An Evil Campaign

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi all-

Well, it looks like I am going to DM an evil campaign for the lads. Any advise on dealing with evil crazy characters short of not killing them out right?

I have some ideas, but I figured perhaps you guy's might also have some helpful suggestions.


Scott

 

[Gahnomen]

It really depends on the circumstances, but the evil characters needs a little cunning now and again. If they go for the all out evil lunatic type, they probably won't survive very long

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

Hi all-

Well, it looks like I am going to DM an evil campaign for the lads. Any advise on dealing with evil crazy characters short of not killing them out right?

I have some ideas, but I figured perhaps you guy's might also have some helpful suggestions.


Scott

If your players are looking to have a campaign where they work together to bring about incredible acts of evil and destruction, you'll need some method (either roleplaying based or magical) that will "force" them to work together. Otherwise the whole affair breaks down into backstabbing eachother for 10sp in about...oh...5 minutes.

And you thought the "I was only playing my character!" excuse was bad when the PCs were good!

Edit: Oh, and before I get flagged with the railroading sign, let me say that I played in a long running evil campaign in which the party basically conqured an entire country. It was tons of fun and everything worked very well, but only because our chracters had a magical contract that kept them from killing eachother. Without that, my character would have quietly killed the rest of the part (or at least tried to) within the first two sessions.

NCSUCodeMonkey

 

[DamionW]

I played a short one-stint adventure where we were all orcs/hobgoblins/etc. that started attacking local villages. It was among my more fun playing experiences. Basically, there was an inneffective tribal chief who I challenged in single combat and beat, so I became the default leader. We then proceeded to slaughter and pillage our way towards the good capital city, and other monstrous tribes started organizing under our banner. I'd reccomend some approach like that were the players are the impetus for a new backlash against the good's reign of peace that's persisted for awhile, and throw other monsters/villains along their side to see how much damage they can do before the paladins ride out to meet them.

 

[painandgreed]

Contrary to many people here it seems, I've always experienced a greater solidarity and purpose in evil parties. This is mainly because everybody knew that if they messed up the parties chances, they'd be killed by the rest of the party. Because of this, people took greater care not to offend the rest of the party with their antics. The few that didn't got to make up new characters who happened to be much better at not offending everybody else.

Why do evil parties work together, same reasons as good parties. There is more money in working with a group than working by yourself. There are many things that can only be done by a group rather than the individual. A common goal or enemy may bind them all together. The stakes are usually higher in evil campaigns as the governments are usually evil also, so anything that hurts the parties effectiveness has a drastically worse effect on the party than the similar good party.

If you're worried about how your players may act or what they may end up doing, then have an out of character before the game and lay out the ground rules. Tell them what you expect and forewarn them not to make up any characters that would perform the actions you are worried about.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I've had some bitter experience with this, both as a DM and a player.
I have some advice, since you asked:

Treat your party as if it were a 'regular' party of characters, in every sense but one:

LAY DOWN THE LAW that the party members MUST behave as good characters would, towards each other, regardless of their alignment.

In all other respects, run a normal campaign. Have NPCs react appropriately, of course, to PC attacks on shops, villagers, towns, and cities.

-

If you do not lay down the law concerning how your players can treat each other, be prepared for:

1: Intraparty suspicion and hostility, followed by:
2: Intraparty backstabbing, followed by:
3: Intraparty fighting and killing, followed by:
4: The players having a fist fight, followed by:
5: The break up of the gaming group.

I should know. I've DMed that table. I foolishly believed my players could handle evil characters, and laid no restrictions on them. One thing led to another, and steps 1 through 5 went as described above.
As for playing evils, I have done that: I never attacked others in the party, knowing better. But they did attack my character, almost invariably, and killed that character. There is only one exception to this rule, and said exception is only a partial exception.

What works in Paranoia, does not work in D&D.

Edena_of_Neith

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

The advice given has so far been good.

Personally, I've only ever played in one and I detested it; not because of party backstabbing (Though that happened) but because I felt I was motivated to do evil. None of us really got to do much evil to be honest; we just weren't up for turning the country into vamp-spawn when we got down into it. (Admittedly the DM wanted only a short campaign for that; he was soon to change to a stop-your-evil-PC's game)

Not my thing, anyway. Regardless, find out how Evil you want your players to go. Promoting the dark gods expansion? possible. Graphic torture, mass murdering and rape? not possible.

Ensure characters have a higher purpose. Deny CE characters flat-out.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi all-

Thanks for some great advise and tips guys. My idea is to perhaps run a campaign with the players working for a mercenary company in the Eberron setting. The Mercenary company is based in the city of Sharn, some one has to go down into the depths of the city to clear out the failed expairements or the odd creature running amok the Cogs within Sharns depths.


Scott

 

[Cursed Quinn]

I played in an evil campaign for close to a year. The party had no problems working together because:

A) If anyone had tried to go off and do their own thing for even a moment, our numerous "good" enemies would take the opportunity to kill us; we literally needed each other to survive.

B) The party had various ties to one another (for example, brother and sister, or serving the same god, lovers, etc.).

C)We had an important mission that took considerstion over all; to unite the world under our banner, whether the world wanted it or not.

 

[Shemeska]

My current campaign has PCs that are mostly a mix of various neutrals (N and LN), with one NE. Several of those neutrals are bordering on evil however. There's largely no moral qualms about what tactics can be used as they go about their goals, and they've so far participated in one assassination, one kidnapping (of a Nalfeshnee), some tomb robbing on the prime material, and some intrigue in Acheron.

They haven't randomly stolen from each other, they haven't fought amongst each other, they haven't randomly stabbed anyone (except that gnome that one time, or two... but they aren't real people, so that doesn't count ). They have goals, they have steady employment, and they aren't willing to do something to rock the boat within their group. Yes some of them are evil, one of them is the child of a fiend and a fallen celestial, but frankly they're friends. Two of them are lovers, and at the very worst a few of them are just drinking buddies and co-workers.

Just because you're evil doesn't mean you can't care for something truly and honestly. It doesn't mean that you can't have friends.

The key is giving evil PCs a shared goal and a reason for working together, perhaps more so than if they are all good aligned. I've never had a problem with evil characters, it just takes a more mature group of players to realize that just because the character is evil doesn't mean that you suddenly have either an excuse to, or a need to, do random acts of evil that have no purpose and don't fit the character or the circumstances of the game.

Play characters, not alignments*. That's the best advice I can have.

* unless the PC is a full blooded fiend, in which case the character is a manifestation of the alignment. This can still work, but it takes some more work on the DM and players' parts. You'll need really good players to handle this, more so than a player who has an LE dwarf fighter.