How to Play an Evil Character
June 15, 2011 by beerogre
How to Play Evil Characters
Following on from a thread in the Dungeons & Dragons group, I thought I would post my thoughts on how to play evil chracters in Roleplaying Games... and how it can be fun!
Consider the adventures of the shining Paladin, Dirk the Implaccable and his morally challenged companion Gary the Heartless...
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Evil is practical
Above all else, evil characters are practical, sometimes brutally so.
Why would Gary the Heartless sneak into the Gnome village to recover the Orc totem, when he could poison their water supply and come back to collect it in a few days time.
Evil is not cowardly
It's tempting to play an evil character as a snivelling wretch. However, the acts of an evil character often require a lot of intestinal fortitude and detachment.
When hunting for the Orc Totem in the Temple of Fairy Healing, slaughtering the pacifist Gnome priestesses, just because they were going to raise the alarm, requires commitment to a course of action on par with any Paladin.
The ends justify the means
Evil characters do not exclude a course of action or a plan, just because it is unpalatable.
If the easiest way for Gary the Heartless to find out about the defences of the Gnome village is to summon a demon... then so be it... If that requires the sacrifice of some gnomes. When dealing with Demons, you need to expect to incur some minor costs.
Collateral damage is an occupational hazard
Evil characters use the quickest, easiest path to success. If this involves violence... well... These things happen.
If the local Orc king wants Gary the Heartless to destroy the Gnome's new magical bridge. If the ensuing fire also consumes the gnome orphanage... well... the Gnomes shouldn't have built it into the foundations of the bridge!
Always hedge your bets
The evil character sees both sides of any conflict and measures the potential return from those angles...
How much would the gnomes pay when Gary the Heartless tells them that it was the paladin, Dirk the Implacable who burned their orphanage-bridge to ashes?
Treachery is all part of the bargain
While an evil character understands the value of friends, allies are just convenient.
When Gary the Heartless and the gnome king battle through the wilderness to take revenge on Dirk the Implacable, who is supposedly hiding out at the Orc encampment. When the Orcs conveniently ambush them and stuff the gnome in a pot, Gary collects his reward and goes on his way... There are plenty more stupid gnomes out there.
Never do your own dirty work
You might be an excellent fighter, but actually fighting exposes the evil character to risk... Risk is bad...
It's much easier to convince Dirk the Implacable, the thick-headed paladin, that the gnomes of the village have been replaced by demonic dopplegangers and send him off to do battle, than do it yourself... After all when the gnomes attack Dirk the Orphan-Slayer on sight... That's exactly what a demonic dopplegangers would do, right?
Deception is all part of the game
An evil character should never be what they seem. This puts potential enemies off guard and makes them easier prey.
When a new shining paladin rides into the gnome village, the gnomes rejoice that a saviour has come to find their king, especially due to the recent bridge burning that killed all the orphans and the poisoning of the well that claimed so many lives... Sure this paladin looks a bit like Gary the Heartless in a wig... But that's got to be just coincidence.
Capitalise on tragedy
Good characters see tragedy as a chance to help, evil characters see this as a chance to profit.
Following a recent attack by a rogue paladin, the Gnome village is in ruins. However, as fortune would have it, a passing alchemist (who bears a passing resemblance to Gary the Heartless with a beard) who has a supply of highly addictive dreamweed, just happens to be in the vicinity... and nothing makes the bad times better than a serious dreamweed addiction.
Hit them when they're down
The evil character has no qualms about kicking an enemy when they're down both physically and figuratively.
The thriving black market in the Gnome village, that has recently sprung up, to support the community's deplorable drug problem, is controlled by Gary the Heartless. He sells those gnomes that can't pay debts to the local Orc tribe with whom he's on good terms. In return, the orcs are supervising the rebuilding of the gnome bridge and brothel... Progress seems to be going well.
It's all in a days work
Evil characters do not dwell on their failures, there are always more opportunities. Evil always looks forward to the next scheme, for to look back is to consider some of the terrible works you have wrought.
With the Gnome Village a smoking ruin, after the Orc Tribe got into the Dreamweed stash. Gary the Heartless looks on, ruing the day he ever got involved with those stupid gnomes... but what's that?
The sound of tinkling laughter and tiny violins, which could only mean that there is a Pixie Village nearby... and Gary did manage to save some of the Dreamweed!
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This is just a bit of fun of course, why not give us your take on the whole "playing evil characters".
... and finally... unending thanks to Romain for bringing the escapades of Gary and Dirk to life with his sketches.
BoW Andy
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lol Nice one Andy & Romain. I always enjoyed playing true hero types in RPG’s, but did dally into the evil world of dodgy anti-heroes. Like your slant on how they can be played though. A very interesting set of ideas for those somewhat morally challenged “heroes”. 😉
Nice…I mean Evil
Fun tip: try playing a short-lived evil character. I tried a Nezumi (Skaven-alike) and modified the background a bit: his race was hideously short lived (a decade being considered venerable), so he wanted to make as much noise as he could in his time. The other characters were on the evil spectrum too, but mine had the distinct advantage of not caring if he died (I played “care not from whence the blood flows” style). Room full of traps? Barbarian Rage and run through the room setting off all the traps, somehow surviving, and then netting crazy experience. First campaign… Read more »
lol awesome article and very in-depth. Shall have to be applying some of these tennants to my own characters.
