Starting an evil campaign as children:how to?

[The Shadowdove]

Hey guys,

For my upcoming campaign I am starting my players as children born in a refuge/stronghold in the mountains.

The castle basically serves as a place where followers of bane and his associates, talona, Mask, myrkul, and loviatar can practice their faith and gain power.

At some point I intent to have a paladin combined force of followers of tyr, illmater, and torm to kill all of the adult followers. Including the family and instructors of the children players. Capturing the children and sending them to be fostered at their own respective keep/citadel.

My questions are:

1) what might have spurned the ire of the paladin orders that they might seek such sudden annihilation of the temple?

2) how do I determine the stats and abilities of the children? They're no older than 8. They don't have much of a background yet, as they were too old to sincerely be taken to studies yet. (Though they likely went to services)

3) when I take them to the orphanage, should I fast forward a handful of years?

4) how long should I have them play as children in the fortress? Maybe I should give them a simple task, like cleaning the undercrypt of cobwebs/rats while cleaning the sarcophagi? Long enough to create a bond with someone in game..

5) I also considered having the only survivor from the refuge being an instructor who seeks them out and finds them years later in order to have them swear vengeance as he/she did.
Good idea?

6) should I try to give them a mother or father figure in the good aligned keep? I considered presenting them with the dilemma of choosing their past vs their caretakers beliefs.

7) if I start them as children in the evil stronghold... Do they have alignments, skills, tool proficiencies, etc?

8) I am going to give the instructor a vial that spreads disease and have them choose whether to save the good people by hunting down an item that can cure diseases. An item that the instructors having them find the location of for his/herself. What kind of item might this be? Inevitably I intend on leading them down the path of evil.

9) what age do you think players should be before able to gain classes? What should I do with exp gain before then?

10) give me cool ideas, advice, and stories! I've had plenty of evil characters in my games, but I've never ran an evil campaign.

Looking forward to this, thanks everyone!

-Dove

[Tenmujiin]

Hey guys,

For my upcoming campaign I am starting my players as children born in a refuge/stronghold in the mountains.

The castle basically serves as a place where followers of bane and his associates, talona, Mask, myrkul, and loviatar can practice their faith and gain power.

At some point I intent to have a paladin combined force of followers of tyr, illmater, and torm to kill all of the adult followers. Including the family and instructors of the children players. Capturing the children and sending them to be fostered at their own respective keep/citadel.

My questions are:

1) what might have spurned the ire of the paladin orders that they might seek such sudden annihilation of the temple?

2) how do I determine the stats and abilities of the children? They're no older than 8. They don't have much of a background yet, as they were too old to sincerely be taken to studies yet. (Though they likely went to services)

3) when I take them to the orphanage, should I fast forward a handful of years?

4) how long should I have them play as children in the fortress? Maybe I should give them a simple task, like cleaning the undercrypt of cobwebs/rats while cleaning the sarcophagi? Long enough to create a bond with someone in game..

5) I also considered having the only survivor from the refuge being an instructor who seeks them out and finds them years later in order to have them swear vengeance as he/she did.
Good idea?

6) should I try to give them a mother or father figure in the good aligned keep? I considered presenting them with the dilemma of choosing their past vs their caretakers beliefs.

7) if I start them as children in the evil stronghold... Do they have alignments, skills, tool proficiencies, etc?

8) I am going to give the instructor a vial that spreads disease and have them choose whether to save the good people by hunting down an item that can cure diseases. An item that the instructors having them find the location of for his/herself. What kind of item might this be? Inevitably I intend on leading them down the path of evil.

9) what age do you think players should be before able to gain classes? What should I do with exp gain before then?

10) give me cool ideas, advice, and stories! I've had plenty of evil characters in my games, but I've never ran an evil campaign.

Looking forward to this, thanks everyone!

-Dove

If I was doing this I would inform the players beforehand since at least in my group they players tend to want control of their character's background.

as for your questions:

1) It's a temple to multiple evil gods, the paladins probably just discovered it exists.

2, 3, 4) I actually wouldn't run this part but would simply tell the players what happened, this of course assumes they are OK with the first half of their character's background being decided for them. I would definitely let them define their own background within the good aligned keep (which god's followers they were fostered on, the events that occurred while they grew up, etc.) mechanically I would strongly suggest to the players that they take the acolyte, charlatan, sage or soldier backgrounds and remind them they can replace the skills/tools as they please. I would start the actual adventure.

5) This would be a good way to start the game.

6) I would tell them of some important figures that would feature heavily in their character's backgrounds and let them work from there.

7) See 2.

8) Not sure on this one

9) See 2. I would have them start around the age of 14-16.

10) beware the murderhobo, make sure they players understand that it is an evil campaign, not a murderhobo campaign

[pwykersotz]

Response to #1: Summoning the Pale Night. She's scary. Paladins would flip their lids. Alternately, bringing together the 333 Gems of Darkness to free Tharizdun.

Response to #2: Let them have their normal stats, but roll a d8 or d10 instead of a d20 for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.

[dragsvart]

1. they got information that the temple was planning something bad (that information could have been wrong making for a cool plot point later on).

2. stat them out like normal but treat the stats differently (a child with a strength of 16 wont be as strong as a adult with a strength of 16). If they don’t have any major conflicts with any adults it wont matter, if they do just boost the adults stats (perhsps not wisdom and charisma though).

3. life in the orphanage might be an interesting session or two and it could add to the character's backstory (you might even end up with the children leaving the orphanage and becoming adventurers early). Although you might want to ask your players if they want to fast-forward or not.

4. at least a session, make sure they can get a feel for the fortress and the people in it before the paladins attack (which would make a nice end of the first session, letting the second be the attack and being taken to the orphanage)

5. having a survivor is always good but make sure to feature him/her in the first session so the players remember who he/she is (also avoid railroading them into vengeance).

6. inner conflict is always good, it would work especially well if you played the mother/father figure against the survivor.

7. they would have alignments but those would shift overtime, 5e doesn't put to much weight on alignment so don’t bother bringing it up until they leave the orphanage. As for skills and tools, they probably would have some and get more latter. Unless you plan on having them make a sword or roll a bunch of skill checks as children have them pick their skills and proficiencies as normal and just mention that they learn them over the course of their time in the orphanage.

8. it could be a second vial that cures or anything really.

9. it depends on how the campaign goes, if you spend a lot of time in the orphanage I'd suggest making them level 0 of their chosen class (they can swing weapons and throw cantrips but nothing else) and give them their first level when they set out on their first quest or when they reach a good milestone (such as fighting a group of goblins that they run into while exploring a nearby forest).

10. keep things open and avoid railroading your players into evil, if they are playing their characters from children let them grow naturally. Also avoid killing their characters, they get to watch them grow up so they might be more attached then normal.


This is a really cool idea for a campaign and I may borrow some of it for a future campaign of my own. Letting the players play their characters from a young age is a great idea.