How to Play and GM Evil Player Characters
Everyone loves a bad guy. Some of the most influential characters in fiction are villains, such as Darth Vader, Dr. Doom, Agent Smith, or Dracula. Some villains are perhaps even more well known than the heroes they face. Often we as roleplayers like to imitate or draw inspiration from characters we see in other media. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for a player to want to not just join the dark side, but start there. While it requires maturity on the part of the player, and extra effort to engage in telling the narrative on both sides of the GM screen, an evil PC can lead to memorable moments at the table and are worth allowing and even encouraging.
A note before we begin to dig in. This article is being written with the assumption that the majority of your PCs are still of a heroic nature, even if you’re playing a game like Edge of the Empire where the PCs could all be outlaws. In the future, I may write about GMing the mythical “all evil party.” With that out of the way, let’s continue.
Suggestion 1: Rotten at the Core.
When working with a player on their future evil PC, it’s important to come up with a solid concept. One of the most important things to come up with is your character’s motive. A villainous PC should have something motivating them besides waking up and looting, maiming and/or killing everything that comes within line of sight. This motive can be as complex as the player wants. The PC could a trigger happy mercenary who will almost always sell out to the highest bidder, so long as the payout seems to be real. Perhaps the character is an amoral con-man forced to work with the PCs to pay off a debt. They could be a power hungry wizard who happens to share a mutual enemy with the other characters.
This core should be the first thing the player comes up with. In games like Edge of the Empire, this should figure into their motivation and obligation. In FATE games, it should be tied into their High Concept or their Trouble. In games like D&D, it will determine which flavor of evil alignment you assign to your character. In the various flavors of World of Darkness, your starting morality is a solid way to mechanically express this. Regardless of the system, the emphasis should be on determining what to expect from this character and help you come up with challenges for them.
Suggestion 2: What goes around…
This next part falls on the GM, both in execution and explanation. There needs to be an understanding between the GM and the player that bad deeds tend not to go unpunished. This means that when a PC guns down a rival crime boss after he surrenders, that person’s allies won’t take kindly to it. When you steal from your party’s employer after being paid, it’ll fall back on everyone. No action happens in a vacuum and the machinations of evil PCs should be used to highlight this.
While I don’t advise that evil PCs meet their end for their ill-gotten gains, repercussions shouldn’t be easily avoided. In some games, this is can be expressed mechanically. In games like Edge of the Empire, taking on additional obligation can be a great way to do this. Decreasing a character’s morality could be a way to handle this in World of Darkness. As these can quickly get out of hand if overused, I’d recommend using story elements as these reactions. The important bit here is that the actions the PC takes that causes undue harm can be used against them. The bigger the action, the bigger the consequence. Typically, I give it time before it comes back around. However, with mechanical consequences you should apply them immediately. Surprising a player with a pile of Dark Side Points at the end of the session can lead to upset players. Giving it out at the time of the event means the players and the GM can discuss it if it could be controversial.
Now, I have to advise that not every less than good thing this PC does should be punished. The reasons are twofold. First, if you did that you’d never do anything else but punish the character for their actions. Second is that even heroes can be jerks. If its not something you’d hammer a heroic PC for, you definitely shouldn’t go after your villain PC either.
As an aside, I am internally conflicted as to how to handle this fallout with regards to the other players. Often, I will go with what makes the most sense for the story. I don’t think there’s any hard or fast advice I can offer in this regard. However, going with my gut has served me well enough in the past. If things go south, or the players feel you’re unfairly harming their characters because of the actions of the one PC, I’ve found it best to talk it out post-session.
Suggestion 3: Villains are the Heroes of their Own Story
This classic storytelling line is perhaps the most important to remember when it comes to evil PCs. It’s unlikely that the PC is a murdering murderer who loves murder for the sake of murder. They likely see their reasons as warranted, justified or even normal. It’s important to understand that even though you see their actions as evil, the other players see their actions as evil, and even the player of the character sees their actions as evil, the character either sees it as understandable or acceptable.
For example, Jayne of Firefly fame had motivations other than violence (like money and avoiding the Alliance). Jayne sees himself as the center of his world and his focus is rarely on the well-being of others (though he is noticeably uncomfortable being portrayed as a hero). As an excellent example of this sort of character, he seems perplexed as to why other characters get upset with his actions. When confronted, he will attempt to justify his actions.
This can be used to create good drama for the story. A PC in my Dresden Files game is an up and coming mafioso who often tries to manipulate the situation for his advantage. Sometimes the fallout from his actions will provide a session on its own. When he takes out a rival crime lord who happens to be a vampire, the rest of the PCs get dragged in to clean up the fallout despite their characters not knowing of his involvement in the assassination.
Lastly, don’t force the PC to act evil all the time. I’ve seen this come up in most frequently in games like D&D or Pathfinder, where because it says “Evil” on the character sheet the GM feels the need to remind them every time they tip their waiter. Simply put, that’s not how real people act. It also makes their actual evil acts more meaningful. If the evil PC appears to be a more or less normal person in society, it brings more drama to the story when he executes the prisoner, betrays an employer or blackmails an ally.
In Closing: Let the Bad Times Roll
A lot of GMs I’ve met are averse to non-heroic PCs because they fear that the an evil character will derail their story. However, with planning and a willingness to tell a story with your PCs, instead of telling your PCs a story, you can create a memorable game by allowing the inclusion of a villainous protagonist among your PCs. However, including characters of questionable morals will mean more work on the part of the GM. I’ve found it worth it to allow such characters. Some of the most memorable games I have run or played have included them, even if things don’t go that character’s way.
zeonsghost
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