How to Run an Evil Party Dungeons and Dragons Campaign

Create an overall storyline arc just as you would with a standard campaign, but leave more of the details out to be made up on the fly during the game. A party of evil characters tends to be more unpredictable than a good aligned party, as the players will feel like they have more freedom to tackle problems in different ways.

Give the characters different motivations for why they would want to go on a quest or defend a town from invasion. While evil characters will ignore a plea for help from a poor town elder, they would certainly have their interests piqued by a wealthy merchant asking them to complete the same task while dangling a hefty reward in front of them. Likewise, they would normally not care about the fate of a backwater village about to be overrun by a horde of kobolds, but if for some reason they were unable to leave that village their feelings would change very quickly.

Allow the players to spend more time indulging in actions that would normally be off the table in any other game session. If one of the characters wants to attempt to raise an army and overtake a kingdom, torture the thief who was caught stealing from the party, summon and bind a demon creature to do the party's bidding, or even find a loophole in a local law that allows him to steal a business from a rival, give her ample opportunities to do so.

Use the same repercussions for evil or unlawful actions that would be present in a normal campaign. There should still be consequences for the party if they openly commit crimes in a town, but as evil characters they will either be less likely to care about those consequences, or more likely to be able to ignore them through stealth, manipulation, or brute force.

Remember that a party filled with evil fighters and wizards would be just as interested in plundering an ancient crumbling ruin for its forgotten horde of treasure as a good aligned party would be. Just because the characters are unconcerned by ethics or morality doesn't mean they don't need money or desire more powerful magic items.

Feel free to have the main enemies of the party be evil themselves. Evil characters and monsters don't have to get along with each other just because they all don't care for taking the time to commit good actions. An insane necromancer could think that an evil party is equally as much of a threat to him as a good party, and chaotic creatures such as demons don't care what sort of people they are tearing limb from limb.