Evil Characters

By: Max Sirek & Dave Blake

The gibbous moon hangs in the clear sky, spilling pale green moonlight down on the city below. White-tiled roofs gleam in the moonlight, carved through with shadowy streets and alleys, punctuated by an occasional nimbus of golden lamplight. Against the Eastern walls, a blot of darkness mars the cityscape, devoid of illumination or reflection. There are no buildings or houses, only lean-tos and shacks. No streets, just meandering paths through the mud and refuse. Only the oldest city plans still label the borough as Bridgegate. To locals and officials alike, the destitute suburb is known only as The Runoff.

Three cloaked figures squelch their way between shanties and tents, having long since given up on avoiding the ubiquitous mud. They stop in front of a ramshackle hut, little more than a collection of driftwood draped with scraps of tarp and cloth.

“I’ll make the trade,” the smallest figure declares quietly, stepping toward the low entrance. “You guys wait out here and keep watch.” The other two hesitate, sparking a grimace of irritation beneath the hood. “What? Don’t you trust me?”

The two share a brief look before the tallest one says in a feminine voice, “Of course we do…”

“Good!” The small one spins on his heel and enters the shack before the woman can continue.

Within, the only light is a guttering tallow candle, barely brighter than the moonlight outside. An old woman sits on the dirt floor, smiling toothily up at the man as if expecting him. “You have retrieved the sacred jewel?”

The man fishes inside his cloak for a moment before withdrawing a glittering opalescent gem. It glitters even in the weak candlelight. “Do you have the money?”

The old woman snorts and reaches under a filthy blanket to reveal a flat wooden box. “Of course I have the– What is that?”

In the man’s other hand is a disc of green glass the size of a saucer. Runes have been etched in complicated patterns across both sides of the disc, only briefly visible before he hurls it to the ground where it shatters.

In the next breath the man leaps at the old woman with his dagger, plunging it deep into her chest. “Anti-magic sigil,” he says quietly to the dying woman. “Incidentally, the deadly poison on this dagger isn’t magical.”

*****

“Come on man, seriously? You said Gary was out of anti-magic sigils. That would have come in really handy when the necromancer was firing off those death spells. You know, the ones that killed me?”

“What? I needed to keep at least one for the old woman. Gary knew Edgar wouldn’t have thought it was worth it.”

“Yeah, neither would I. Sheila had to call in her favor from the Grand Physician at the Healer’s Guild to get him resurrected. Why did you even do that?”

“A mysterious old beggar woman with a few thousand gee-pees to spend? She must have been some kind of witch or priestess in disguise.”

“Are you at least going to tell me and Sheila that you kept the sacred jewel?”

“Nope.”

“…”

“Hey, I’m just roleplaying my character. He’s an evil kleptomaniacal sociopath with trust issues.”

“You suck. Sheila attacks Gary as soon as he comes out of the shack.”

“Yeah, Edgar too.”

“Hey, they don’t have any reason to think he lied to them!”

“Whatever, you’re just going to backstab us again eventually.”

____________________________________________________________________

The “standard” for most adventures is that the heroes become involved in a conflict because they’re interested in the outcome. Do-gooders willingly step up when they discover people who need protection or evil plots that need foiling. Reluctant heroes and even anti-heroes frequently take action against their own better judgment, either unable to leave the situation alone or simply out of self-interest (they’re getting paid). An evil “hero” though, will at best only be looking out for themselves, escaping to safety while grabbing what loot they can along the way. At worst, they’ll try to find ways to exacerbate the situation even further for their own amusement.

▶(DAVE) Just a heads up, when we talk about evil, we don’t mean characters who are merely selfish, cowardly, overly violent, or have poor impulse control. These are genuinely bad people who enjoy doing bad things, often at the expense of others, and have no regrets afterward. 

