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Evil Campaign Ideas?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
lpguy26_dup
Feb 14, 2009 21:55:52 Ive got a few of my players who've been itching to play an "evil" campaign again.. I've run one once and it was a typical powergamed 3E campaign with world conquest on all their minds. I'm wanting to do something a bit more streamlined this time, maybe with a little more story to it but am having problems with coming up with good ideas. Anyone have any good starters for me to work from? Any help at all is appreciated.
#2
charger28alpha_v2
Feb 14, 2009 22:10:31 My recommendation is do not let them be freelancers, that just leads to PCs going after other PCs. Instead you could have them be Agents for what in any other campaign would be BBEG. That way they have something to fear if they fail in their missions.

What they do depends on what locale you place them in. In a city they could work behind the scenes to overthrow the "Good" mayor of the city, or corrupt him. Dungeon crawl type adventures would be pretty much as in any other game, although the possibility of allying with evil dungeon dwellers would exist.
#3
lpguy26_dup
Feb 14, 2009 22:22:52 Thanks for the suggestion charger .. I like the idea of them working for an actuall BBEG ... they'd soil their undies if they failed at something and the BBEG just killed one of them (raising them from dead of course.. not to be a perma-death but letting them know not to screw up again) it'd be a nice initial reaction. Also I like the idea of them having to ally themselves with other baddies... or possibly even making other good people ally with them to further their own evil means . The BBEG could have them rallying different groups/factions to his side.. trying to beat the good guys to all the resources.
#4
charger28alpha_v2
Feb 14, 2009 22:31:07 Campaigns with "evil" PCs can be a lot of fun, with the right player attitudes. To keep them from going at each other be sure to provide them with a steady stream of opponents and a strong fear of their boss.

I have run two campaigns where the PCs were evil, one went well, the other collapsed under constant PC vs PC issues. So it can be hit or miss.
#5
lpguy26_dup
Feb 14, 2009 22:44:05 Agreed on they need to work together.. and they will. My players do very well to adapt to whatever style campaign we play.. and even if someone does try something funny ... they'll fall in line if only out of fear for the BBEG.

I've ran one evil campaign before and it turned into a bit of a mess, me and another DM were switching off on running the game and we each had characters that played in the game as well.. I myself can keep a good balance on things but he would try to please the other players too much at times, this tended to make things get a bit out of control and overpowered.

I've also played in an evil game before and completely screwed the campaign from day 1. I knew just about every loophole and rule for 3E and broke the campaign by accident. We were tasked with smuggling our guild leader into the capitol city so he could assassinate the emperor. I (being an evil character) didnt trust the guild leader, events that had transpired led me to believe we would be disposed of when we lost our usefulness, so I made a plan to get rid of him before he got rid of us. I came up with the idea to smuggle him in within a bag of holding.. it would look like any other normal sack... and we'd have it hidden in a pile of other sacks filled with grain. Since air was limited inside the bag we suggested he also supply himself with an Ioun stone that gave him the ability to not need to breathe and another Ioun stone that gave him the ability to no longer need food. He went along with the idea (the DM thought it was brilliant)... and subsequently after getting a well enough distance from the guild and town and we felt we weren't being followed... I sat the bag down... we all stepped back 30 ft, and I shot a hole in it.. (bags of holding that are punctured are destroyed and everything inside them is lost forever -- per description in the DM's guide) so we effectively at level 1 defeated a level 20 rogue... dooming him to float in the void of the Astral Plane (I think its the Astral Plane at least). The DM was furious... lmao
#6
charger28alpha_v2
Feb 14, 2009 23:03:02 I can see why that would upset the DM. However, if I were him, your party would have spent the rest of the campaign being hunted by guild members, as well as bounty hunters. Kind of a cross between the movies "The Warriors and The Fugitive".

