My First "Evil" Campaign - Plotline Suggestions?

[painandgreed]

World domination is out. Lots of evil campaigns have the party somehow think that that is an achieveable end but it is not. Unless the party can muster vast armies to conquer and hold territory and there is the small matter of trust in their underlings and generals, who, being cut from the same cloth, are looking for their own opportunities to be the king of the hill - the average party size of evil characters is not going to take over the world.

True, but you rarely have good guys take over the world either, they just save it. All you need is an overall plot to stop the BBGG from getting the artifact of goodness and marching his army of paladins across the known world and stifling it under his forced government of good and law which nobody really wants.

 

[kolikeos]

Ideally, they come to the attention of a noble adventuring troupe, for whom they players' little band eventually becomes the BBEG...

Hmm... This gives me an idea.
A GM runs two groups, one is an evil group and one a good group. The two groups live in the same game world and their actions have consequences on the game of the other group but neither group knows that. Eventually, the two groups become each other's most hated enemies (without actually meeting ever). The finale of the campaign would be a climatic fight between the evil group and the good group, with all the players of both groups present.
Just a thought...

 

[pawsplay]

You need three major antagonists.

You need someone similar to the characters. Since they are themselves sketchy characters, they need equally sketchy characters to mirror them without the benefit of a protagonistic glow. They need rivals, in other words.

Then you need a greater evil. Something or someone nastier than them, in fact, so nasty they are welcome allies. This could be anything from a murderous clique within the power structure to some kind of monster.

Then you need a force for good. This is the character's foil. To be effective, these opponents need to be complex, capable, and persuasive, yet still fail in some way to accomplish what is important to the characters. For instance, a paladin might be involved in a cleanup of their neighborhood, and is busy trying to put away folks to whom they owe blood loyalty. A sketchy but basically decent fighter might be trying to gain an appointment as a constable in the area. A rogue with a heart of gold may be after something they want, or may nick something valuable to one of their patrons.

 

[Graf]

I'm gonna toss out something partially related to the "evil" issue...

You're characters are likely to do bad things "because they had to". I.e. environment is a factor.

In standard DnD by the time you're 3rd level you're rich; especially if you were originally poor. Likewise, while the dockworker's union is a good/interesting organization initially there will be a point in the game (5th level? 7th level?) when it will cease to matter.

You're initial game concept sounds fun and innovative, you should take your time with them coming up from 1st level to 3rd or so. Draw out the adventures, give them time to roleplay being poor, having to make difficult choices.

How you handle the transition from nobody to powerful-somebodies will be very important.

I think pawsplay has given you some good advice regarding foils. I would definitely try to lace the game with minor corrupt priests, treacherous police sargents, advantage seeking merchants and corrupt landed nobles.
I.e. people who could either rise in power as the players do, or otherwise act as foils to them -within- the system. People who will be in a position to challenge them and keep your game gritty.

How far up are you planning on pushing the epic/worldsaving concept of the game?

 

[Firedancer]

In a similar vein to you, I will be shortly playing in a city based game where morals are more lax than usual.

The group have supplied the DM with a number of hooks for him to write occurences around.
We have a part celestial in the group, she is being sought out be an evil wizard as the celestial aspect of her can help him gain power/immortality.

The wizard of the group intends to use the party as a meat shield as he extends his arcane knowledge. He has an eye on a rival who wronged him on the streets in the past.

My sneaky character is building up a tally of revenge; he plans to take down a merchant consortium (who bankrupted his father), the pimp who took advantage of his impoverished mother and to undermine the merchant gods church at every opportunity. Any means necessary fits that well!

We also have someone trying out a binder, so there's plots for the church and binder-mentor.

Think of Jet Li's Unleashed and you will see the fighter type the group has.

These plots derive from over-arching character goals, but you can do other plotlines - perhaps there's a church with nice item they want...scrolls with res for instance! So there's ongoing fraca with the church.

 

[robberbaron]

Who says that Evil characters can't be heroes?
Granted, the ones in my campaign aren't exactly heroic but an LE character could easily do something good, on purpose, because it is the right thing to do in the circumstances, e.g., an LE priest curing peasants of disease - they are all potential members of his flock and all priests need more flock.
Not saying that their motives have to be pure but they certainly don't have to be stitching up/killing the other party members just because they are Evil.

How about having a Good group who can foil their schemes by just being Good; perhaps, doing the same deeds for more altruistic reasons and getting there first.