I am running an evil campaign. If you'd like to see how I'm doing it, read my
Shiny New Story Hour.
In a nutshell this is the setup (it's still a bit long):
After a cataclysm, the only inhabitable place is the Underdark. Basic economics and food production broke down, and all races fought each other for what resources remained. Eventually, a reluctant peace settled in as the population finally lowered enough for the scant resources to support it. Still, the races are unwilling to work with each other due to their past differences.
Long ago, a group of powerful individuals realized the problem with this - things could develop outside the dominant races' spheres of influence and, without being dealt with cooperatively, could destroy them all. They formed a clandistine organization called GRIPE (The Gathering of Resources for Interspecies Problem Elucidation).
At the start of my campaign, GRIPE has existed for centuries, each member required to rise to a position of power and influence in their civilization. By subtly using their network of connections, the races cooperated against major problems without every being aware they were doing so, and the influence of GRIPE grew, though nobody knew of its existance. Each member had their own reasons for joining. Evil people would join to use the influence of the group to further their own ends (wealth, influence, and power, generally), good people would join because they thought it was a good thing to do. Ultimately, though, both evil and good worked together, realizing that the total collape of civilization would serve nobodys interests in the end.
Recently, GRIPE has gotten wind of something BIG going on, something that could threaten both their existance and the current, fragile way of life in the Undedark. All the current members, being evil, do not seek to fix the situation because it's the right thing to do, but because the current status quo favors
them, and they don't want anything BIG going on that they're not part of. But they could not figure out exactly what it was.
So each member of GRIPE selected a promising apprentice and crafted them in their own image. Before they could be trained past first level, something happened and GRIPE had to release their agents onto the world.
This is clearly an artifical situation. These individuals (2 kobolds, 2 drow, a 1/2 drow, and a derro) would never have worked together under other circumstances, but they are all loyal to their mentors (for whatever reason). They all have hidden goals and agendas, of course, which they will try to accomplish without inturrupting their missions for GRIPE, but essentially I have arranged things so that they will work together. The only way out of GRIPE is feet-first, and if anybody found out about the organization, it would be declared illegal in an instant and hunted to extinction.
Also, I'm not going to cater to their evil desires. There are consequenses for all their actions. If they go on a killing spree, for instance, the local authorities will track them down and deal with them. Get cheeky with the guards and you get thrown in prison. The party understands this, and will be careful. They are an undercover group, more than a criminal group, and their prime directive is Secrecy.
I might also add that all the members of my gaming group are excellent role-players. They can play evil characters in a mature and thoughtful manner. In groups where this is not the case, you are better off not doing it. Only you know your players well enough to know if they can do this in a fun and interesting way.