Once the campaign gets running let me know how it goes. It should be a blast.
#7
lormador
Feb 15, 2009 5:57:12 I say let them freelance for awhile. If they kill each other, tell the players to deal with it themselves. Eventually the NPKs will band together, destroy the PKs, and you'll be off and running with minimal effort.. and zero railroading.
#8
evilkobra
Feb 15, 2009 6:09:45 I'm preparing an Evil campaign for my group (in case of an early TPK in our current campaign), where the characters are all brothers and bandits - like the Dalton Gang. I will be sure to let them know, before the game starts, how strong the family bond is, and that PvP will not be tolerated: no "but I'm evil!" excuses. Not that I'm afraid my group would do it, but I might as well warn them anyway.
#9
Vatras
Feb 15, 2009 8:27:01 Possible goals/themes for an evil campaign could be:
- found a cult of Vecna, acquire followers and spread the word, and finally find his eye and hand to make your deity whole again, and of course destroy the traitor Kas (evil vs good campaign)
- found a crime cartel and become the godfather of the major metropole of the campaign, and make the other families acknowledge your superiority
- become pirates, who work up from plundering fishing vessels to raid harbor towns, and build up a fleet to threaten whole nations, finally becoming a nation unto themselves (who now has to deal with pirates itself...)
- the PCs homeland is a vassal of an empire and they start to rebel against their lords in small ways, ending the campaign in an all-out war, overthrowing the empire (remember: god's freedom fighters are the devil's terrorists)
- the PCs are thralls of a clan of vampires, who belong to one of two organizations fighting for control over humanity (like the Camarilla and the Sabbat), finally becoming vampires themselves and discovering the secrets behind the war (evil vs evil campaign)
#10
sithlore
Feb 15, 2009 17:50:25 You should ask your players what they want, after all, they are villains! And everyone know that a villain has some dark ambitions.
#11
lpguy26_dup
Feb 15, 2009 18:04:55 The problem with just asking what they want is they'll say "Ooh, world domination!" and we've played that campaign before... it'll get halfway through and people will begin to get bored because of the same old hat type scenario. I'm still wanting to go with the world domination schtick but give them a little more direction with it. Perhaps by setting it up to where they are all clergy/members of the church of Bane (non-FR Bane btw), and the kingdom they hail from has just outlawed the worship of Bane entirely (the emperor looks upon Bane as not just a great tactician but an evil despot who's teachings cannot be tolerated). So the PC's are cast out of their society and hunted for their religious beliefs, only to become enraged and attempt to plot the downfall of the kingdom and raise it again in the name of Bane. Whats everyone think?

EDIT: (Btw .. I'm not sure but I would think this would keep them from PK'ing each other as well right? All of them being from the same religion, with the same goals; to re-structure the kingdom in the image of Bane. Is there flaw in my thinking?)
#12
mistassailant5
Mar 06, 2009 19:57:27 The idea I would think of is that the three PCs would try to take down a kingdom, or even something as small as a brotherhood of Paladins. No world domination, it leaves the campaign off in a bad note if they go around slaughtering everything.
#13
space_dragon
Mar 08, 2009 5:02:32
EDIT: (Btw .. I'm not sure but I would think this would keep them from PK'ing each other as well right? All of them being from the same religion, with the same goals; to re-structure the kingdom in the image of Bane. Is there flaw in my thinking?)

That sounds really good, actually. Evil people can still struggle with the same situations and (real or perceived) injustices as good ones. Making the PC's adherents of a (justifiably or otherwise) outlawed religion evokes this well, and Bane is a good choice due to him being less evil than many other evil gods, and his ideology, while harsh, is one that you could see a lot of people following.

As for adventures, evil PC's for the most part have the same kinds of adventures as good ones. No matter what your ultimate goals are, that den of orcs moving into the valley are something you'll have to deal with. The reward the duke is offering for the safe return of his missing son is just as tempting for an evil person as a good one, and even an evil character will realize that betraying the duke afterward might smear his reputation (and incur the duke's vengeance) too badly to be worth it. And really, if some punk dragon flies into your hometown and starts demanding tribute, is any alignment going to make you not want to annihilate the big jerk? In a harsh, predator-heavy world, everyone has to fight the same monsters at least some of the time.
#14
falstyr
Mar 08, 2009 11:57:40 From my experience Evil campaigns work best when you are able to have 2 groups of players. One group are the regular heroes, the other are the "bad guys". One session in the week deals with one group and another session with the other group. Basically co-existing along side one another, but with different goals. Each with their own quests.

