Consequences of playing "EVIL" races

[DammitVictor]

Never heard someone say a new Dwarf PC "won't last long" because there's already a couple of Elves in the party or because the townsfolk don't like them.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Celebrim]

I've always found it curious how many DMs enforce rampant NPC bigotry against races not in the PHB-- or not in their preferred PHB-- based on Alignment, but not against the neighboring elves, dwarves, and humans who just murdered their uncles and sheep during the last High Festival.

You know, in the name of realism.

I'm not really sure what you are trying to say.

Goblins are in my preferred PHB. In my introduction to goblin-kind for new players, it reads, "Human mothers have been known to warn their children to be obedient, or goblins will eat them. Goblin mothers say the same thing to their children, but with rather more sincerity."

 

[Celebrim]

But there’s no reason that people who we’d consider evil can’t be thoughtful and practical and loyal and actually have an agenda that they pursue. Look at other forms of media for examples....Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Peaky Blinders...these would all be evil campaigns (with maybe some neutral folks in there, too) in a RPG.

I realize it may not be for everyone, but too often this stuff gets dismissed out of hand as potentially disastrous. I find that to be a bit overstated.

I find that when I don't run an evil campaign, I get characters that in practice have about the same morality observed in Sopranos or Breaking Bad or what have you.

Perhaps this explains why explicitly evil campaigns are dominated by over the top puppy chewing villains.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm pretty traditional, and run a living world. That means people react as they would normally react regardless of what the players do. That is, I won't suddenly make goblins a neutrally reacted to race in a town of dwarves just because a player is playing a goblin. The players know that going in.

Re: evil PCs, I disallow CN and evil alignments unless I know the player well and know it won't be disruptive. More often than not, a player wanting to play an evil or CN PC just is using that as an excuse for their own disruptive behavior. The game is a team sport at my table.

 

[prabe]

Re: evil PCs, I disallow CN and evil alignments unless I know the player well and know it won't be disruptive. More often than not, a player wanting to play an evil or CN PC just is using that as an excuse for their own disruptive behavior. The game is a team sport at my table.

I specifically asked for characters "willing to be heroes" in both the campaigns I'm running, because that's what I want to run. I am not at present (that I know of) allowing any of the traditionally evil races for PCs; some of them don't exist in my world.

Doesn't mean they don't belong at other tables. Doesn't even mean I wouldn't play at a table that allowed them (though I'd probably think at least twice before joining an explicitly evil campaign).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Depends on the setting too; in Eberron there are no "always <alignment>" mortal races and it's not unusual to bump into Orcs or Bugbears or Gnolls whatever (at least in places like Sharn), and so it was nice when we got better stats for playing one as a PC. I had a goblin PC in one of my old homebrews too. The "always evil" thing never set well for me, though. It always felt so reductive and regressive.

Yep, agreed.

In my games, the world contains these races and always has, and for me...that means people will be somewhat different than they are IRL. Part of that is simply not assuming the worst when they see a humanoid that stands over 7 feet tall and has large tusks, or dark grim-looking dwarf with white hair, or a little dude with jagged teeth and yellow eyes. But it's also that these races aren't "always" anything.

Some worship evil gods that whose priests promise them power and dominion, while others raise goats and others sail boats and still others waylay travellers on the road and "offer safe passage" in exchange for a small fee. And that's true of every humanoid race.

 

[ccs]

On the other hand how do you accord your friend who wants to play a drow or bugbear and walk into town.

My friends know my stance on playing such things & what types of games I run. So that'd be a very odd request from them.
For people new to my games;
1st I'd sincerely encourage them to save this character for when someone else is DMing.
2nd, if they still just really really really had to play such a thing now? Then I'd make sure that they realize that the world is going to react to them as if they were the XP generating monsters they appear to be.
And then I'd carry through on that.
Ex: See, Drow have their bad reputation for a reason. 99.99999% of everyone you meet won't care that you're a (supposedly) Good Drow. Just that you're a good & DEAD Drow.

 

[Tonguez]

I find that there is not enough prejudice in DnD worlds and unfortunately playing evil races tend to make them appear even more tolerated. Evil races as PCs gets to the point where Monsters get treated as another viable culture in the world - which imho is a unfortunate


I have towns that outright ban orcs, giants and pixies and keep them outside the gate.

Towns without a gate might tolerate half-orcs wondering through but the local tavern or black smith might refuse to serve the party unless they get the pig outside and preferably dead.

Elves are all feared as soul stealing sidhe imc, so drow even moreso are objects of dread to be attacked and killed on site.

strangely enough goblins are tolerated like other vermin in the sewers

 

[shawnhcorey]

I generally don't play D&D because alignment is stupid. In my campaigns, orcs (not what they call themselves) are patterned off of lions. The daughters stay with their mothers and the sons are booted out to find their own way. They group together to form roaming bachelor bands which go around looking for another tribe they can take over. It's these roaming bands that give the orcs their evil reputation since they will attack lone travellers, hunters, lumberjacks, and isolated farmhouses. But are they evil? They're just doing what they biology drives them to.