When playingDungeons & Dragons,party members can create all sorts of characters with different moralities, from Samaritans to monsters. And while the Dungeon Master will decide whether the idea fits or not, that’s pretty much the only restraint they have when it comes to being good or evil during the game.
While we’ve talked in the past abouthow players can roleplay evilcharacters without overstepping, and even how DMs can make entirecampaigns centered on a group of evil people,the biggest challenge for the DM usually occurs when there are both good and evil characters in the same party. How do you make sure things won’t get out of hand with heroes and villains together?
9Talk To The Players
All Of Them
We’ll bring up this topic again in detail, but it’s still worth mentioning in a broader sense. Communication is key in D&D, and here is no different. Unless your group is composed of close friends who are completely okay with one provoking the other, a hidden evil character who backstabs the party will generally backfire.
Instead, let everyone know that the group has good and evil characters, encourage the evil character player to be open about it, and let the good character players create characters who are also okay with this being a thing. If the players are aware of the situation, they can prepare themselves for it, preventing most of the issues you could have in the future.
8Help The Evil Character Establish Limits For Their Actions
What Is Too Much Even For Them?
When creating an evil character, it’s important to avoid those monsters who act as forces of nature and will destroy everything in their path -that’s the BBEG’s job,not the player’s. Thus, it’s important to help your player figure out what is too much for their characters to do.
These would be things such as murdering children, torturing people or worse, or taking into consideration all the boundaries players may have requested during session zero. The character is also a person, which means they’ll have things they enjoy doing, showing a lighter side, and they can still have friends - which is what the party will hopefully become throughout the campaign.
7Tell Good Characters To Avoid Boy Scout Characters
Give Them Limits, Too
Boy Scout characters - the Superman type - work surprisingly well in D&D. That said, this won’t be the best type of character if the group also has evil people in it. Sure, maybe a character that actually behaves like Superman, who doesn’t kill and may even try to redeem the evil character could work, but any good characters also need to be prepared to let evil be evil sometimes.
Good characters who are okay with getting their hands dirty, or at least looking the other way while the evil one gets their hands dirty because it’s for a good cause, will work better in a game like this. Even Batman trusts Catwoman to do her thing sometimes.
6Don’t Let Them Trapped In Their Alignments
You Don’t Have To Make Evil Choices All The Time
Just because a character is a neutral evil, that doesn’t mean they can never show pity for someone they relate to or can’t go with the diplomatic choice - sometimes that’s the most pragmatic thing, you know?
The player is more than welcome to do good deeds and pick moments they think are most beneficial or free of consequences for doing evil stuff. The good characters can also think this way: Sometimes, the big bad needs to die rather than be spared. Let your players be aware of that.
Some tips here are for players, not DMs, but as the DM you need to consider these and bring the topics up with your party before issues occur.
5Force Them Together
They Need Each Other
Naturally, your party needs a common goal. This is where you make sure the players have a goal that will take a long time to solve and that they all share it. For example, the good characters can be after the villain to save the city, while the evil ones are in it for a personal vendetta against their nemesis. Either way, it’s a common goal.
You can take things a step further and make it clear that the characters cannot get what they want without teaming up. The evil character can use their personal connections with the villain to track them, for instance, but they know they can’t beat them one-on-one. Starting their team-up with fights where one constantly saves the other helps a lot here.
4Create Morally Gray Options
Don’t Let Solutions Be Black And White All The Time
What if the villain is using an innocent NPC - one that is even a friendly character to the party - as their host, and one must die to kill the other? Your players can go non-lethal, find an alternative solution, or do the killing, but it’s safe to say that this can go many ways.
When the right and wrong things are obvious, the good and evil characters tend to diverge. However, when the scenario hits a gray area, it can create complicated scenarios where one side is more inclined to hear the other, with the evil character potentially doing something good or vice versa. If all solutions are like that, though, it can be exhausting, so you’re able to save those for more dramatic moments.
3Give Them Downtime
And Things To Bond Over
As we mentioned before, evil people have friends, too. Once the party is properly together on their adventure, it’s important to focus on their interactions and make sure the characters will become friends regardless of alignment, making their interactions smoother in the future.
As the DM, don’t be afraid to create topics if the characters are not having a good time starting a conversation. For instance, let’s say that an evil and a good character suffered the loss of a close one, like a family member. You can have an NPC sharing the same pain during a downtime conversation to bring up this topic and show that both player characters have things in common to bond over.
2Let Them Try To Influence One Another
Redemption Or Corruption Arcs Can Happen Here
Once the characters are more acquainted with one another, they can try to have deeper conversations about their morality. While that’s something that is more up to the players than you, don’t forget you can bring up the idea of changing alignments in session zero or during conversations outside the game.
While this topic can also bring a bit of drama, where one character doesn’t want to change their morality because of the other, it’s okay to have said drama between the characters, as long as the players aren’t taking it personally outside the game - the characters can get angry at each other without the same being the case for the players.
1Be Ready To Step In
It’s Okay To Give Them A Time-Out
Despite the previous tip, it’s also important to pay attention whenever there’s an in-game discussion to make sure in game events are not mixing with personal stuff from outside the game and that the players are not getting hurt over insults that their characters may have shared with one another.
Drama like this may be a rich source of narrative, as we have seen in many movies, series, and games, but it can be stressful for the people who actually have to deal with it. Thus, if you think things are getting a bit extreme, ask everyone if they’re okay, and don’t be afraid to pause the game and talk to them about it.