It's quite funny from DM point of view when you see the heroes enter a tavern and know the baddies are down stairs having an evil cult gathering. Or that the bad guys subtly take over a town and the necromancer experiments on the citizens turning the entire city in mindless followers/minions while the others attempt to open a portal for undead stuff to enter the world. The heroes learn of this and go to investigate. Or that the bad guy vamp fed on some commoners and that the hero group assumes that there is a vampire den in the area while the bad guy is long gone by then.

I suppose if you as a dm play a group of heroes to oppose the evul PC'S you could have something similar going on.
#15
volcanon2
Mar 10, 2009 14:06:32 The current game I am running involves the PCs working for a high level wizard in gathering the severed body parts of a dead god of chaos - the wizard convinced them that the world was stagnant and could only be driven to progress through borrowing the power of CHAOS, the god of chaos.

It pretty much plays the same as any other campaign except they are working to an evil goal. They went romping around in the upper level of hell for a while recently (and almost dying many a time).

So basically, don't let them become looney tunes villains. Give them a ideology that's more than "I wanna kill everything and their dog". Its even better if you don't tell them they are working for evil: The next time I run the same story, I'm changing the name of the god to "Helios" and not mentioning he is the embodiment of chaos.
#16
Ilaro
Mar 10, 2009 16:25:10 I am running a campaign at the moment where the party is often split in two at times. A CN Duskblade tends to throw the party for a loop, while the N Scout has a vendetta against the Duskblade. Their is a LE Favored Soul of Falazure who secretly does his gods work, while a N kobold ultimate magus teeters between the line of good and evil and a NG druid and LG fighter try to do the right thing.

It can be weary runnign evil pc's, but keep in mind that their is always some one more powerful then them

