The most successful and fun long-running campaigns are those that follow a strong storyline or series of story arcs. Everyone remembers how through a series of adventures their group of intrepid adventurers saved the kingdom from the plots of the lich lord, or when after questing for the Three Swords they finally defeated the Demon Princess. Evil campaigns are no exception; they work best when there is an overarching story that defines the campaign. The evil campaign puts a different spin on this theme, though. Rather than being heroes, the player characters become the villains of the story. The typical story structure for a campaign goes something like this: the PCs learn of some dire threat, they go on quests to lessen the threat or get the necessary items to defeat the threat, then they fight and defeat the villain and save the princess, kingdom, or world. In this type of story the PCs are usually reacting to the actions of a villain. When the PCs are themselves villains, the story has to go a bit differently. A few examples of ways to do this follow.
Good characters don't have to have a monopoly on epic quests. An evil party could be on a quest for power, such as one where they must find the halves of the broken Demon Sword, reforge the sword, and then wield the sword to usurp the power of the Council of the White Tower. Other evil quests might include a patron deity's command that the PCs unleash some terrible power and destroy the moon, a fallen noble's quest to vindicate the destruction of his house by an order of paladins, or an attempt to bring an ancient prophecy to fruition and curse an entire nation. Such a quest provides a fairly standard campaign framework, with the main difference being the end goal. The PCs, though evil, have a significant motivation not to betray one another while on the quest, particularly if all of their talents are needed in the course of completing it. The evil quest gives the DM fairly free rein to use both good and evil monsters as challenges; in the first example either a good-aligned angel or a demon might be the guardian of half of the Demon Sword, albeit for different reasons.
Another potential framework for an evil campaign is a war of conquest. Perhaps instead of stopping the orc invasion, the PCs kill the orc chieftain, take over the tribe, and lead the orcs to conquer the kingdom. Such a war could be motivated by a PC's desire to rule, an evil deity's mandate that all elves be put to the sword, or the PCs might be simply leading or enlisted in the army of a nation at war with another. Whether the goal is to actually take over and rule a land or simply to pillage and destroy it, a war-based campaign offers evil PCs cohesive motivation and the opportunity to indiscriminately slaughter people of the common races.
Any number of organizations, evil or not, might employ mercenaries, assassins, or thugs. A party of evil PCs could play the role of leg breakers for a mob family, hired killers employed by the Grand Vizier, or elite operatives maintained by the shadow government to spy on, steal from, and kill their enemies. Whoever their shadowy employers, putting evil PCs in the employ of some (probably evil) organization provides them with a steady source of adventures. Some of these can be fairly straightforward, such as killing the elven ambassador, or shaking down the merchants on Wharf Street for protection money. Others might be longer and more open-ended, such as infiltrating the embassy or courts of a neighboring country to gain information to use against them, or finding out who's leaking information on mob activity to the city magistrates. Such a campaign can offer the opportunity to use more traditional dungeon-type adventures too. The PCs might have to sneak through the catacombs beneath the city to get where they're going, or loot some treasure from an ancient ruin for their boss. Finally, there's always the possibility of advancement through betrayal. Who better to take the place of the Prince of Shadows than his trusted lieutenants, who have sworn vengeance on whatever miscreant dared to assassinate him?
Pirates, bandits, highwaymen and tomb robbers have plagued civilization since its birth. A group of evil PCs could simply be a band of thieves, bound together by blood, by a charter, or just by their mutual desire to avoid the noose. Such a campaign is one of the most open-ended possibilities, as the PCs may often just go from town to town or sea to sea seeking plunder, murdering or ransoming those who get in their way. Dungeon adventures are still a possibility as ruins and tombs often contain priceless treasures. Pirate or bandit PCs will quickly achieve such notoriety that they can't go into most towns without being recognized as criminals, so typically such a campaign should contain a pirate island or bandit town where the PCs can take shelter from the long arm of the law and spend their ill-gotten loot. Other adventure possibilities for such a campaign include brushes with the authorities, attempts to kidnap nobles or other rich folk to hold for ransom, the classic "Treasure Island" quest to find a big hidden treasure, and even attempts to take over or pillage an entire port, fortress, or border town.
Anyone looking for a blueprint on how to run an evil campaign should check out the War of the Spider Queen series. It doesn't get more evil than that particular group of Drow. The good news is that there's only a moderate amount of angsty whining to get through.
Nice. Keep on the good work, I'm hoping for more.
Thank you :D I'll see what I can do... I have another bit of theory I've been kicking around; I may throw down an essay on that here pretty soon.
Black lagoon: Modern setting (the 90's), but some accurate moderately evil characters, good basis for plenty of campaigns if you only translate the concepts.
Berserk: If you want to remind the characters that you are more evil than they are, not for kiddies and you might want to keep a therapist handy.
The Evil overlord list: Many of the classical mistakes you characters may make, feel free to exploit.
More to come?
Just for fun. I may add more later.