Need advice for an evil adventure

[SandDemon]

I've decided I'm going to take the hotseat and DM for a group of my buddies, and I'm looking for any good adventure books for evil campaigns. I'd like to try something around level 6-8 but willing to work around that for a "must play" adventure book of another level.

Any thoughts/suggestions on adventure books you liked? Any things I must look out for running an evil campaign (short of backstabbing groupmates)?

[darthpower]

just a warning in games I have run that where evil my players tended to take over things towns, city’s, planes of extinct that hole thing o and minion Hording that can get pretty bad

[blue_fenix]

I don't know of any published adventures for evil characters. The main trick that I've learned from experience is to make sure the characters have goals and limits. Goals to move the story along because they probably won't care about saving the world. Limits because you need to address the question of, if a group of level 10 characters could take over the world, why hasn't anybody beaten them to it? The best thing to do in terms of controlling the group is to remind them when they attack the temple of pelor, for example, that the high priest standing behind the altar is a level 20 cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor who will kick their ***-es. Remember the ultimate mantra for dealing with players who think they can do whatever they want - "There's always someone bigger."

[Yvanehtnioj]

check this link out:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sg/20051209a


it has lots of good advice.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Well, make sure they have motivation. Just randomly killing and looting is entertaining for ages. Without motivation, every small town in the world will be destroyed.

Also, make sure there are limits, as an above poster said. If they can go around doing anything, that's well and good. But if they massacre towns and steal priceless works of art, some higher powers are going to notice (high-level paladins, celestial creatures, and even deities if they're really bad).

[Hazkali]

Just make sure that the campaign doesn't just devolve into a "what is the most amusing way I can kill this commoner?" contest.

Oh, and be warned, many players see an evil campaign as a way of breaking the "no player v player conflict" rule (whether your group has that rule explicitly or not), as if the very fact that they're evil means they'd automatically backstab all of their friends.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Hold on, is this regular evil, or Eberron evil?

[SandDemon]

Regular evil....not stupid evil either. I guess it's possible to do a normal campaign adventure, just twist the story a bit to give reasons why'd they do it as neutrals+evils.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Alright, well, let them do some evil stuff, but put a curb on how much they do. For instance, if what they were doing would end up front page of international news, then punish them. Something celestial a few levels higher then they are will be there to right their wrongs.

[black wagner]

Ive always found that the trick to keeping evil groups in line is two simple things. there are more good groups in teh world looking to destroy evil and that anything more evil and more powerful is going to see them as a threat. So if they get to out of control and draw too much attention to them selfs, then they are in for a world of hurting.
that being said, evil campaigning can be a lot of fun.

[Dragor]

A good idea, I have found, is to have Evil PC's in a more roleplay-centric game- slightly more political, in fact. The PC's are together out of mutual interest, or simply out of a need for psychopathic evil, and of course they're going to distrust each other.

So, basically, try out a D&D style Risk. Players plot and secretly make alliances, but make sure you don't leave out a player (say, because he had a rubbish character build) otherwise he'll feel left out.

It can be risky (ha, Risky!) to do that, however, if your group is quite sensitive towards, ahem, killing their friends characters. It can be a great blast if you get a group which plays it with no qualms for anyones actions outside the game.

Another idea to keep off the 'I slaughter the commoners' cliche is to introduce a very deep, vicious evil. Your villains- good guys, in this case- have to be actually hated by the PC's. Hate is what inspires an evil party, and the more hate the better. If your good guy is viewed as a pompous, interfering dictator, then hey, you're doing well.

There's my two cents. Ka-ching! Yay! You gained Internet Money!

[RTGoodman]

One thing that would work and that I've seen done before is to have everyone play one race. It's easier for a group to cooperate if they're all bound by racial ties and a single motive, even if they are evil.

For instance, in the last Evil campaign I played, we all played Kobolds, and the campaign was set around us attempting to find a place to start a new tribal warren.

[TheAlmightyOne]

Sit in a tavern and form groups of low leveled good aligned adventurerers. then kill them.