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 lpguy26_dup Feb 14, 2009 21:55:52	Ive got a few of my players who've been itching to play an "evil" campaign again.. I've run one once and it was a typical powergamed 3E campaign with world conquest on all their minds. I'm wanting to do something a bit more streamlined this time, maybe with a little more story to it but am having problems with coming up with good ideas. Anyone have any good starters for me to work from? Any help at all is appreciated.
#2 charger28alpha_v2 Feb 14, 2009 22:10:31	My recommendation is do not let them be freelancers, that just leads to PCs going after other PCs. Instead you could have them be Agents for what in any other campaign would be BBEG. That way they have something to fear if they fail in their missions. What they do depends on what locale you place them in. In a city they could work behind the scenes to overthrow the "Good" mayor of the city, or corrupt him. Dungeon crawl type adventures would be pretty much as in any other game, although the possibility of allying with evil dungeon dwellers would exist.
#3 lpguy26_dup Feb 14, 2009 22:22:52	Thanks for the suggestion charger .. I like the idea of them working for an actuall BBEG ... they'd soil their undies if they failed at something and the BBEG just killed one of them (raising them from dead of course.. not to be a perma-death but letting them know not to screw up again) it'd be a nice initial reaction. Also I like the idea of them having to ally themselves with other baddies... or possibly even making other good people ally with them to further their own evil means . The BBEG could have them rallying different groups/factions to his side.. trying to beat the good guys to all the resources.
#4 charger28alpha_v2 Feb 14, 2009 22:31:07	Campaigns with "evil" PCs can be a lot of fun, with the right player attitudes. To keep them from going at each other be sure to provide them with a steady stream of opponents and a strong fear of their boss. I have run two campaigns where the PCs were evil, one went well, the other collapsed under constant PC vs PC issues. So it can be hit or miss.
#5 lpguy26_dup Feb 14, 2009 22:44:05	Agreed on they need to work together.. and they will. My players do very well to adapt to whatever style campaign we play.. and even if someone does try something funny ... they'll fall in line if only out of fear for the BBEG. I've ran one evil campaign before and it turned into a bit of a mess, me and another DM were switching off on running the game and we each had characters that played in the game as well.. I myself can keep a good balance on things but he would try to please the other players too much at times, this tended to make things get a bit out of control and overpowered. I've also played in an evil game before and completely screwed the campaign from day 1. I knew just about every loophole and rule for 3E and broke the campaign by accident. We were tasked with smuggling our guild leader into the capitol city so he could assassinate the emperor. I (being an evil character) didnt trust the guild leader, events that had transpired led me to believe we would be disposed of when we lost our usefulness, so I made a plan to get rid of him before he got rid of us. I came up with the idea to smuggle him in within a bag of holding.. it would look like any other normal sack... and we'd have it hidden in a pile of other sacks filled with grain. Since air was limited inside the bag we suggested he also supply himself with an Ioun stone that gave him the ability to not need to breathe and another Ioun stone that gave him the ability to no longer need food. He went along with the idea (the DM thought it was brilliant)... and subsequently after getting a well enough distance from the guild and town and we felt we weren't being followed... I sat the bag down... we all stepped back 30 ft, and I shot a hole in it.. (bags of holding that are punctured are destroyed and everything inside them is lost forever -- per description in the DM's guide) so we effectively at level 1 defeated a level 20 rogue... dooming him to float in the void of the Astral Plane (I think its the Astral Plane at least). The DM was furious... lmao
#6 charger28alpha_v2 Feb 14, 2009 23:03:02	I can see why that would upset the DM. However, if I were him, your party would have spent the rest of the campaign being hunted by guild members, as well as bounty hunters. Kind of a cross between the movies "The Warriors and The Fugitive". Once the campaign gets running let me know how it goes. It should be a blast.
#7 lormador Feb 15, 2009 5:57:12	I say let them freelance for awhile. If they kill each other, tell the players to deal with it themselves. Eventually the NPKs will band together, destroy the PKs, and you'll be off and running with minimal effort.. and zero railroading.
#8 evilkobra Feb 15, 2009 6:09:45	I'm preparing an Evil campaign for my group (in case of an early TPK in our current campaign), where the characters are all brothers and bandits - like the Dalton Gang. I will be sure to let them know, before the game starts, how strong the family bond is, and that PvP will not be tolerated: no "but I'm evil!" excuses. Not that I'm afraid my group would do it, but I might as well warn them anyway.
#9 Vatras Feb 15, 2009 8:27:01	Possible goals/themes for an evil campaign could be: - found a cult of Vecna, acquire followers and spread the word, and finally find his eye and hand to make your deity whole again, and of course destroy the traitor Kas (evil vs good campaign) - found a crime cartel and become the godfather of the major metropole of the campaign, and make the other families acknowledge your superiority - become pirates, who work up from plundering fishing vessels to raid harbor towns, and build up a fleet to threaten whole nations, finally becoming a nation unto themselves (who now has to deal with pirates itself...) - the PCs homeland is a vassal of an empire and they start to rebel against their lords in small ways, ending the campaign in an all-out war, overthrowing the empire (remember: god's freedom fighters are the devil's terrorists) - the PCs are thralls of a clan of vampires, who belong to one of two organizations fighting for control over humanity (like the Camarilla and the Sabbat), finally becoming vampires themselves and discovering the secrets behind the war (evil vs evil campaign)
