D&D 5E Evil Campaign?

[Matita]

SO me and my friends really want to run an Evil Campaign (Chaotic Evil being banned boo.) but Lawful and Neutral are a go! I wanted to help contribute some ideas for a plot because he doesn't have anything yet, so I was wondering if you guys could spitball me some general ideas that I can present to him and have him pick from and flesh out? Thank you

 

[Guest 6801328]

#1 I would encourage your DM to think beyond the cartoon version of Evil. Evil doesn't have to be selfish and cruel, or mean an absence of compassion or generosity. It's best when Evil is subtle. It starts with a cost:benefit analysis that sacrifices some morality for an altruistic (or rationalized as altruistic) outcome, and slowly slides down into a "means justify the ends" philosophy. True Evil believes it is doing the best thing, for the benefit of all.

 

[jayoungr]

Some kind of bad guy dictator takes over a kingdom/world. The PCs are his/her agents, rooting out all who would threaten the beloved leader. Think Darth Vader hunting down Jedi.

As you progress, Beloved Leader gets more and more paranoid about potential threats, which means you're now hunting down enemies before they can strike. Or even plan to strike. Maybe BL has utterly reliable (or so you're told) divination methods that will identify dissidents in advance...even in childhood....

 

[Guest 6801328]

Some kind of bad guy dictator takes over a kingdom/world. The PCs are his/her agents, rooting out all who would threaten the beloved leader. Think Darth Vader hunting down Jedi.

As you progress, Beloved Leader gets more and more paranoid about potential threats, which means you're now hunting down enemies before they can strike. Or even plan to strike. Maybe BL has utterly reliable (or so you're told) divination methods that will identify dissidents in advance...even in childhood....

I like the idea in general that, even if the heroes recognize their "patron" as a not-nice guy, over time they realize that it's far, far worse than they realized. Do they stick with him(it)? Are they THAT evil?

 

[hawkeyefan]

My players and I did an evil campaign a few years back in the 3.5 days. I really don't think that malevolently evil characters are all that fun to play, so what we did was we designed PCs that would kind of fall into the evil category, and then I created a scenario for them. The PCs were a shade wizard, a drow fighter, a mind flayer rogue, and a human fighter.

We created an expedition type of mission; there was an NPC who had hired the PCs and several other NPCs to travel to the far off jungles to try and begin harvesting the abundant resources of the dangerous location (reopen ancient mines, explore ruins for treasure, etc.). So the mission itself was kind of neutral and it was up to the players how to handle obstacles like the indigenous people of the region, or rival expeditions, and so forth. Did they advocate eliminating the locals if they proved troublesome? Or would they prefer to try and manipulate the locals into being allies or pawns? When the rightful heirs of the mine show up, do they want to eliminate them or somehow work with them or what?

I made sure that some of the NPCs that were part of the expedition were good, and some were truly evil. So the PCs had to kind of decide who to agree with on any given situation. It put them more in the middle, so to speak, so that they actually had to choose an evil option or a good option, or try some kind of compromise. The main NPC, a minor noble hoping to make his fortune, would ask the PCs for their input on how situations were to be handled, and also take into consideration the input from the other NPCs, both good and bad. How the PCs handled things would affect their standing with the NPCs within the group, so they made allies and enemies within the expedition, which created a sense of possible danger and intrigue even when they are at home base.

I think this really worked well. The campaign quickly shed the simple premise of "evil campaign" and became something a lot more thoughtful and rewarding.

 

[ccs]

In general you can run the exact same types of adventures for evil characters that you would for any other group.
There's no real difference in how a good party goes dungeon delving vrs an evil group.
There's no reason why evil groups wouldn't want to save the world from other evil groups. Afterall, it IS in their best interests....

 

[DMCF]

SO me and my friends really want to run an Evil Campaign (Chaotic Evil being banned boo.) but Lawful and Neutral are a go! I wanted to help contribute some ideas for a plot because he doesn't have anything yet, so I was wondering if you guys could spitball me some general ideas that I can present to him and have him pick from and flesh out? Thank you

I'd help if you'd said "My friends and I". It is proper and polite. It places those you speak of before yourself. Since you prefer to place yourself above all others you can just look at your daily life and come up with all sorts of nasty scenarios can't you?

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In the early years your characters grow up with a kid who is the Hall Monitor / Grammar Police. Everyone hates this kid. In fact, this kid is the reason the party ended up going evil at a very young age. Stealing lunch money, dodging class, locking this other kid in Janitor's closets etc.

