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Jun 8, 2012 -- 11:41AM, Unahim wrote:

Evil does not have to equal sociopaths who can't control themelves even three seconds.

This is something that people overlook when they think "evil."

First of all, evil is a matter of perspective.  At least to a sociologist.  Evil means something opposed to established norms, essentially.  In DnD it is kinda like that too.  An established norm being "it is considered rude to enslave our village and sacrifice us to the giant flaming murder-dragon."

Think of the addage "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."  Your characters could be evil interlopers in a village but are serving the will of a foreign monarch. 

Here's an example of something close to evil I did.  In my Dark Sun Campaign I had the players take a break from their normal characters to play a group of mercenaries in service to the sorceror king Nibenay.  Their task was to gather a large number of people to be sacrificed to the Dragon of Tyr. 

This was an exercise in two things. One, that in Dark Sun there really isn't good or evil.  There's just survival.  But people inside the world have different perspectives on it nonetheless.  Sorceror Kings in Dark Sun regularly make sacrificial offerings to the Dragon of Tyr.  These sacrifices are made to sate the madness of the Dragon, so that he doesn't descend upon one of the city states and raze them to the ground.  It can be evil in a way, sacrificing people is wrong, however the sorceror kings do it to protect themselves as well as the people that they rule over.

The players played from a different perspective of theirs, where their players work to save every life they can, (well, from time to time), their temporary roles as these mercenaries were spent with a disregard for life as long as it meant preserving their own.  But the mercs were bonded to each other from their experiences.  Because being evil doesn't mean the inability to form connections.

Remember, in DnD, there's Evil.  And Chaotic Evil.  There's Lex Luthor, and The Joker.  (Really a whole rainbow of good and evil.)

Too many people do evil campaigns as psychotics, then wonder what they're doing wrong.

My first DM ran an evil campaign that lasted for three years.


I ran one that lasted for about two years.


What everybody says above is pretty spot on.  I can give some advice but you, your fellow players and your DM need to take a step back to work on this.

First you need to decide what kind of game you're playing, and why the group is together.


Also you either need a leader that can hold the group together in some way or an NPC that can.


A group like Magneto's Brotherhood is a great example.


If the group are playing a bunch of solo bad guys that just want to do as the please I suggest you all leave the gaming table and buy City of Villains instead.


An RPG is an group experience.  You can plot and even turn in each other but if you DM doesn't have a handle on it the game will fall apart.


Don't think of evil as sadistic, monsters, thing of evil as a different way of thinking. 


Consider yourselves Wolves among sheep.  Most of the Wolves keep sheep in power (heroes).  You on the other hand beleive such power should belong to those who truly deserve it.

This book could also help the players and DM I highly recommend it (it is designed for 3e though):




 

Good luck

What everyone else said.  Evil doesn't mean stupid or short sighted.  

Think of some believable fictional evil characters and how they work together: The Sopranos backstab each other occasionally, but most of the time they put greed, family, and a twisted sense of honor first even though they are a group that as whole is willing to kill and steal from innocents and has no respect for the law.  The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants all have a common goal of global mutant domination and are willing to kill non-mutants to get there and generally are willing to follow a strong leader, but they don't steal each other wallets every five minutes.

I have run an evil campaign as a DM and been in several as a player.  PCs need a common bond and all the players need to be on the same page for it to work.  Examples of common bonds: family, raical or  or clan ties, servant of strong leader of some sort, members of some society like a religious group or criminal gang, or all wanting to destroy some rival group or nation.

Some PC bickering/backstabbing is fine if everyone (all players and the DM) is fine with keeping it character.  But if it gets stupid it won't work unless everyone is fine with a stupid/silly campaign.