Consequences of playing "EVIL" races

[Celebrim]

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.

Interestingly, my Drow society is patterned after lions - because it was a far more appalling social structure than I could have imagined.

If lions were sentient, they'd definitely be "chaotic evil".

 

[hawkeyefan]

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.

Yeah, I think the default expectation is going to be heroic to somewhat neutral.

But to be "evil" all you really need to do is be self serving...putting your needs ahead of others, and so on. It doesn't have to be about eating puppies, as you say.

That's more what I have in mind. I don't think that a game of absolute evil characters who simply wander around killing and destroying wantonly is going to really be all that compelling, nor will it last long.

But something that's just past that middle area? Just a bit evil? That can be a lot of fun.

 

[shawnhcorey]

Interestingly, my Drow society is patterned after lions - because it was a far more appalling social structure than I could have imagined.

The part they don't normally tell you about lion society is that when the daughters get old enough to have young, they encourage young adult males to drive their fathers away to prevent inbreeding. So the fathers drive their sons away before they, in turn, get driving away by complete strangers.

 

[Shiroiken]

In my campaign, there is quite a lot of prejudice, and not just against the evil races. Dwarves and Elves don't like each other. Humans and Halflings are often at odds. Gnomes tend to annoy everyone except the dwarves. In general, this prejudice doesn't normally lead to violence, but it's still present.

Strange races are seldom welcome, except in large cosmopolitan areas. Most of them have been slightly modified in appearance to allow them to blend in without too much difficulty, but if revealed, they'll suffer from some social issue. A few, like the aarakocra, triton, and underdark races cannot easily hide their appearance, and thus suffer a lot of social issues (a triton in my current campaign is very tired of being called "fish-man").

 

[Michael Silverbane]

In most of the campaigns that I run, the general populace understands that "adventurers" are an unpredictable, dangerous, and unhinged lot. So, anyone who shows up amongst a group of adventurers, while probably not evil, in the strictest sense, are going to cause a lot of trouble, regardless of their species.

They are, however, where they are for a reason, and usually on behalf of the Powers That Be, so it is for the best to just acquiesce to whatever crazy demands they make, and try to stay out of the way when the fighting starts.

 

[atanakar]

I once accepted, after much insistance by the players, to DM an evil campaign with AD&D1e. It didn't last very long. It ended at the mid-point of the first session. The adventurers auto-killed themselves because they were too stupid to work together. The survivor was killed not long after. Being alone in the wilderness isn't forgiving...

During 3e, with a different group, we tried to do a pirate campaign. At first the players were enthousiastic at being semi-evil, but eventualy they rebelled against their cruel captain, seized his ship and became Corsairs hunting other pirates.

 

[hawkeyefan]

It’s like the difference between playing Grand Theft Auto and doing the missions, or simply getting a bazooka and blowing everything up until you get 5 stars and they dispatch the army to take you down.

One is more fun for longer, the other is a short wild ride.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Tangently, Elf/Dwarf animosity has never made much sense. Dwarves need to come to the surface to get food, and elves need to get ore from underground. Also the "loves" of dwarves make no sense, you live underground, but you find pretty rocks valuable?

Anyway, both directions I'm going could be cliche. My problems with "evil" races aside from Powered by Evil creatures are 1.) why aren't they extinct? or 2.) why aren't they the dominant species?

As I know it's going to come up, the MST3K mantra is fine when you're a teenager. When you're older, you have to think about how a world would work believably.

 

[ccs]

Tangently, Elf/Dwarf animosity has never made much sense. Dwarves need to come to the surface to get food, and elves need to get ore from underground.

It doesn't follow that they need to like each other though.

Also the "loves" of dwarves make no sense, you live underground, but you find pretty rocks valuable?

It's because they find the pretty rocks valuable that they live underground. They've dug so far into the mountains that it no longer makes sense to trek all the way in/all the way out. So they start living near/in their mines.

Anyway, both directions I'm going could be cliche. My problems with "evil" races aside from Powered by Evil creatures are 1.) why aren't they extinct? or 2.) why aren't they the dominant species?

Adventurers & heroes.
There's enough adventurers & heroes in the world to keep the evil things in check, but not enough to drive them to extinction.
This is a source of entertainment for the various gods.

As I know it's going to come up, the MST3K mantra is fine when you're a teenager. When you're older, you have to think about how a world would work believably.

No I don't.
Sure, I can. But the worlds I'm describing & playing in are meant to be fantastical, even impossible. So believability is merely optional.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If a player wants to play a drow, duergar, orc, bugbear, etc., they'll probably get strange looks in town. Some might be more hostile than others, some might be more accepting. But unless a player wants to explore that sort of dynamic, I'm not going to have the whole world out to get them.

As for an actually evil drow, duergar, et al, my rule is that they have to get along with the rest of the party. It's a collaborative game, and if you are going to knowingly create disharmony in the group, that's where I draw the line. The same would go for a LG paladin trying to kill the drow PC just because they're a drow.