Mixing it up with EVIL

By Jonathan Jacobs

Alignment in Dungeons & Dragons is used as a guideline by players and dungeon masters (DM) to compartmentalize the game world into clear choices of good or evil, law or chaos. In 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons (4E D&D), the designers of the game made some important changes to the alignment system, but what did not change was the general purpose of alignment. Alignment is almost exclusively used in 4E D&D as a tool for character roleplaying, which represents a departure from previous editions where alignment was also used as a game mechanic for spells and other effects. This departure from the previous editions was a paradigm shift when 4E was first released; now it seems the norm and is a bit closer to what many other excellent RPGs (such as Savage Worlds) do: ditch alignment altogether. For the purpose of this post – we’ll assume that alignment (or something like it) is part of the game; although you may also be quite right in thinking we don’t need it at all.

Back on topic – specifically, the 9-alignment system of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions of D&D was replaced by a slightly more simplified 5-alignment system that includes the alignments Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil, and Chaotic Evil. Another minor, but nonetheless important, departure is the recommendation by the 4E D&D game designers to play characters of only good alignments. This recommendation is no doubt intended to dissuade players from having alignments that might promote internal conflict within the party and potentially sabotage an ongoing campaign.

Why then would you want to play an evil character in a good party, or vice versa?

Becuase it’s fun.

In my own experience, the conflicts that might come up from a mixed alignment party only add to the fun – it brings makes the roleplaying a bit more complicated and full of surprises.  While negotiating with the local Duke, imagine the interplay during a skill challenge when you know the rogue in your party is a greedy thief who is only out to increase the size of his or her purse. Or think of the trouble the PCs might get in when the only good player in the party confesses to the authorities about some crime the party recently committed. These sorts of scenarios are what bring to life memorable campaigns that stay with you for months or years. Sometimes always playing in a group of like minded “do-gooders” gets boring, and the injection of a bit of evil into a party is all that is needed to spice things up. So long as the conflicts of alignment don’t result in the ultimate destruction of the party, players should be encouraged to choose whatever alignment they wish. The question remains though: is it possible to run a campaign with a mixture of good and evil characters in the same party? The answer is definitely “Yes!” There are – as you might expect – some amazing games based around this idea. but a number of important caveats should be followed for the campaign to be a success.

Before The Starting Guns Fire…

The 4E D&D Players Handbook goes to great lengths in Chapter 2 describing each alignment, its general ethos, and how characters of each alignment are expected to interact with each other.  This is usually enough to get this started, but in a campaign with mixed-alignment parties players should state upfront their assumptions and understandings about each alignment. Can the unaligned rogue who is leading this expedition trust your evil paladin? What is needed to make sure the chaotic evil wizard in the group doesn’t murder everyone while they are sleeping around their campfire in the wilderness? Questions like these should be posed to the group, and for each character, before game play beginsso that some ground rules can be established. Gaming in a mixed-alignment party can be a blast, but nobody likes to arrive at a game night only to get handed over to the town guards by their fellow “do-gooder” cleric.

The might also DM consider an additional pre-campaign decision: namely, should PC alignment secret or public? The “immersion” gamer in me leans towards the former choice. Character alignment should be something that the players keep to themselves and share only with the dungeon master.  The reasons for this are obvious – in the real world people are judged by their actions, not because they are wearing a shirt that says “FOR GOOD!” or “Evil 4 teh Winz!”. By deciding to keep the players alignments private, the campaign will evolve more organically. Inter-player trust will develop naturally and will only deepen the immersion the players feel while roleplaying their character’s actions. Furthermore, since in 4E D&D there is no direct means to assess a character’s alignment using spells, powers, or magic items, the presence of a secrete alignment throughout the campaign will have lasting positive effects on the overall game play. Your players will not simply be able to cast Detect Evil, and then decide to dump the rogue in the party into a ditch. That decision will have to come from evidence of the rogue’s actions, and a well-played rogue will do their best to hide their true intentions throughout the campaign.

However, keeping alignment a private thing also means that the campaign will start on a weakened pair of legs. RPG campaigns are often already the most likely to fail at the earliest stages of development; say before the fourth or fifth session. Add in the prospects of backstabbing rogue or turncoat rangers PCs and some may view hidden alignments as a campaign killer. Thus, there is a benefit to making alignments public from the start. The players have the added advantage of knowing what surprises may be coming down the pipe in future adventures. “Yes, my rogue is ‘Evil’ but he could never imagine doing in his lifelong friends.” In either situation, a secret or public alignment, the fundamental issue is trust.

