The Evil Game

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but nothing will ever kill me. Well, let's see now. First, they tried burning me. Then they tried burying me.  But this... this is my favorite. They even tried holy water!  But I just keep on tickin'... because they promised me that."

"They?"

"The dream people. The ones that gave me this job. In dreams... I am forever! Too bad you're not."


Hands up, who saw this one coming? I didn't feel it was fair to bring up alignments without breaking down what the "problem" with them was. Now that we all know how easy the axis is to understand and how much baggage it brings along with it, let's talk about a particular style of play that causes no end of problems.

Necromancers. Sith. Black Spiral Dancers. Anarchs and Sabbat. Assassins and hitmen. Anarchists and Toxic Shamans. They're all so fucking cool it's inevitable that we all get the desire to play them. Maybe some people try to mix them in with other characters, and sometimes that just doesn't work. Maybe the conflict comes to combat too easily, or maybe someone's just really adverse to moral conflict in his PNP games. So, it follows naturally that if we don't like the conflict and we want to play these amoral concepts...let's just all do it at once.

This line break is here to give everyone time to reflect back on all the times they've tried this. Sorry I'm bringing back bad memories for some of you.

For every "Evil Game" that runs really well, there's probably a dozen that fail. We're going to go into the two major reasons for that today, but...I gotta put a word of caution here. Amoral campaigns may not be for your group. This isn't something where I'm trying to pull back the veil and show that it's not really that bad, and declare this is something nobody should be afraid of. While I AM trying to do that first part...amoral campaigns require both a certain mindset and a level of maturity. In this above all other things, you've got to know your group. Bad things might happen. Players may try to manipulate other players, depending on the "style" of their evil. Graphic scenes and awful things will absolutely be described.

Anyway. I said there are two major problems with these types of games, aside from my phantom third problem of the amoral campaign potentially having a lot of in-group conflict. It doesn't always happen, and an amoral game can easily be arranged without it, but some people just don't like that sort of thing. Not much advice I can give for this: Evil can lend itself to manipulating the people around it, and all you can really do is tell people not to play these "master manipulator" asshole types if most of the group isn't okay with it. With that out of the way, here's our two cuplrits:

A. Amoral campaigns are often seen as a way to blow off steam or act out personal fantasy and quickly get out of hand due to player's over-the-top actions.

B. Evil is proactive in nature.

So yeah, that first one is probably the one everyone remembers. We all love pen and paper gaming, but role playing good guys all the time can wear you down. Really. GMs will often place (deliberately or on accident) wildly irritating NPCs or situations that the players are locked into dealing with due to playing a good guy. An overly bureaucratic clerk who can't be made to care about the PCs plight can't just be beaten mercilessly by a good person. Neither can you just murder someone repeatedly demanding favors(read: adventure hooks) for necessary items or assistance.  The "evil" game rolls around and the first thing a lot of people think is...I can do whatever I want now. I don't have to sit here and deal with this. Talking didn't work, and now I don't have to just walk away like my good character did. I don't have to let anyone push me around. Fuck turning the other cheek.

So you can see where that goes. Other times, players feel like this game is finally their shot to do whatever they want. To be Really Evil, to do all the villain stuff they always wanted to act out in these games. So the players end up doing a lot of really bombastic stuff, from complex plots all the way to simple wanton violence. The GM feels boxed-in or threatened and ends up working double-time to cause all of the proper reactions and consequences to happen. He feels actions should have consequences, and he's pushed to the point where either he's throwing a holy light tactical nuke at the party...or just giving up and letting them run roughshod over the game, providing no resistance.