Pretty much anybody who plays RPGs will admit to being tempted by the idea of playing an evil character who can casually disregard the usual legal and moral restrictions in a game. Whether it’s just a lark, or a player genuinely wants to explore the goals and motives of a purely self-interested protagonist, evil PCs can be an anathema both to DMs and other players. It’s difficult for a DM to find reasons for an evil character to participate in an adventure when they have no real motivation beyond doing whatever they feel like. Likewise, the other players don’t generally enjoy playing their characters as if they are constantly on the lookout against their adventuring companions stealing from and betraying them.

▶(DAVE) Personally, as a DM, having an evil PC in the group rarely works out well. I’m aware that a large part of that is due to my own expectations: I like good guys. Some of my favorite stories are about reluctant heroes who say that they want nothing more than to keep from getting involved in others’ troubles, but who just can’t help themselves when they see someone who needs help. So I keep finding myself caught totally off guard when the player declares that he’s going to grab the treasure and run while the monster is busy eating the villagers.

▶(MAX) Just because evil characters can be an anathema to both DMs and players doesn’t mean they have to be. I believe in my heart-of-hearts there is a good way to play an evil character. And it starts with tact.

The example you give, about grabbing treasure and running, is one I’m pretty sure I was there for. And, if I recall, it did not end well for said evil character because they ignored the cardinal rule of playing an evil character well: “Give the party reasons to keep you around.” Plus, running and stealing instead of helping and fighting the baddies lacks tact.

If a player decides that they want to create an evil character, they should let the rest of the group know at Session Zero or even earlier, since there are several things for everyone to consider before going ahead:

First and most important, the player should make sure that they’ve given their character concept more thought than just a vague desire to be an asshole and go full GTA murder hobo while calling it roleplaying. In fact, it’s very likely that an evil character would find righting wrongs and saving kingdoms with a bunch of do-gooders about as enjoyable as a good character would find traveling with a band of outlaws who are constantly on the lookout for chances to steal and murder. They’d need a very good reason to take up the adventuring life.

▶(MAX) Couldn’t agree more, Dave! It isn’t the DM’s job to figure out why your evil character wants to be a part of the party and adventure – it’s yours. If you can’t be creative enough to figure out why your character is there in the first place, then playing evil well probably isn’t going to go well for you. 

Second, the DM should consider if it’s even possible for an evil character to participate in the adventure they have planned. Kings and governments are usually unwilling to entrust important missions to someone with a criminal record, or who is well-known for causing trouble. Gods and religions are practically moral strictures made manifest, and will be even more reluctant to trust someone whose alignment is at cross purposes with theirs.

▶(DAVE) One of the things I’ll tell a potential evil PC to keep in mind is that, good or evil, you are playing a professional adventurer. Murdering the shopkeeper and burning down his shop just for a hat you could have easily bought is the kind of thing that villains do. It’s not something that’s sustainable for adventurers to do.

▶(MAX) Savvy point, Dave! There is a difference between a “villain” and an “evil PC” and it comes down to tact and the cardinal rule. Murdering shopkeepers because you want to save a few gold pieces will almost certainly cause your party more harm than good. Do that, or things like that enough times, and you’ll be giving the party reasons to not keep you around. 

Third, check with the other players. They should think about their own character ideas and decide whether they would even want to travel and fight alongside someone who’s evil. Lawful Good paladins are famously intolerant of evil in any form, but any good or even neutral character would likely have reservations about hanging out with someone who will casually and eagerly murder innocents on a regular basis. If a player is roleplaying an evil jerk, the other players should similarly roleplay characters who may not want to associate with that same evil jerk.

▶(DAVE) Fortunately, it’s been quite a while since we had a player in our group who thought it was fun to actively cause trouble for everybody else at the table. I had a player once who chose the boss fight to settle his evil character’s grudge against another PC. The boss hit him with a weak charm and told him to attack his friends. He grinned and immediately went after the other PC exclusively, not letting up until he had killed her. At first, there was only some mild disapproval and a “Dude, really?” from the rest of the table. But after he very deliberately kept stabbing until she was fully dead, the rest of the players completely lost interest in the boss and started attacking him instead. “But I was charmed!” he exclaimed and looked to me like he expected me to stop them, but I just shrugged. He’d proven he was a deadly threat; it seemed like a totally reasonable reaction to me.