All Good (and Evil) Campaigns Depend on Trust

The single most important assumption that players make in a homogeneously good party is that they share a common trust. Once an evil PC enters the mix, however, this assumption often fails horribly. How can you trust a party member who is evil? How do you know they won’t sell out or turn the tables on you when the going gets tough? To answer this it is helpful to consider how a party of characters might build trust in an “evil campaign”, as in one where all the PCs are evil to begin with. In evil campaigns, player character survival (and player sanity) depends first and foremost on a common understanding that the players will not engage in PC-killing. Parties of evil PCs usually hold together because they have some common goal (i.e. destroying the Temple of Pelor) or a strong leader (i.e. the thieves guild’s Grandmaster). Knowing that everyone is motivated to accomplish the same goal keep the daggers sheathed at night.

A second way evil campaigns can hold together is by building interdependence between the characters. The party may need the wizard PC to stay alive because he’s the only one who knows some important ritual. The resident thief knows he’s safe, even though he’s already taken more than his fair share, because the group needs his skills to get out of the dungeon alive. These examples are somewhat simple, but they are enough to make the evil-PCs dependent on, and not kill off, each other during game play.

The same sets of guidelines apply when running a campaign of mixed-alignments, although it’s even easier to set up. Instead of dealing with a whole party of potentially risky relationships, the party needs to have common goals and inter-character dependence for a few of the risky members of the group. If the whole party of do-gooder PCs has to put up with the shenanigans of one Evil Rogue, the Rogue is going to be much better off if she remembers that they depend on her skill set as much as she is depending on their abilities. She also needs to foster at least a sense of trust between her and the rest of the party. Evil or not, her life depends on these facts.

Avoid Losing your Religion

Great campaigns generally evolve and mature over time, as the players inevitably get more comfortable with their characters. There’s even a tendency for some players to emulate others whom they deem are “better” at roleplaying, albeit at the expense of their character’s personality. However, once game play starts, its important to remember that in 4E D&D there is no way in the game to determine the alignment of another character, NPC or monster. At least, not currently. Thus, private or not, your alignment becomes nothing more than guideline for roleplaying the character the way you envision him or her at the time of PC creation. Your characters personality can drift a bit, but its important to remember that their alignment should not.

Character alignment is usually listed at the top of page 1 of most character sheets for a reason: to remind you of where you stand. Remember, you chose your alignment on Day One of the campaign. Stick to it then. Review the descriptions of the alignment in Chapter 2 of the Players Handbook from time to time if need be.

Also remember that each alignment has a relatively wide range for what is expected. This is one of the things I really enjoy about 4E D&D. Your Evil Cleric of some Unaligned Deity can easily be friends with a Good Ranger so long as they don’t witness you doing anything explicitly evil as it happens. The alternative is also true. Although uncomfortable with their methods, its perfectly possible for the Good Rogue to still be a member of a local gang of thieves.  Maybe he wants to fit in with his own kind so much that he stifles his do-gooder ways as long as he can. Whatever the situation, the point is not forgetting your alignment during game play. Roleplaying to your alignment can make the game many times more enjoyable and often opens up new scenarios you may not have expected.

Avoid Becoming a PC Killer

All this being said, the #1 most important rule of playing characters in an mixed-alignment party it to not be a PC killer. A close second would be to keep yourself safe from your party members as well. Killing another player’s character because “my character just wouldn’t stand for his actions” or “I had to do something to stop him” is just short sighted. First of all it destroys weeks, if not months, of character development. In the best case scenario, even if the PC is raised from the dead, there will be a permanent rift between the victim and the rest of the party. This will likely result in the ejection of the character from the group, or worse, the splitting of the group. Players will have to roll up new characters to continue playing. In the worst of scenarios, PC killing can damage real-life friendships. People invest time (and emotion) into their characters. The DM is usually the only player at the table who reserves the right to kill player characters (as a result of game play combat) and remain relatively immune to any animosity from the character’s owner. The other players at the game table do not usually share this special form of immunity and should think very seriously before taking actions that would result in the death of another player’s character. At a very minimum, consult your DM privately beforehand. Your seat at the table, and the respect (or fear) of the other players may depend on it.

Soo…

Mixing it up with evil can be a blast. It’s a shot in the arm that many campaigns that may have run dull need. It’s also adds spice to campaigns where more experienced players are looking for something new to try.  Just keep in mind that it definitely requires a higher level of roleplaying skill to pull off believably, but by following the guidelines I’ve laid out above you should be able to navigate these waters without running aground. Have fun with this in your next campaign, and remember that it doesn’t have to end in a bloodbath!