When playing evil I think it is always important to go full on evil. Half measures and mercies are only going to get you killed 😀
Always remember: a family member can eliminate a grudge. Don’t eliminate a foe, eliminate his village.
Also, I need to ask Romain if he would do some sketches of my heroes for the new ToH campaign I’m doing soon! Those are awesome drawings.
You can summon the great man himself by typing @elromanozo into your post… the system will then alert him that his name has been called… dun-dun-duuuun! 🙂
Then you can barter your soul for his artistic talents… 😀
Haha – Alright @elromanozo some souls for artistic talent? lol.
WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMB… Oh, it’s you.
Thanks @brennon, your kind words are always welcome !
I suggest you PM me if you desperately want something done, but I drawing for third parties always comes after drawing for Beasts of War and for my own games and friends… as well as after my three and a half other lives, basically !
I can’t promise anything, but if the subject’s interesting and if I have the time, we can work something out.
BoW Romain
Cheers Romain 🙂 and no problem. Obviously other commitments come first and always good to see more art on BoW lol.
Another fun thing about being evil is your uncanny ability to do literally whatever you want, when you want. For example, you want a zombie slave to help carry your things? and look at that! One of your former allies has “mysteriously” succumbed to a bad case of dead. Everybody wins!
(except maybe your former ally, but it’s really his own fault for not offering to carry your stuff in the first place.)
No you don’t… you take a midnight trip to the graveyard and in the morning the party has a heavily robed, strangely shuffling hanger-on… called Vince… who likes to carry all your stuff.
He doens’t speak much either… so don’t try.
Even better if you’re into enchantment and mental domination… You can torture someone that way. He’s just prisoner of his own body…
“Guys, this is… Bob. He’s my dim-witted mute cousin, he’ll be tagging along and carrying all our stuff… Don’t pay attention to the occasional tear in his eye, he’s twitchy that way.”
BoW Romain
Bah. Evil is lame and smelly. It only exists so good can punch it in the face. After all, the more powerful and all-encompassing the evil, the more fun it is to spit in its eye. XD That being said, I do occasionally play the inquisitorial type that has to cast away some of the more naive and idealistic notions for ‘the greater good’.
A friend of mine ran an evil campaign once, while it was great fun I do recall all of us making 4 or 5 characters before we even started. During the campaign I once saved myself by running back into the lair of monsters cause it was safer there than outside with my “friendly” party. Mind you our helpful ranger “acidently” shot that character as he was leaving out the back door. I also remember the joy of robbing just about everyone and their dog blind and then blaming and helping the townsfolk to lynch our warrior who we could… Read more »
Also if you’re going for “true evil”, you serve no-one. Even if you have to temporarily bow your head to some greater power, you’re only doing so until you’re strong enough to kill it. Oh, and don’t hesitate like Hollywood evil always does – don’t loom over the vanquished hero and mull over snarky phrases in your head while he reaches for the remnants of his shattered, sacred blade to stab you in the groin and cause your face to explode in white, holy light – just lop off his head, hurl his corpse to your minions, use his blood… Read more »
I always enjoyed playing Kevin, the misunderstood necromancer. So he spent all day cutting people up to make zombies. He used them to rebuild the orphanage!
Jolly memorable fellow. I played him as a lonely chap – low Cha, not helped by the pustulating boils he had so he conjoured spirits and ghouls to keep him company. It wasn’t his fault they kept eating people!
So he did a little sidework, why should the fact that he recycle the corpses make him “Evil” 🙂
Well, technically, it’s a point of debate… as long as you’re not disturbing the soul of teh dearly departed, animating a corpse is distasteful, disrespectful, but inherently no more evil than, say, magically animating a chair…
It all depends on what the GM says makes the zombie “work” in his game world !
BoW Romain
I agree, ofcause the judgement of good or evil is in the hands of the GM – I just like grey not black and white
KILL THAT PALADIN!!! HE IS CUTTING MY FLOWERS!
Good or Evil – I never cared much for Aligments the D&D/AD&D way. My way always been to find some goals for the PC (and NPCs as well), and tried to figure out to wich level they would go to working toward the goal, for one finding a long lost daughter would be so high on the list that they would destroy both Orcs and Gnomes if needed be, but the goal of seeing the southen most point on the continet would not make them go far out of their way. “Evil” would then be those whom had goals of… Read more »
Or, you could try playing your PC as if he were smart: http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/the-smart-villain-part-1-overview Dr. Doom didn’t become the beloved (okay, feared but favored) ruler of Latvia by simply killing all his subjects. No, he loves them all, and will beat the snot out of any “hero” who tries to “make their lives better by removing Doom.” The idea I’m trying to get across is that this sort of play is really pretty stupid, and assumes that no one will see through your charade. Better to not have a facade, but rather a more three dimensional personality that seeks power and… Read more »
It is what we used to call hangover gaming – the kind that came up back in the day when it dawned on us that it where Saturday or Sunday afternoon and to early to go back to the beer, so some one better come up with a gaming session, as that where always ill prepered that is the kind of stuff you can come up with 😉