What makes a good DM?

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A good DM? One who is open-minded enough to let us play evil... through and through.

 

As long as the players understand the difference between alignments and idiocy

I encourage the use of the 'Stupid' Axis.

Examples include Lawful Stupid, Stupid Evil and on extreme terms Stupid Stupid. Unlike the other axis there is no duality. An intelligent play of alignment simply has alignment based along the two dimensional axis of traditional alignment allocation.

 

I've actually found a propper Evil campaign would be a pain in the ass to execute properly. It's one thing to lure a party into the evil machinations of my master villains. It's another thing for you to accommodate someone else's evil machinations...

One Idea I've wanted to try was a "villain builder" campaign. You get a bunch of evil characters together and try some small scale nefarious schemes and defend yourselves against the local Vigilantes and City Watch...

 

As long as I get to play a Drow Assassin, dabble in poisons, kill innocent people and get paid for it, I'm happy.

I remember one game when everyone played evil... except that one ass**** who HAD to play a Chaotic Good ranger. Care to take a guess what happened to him? That's right, had his throat sliced by a Poisoned Drow dagger the first time we rested.

 

To be fair, an evil campaign isn't generally all that different to a good one. There are still dungeon crawls, still fighting other evils (elimination of rivals or simply things that affect them in a negative way as well as any 'good' character), still breaking into tombs and stealing whatever isn't nailed down, which plenty of good parties will endorse Only real difference I've tended to notice is that evil is more pro-active than reactive

 

I'd say it depends on how you understand alignments, but that is one heck of a can of worms - suffices to say that many players and DMs focus on what you do (and there is still the matter who you do it to), why a nearly equal amount focus on why you do it. Either way, I agree that an evil campaign may have similar events - what matters is the characters' response and motivation, and even then there are several reactions that are primal enough to be common to most good and evil characters - i.e. "you mess with me, I mess with you."

 

Again, it's a question of competing evils or even greater evils. But what of their own nefarious agendas? That's where I don't know that I could deliver the goods...

 

having the players as the villian is quite fun. Whether they know it or not

If you want ideas on playing darker campaigns or ideas on how to fit in a players agendas into goings on, read up on a couple of other rulesets (I'm trying to avoid saying about Old World of Darkness, but quite frankly playing evil campaigns in D&D after reading them is a lot easier )

 

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I strongly suggest that you do not succumb to temptation and create your own party member. I've had a DM that did this, as well as favor another member of our party, and it put quite a damper on the experience (can you say, "Powergame?").

 

PAK

Preparedness, Adaptability, Knowledge

Come properly Prepared. That also includes being Prepared to Adapt because players are like that. Also, come Prepared with the Knowledge of the rules and if possible; how some of the players think.

Also, be prepared to err on the side of caution. Fun is Alpha and Omega of RPGs but don't let them dictate the game; you're the storyteller after all.

For two examples on how to not do it, read Darth & Droids for a DM giving too much leeway to his players and read DM of the Rings for a DM giving too little.

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14