Evil Campaign

[Turtlejay]

I've followed this guys's comic for a couple of years now. I found it through his excellent session writeups. Unfortunately he doesn't do the writeups any longer, but as part of his comic he has posted two parts of a fictional evil campaign in writeup style.

I want in. It seems like such a blast. Note, I have played in a short lived evil campaign and in an evil one shot, and both were wheelbarrows overflowing with fun and win. This one kind of cranks it to 11 though, with the 1 on 1 DM time encouraging the individual plotting and whatnot.

Anyways, has ENworld done an evil campaign like this? Does enworld like this guy's site?

Jay

 

[Crothian]

For me it's all about the players and being on the same page. All the evil campaigns I've been part of were rarely much different from the good campaigns. Just the motives were different. It was not really being evil, but then if everyone was really evil you'd never have a party owrking together and it would become PvP fast and that's rarely fun.

 

[interwyrm]

if everyone was really evil you'd never have a party owrking together and it would become PvP fast and that's rarely fun.

I disagree. There are plenty examples of organized cooperative evil in both literature and real life. Real life mafia is 'evil', and even the Joker has got his band of hooligans.

All you need to do to have a working evil party is to ensure that each benefits more from cooperating than from backstabbing. Even if that's not always the situation, evil PCs can still possess the virtues of loyalty and friendship (though they may consider them weaknesses.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

I disagree. There are plenty examples of organized cooperative evil in both literature and real life. Real life mafia is 'evil', and even the Joker has got his band of hooligans.

All you need to do to have a working evil party is to ensure that each benefits more from cooperating than from backstabbing. Even if that's not always the situation, evil PCs can still possess the virtues of loyalty and friendship (though they may consider them weaknesses.)

I love the example of the Joker. In the old Michael Keaton Movie, we all know what happens to the Joker's top men eh?

On a more serious note, the problem with an 'evil' campaign is that there is much less reason for the players to actual work together as any time they feel that something is going to give them an advantage, they'll take it.

Having a good group goes a long way in removing that streak and having a solid story that the GM and the players are looking to tell goes even further but when it's everyone a Supervillain... well, there's only so much spot light in most cases eh?

 

[Crothian]

I disagree. There are plenty examples of organized cooperative evil in both literature and real life. Real life mafia is 'evil', and even the Joker has got his band of hooligans.

That's because they are not all really evil. The may be bad guys but not evil. For an evil campaign to work you need to sit down and define what it is you mean by evil. You have to set the ground rules like you say below.

All you need to do to have a working evil party is to ensure that each benefits more from cooperating than from backstabbing. Even if that's not always the situation, evil PCs can still possess the virtues of loyalty and friendship (though they may consider them weaknesses.)

It's not all you need, but it is a good start.

 

[Turtlejay]

In the example I linked, the DM used a plot device to force cooperation. All the evil players were coerced somehow by the God of Chaos into signing a pact to do his bidding, with failure being horrible something or other. So the *players* have a list of prohibited actions, including the illusion school of magic (and probably directly attacking each other). The fun would come when the players accomplish their goal, and the geas is lifted. . .all their secret plans come to fruition.

Jay

 

[EP]

Everything boils down to your players - regardless of the alignment, good players will find a way to get their characters involved. Unless you're a balor, even the chaotic evil will use the skills of others to get the job done. And even balors have minions to do the work they don't want to do. If you have players you've played with for years of just a mature bunch of gamers with an understanding of where the line is drawn and what's off limits, there shouldn't be a problem at all.

Treasure is the only part that can get tricky. For that, I recommend secret treasure. Write it down on a card or email it to the player afterwards.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I played in a long Dark Sun 2E Evil Campaign. There were only two players. We got along pretty well, but all of the NPC's the DM expected to stay with us for very long didn't last. They were usually evil, too, and one of three things happened to all of them:

1. They crossed us and got killed (or worse);
2. They ran away when they saw how evil we were; or
3. They only joined us temporarily, probably because they worked for something like a large crime cabal.

It was a fun campaign, and there were lots of new things we had to deal with. Detect Alignment became a huge pain in the buttocks.

Regarding the OP, the artwork is too poor for me to enjoy. I don't have time right now to read the write-ups, but I hope to someday.

 

[interwyrm]

I should also point out that there are different "evil" motivations, and some of them work pretty well together. Consider the following party:

Karazhom, Evil Human Warlord: Karazhom is a megalomaniac. Quite simply, he wishes to gain as much worldly power as he can. Naturally, this will require the skills of other individuals to achieve.

Sharumaz the Fallen, Evil Deva Wizard|Warlock: Sharum's motivation is to gain as much knowledge as possible. She understands that by abandoning the path of "good" she has fallen out of the cycle of rebirth. She hopes to use fell knowledge to unnaturally prolong her existence for as long as possible.

Grimlo, Chaotic Evil Halfling Rogue: Garmuk is a sadist, through and through. His sole motivation is to inflict pain on others. He isn't stupid though, and realizes that by working for Karazhom, he'll have a steady supply of subjects to torture. To turn against his leader would likely result in a quick and unfortunately painless death.

HK-47, Chaotic Evil Warforged Warden: HK was created for one purpose, and one purpose only - to kill. Although an eventual blessing would be the opportunity to kill his comrades, for now they afford him the path of most destruction with the least consequences.

(Yeah, I know hk-47 doesn't really fit as a warden)

As far as I can see, the only real problem comes from having multiple megalomaniacs in the same group. Even then, a tentative alliance is possible.
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[LostSoul]

if everyone was really evil you'd never have a party owrking together and it would become PvP fast and that's rarely fun.

I disagree. It's rarely fun if there is no PvP.