There's unfortunately not a whole lot of advice I can give you with this one. I wrote a post on problem players, and I invite you to go read that. There are a lot of people out there who think "My guy is Evil" is all the justification they need to act like a dickhead. During my time playing MUDs online, I met very, very many of these people. An evil alignment does not preclude character motivation, and be sure all the members of your group understands this. If you're a player, try to follow a personality naturally instead of just doing whatever sounds funny or sickening. Build a character more three dimensional than "My dude's a sadist" or "He just likes killing people". Presumably you're not that thin when building a neutral or good character.  The GM will also want to make sure that everyone's on the same page with what kind of game it's going to be. It's perfectly fine to run a game where the players are monstrously and cartoonishly evil so long as everyone's on board for that. Inter-group conflict frequently happens when two people have wildly different expectations for a game. Try to nip that in the bud by being clear about the game's tone when you begin. In addition, if there's group conflict and everyone's enjoying it...just let it happen. Check in maybe at the end of the session to make sure nobody's upset. If someone needs to change characters or something, be smooth about it and don't force them to continue playing a character far after they'd logically just split. Often, people are way more okay with their character leaving than dying...even though in the scope of the game, it may as well be the same thing.

I want to put a minor note here. A lot of people seem to think "Evil" is synonymous with being severely vengeful or having a huge chip on your shoulder. While it may seem weird to play someone who's easygoing but evil, remember people are complex creatures. You don't have to punish every slight or track down and murder everyone who ever annoyed you. Some villains do that, sure. However, keep in mind that evil can mean many, many things. You're not under an obligation.

Otherwise, if you're the GM, remember that you're running an Evil game. Actions should have consequences sometimes, but don't get upset if a character gets away clean with something. This is an EVIL game, after all, and your job as GM is to present interesting challenges and a compelling plot. Use their actions to create plot hooks and interesting challenges, but remember your job is NOT to constantly apply the rules of Karma to the group. Good doesn't rule the universe. Neither does Evil. The idea that sometimes, the bad guy wins, can be a hard pill to swallow. This is because that isn't an acceptable thing in a traditional good-focused game. The main characters losing in the end is okay in a book or movie, but it's not okay in a pen and paper game. Thus...an amoral campaign requires a shift in perspective that many people miss. The characters should, at some point, overcome their challenge at the climax of the game.

(Fun drinking game: Take a shot every time I say there's not a lot of advice I can give for a topic then talk for like two or three paragraphs.)

This dovetails nicely into our discussion of the second main issue. Good is inherently reactive, even in other media. In fact, in comic books is a big deal to see a proactive good guy like The Outsiders or The Punisher. They're even usually seen as walking a thin line, or being in a moral grey area for this. Evil is the one that gets to be proactive, having big plans and goals of their own. It doesn't SOUND like it's a bad thing, does it? No, any GM who's ever planned anything knows that the players throwing you a curve ball can be stressful. Avoiding this stress is how the bad habit of railroading starts. To run an amoral game, in many ways, is to prepare yourself to run a sandbox game. It's to think on your feet, throw out plot hooks, tie things together on the fly, and to quote Perry Farrell, Fly by your Butt.

It's not easy, and we'll give sandbox games a biiiig, long talk later. The point is, evil characters inherently have their own plans, and you either have to roll with that, or expect your game to face constant derailing. A super-quick rundown of how you should enter into this sort of game is to come up with plots you can run independent of or in between plots centric to their own motivations. Show up with some stories and a world, and be ready to roll. In fact, if you need a leg-up you can always get them together a week before the first session to discuss motivations and characters. This is fun to do with traditional games as well but more crucial with an amoral game. You can also easily create a grace period by providing some simple "milk run" style adventures in the beginning of the game. Shadowrunners will always be happy doing a few runs or robbing a few banks. Even evil bastards like raiding dungeons...especially if you theme it a bit toward them. An abandoned castle full of monsters and hidden treasure can easily be an OCCUPIED castle full of guards and a treasure vault. It'll play almost exactly the same and players chomping at the bit to be evil will appreciate being given a chance to do that right out of the gate.

The take-away this week is that the amoral game often goes sour, but it's not always for the reasons you think. Evil people acting evil can be distasteful, but it gives the GM much more freedom than a more traditional game. While Karma, as a rule, doesn't exist...a typical evil player is constantly creating his own plot hooks. With time and experience, an amoral game can even feel way easier to run. After all, when you can't plan...that also means you don't HAVE to plan. In addition to that, I'm not going to lie...they really are a nice way to do something fresh and blow off steam.