▶(MAX) Absolutely! This might be the epitome of breaking the cardinal rule. Not fighting the threat – and instead using it to become a threat yourself – is definitely not giving the rest of the party a good reason to keep you around. 

And while I think it’s important to check with the other players, I think it’s far more important to check in with your DM. If your DM isn’t on board then it won’t work. Period. I think back to a game you and I both played in, Dave. 

Our DM, Phil, did an excellent job of giving our evil player, Mike, an outlet for his evil that didn’t disrupt the game. Every so often a situation would come around where Phil would talk directly to Mike and let him know of an opportunity to be evil. “You notice a rope swing hanging from a tree branch nearby,” he’d say. “In the back of your mind you feel this urge to…loosen…the knot. Just a little…” 

Now, none of our characters would know this was happening. Of course, we as players did. And sure enough – the next morning – as the party was leaving town there was a funeral procession complete with a wailing mother and dazed looking older sibling.

Finally, the player of the potentially evil character themselves should think about how evil their character really is. Just because they’re evil, it doesn’t mean that they’re automatically a remorseless daycare-torching, puppy-stomping monster. What are the lines that they just won’t cross? This is something that should be discussed with the rest of the group as well. Not just actions that the evil character would or wouldn’t do, but what the DM and players are comfortable with.

▶(MAX) Which again, I think goes back to tact and the cardinal rule. Going out of your way to be murder puppies and children is a real quick way for everyone else at the table to lose their patience. Now, casually and quickly poisoning the puppy chow? Subtly locking or baring the door to the orphanage that’s on fire? 

That’s why it’s about tact. It isn’t so much about the evil things you do, it’s about picking and choosing the moments you do them and how. It’s about taking advantage of situations provided by the DM every now and then, and giving them the gentlest of pushes in a…dastardly…direction.

▶(DAVE) Well, I suppose if your ultimate goal was to go full Palpatine with your character. But I think that it’s also possible to make evil characters who don’t just want to watch the world burn. If a fire that they started as a distraction got out of hand and burned down a nearby orphanage, an evil-but-not-pure-evil PC might give a chagrined “oops.” But they’re just as unlikely to run back into the fire to rescue the orphans as they are to bar the door to maximize the body count. Given no other option, they’d probably consider a few tragic yet anonymous deaths an acceptable price for their own freedom, but it’s certainly not going to be Plan A.

One of the best things about roleplaying games is their versatility in allowing players to take on a wide variety of roles to act out stories in fictional worlds. Players can direct the actions of monomythic characters like the protagonists of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, or they can take on the roles of antiheroes like characters found in Fast & Furious and John Wick. There are lots of RPGs that can even accommodate players who want to explore immoral or straight up villainous story arcs like those in Overlord and Clockwork Orange.

Keep in mind though, that even though the character you’re playing might be a remorseless sociopath it doesn’t mean that you, the player, have to be one at the table. Take a moment now and then to consider your fellow players. If your actions generally inspire more scowls than smiles, more sighs than laughs, you might want to rethink your approach to the game. Even if you’re playing an all-evil campaign where everybody is a villainous megalomaniac competing to carve out their own little evil empire. That still doesn’t mean there’s a finite amount of enjoyment to be had and you need to grab as much of it as you can before it runs out. Fun isn’t zero sum. 

▶(MAX) For those so inclined, there’s an arc of PeakD&D where I get to practice what I preach. To fully appreciate the arc, you probably have to start at episode 20, The Next Movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em3rJuJjlmE) Then, over the course of the next 10 episodes, you can see how it all played out. Get it?

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About the Authors

Max is part of PeakD&D. You can find him and his friends on YouTube making stuff to help people have more fun in Dungeons and Dragons and life. And you can expect more stuff like this, here at RPG Counterpoint, in the future.

Dave has been an avid TTRPG player and DM for the better part of his life. There are few things in life that give him more joy than sitting around a table with several friends, just being creative at each other for hours on end.