So you decided to play an amoral diabolic fiend in a game where the protagonists primarily consist of the virtuous and those whose morals are ambiguous. Something within you desired you to play a character concept that for all intents and purposes labels you as the villain of the campaign. With this comes a problem; the other character are unlikely to get along with you. In fact they may even resort to violence to prevent the character from doing the very things you designed him to do. This of course, murders much of the point of being evil. This article, the second part of a two part series, provides helpful hints you can use to maintain your lordship of darkness while keeping your fellows who walk the foolish path of light off your back.

The first part of this article dealt with the good guys. It detailed ways for them to be able to handle having an evil character among them. It’s encouraged to read that article first for many of the same suggestions can be reversed to serve the forces of darkness, thus, it helps you. The article looks to do the same for evil characters though from a darker perspective and with as little overlap as possible.

Be Subtle.

An earlier article detailed ways in which a villain can be subtle but still continue to “look” evil. In this case it’s doubly important as it not only makes you more tolerable to the group but to the people that will associate you with it. Try not to look too much out of place. A hulking man covered in rusted black iron that menaces with jagged spines is going to look awfully strange standing in the middle of relatively normal looking adventurers. Even if your character is not as evil as he looks first impressions are always key when dealing with people. Now if your character absolutely must look like some ineffable horror consider some form of disguise or concealment for when your group first meets you or your forced to interact with the filthy masses.

Be Really Subtle.

Going beyond simple appearances you need to keep much of your diabolical deeds behind closed doors. Off camera if you will. Its one thing to discuss the torture of a prisoner it’s a whole other league if you do it in full view of everyone. Profane rituals involving child sacrifice not withstanding your more heinous acts of villainy simply don’t belong in the public eye. Simply put, it’s better your group doesn’t know all the details of the prisoners “interrogation” or the source of dark knowledge wherein you discovered an unholy ritual that allows communion with the damned. So do your work off camera. Pass notes to the GM, specify there where, when and how’s of your abominable work. Don’t tell anyone out of game what you’re doing and if anyone asks in-game, be honest. This brings us to our next point.

Tell them everything except what they don’t want to hear.

This part is easy. If someone asks about the prisoner’s interrogation, give them the relevant information regarding to the task at hand then tell them not to worry about the prisoner anymore. You don’t have to tell them of the long hours of torture and pain long after he had given everything over to you. You don’t have to tell them about how in the end you gave him your own knife so that he might take his own life rather then face an eternity of misery and pain. Of course, if they keep on pressing, tell them, bit by bit, piece by piece. Let the horror unfold slowly like a terrible blossom of unholy beauty. In the end you did exactly what was expected of you and were only trying to spare your allies the burden of your actions.

Understand Your Allies.

Every good villain understands the strengths and weaknesses of his allies. In an environment rife with betrayal, every person is another tool to and use it’s only natural to know the full capabilities and limitations of those around you to aid in any future betrayals or endeavors. Certainly any intelligent villain will make note of what his allies can and cannot do in order to better perform his own nefarious deeds or at least have a better understanding of the party’s weaknesses. This does two things: one it makes you invaluable as an analyst and strategist for the group. If you’re the one coming up with the plans that allows the group to succeed they will find it difficult to replace you, two it gives you a slight advantage should the time comes where you are forced to defend yourself from the group.

Let them understand you ... mostly.

The more your allies know about you, the less they’ll see you as a soulless, heartless fiend and more as a part of the group. Such is the folly of good. If they understand that you are a vampire they understand both what you need to sustain yourself and how to destroy you. You’re still very much capable of pushing them to the brink of violence and if you wake up one night with a stake in your chest that hardly help you. So, let them stick to whatever myths and preconceptions they created about you. There’s no need for them to know that you wear the skins of your victims as a shield against the terrible sun. They don’t require the secret location of your heart that you removed from your chest in a profane ritual to further defend yourself from that cliché staking trick.

Become Irreplaceable.

Every character tries to be a unique little snowflake. Not every character is a useful little snowflake. In your case it’s not enough to simply be useful, everyone is useful even if it’s just carrying the group’s mound of crap. You have to be irreplaceable. You have to provide a service to the group that is so important it is impossible to imagine the group succeeding without you. This doesn’t mean skills or mechanics on your sheet. If it can be replicated by simply killing you off and rerolling another character with similar numbers then that is useless to you. What you need is intimate knowledge of the enemy, access to resources that are otherwise difficult to obtain, connections in places that the other PC’s can’t get into, introductions into secret societies, black religions, royal clubs, tribal territories, and otherwise inaccessible areas. The finest moment in your villainous career should come when one of your ventures fails and the party’s paladin has to come and save you because otherwise the great evil he fights will triumph.

Know your foe, understand his motive, and hate it.

If you can’t find a reason to loathe and despise the campaigns villains more then your so called “allies” then your character has no business with the group and the concept for your character should be abandoned for one more cohesive. There are plenty of reasons to hate a group’s main antagonist. Territorialism, risk management, bitter rivalry, jealousy, a covetous nature, or simply the idea of gleefully slaughtering hundreds of people while the good guys turn a blind eye. Once you know why you hate a foe you can work more diligently to figure out how to destroy them, how to unravel veil upon veil of lies and expose their black heart to pierce with your own poisoned dagger. This villain is the reason you’ve been forced to team with a group of do gooders, that’s a reason to hate them all the more.

In the end, don’t.

You might have noticed how this article is skewed heavily towards the charismatic and intelligent villain concepts. Well, the reason for that is other kinds of villains are nigh impossible to work cohesively in a group with a foundation in good. They’re easier to get along with, smart enough to know what they do isn’t accepted in normal society, and can provide a great deal of aid to a group that lacks knowledge of the dark parts of a mortals soul. That being said; other concepts can work. With GM assistance and talking with other players other kinds of villains are certainly possible and this article will prove useful to all of them.

In the end however trying to drag a dark character into a morally righteous group will end badly more often then not. So, unless you absolutely must play the character concept you have in mind, don’t do it. If you do please be sure to talk with the other players and especially the GM. Ninety percent of any folly regarding a character concept can be avoided with simple dialogue between players and game masters. In the meantime, happy legitimized torture!