DMing love, lust, betrayal and opposing ideals

[Akulatraxis]

So I'm just about to DM a 4.0 DnD paragon campaign for a group of 6. They each have PC’s that previously took part in various heroic level campaigns (run by me) and each earned their way to level 10 without dieing (just). All the players are really good at both the crunch and the fluff (imo), they are really good RPers and are all fairly good at building characters.

Two of the PCs have developed a bit of a relationship, they clearly care for each other but are fairly polar when it comes to ideals. One is a Warlord who always tries to save as many people as possible no matter what and the other is a Warlock who isn’t afraid to make the hard calls and sacrifice for the greater good.

I am looking for something a little more interesting in the next stage of the campaign and want to have a major issue that sets them against each other. It would bring in a nice dynamic that sets their feelings for each other at odds with the quest they are on.

The problem is that I need an issue that will make this possible while not excluding the rest of the party. Does anyone have any advice on this? Either on inter party conflict or setting up quests that put different alignments at odds? As well as advice about spotlight issues and how to deal with making sure all the players get a good share of the limelight without making people feel relegated to the side lines. Any advice on how to deal with inter party love interests would be welcomed as well.

It may be important to note that we really put a lot of emphasis on RP in our group. And while we don’t use the alignment system rigidly it is generally agreed that the Warlord is NG and the Warlock is LE.

EDIT: the warlord is male and the warlock is female, just in case its important.

[Pyrite]

I think we'll need to know more about your campaign to give much advice. What are the party doing, what are they trying to accomplish, if anything, what bad guys exist and what do they want, etc.

[Demon 997]

I'd also say you'd want some player consent for this especially if the players are becoming romantically involved. If they're already together its probably much less of an issue.

[Pyrite]

That does bring up a very important question: are the players romantically involved with each other, and want to express that through their characters, or are only the characters romantically involved with each other, and the players only good friends. I would very much want the answer to this before introducing them to anything designed to be a point of contention between them. It obviously becomes a much more delicate issue in the former case.

[Gabe the Bard]

If you want to create tension between two romantically involved PCs, then maybe you could make it a triangle by throwing in a third character. It could be someone that one of the PCs finds attractive while the other finds repulsive, or someone that both of them find highly attractive in their own way but feel ambivalent towards, like a Lancelot to your Arthur and Guinevere.

Anyway, it should be something that's fun and interesting to roleplay without getting bogged down in moral and ethical arguments, unless your players enjoy that sort of thing.

Now that I think about it, this third character could even be the member of another party, sort of like the Linear Guild. The rest of the NPCs could have something to do with each one of the other PCs, so that there will be plenty of opportunities for each player to grab the limelight.