Most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns are set around helping the good folk of whatever land the players find themselves in. Some campaigns are about a group of neutral, morally ambiguous adventurers just trying to get by. However, what's the fun of a fantasy world without villains? That's the focus of this article, the D&D campaigns that choose to follow the tales of the villains themselves rather than the heroes of the world.

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However, running an evil campaign can be very different from running the average; it requires a little more thought from the DM for it to be successful. In this style of game, there are a few extra elements of play that must be observed; a few of them are listed here.

10 It's Not So Different From A Regular Game

At its core, D&D is D&D, regardless of whether the players are delving into an underground crypt or the local lord's bastion the challenge should always be the same. At times an evil campaign will be a pallet swap of existing D&D, all that has to be done is appropriate rephrasing.

So, for ease of use come up with some common adversaries that a party would normally face, instead of goblins, it's now local militia. Instead of ogres it's knights-errant, sworn to eradicate evil from the land and looking to make a name for themselves. Most of the significant differences in these campaigns are motivations, not so much what the players do with the mechanics of the game. Persuasion checks, fights, resting, advancing their story, these things are all the same.

9 It's Better To Have Experienced Players

A group of people who for their first adventure in the world of D&D should really not be trying an evil campaign. Most first time players are still trying to grasp the mechanics and benefit from being put 'on rails' so to speak. The majority of evil D&D campaigns, in order for them to have meaning, must have a more hands-off approach by the DM.

This will leave new players sitting there twiddling their thumbs looking around the room for guidance. This would be fine if the rest of the party is experienced, but if all the players are new, it tends to be confusing for them. If they REALLY want to do this as their first campaign, that's fine, but as a DM make sure it's what they are into before trying it.

8 They Should Have More Agency Then Heroes

Villains should have more leeway than any set of heroes during a campaign. It's important for them to feel it and to know it.  Much of what they are going to want to do is, big and bold, massive ambitions and wild plans. Due to this agency, the DM is going to have to put more thought into the impact of their actions.

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Having a fleshed-out world is beneficial here, towns and cities with factions, politics, economic considerations, and means of producing food need to be thought out. These will allow the players to choose an approach to enact their evil schemes, poisoning wells, raiding trade routes, fomenting dissent against the ruling bodies, etc.

7 Encourage Villains To Be Proactive

Villains must take action themselves. The nature of most heroes in D&D for whatever reason is similar to reluctant lemmings. They wait for something to happen and then they deal with it, and generally only when it's an established problem. The villains need to act and create these situations for existing heroes in the world.

They need to be moving and making decisions, they need to be planning and scheming constantly. Encourage them to do things, once again having a fleshed-out world is necessary so that they can explore it, keeping them active. If they're not proactively committing acts of evil or planning to do so, at least try to get them to proactively explore.

6 Encourage The Players To Act Badly

They need to act badly, some players who have played good characters consistently in D&D may not necessarily want to. Give them a reason to, the good folk of land act morally superior to them, the local constables don't like the way they look.

An evil party might have a few normally evil species in it, capitalize on that. Have them naturally be distrusted and forced into situations where the best choice of action is the evil one. Villainy is sometimes a product of circumstance, make sure the players who are reluctant to be evil learn that.

5 Don't Let It Devolve Into Murder Hobos

No D&D campaign should devolve into a murder hobo rampage, and no campaign is at more risk of that happening than an evil campaign. There's a fine line between evil behavior and psychotic behavior for players.Generally, the difference lies in their approach to interactions.

If murdering the person or creatures the party meets is the result 95% of the time with the other 5% being them fleeing whatever they couldn't stab to death, these players are murder hobos. Encourage long-form plans, encourage meeting people that can help them make their plans come to fruition, it's about the big pay off, not the short term stabbing.

4 Be Ready For Infighting And Back Stabbing (PvP)

These are evil characters, they are going to act like villains, there's going to be some infighting and backstabbing. If you don't want this at all, consider banning any chaotically aligned characters, this is a bit heavy-handed though and conflicts with player agency.

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PvP is generally is the result of big egos at the table with nothing to keep them at bay. Maybe it's something the DM wants to encourage as it plays into the evil nature of the characters. However, it is important that people have an idea this could happen and are comfortable with this.

3 Know What The Players Are Looking For

Goals are important in D&D. To keep the evil party from becoming a roving group of murder hobos till they kill each other over some petty dispute there needs to be communal interest. The party needs to agree there's a goal that they need each other to achieve, some level of enlightened self-interest must be in play.

See what these villains would like to do, take over a kingdom? Reave and pillage the land? Kill a ruler? Create an evil empire? See what the players are trying to achieve with their character and make sure that the goal meets the player's interests.

2 Be Ready With Interventions

The party may break down and not do anything for periods, get stuck in a rut, or simply develop an unhealthy focus on meaningless violence. When this happens the DM will have put the heels to em' and have a means of getting them to get back on track.

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A good way to do this is having the 'heroes' of the land come after them. The heroes showing up to hunt down the group of villains is a great way to motivate them into doing something. The more the villains slack off, the more often the heroes show up. It keeps the villains on their toes and gets them to act proactively in service of their evil interests.

1 It's Not About Evil; At The End of The Day, It's About Agendas

A common misconception to keep in mind is that, at times, evil is just a perspective. It's extremely unlikely people are just 'born' evil. People who carry out awful deeds don't normally think what they're doing is pure unadulterated evil for evil's sake. They had a purpose and their actions served that purpose.

Don't let the game become some Saturday morning cartoon villain menagerie unless that's what the players want. These characters should have goals to achieve and there should be a reason for them to do so other than 'we're evil, so we do bad things'.

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