Quick hook adventures idea for evil characters

[etrpgb]

I would like to DM a game where the characters are evil for a change of pace. It would be a single evening game, so about 4-5 hours with some super simple and light rules system like A&A.

I DMed quite a bit of one-shots because we are all adults with little time, and I prefer a simple adventure done that a complex one abandoned.
Good one-shot usually have: isolated location, strict in-game timings, strong motivations. I can also make the characters, if it helps.

However, I never played an evil game, so I am out of ideas.


Would you like to share quick ideas for adventures with evil characters?

[redwizard007]

Evil characters thrive when they motivate the story where good characters tend to be reacting to the villain. That can make building an adventure, campaign, or even a hook much tougher when anticipating evil PCs. In a less crunched-for-time environment, a sandbox is much more satisfying for evil players, especially in smaller groups or solo play, but traditional adventures can still work for evil characters with slight tweaking of hooks. Everybody loves money and prestige, evil sometimes more so.
You, however, are in the unique position of having limited play time, and that actually plays right into your hands. You are not just setting up backstory and placing pieces on the board. You have the freedom to make the first several moves. You don't even need to make a cohesive story line, just embrace the cliche. Mine every Bond villain, Dr. Claw plot, or Mojo Jojo bright idea and run with it.

Example: Evil character has a super intricate plot to wipe out a town using an orc tribe. A troop of paladins interfere and disrupt the attack and send survivors fleeing back to Evilville. NOW start the game. How can a creative evil mastermind salvage victory from defeat? Bonus points for corrupting paladins.

Example: Evil guy needs prisoners to sacrifice to his dark war machine, demon lord, mother in law, etc. An even village, human town and dwarf fortress are all within striking distance, but his force is limited to Gully Dwarves and they can only attack 2 targets. Go.

Example: Your dark master requires you to kidnap the princess of Happyland and hold her until he finishes his evil ritual. How do you steal her away? What about defeating rescuers?

[Winthur]

You visit a deserted swamp town full of ghosts and the vengeful spirit of an evil innkeeper tasks you with getting rid of celestial rats from his cellar.

[redwizard007]

You visit a deserted swamp town full of ghosts and the vengeful spirit of an evil innkeeper tasks you with getting rid of celestial rats from his cellar.

That's really the beautiful thing about evil characters. You can flip some hooks to fit them like this, can go rescue the bugbear's son from humans instead of rescuing a princess from King Koopa, motivate with loot or prestige rather than good will, use vengeance as a hook, or just have turf wars and evilz for the lolz, and there is always the option of Palpatine telling Vader to just do it.

[Hopeless]

You're part of the League of Infamy a group of mercenaries often hired to complete difficult missions frequently just diversions for the real BBEG...
However this time it's personal as you're being hunted by a group of particularly ruthless group of Harpers as you're seemingly going to kidnap a Cormyrian Princess...
Actually she's a former girlfriend you want to keep safe from the BBEG whose a werewolf and those Harper Agents work for someone responsible for the murder of a number of your groups dependents and you're hoping to sic both groups on each other!
And thats just for starters for this Leverage meets Firefly in 5e dnd Faerun game idea!

[Erloas]

Normally speaking many of the life events that cause someone to become a hero are similar to those that cause someone to become evil, it is just how they handle those events that decides which way they go.

Parents/children/loved one are killed and they want revenge. Maybe they were collateral damage from some other event, so the killer they are going after could be law enforcement, a local hero, nobles that run the place. Maybe rather than dead they just need to be saved, imprisoned for some reason. If they're more interested in revenge, rather than Justice, that is very much in line with most anti-heroes.

Then there is also simple survival. Put them in a situation where they need to survive, how they survive is what determines good or evil. Do they sacrifice others to protect themselves, do they simply ignore the rest of the people (heroes would try to save them). The strongest potential allies could be local thugs/thieves, someone heroes wouldn't work with, they can get the help from them, kill them for their resources, ignore them. The town is being overrun by orcs, a dragon, humans, or whatever.

[Olinser]

I would like to DM a game where the characters are evil for a change of pace. It would be a single evening game, so about 4-5 hours with some super simple and light rules system like A&A.

