What are your thoughts on making an evil character? There are many opinions on whether it is a good/bad idea, but I want to know YOUR thoughts.
First, define evil. A pragmatist who leaves the innocent to die so he can fight another day isn't necessarily evil--he's cowardly, certainly, but not evil.
I guess the first key to really understanding how to construct evil characters is realizing there's four states to the general moral compass:
Heroes,
anti-
heroes,
anti-
villains, and
villains. Then, within each, you have several different archetypes that vary wildly, from the sociopathic hero to the honourable villain.
It's a lot of information to digest, but in general, evil comes in the following broad flavours.
Evulz: Probably the worst kind of evil, these are the guys who kill, destroy, murder, and maim,
just for the hell of it. Often considered insane, and rightfully so. The reason I'd define this as the worst kind of evil is because they commit villainous acts without just cause, rhyme, or reason. In a role play, this generally gives carte blanche power to the person wielding such a character to do whatever they want, whenever they want, so long as it's evil. This is often disruptive for everyone else at best, and outright a role play killer at worst.
Sick Inside™: These are a variation on Evulz that at least put a restraining order on the madness, usually by making a character put up a normal front to everyone else. They can be friendly--sociable, even--form relationships, and even save people.
So what makes them evil? When put into situations of high stress (like, say, a fight) this character's sick and demented inner self shows its true colours and gets to work leaving a horrible maimed and tortured husk behind of what was once an adversary. They'll fight dirty to win, they have little honour even if they delude themselves otherwise, and most importantly, when they do evil shit they secretly
love it. This is the best route for the more chaotic kinds of evil if you want them to fit in a group, since they're still capable of social interaction for one reason or another--its only in battles and high stress situations that their true nature is revealed and they revel in bloodshed and violence.
Evil with a Cause: Another common variation, the man willing to do anything in order to achieve his goals. Killing civilians? It's alright if it means the enemy dies with them. Using slave labour? Acceptable consequence to construct Utopia! These characters psychologically are a little harder to play than Sick Inside, since you have to give them a reason for why they're willing to step on people to get the job done.
Most importantly when crafting an
evil character, you have to remember that they're still a human being. They have more than the desire and/or ability to mercilessly stomp on people: They have ambitions, dreams, some of which may even be admirable if not for the ways they go about trying to achieve those things. They may even grow to care about certain people, like an evil bastard who kicks puppies might still fall in love and protect their lover whilst retaining their complete callousness for the rest of mankind. In this way, you can have them form bonds and connections with the other members of the cast, either because they feel the need for social contact or because they're useful pawns in his or her little game of chess is up to you.
As a side note, evil characters have their place like everyone else. So long as you can find a reason to have the evil character want to accomplish the same plot goals as everyone else, the evil character
can function. You just need to make sure that they work in their group and commit evil acts where necessary, not just for the hell of it. "Just for the hell of it" is reserved for villains outright, and unless your story's protagonists are complete monsters fighting heroes, this villain
can and
will self-combust in the group.
In summary: When making an evil character, ask yourself two questions.
"Why does he resort to evil?" And
"If I put him in a social situation with a couple police officers and a few civilians, would he self-combust or be capable of functioning?" If you can't answer the first question, or the answer to your second question is "no", you probably want to scrap that character and start over.
So what can a villain bring?
Antithesis. If the hero's goal is to save the helpless and the universe, maybe they'll be confronted with a situation where they have to choose one or the other. The evil character swoops in and executes the civilians to force the hero forward towards the proper objective, shepherding the hero in a way as to ensure that their common goals are accomplished even if it means others suffer as a result. Morality debates are
very common with this, forcing the hero to think about their actions or the evil character to reconsider their ways.
In short: An evil character can bring a lot to the table, but they need to share a common goal, and they need to have basic social skills. The randumb wannabe Joker psychopath archetype implodes inevitable and takes out RP's with it... But a good, morally black sheep that spouts selfish dialogue and can easily cut through the hard choices that traditional heroes struggle with? These guys can provide a lot of depth to a story.
