Evil permeates. It corrodes, it devours and it breathes. It is a living organism, a parasite that feasts on the human soul. In reality, this is a fabrication, an illusion, created by us in order to differentiate those behaviors that we find deviant and wrong within our own societies. Evil exists only as a reason for humanity to maintain order and morality to keep civilization standing. In this way evil has become useful as a tool for our species as a way of teaching others the proper way to run a society without it collapsing in on itself. But, evil as we define it will never suddenly generate storms, spawn monsters, or affect the natural forces. However, in some settings evil is every bit as real and powerful as gravity and electromagnetism. In the science fiction fantasy of Star Wars evil exists as part of an all encompassing Force which is the energy of everything in the universe. Evil is the dark side and to dabble in its power is to invite ruin and chaos. Displaying evil in this way in your game is a fun but challenging idea that can offer a level of realism and grittiness to a particularly dark and dreary setting.

Describing evil as a force of nature is as simple as taking a normal situation, individual, or object and changing it in such a way that it feels wrong. Rain, for example, is just rain until it rains blood or demon toads. A magic ring is just more loot until it starts speaking to its wearer edging him on to commit horrid acts. A little girl is just another forgettable NPC until she becomes possessed by a horrible demon and fires projectile vomit at the PC’s. Their are volumes and volumes of text written about things such as taint, corruption, turning to the dark path, etc. that there is simply no room in this article for the author to go much farther then to tell you that slow descents into evil are every bit like slow descents into utter madness. Which anyone with a full time retail job can tell you about.

Now the real question is where does this force come from, what laws does it follow if any? In the case of Star Wars the force, even the dark side, exists in everything. It ebbs and flows, penetrates and reflects, concentrates and dilutes. In some places the dark side is more prevalent, in others it’s as if the dark side doesn’t even exist. In the Coldfire trilogy (an awesome series I highly recommend) the dark fae exists where the sun could not shine and creatures who relied on it to exist were burned and destroyed under the suns radiant touch. In the Warcraft setting arcane magic itself is a source of corruption and those who dabble too deeply into it can become addicted and fall prey to terrifying demons.

One idea I’ve come up with while writing this article is utilizing evil as a force capable of concentrating into devastating storms that crackle with black lightning and rain sulfuric acid. The inhabitants have come to terms with this natural force and entire societies are built around their prevention and damage control of these terrifying occurrences. Give control of these storms to a villain and you have an epic campaign in the making. It’s honestly no different from a villain learning how to control and move hurricanes but the nature of it and the impact it can have on the world can produce something that seems new and interesting. Creating laws and rules for how evil works can give campaign ideas just in their genesis. This also sets the groundwork for a setting where neutrality is merely having one foot in the door to darkness overwhelming. You are either on the good side or the bad side there is no room for compromise.

Thus far everything I’ve described so far is relatively easy. All it takes is some imagination and thought. Now come the mechanics. Star Wars D20, Dark Heresy, Dungeons and Dragons and other games already have such systems in place where evil acts have mechanical impacts in the game. So I suggest looking over these to get a general idea of how these mechanics can work. Generally all these mechanics fall into the category of doing evil acts (evil being defined by the game) does something to your character. Either you change alignment, earn taint points or dark side points. Some games don’t even have such morality mechanics and it is exposure to the dark energies rather then conscious action that triggers these mechanics.

Let’s go back to our world of entropic storms for a moment. Let’s say that the reason that evil can be committed to with such frequency and magnitude that storms can be produced is that evil actually grants those committing it a measure of power. Let’s say that every time someone commits a horrible act they gain a number of points. If the character does nothing with these points they do nothing and eventually fade over time and dissipate without consequence. However, if the character actually uses these points and spends them to augment his abilities then they begin to corrupt and corrode the character and over time and repeated use actually transform him into something monstrous. This in turn gives a source for the monsters in the world as well. In addition, even if the character refuses to ever spend these points and simply allows his pile to grow then that too will mark and corrode him. The impact on the societies would force them to adapt some very different methods from our own. Prisons would be more like rehabilitation clinics then dungeons and they would be far stricter in their laws for fear of criminals turning into rampaging monsters. This can bring about some very delicious in-game drama. I’ll leave it to you to decide how you want to implement mechanical evil into your game. Just keep in mind what’s already out there and don’t be afraid to use what works.

Now, no discussion of evil forces can be complete without talking about its opposite, good. Order, altruism, preservation, and renewal are all marks of this opposing force to evil. Where evil is aggressive and corrupts wantonly and heedlessly, good must be embraced to receive its blessing. Thus good must always be a choice, not a consequence. If a character does evil without thought it corrupts, if a character does good without thought it is meaningless. Good as a force can cleanse an area of taint, destroy an evil object, or even redeem a creature of darkness. Of course if you truly want a dark and wretched game where darkness prevails while light is but a flickering candle of hope you can make this force weaker then it’s dark counterpart or even non existent.

In conclusion evil as a force always has a major impact on your game. You are literally changing the laws of physics and if you have magic those laws tend to become affected as well. This in turn can change the flavor of your game to such a degree it might be barely recognizable from when you first started making it. So, use evil forces with caution, as always.