How to Roleplay an Evil Character
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Reposted from OES documentation, written by Morthond, Atlantic Shard
How to Roleplay an Evil Character
I have been sitting here for minutes, trying to come up with a title for this essay. When I was asked to write an essay on how to roleplay an evil character, I didn't panic at first. It would be only a matter of finding words to detail what I have been doing with Morthond for the last year. And rats, I was wrong.
Morthond is not evil. In fact, his grumpy personality is even humorous at times. He's not gruesome, he takes baths quite often, and doesn't tolerate the smell of a stinking body. Maybe this is the best explanation to why he's always been considered evil by general opinion. He doesn't resemble a wicked prophet clamoring about the apocalypse and threatening to take poor innocent souls out of their misery. These qualities have allowed him a chance to interact with elements that would have ignored a more stereotypical character.
One way to develop a character and be treated as evil is to choose ideals and thoughts that are contradictory to society's sensibility. This is political evil, which doesn't need to be willing to conquer the world, but could be marching towards another objective, and stepping on everyone to reach it.
There is a long list of qualities you can choose for your character; if you give it the right focus, you'll grow hated by society in short time, but still be an interesting face to interact with. You can be selfish, manipulative, grumpy, and even humorous. Or you can be all of them, why not?
The trick is to do everything in moderation. There are limits to all qualities and disadvantages of a character. Don't be too overly selfish, or you'll be alone forever and have no chance to interact with others. Make your character believable, give him a motivation. You don't need to voice the same opinions over and over to build a personality.
If you are an undead, or someone willing to conquer the world, be careful with templates. They terrorize every community. If you approach a crowd with the same babbling every night, as I have seen happen, you're only buying a ticket to everyone's ignore list. Take your time to decide your motivations and to be reasonable. Have in mind that, being evil or not, it must be fun to you and to everyone else to roleplay.
You don't need to be disgusting to be evil. You don't need to focus on disgusting acts to reinforce your alignment. Spitting, puking, urinating (yes, I have seen that...) and so on, while they do make bystanders sick, are only details. Do not base your development on them. Use them as tools to your development, but the key is the same for a paladin, thief, mage, or any good or evil aligned character: careful development, patience, and a lot of effort.
Last of all, and very important: you do not need to kill or to harass to be evil. Always consider your character's motivations. Would he kill? Why would he kill an innocent? Why would he spare that idiotic little spammer? Always ask yourself these questions before killing someone for no reason. Be careful to not use roleplaying as a justification to your killing spree. No one commits carnages without a reason, unless they are sick, and roleplaying a sick person is far more difficult than roleplaying a healthy one. Rampant killing will not make anyone notice you as an evil character. Instead, you'll be another jerk PK. Consider studying your character's motivations before going on any rampant killing, as this will only harm your reputation, which turns out to be a great annoyance when trying to roleplay.
If you're going to do it, do it well. Do not try and give up... as an old friend of mine once said, Try not! Do or do not! There is no try.
Evil Etiquette, by Dharzhal T'Ar, Atlantic Shard
Roleplaying evil characters, individually and as groups, is a must for a game such as UO. To roleplay evil, one must know how to roleplay good, perhaps even first and foremost, for evil is the warped reflection of good. Knowing what is the decent thing to do permits a more varied and logical sense of how to project its perverted form best. In short, if you know how to be truly noble, courteous, and honest, then you will know how to be truly vile, pompous, and treacherous. Be sure to work on both sides if you really want to master either.
I work to master the art of deception... to tell enough of the truth to convince the listener that I may not be lying this time. As a Drow prince, I like to radiate a twisted nobility. When provoked, learn to emote a *wicked smile* or to turn the words of an opponent back on them, making them look hypocritical or foolish. This means, of course, that you have to think... to reject clichés and top-of-the-head, overused, and standard responses. For example: a "good" character calls you a liar and threatens to kill you. Your response might be (especially if outgunned) something like, "I am sure thy peers are duly impressed by thy courage and zeal, even if I am not." Being perfectly calm while making someone else terrifically upset, to me, is the sign of the perfect evil antagonist of this sort. Work at it, and you will see how fun it can be.