A friend of mine is going to be starting up an evil campaign. They're looking for advice on things to watch out for, to do, or to otherwise keep in mind in order to run a strong and dynamic campaign. So what advice would you have for someone looking to run an Evil game?
My advice I gave already is to talk to the players about expectations and desires for the game. People shouldn't be evil just for evil sake, and the level of evil that is going to be allowed in the game. It is also going to be important to discuss tolerance levels. Some people hear "evil campaign" and just want to murder, rape, and torture their way across the kingdom on screen and at table. That doesn't make for a fun game.
Along with this, I advised my friend inform their players to make characters that are willing to work together and want to go on the adventure. In line with this, as the GM they'll want to scrutinize the PCs to make sure they fit into the campaign.
What else do you got?
^ Communication about what evil is, is key. Some people only want to play the Joker, others prefer Tywin Lannister. The sliding scale of evil is a big scale. If the players have some difficulty explaining what kind of evil they want, TVTropes can be a good starting point. Based on the D&D alignment axis, their page about character alignment provides a lot of links and examples. Just be careful about sinking into a wikiwalk and end up with a thousand pages.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I haven't played an evil campaign yet so I'm not sure how it would work out. But ethics are a big part of my game, so there's one strategy I use as a GM that could be easily adapted into an evil game. Not sure if I mentioned it before... but I usually try to anticipate what my players do and figure out what the most likely route is they will take. Following my hints as the GM is of course the easiest path, and the most dangerous one. Because if they don't question what they're doing... the NPC's tend to think the PC's are being pretty evil from their point of view. Usually the easiest path is also the most evil one, because their actions have consequences. I think in an evil campaign, that's usually the case as well: the PC's do what they want without thinking or caring about what kind of effect it has on other people (NPC's). Or you can switch it around: if they follow the default, they end up doing good.