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MY EVIL CAMPAIGN
Evil Leadership
In our long-standing D&D campaign, 3 different characters have taken the Leadership feat over the years. Each of them was good-aligned and had homes of their own; one of them built a church (and then promptly fell from grace, at which point his followers abandoned ship). Some of their followers were content to remain followers and help their leaders out. Several of their followers eventually moved on to seek their own fortunes and stopped being followers (but did not cease to be allies). We have had great enjoyment using the Leadership feat, complete with personable cohorts and followers with their own backstories. It was such a success that two players in our new evil campaign decided to take it again.
Our evil campaign was so very different that I realized I would have to look over Leadership again. I discovered that some of the basic modifiers didn't seem appropriate for evil leaders (or evil followers, for that matter). I went to AEG's Evil handbook, since I vaguely recalled it had something like leadership, but it wasn't what I had in mind. I turned to the web next and found this paper that had some spiffy changes. I integrated them to come up with the following:
| General Modifiers |
|
| Leader's Reputation |
Modifier |
| Great prestige, fearsomeness |
+2 |
For an evil character, a reputation for being respected is only one way to appeal to others. A reputation for strength and aggressiveness can be seen as a great thing. Some people want to stand behind the biggest, baddest guy in the crowd, and that's what Leadership is all about. |
| Makes regular efforts to train & equip followers |
+1 |
This is not about leaders giving away freebies, necessarily. This bonus is about the attractiveness of leaders who invest time into shaping a well-outfitted and effective force. They might require favors or expect a lot of work out of followers in return, however. |
| Aloofness or arbitrariness |
-1 |
Followers might expect a certain amount of aloofness from a particular leader, depending on their reputation. But most people will not stick around for long if a leader is wildly arbitrary in dealing out rewards and punishments. |
| Misplaced mercy |
-2 |
A reputation for weakness can be damaging to an evil leader; the more of a "tough" image the leader has, the more their followers might be disappointed when they go easy on a thorn in their side. |
Further, I had to rule about whether or not slaves could be considered followers. On the one hand, the leaders had one or two very special slaves who genuinely looked up to them. On the other hand, none of their slaves were free to choose their path, in any way, shape, or form; they had to do what the player characters said. Thus, I ruled that slaves could not count as followers, but family members could. Since our party was quite involved in family matters, that came in handy.
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