The Bad, The Worse, and the Vile: The Art of Being Evil
Still, I pity you and it is the season of gift giving. So I will impart the gift of wisdom, or rather transfer that wisdom from the late great author, Charles Dickens, more specifically his great work, A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol is a story of redemption, where one Ebenezer Scrooge realizes that his cheapskate lifestyle and cold attitude toward the rest of humanity will ultimately lead to the harm and detriment of those closest to him and leave a legacy of ruin and poverty in his wake where he'll be seen as nothing more then a bitter old man whose measure in life was far less valuable then his substantial bank account. Dickens is something of a timeless writer whose works can transcend the time periods and cultures they are written for. Scrooge himself is not really a villain, what he does isn't out of a sense of malevolence, merely out of disdain. What he lacks is generosity, kindness, and compassion for his fellow human being. In the end he realizes what he truly is, finds that spark of himself that still feels compassion and ignites it to become a full blown philanthropist. It's a good model and it's basic mechanics have seeped into dozens of redemption stories in every medium imaginable
The redemption story is a unique method of dealing with evil. In your typical good vs. evil story the antagonist is destroyed or defeated in some way that good is returned to the world. Everything is made right and flowers bloom over the grave of the villain while the heroes go home and bang their new hot wives. In a redemption story the villain realizes the weight and breadth of his crimes and casts off the shackles of darkness and corruption in favor of repentance. In a way this proves to be the better story as everyone gets a good ending, the villain doesn't necessarily survive the tale but always suffers at least a more dignified and peaceful death.
Running a redemption game is not without some measure of difficulty. It requires a certain mindset to be established in the players. Most players want to vanquish the villain so generally a GM has to make redemption the best available path to plot development. Perhaps vanquishing the villain isn't enough to set the world straight, perhaps someone close to the villains former self pleads the characters to bring them back from the brink of darkness.
In any case there must be two things present for a redemption story to take place. First, there must be some form of spark, some point of light within the antagonists dark soul that can be fanned into a full blown flame of righteousness This can manifest in the form of a heroic or innocent past. It can also come from a code of honor or personality quirk that seems out of character for someone known for ruthlessness and a cold heart of iron. In Mr. Scrooges case his past reveals that at one point he was merely an ambitious youth who knew love and compassion at one point but allowed his obsession with success to overcome him turning him into the bitter cheap old man we know today.
Second, there must be a reason he is evil to begin with. If the character in question is evil just for the sake of being evil then how can there be any redemption? Ultimately it takes a certain circumstance to occur for a person to not naturally be predisposed to vileness to fall to it. In the case of Mr. Scrooge his fall began when he made the poorly thought out decision to select business over love. What's important is that we can pinpoint the exact moment where a merely troubled good guy fell to become a deadly bad guy. This doesn't always mean that the character has made a poor decision, sometimes it can mean a series of unfortunate events, a magical hex, or some fateful event that crushed everything good about the character in question leaving nothing but a hollow shell of darkness. Whatever the case that reason serves as a fulcrum point, a balance that the character sits upon that can be turned toward good or evil.
With these twin foundations we can begin the redemption story in earnest. Redemption is a step by step process where an evil character is broken down to the point where they find themselves questioning the very foundation of their dark beliefs. The answering of this question is the climax of the story and ultimately determines the direction of the ending.
Step 1: Acknowledgment
The simplest step in any redemption story, that character must be acknowledged as evil. The beginning of A Christmas Carol introduced us to Ebenezer Scrooge and showed off his heartless and uncaring nature and the extremes of his work ethic. We see scrooge as greedy, grumpy, and sometimes outright hateful man who sees happiness as a waste, Christmas a pointless holiday, and cheer as some horrible infectious disease. Warmth and comfort are luxuries he can ill afford and his employees exist only to his whim and benefit. This step is the easiest to run, Star Wars: A New Hope took care of this step in the first five minutes of the movie. It doesn't take much more then the black masked figure of Vader striding over the corpses of fallen friend and foe through a cloud of acrid smoke to tell us exactly what he's about.
Step 2: Understanding
The second step in the process is to break down the reasons why the villain is evil to begin with, where it is revealed at what point the character went from normal to master of darkness. In gaming terms this is also a very simple process for a game master. There are any number of artful and interesting ways to accomplish this from a simple verbal history lesson to the spiritual journey undertaken by Mr. Scrooge to witness his own youth. The game master would take this point to try and convince the characters that the better path to take in the story is that of redemption, by showing the villain can be a benefit to those around him rather then an agent of evil they give the character the idea that somehow they can turn him around to an icon of good.
Step 3: Enlightenment
The most difficult step in any medium, the character must realize at once that they are wrong as well as understand that a better path lies before them is they so choose, In Mr. Scrooges case it was the ghost of Christmas present that showed him how others felt about him while simultaneously revealing to scrooge the joys of family and friendship that he had neglected and how one does not need to be rich and successful to know happiness. In the character Tiny Tim he sees a bit of himself as the small boy who struggles through hardship and continues having a positive attitude despite his situation. This worked for the Charles Dickens tale but rarely will it be the best way for a game master to do this. Ultimately this part will depend entirely upon the player character to decide and the GM to determine whether or not it will have the desired effect. This is where the real meat of the game takes place and will require a lot of work to go through. The benefit to this work is a realistic and satisfying climax and ending.
Step 4: Repentance
As Luke Skywalker writhed in agony on the throne room floor while the emperor happily shot him full of magic finger juice he pleaded for his father's aid. As this occurred you could feel the roiling of Darth Vader's emotional seas as he remembered his own agony of the past and how he had failed someone he once held dear before. We know how the rest of the story went. In Mr. Scrooges case when it was revealed that a failure to become a better person would leave nothing but a hollow legacy of poverty and suffering when he died he fell to his knees and begged for another chance. This is the climax of the story, the point where the evil character must decide to continue a tortured existence or pave a new path of righteousness. It's important to note that the character doesn't always survive this process but always dies peacefully and with a smile on their face. At this point the story can vary wildly as a villain can do all sorts of things in the face of redemption. There's plenty to be inspired by and plenty of routes to take once a villain has completely thrown off the shackled of evil.
In the end a redemption story isn't for everyone. It's tendency to focus on a singular character tends to preclude the notion of a group of adventurers. One solution to this is have the characters themselves the targets of redemption. Another way is to make all the characters personally connected to the villain in some way where they feel it's there life's mission to bring their loved one back from the brink. Another interesting option is to have the characters as reformed villains themselves who were once brothers in evil with the villain they're trying to redeem. Regardless what options you use and what methods you employ try to keep in mind the desires of the players. Sometimes it's easier and more satisfying to vanquish evil and be done with it. It's no sweat off your back, it just means you can cut the good stuff and get right into being the vile, hateful, ruthless fiend with no regrets and no mercy. Personally I find that option more satisfying. Now if you;ll excuse me the ghost of a dead comrade has come to visit and warn me of the horrible eternity awaiting me after death. I have in mind a way to show him what true horror is.
