Darkside campaign", has everyone agreed in advance that everyone is gonna be Darkside users?

Not knowing that answer, there's a couple different ways that I would think to handle this, and really it would probably be a combination of the two:

1. When he makes the offer, I would let anyone who wanted to narratively agree to "embrace the Darkside" to immediately change their Morality to 29, and to start using Darkside user rules (black pips to activate Powers with no Strain or Destiny cost, they still take Conflict for every dark pip).

2. For anyone who didn't want to immediately embrace the Darkside and/or wanted to see how they get there, then I would just have Malgus start giving them tasks that are... dark. Assassinations (easy targets, personal to Malgus, petty targets, or worthy targets so the PCs are more likely to do it, all Murder Conflict), sabotage (lots of sabotage, plant explosives at numerous facilities to meet Malgus' ends, Unnecessary Destruction of Property Conflict, each), thieving (lots of thieving, and associated Stealing Conflict), have him tell them his evil plans to do things worth 5 or more Conflict (if they don't try to stop him, that's Knowing Inaction Conflict), etc. No mystery or special thing to it here, just use the rules as they are designed. Add extra Conflict to every Conflict-worthy action for the knowing Darkside intent.

Won't take long for them to go Dark "naturally".

I've also done things like:

A. If you have a Darkside Mentor, you take an automatic 1 Conflict at the beginning of every season.

B. Offer immediate XP for Conflict; "You can accept training from this guy that will give you 5 or 10 XP. If you accept that XP, you will immediately take some amount of Conflict." And depending on how dark the instructor is, I'll give them either 4 Conflict: 5 XP, or 1:1. Bonus Conflict would even be warranted if they know they're accepting training from a literal Sith.

Both of those work very well...

I mean, you've all agreed in advance that everyone is gonna join Malgus, right? Because if not... like, you could end up with a real mess where some of the party want to go dark and others do not...

The rules as written for Morality are meant to put it 100% in the hands of the Players to decide if their PC goes Darkside. So... everyone needs to willingly do this. You cannot "trick" someone into going Darkside using the rules as they are, and it's generally not a fun play experience if your GM is trying to trick or force you into the Darkside. Which is why they designed the mechanic as they did. So... you need to all agree that's what the campaign is about.

Malgus having been in carbonite for more than 3000 years, he'll need some updates about the galaxy before trying to take it. I doubt he'll present himself to the PCs with "Hi guys I'm Darth Malgus the Sith Lord that started a war against the Republic and won it thousands years ago." He's more clever than that and he's likely to disguise what he is and how powerful with the Force he is. Then he can use the PCs as his pawns, tempting by knowledge about the Force that'll make them slowly slide to the Darkside.

And he'll most certainly want to go to Korriban and Dromund Kass and other planets from the old Sith Empire where he could have things hidden that'll help rebuild a base of power.

On 5/6/2020 at 3:44 PM, Voiditar said:

I'm trying to tease them with the darkside but I don't know what the best method of doing this is because I don't want to railroad my PCs in to turning darkside if there characters don't want to when it comes to them meeting Darth Malgus

The best method is telling your players that you're running a darkside campaign and that they're supposed to turn evil.

If nobody turns, would you still have a campaign left?

This sort of thing is not something you want to spring on your players as a surprise.