I DMed quite a bit of one-shots because we are all adults with little time, and I prefer a simple adventure done that a complex one abandoned.
Good one-shot usually have: isolated location, strict in-game timings, strong motivations. I can also make the characters, if it helps.

However, I never played an evil game, so I am out of ideas.


Would you like to share quick ideas for adventures with evil characters?

I mean for a single evening game your best bet is probably the planning/assault of some stronghold of good characters, or tracking/killing a party of good characters. You can still work in a semi-connected narrative to have a bunch of one-shot adventures with different parties all taking out different objectives in the furtherance of some evil guys Grand Plan.

i.e. Your party is tasked by your evil god/priest/overlord/whatever to destroy a small frontier outpost of paladins as part of his grand scheme to conquer their home country.

Or you could even set up a defensive scenario where you are defending your Evil Overlord's dungon/keep/stronghold against a large party of Good attackers.

[Gandariel]

If its really a one shot, take advantage of it.

Have the finale of the story be "the party members fight each other to death"

Party finds evil, super powerful item. First party member to take it doesn't want to share.

BBEG doesn't like two of the party members (race, or something that happened in the past).
At the end of the mission he pays the party and says: "if you kill those two I'll pay you double, and you get to keep their share "

Or, BBEG sends you on a mission, you succeed. BBEG says "thanks, now die". And has you swarmed by enemies. (In this one team still stays together to try and survive, or maybe even get back to the BBEG)

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Example: Your dark master requires you to kidnap the princess of Happyland and hold her until he finishes his evil ritual. How do you steal her away? What about defeating rescuers?

I really like this one, it forces the Evil characters to cooperate to get the job done while still giving room for backstabbing and other shenanigans to gain the Dark Master's favour.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Party finds evil, super powerful item. First party member to take it doesn't want to share.

I would make it, 'Paladins find evil, super powerful item and are going to destroy it, so you need to get it back.' Allow for a frontal assault of the temple or whatever, blackmail of various members into helping the players, the party sneaking in and stealing it... I would make 'you want to keep this for yourself instead of sharing with the rest of the party' a temptation but not a requirement. Depends on the group though.

[Artanis]

The good guys have won. The world is a great and awesome place. No crime, everything's clean, the courts are mostly used to process people who get ticketed for cussing...

...and it f***ing sucks. There's no freedom, and below the surface, there's a LOT of VERY unhappy people. What's more, if a real threat ever showed up, nobody would know how to deal with it anymore. The system needs to be fixed and brought back to the old way, but the only way to fix it involves breaking it first. And evil characters are ever so good at breaking things :smallamused:



(Off the top of my head, a good example of this would be the scene in the movie Demolition Man where Denis Leary's character goes on a rant about how he hates the so-called utopia it's set in).

[Wardog]

Brain: We must prepare for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

[SerTabris]

The good guys have won. The world is a great and awesome place. No crime, everything's clean, the courts are mostly used to process people who get ticketed for cussing...

...and it f***ing sucks. There's no freedom, and below the surface, there's a LOT of VERY unhappy people. What's more, if a real threat ever showed up, nobody would know how to deal with it anymore. The system needs to be fixed and brought back to the old way, but the only way to fix it involves breaking it first. And evil characters are ever so good at breaking things :smallamused:



(Off the top of my head, a good example of this would be the scene in the movie Demolition Man where Denis Leary's character goes on a rant about how he hates the so-called utopia it's set in).

Another example I've seen is the novel Villains by Necessity. (I thought it was pretty good, though it's apparently the author's only work - no idea what happened to her, and the book's a bit hard to find now.)

[redwizard007]

...and it f***ing sucks. There's no freedom, and below the surface, there's a LOT of VERY unhappy people. What's more, if a real threat ever showed up, nobody would know how to deal with it anymore. The system needs to be fixed and brought back to the old way, but the only way to fix it involves breaking it first. And evil characters are ever so good at breaking things...

I'd run the hell out of this campaign as either PC or DM. Not sure it could be trimmed to fit a one-shot like OP was looking for, through.