Can you play someone totally evil?

[Ulthar]

I've started this game and have high hopes. It seems like I am basically Harry Potter.

Are there dark storylines where one can seek out forbidden knowledge? it seems like when given a choice like "you don't have money for your dinner" - my options are quite nice and no "Dine and dash" - so it seems such ideas would never occur to my student when he finds himself penniless.

Also can I have more than one portrait by gender?

[Kanarena]

It depends on the individual scene at times for random events and some adventures, keep in mind that there's been a lot of player submissions added to the game, and not everyone plays the same, so sometimes your favored option just isn't gonna be there because the particular writer in question didn't think of it, however the academy of thei background gives you a pretty nice little quest to seek knowledge in the art of mastery at the cost of a small random chance to fail at any spell you try to cast except for astrology, which gets a boost, and mastery itself, which gets a boost unlocked by the questline, and a +2% detection chance when in places you aren't supposed to be in, though it is one of the incomplete ones that's supposed to continue in later years if/when they're released, you can also,by working on language unlock the language skills questline which ends in a chance to get the book of dark shadows, which will teach you the basics of mastery and, if you've already picked up the other forbidden magic, gates, will allow you to use it to clear parts of it, there are several adventures and a few random events which have mastery based solutions on the table too, so you'll get to use your mind controlling spells in practical ways, and, while it requires unlocking the research skill and researching mastery phemes fully to unlock the 11th skill level for learning in order to get a certain pheme for your use, you can actually learn the master spell proper, which upon a successful if opposed roll against another student lets you dictate their every action for a period of a couple days. Now as for learning gates, you /could/ take the secret heritage background for it's questline, but the options for it better suit good and neutral characters, not evil, although finishing it allows you enrollment into a gates specific magic school with and optional ritual for a one time attribute boosting of your choice, although it raises minimum stress by one due to coming in contact with a more ominous being from the other side, no, if you want a gates questline that gives you a dark way to begin your quest for knowledge, get your explore skill up high enough to unlock once discovered, a nice little oneshot adventure that ends in you coming into possession of a sentient magic gates book, with a more appropriate for evil characters way to handle things, gates related options also come up more often, perhaps due to the fact that it has far more non evil applications, although gates also has some pretty nasty hostile spells one can learn to torment one's enemies, whereas while the game mentions in lore a few non-evil mastery applications, in practice non-evil mastery is referred to as synchronicity and is it's own skill, learned from the an outing.. multi part quest, which I strongly suggest not even starting as an evil character, it's a waste of an adventure day for thei background characters, who cannot finish the questline, and evil characters will find it requires them to play completely against type to finish, and they will be railroaded into making the actual mastery skill tree nearly useless if they manage to finish it anyway...oh, and note, if you do not know any gates or mastery, options to use the respective skill generally are not listed even when there is one, so if you're curious of if it is for sure possible, consider taking the secrets and silence background, as for one point of minimum stress it grants a reasonable amount of starting knowledge in gates and a smaller amount in mastery, which can then be aided by obtaining the book of dark shadows and sentient gates book diavesque the living...also consider doing what happens when you break curfew if you're playing an evil gates novice, as one of the paths for completion unlocks a nice little power up item for a character willing to use it, and is another one of those quests that left itself intentionally kind of open in case year 2 happens...and there actually is 2 portraits for your gender, one that's more typically masculine/feminine according to your choice of gender at the start, and one that's more androgynous in case you'd prefer to play a pretty boy or tomboyish girl...but they are distinctly different from the other gender's two options, you can also consider switching schools to find a portrait you prefer, but it does change which school related adventures you're eligible for, what you can gain from certain college specific locations, as well as changing your mandatory classes, so it might not be worth it if your chosen college's specifics better fit what you're working towards

[Leah]

Yes, you can enslave people with forbidden magic and summon dark creatures magic wise. Otherwise, you can be a total bully and live to make others suffer.