Later this person learns empathy and becomes popular. They make Prom King/Queen and Valedictorian. You shop at Hot Topic and vlog "dark" poetry that you basically ripped off Lovecraft & Poe.

In college, they're accepted into the temple of Alpha Lambda Farfegnugen (A.L.F.) and ascend to Paladinhood. This grand paladin works for Goldman Sachs a few years, makes some inroads and later becomes King/Queen. Your grades suck so bad you couldn't get into remedial school. You're doing construction. You're not the sexy Village People / Carl's Jr. commercial kind of construction workers. You're the kind that planned the 15/91 interchange which sucked and still sucks and can't handle it's traffic load. You should be fired!

As a terribly righteous King/Queen this kid you grew up with eventually supersede their own God. Their frail mortal mind undertaking godhood slips into madness. Now they're all-powerful, foam at the mouth a little and seek the "ultimate order". It turns out "ultimate order" means separating all the atoms in the universe the exact same distance from each other into the shape of a cube.

That would suck. For everyone.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make it not suck for everyone while (if possible) making it suck least of all for you.

 

[Ovinomancer]

#1 I would encourage your DM to think beyond the cartoon version of Evil. Evil doesn't have to be selfish and cruel, or mean an absence of compassion or generosity. It's best when Evil is subtle. It starts with a cost:benefit analysis that sacrifices some morality for an altruistic (or rationalized as altruistic) outcome, and slowly slides down into a "means justify the ends" philosophy. True Evil believes it is doing the best thing, for the benefit of all.

I'd agree, but the cartoon version of evil is still valid. If everyone picks a different vice, even cartoony ones, they can play off of each other and create a game much more vibrant and interesting that the banal vices of the characters. This can also help an evil campaign not get too dark. Also, providing not good people to be evil too really helps keep the tone from going places that can be pretty bad. Evil games set among peaceful villagers tend to get into describing situations that aren't fun anymore. Evil games where the players can take their evil out on criminals, evil humanoids, and people generally of low moral character have a better chance of staying out the 'dark'.

Also, I think you meant 'ends justify the means.'

 

[Sunseeker]

I like the idea in general that, even if the heroes recognize their "patron" as a not-nice guy, over time they realize that it's far, far worse than they realized. Do they stick with him(it)? Are they THAT evil?

I agree that's a good idea. Typically all low-level games start out the same way, good or evil, you're just trying to make it in life. It's that slow descent into evil and the realization of how far you've really gone that makes a good game.

 

[ProphetSword]

I was a player in an evil campaign some time ago. Evil campaigns can be awesome if played right. Find a reason for a party to bond and give them a goal, and you can have an evil campaign you'll never forget. Here's an example from my own experience:

Being evil characters, we approached problems differently than a good or neutral aligned party. We used necromancy and raised undead servants. We tortured those we captured whenever it was necessary to get information. We held little regard for the lives of those that crossed us and took no prisoners unless we needed them for something.

However, we were kind to all the normal people we met. The townsfolk. The fishermen. Farmers. And there was a really good reason for that: We planned to rule the world. Might as well have everyone love us once we did.

The plot of the game involved an evil tyrant who controlled the land. His armies were massive, often cruel to the regular folks. He took their money and left them starving. He killed those who said things against him or who dared to defy his orders. Under his control, the land was in misery.

We used our evil to our advantage as we slowly and methodically began dismantling his army. We spread disease to his men, poisoned their food, attacked them with undead minions of their own fallen comrades, killed them in their sleep and left our calling card. We wanted the tyrant to know we were coming for him. We were brutal. We used guerrilla warfare and hit his army when they weren't looking, turned them against each other with lies and treachery, and infiltrated the highest ranks of his men.

As the final insult, we earned the right to work for him. So, we pretended to do his work. Those he wanted killed, we turned them into allies. If he wanted us to take an armed force to wipe out a village, we murdered the armed force and replaced them with people from the village. Our blood was all over, and he didn't see it coming.

Once we had weakened him enough, we stormed his castle and killed him in front of an assemblage of his followers and right in front of his family. We took his throne. We were evil, but we had made the world a better place, and the people followed us. Because sometimes, to beat evil, you have to be evil.

So, yeah, evil can definitely be done right. The trick is to give the players an evil even bigger and a motivation to end it. As my character used to say: "Can't let someone else rule the world. That's my job."