#10 sithlore Feb 15, 2009 17:50:25	You should ask your players what they want, after all, they are villains! And everyone know that a villain has some dark ambitions.
#11 lpguy26_dup Feb 15, 2009 18:04:55	The problem with just asking what they want is they'll say "Ooh, world domination!" and we've played that campaign before... it'll get halfway through and people will begin to get bored because of the same old hat type scenario. I'm still wanting to go with the world domination schtick but give them a little more direction with it. Perhaps by setting it up to where they are all clergy/members of the church of Bane (non-FR Bane btw), and the kingdom they hail from has just outlawed the worship of Bane entirely (the emperor looks upon Bane as not just a great tactician but an evil despot who's teachings cannot be tolerated). So the PC's are cast out of their society and hunted for their religious beliefs, only to become enraged and attempt to plot the downfall of the kingdom and raise it again in the name of Bane. Whats everyone think? EDIT: (Btw .. I'm not sure but I would think this would keep them from PK'ing each other as well right? All of them being from the same religion, with the same goals; to re-structure the kingdom in the image of Bane. Is there flaw in my thinking?)
#12 mistassailant5 Mar 06, 2009 19:57:27	The idea I would think of is that the three PCs would try to take down a kingdom, or even something as small as a brotherhood of Paladins. No world domination, it leaves the campaign off in a bad note if they go around slaughtering everything.
#13 space_dragon Mar 08, 2009 5:02:32	EDIT: (Btw .. I'm not sure but I would think this would keep them from PK'ing each other as well right? All of them being from the same religion, with the same goals; to re-structure the kingdom in the image of Bane. Is there flaw in my thinking?) That sounds really good, actually. Evil people can still struggle with the same situations and (real or perceived) injustices as good ones. Making the PC's adherents of a (justifiably or otherwise) outlawed religion evokes this well, and Bane is a good choice due to him being less evil than many other evil gods, and his ideology, while harsh, is one that you could see a lot of people following. As for adventures, evil PC's for the most part have the same kinds of adventures as good ones. No matter what your ultimate goals are, that den of orcs moving into the valley are something you'll have to deal with. The reward the duke is offering for the safe return of his missing son is just as tempting for an evil person as a good one, and even an evil character will realize that betraying the duke afterward might smear his reputation (and incur the duke's vengeance) too badly to be worth it. And really, if some punk dragon flies into your hometown and starts demanding tribute, is any alignment going to make you not want to annihilate the big jerk? In a harsh, predator-heavy world, everyone has to fight the same monsters at least some of the time.
#14 falstyr Mar 08, 2009 11:57:40	From my experience Evil campaigns work best when you are able to have 2 groups of players. One group are the regular heroes, the other are the "bad guys". One session in the week deals with one group and another session with the other group. Basically co-existing along side one another, but with different goals. Each with their own quests. It's quite funny from DM point of view when you see the heroes enter a tavern and know the baddies are down stairs having an evil cult gathering. Or that the bad guys subtly take over a town and the necromancer experiments on the citizens turning the entire city in mindless followers/minions while the others attempt to open a portal for undead stuff to enter the world. The heroes learn of this and go to investigate. Or that the bad guy vamp fed on some commoners and that the hero group assumes that there is a vampire den in the area while the bad guy is long gone by then. I suppose if you as a dm play a group of heroes to oppose the evul PC'S you could have something similar going on.
#15 volcanon2 Mar 10, 2009 14:06:32	The current game I am running involves the PCs working for a high level wizard in gathering the severed body parts of a dead god of chaos - the wizard convinced them that the world was stagnant and could only be driven to progress through borrowing the power of CHAOS, the god of chaos. It pretty much plays the same as any other campaign except they are working to an evil goal. They went romping around in the upper level of hell for a while recently (and almost dying many a time). So basically, don't let them become looney tunes villains. Give them a ideology that's more than "I wanna kill everything and their dog". Its even better if you don't tell them they are working for evil: The next time I run the same story, I'm changing the name of the god to "Helios" and not mentioning he is the embodiment of chaos.
#16 Ilaro Mar 10, 2009 16:25:10	I am running a campaign at the moment where the party is often split in two at times. A CN Duskblade tends to throw the party for a loop, while the N Scout has a vendetta against the Duskblade. Their is a LE Favored Soul of Falazure who secretly does his gods work, while a N kobold ultimate magus teeters between the line of good and evil and a NG druid and LG fighter try to do the right thing. It can be weary runnign evil pc's, but keep in mind that their is always some one more powerful then them