How do you make a non-edgy evil character...

Don't make them evil, just make their objectives at odds with the player characters.

All you need to avoid being edgy is for everything bad you do to have a logical reason.

>Need information?
Torture works.
>Need money?
Robbery works.
>Need favors?
Blackmail works.

Now, the important thing to remember is that evil means you're WILLING to do whatever the hell you want to.They don't mind if you can do (x) legally (unless you want to play them as a sadist, in which case you have to COMMIT to the theme), but an evil character won't bat an eye at "silencing" a witness or "persuading" an informant.

Note: If you're playing a sadist, it's good form to give your party a fair chance to manage your tendencies. If they fail to do so, then...well, it'll probably leave them with a story to tell.

Make him not give a fuck about morals and ethics. He doesn't actively fuck the others, it's just that whatever happens to others is never gonna stop him. If he's intelligent he will disguise this, if not he would be kinda a cunt but still not edgy.

Make a low level gang enforcer type. Have him break peoples fingers for money or sell teeth to a shady dentist (preferably from folks he had to torture by pulling their teeth out with calipers).

Remember that evil doesn't mean moustache twirling villain who goes out of his way to kick babies in the neck.

Also remember that evil people generally aren't universally hateful. They most likely have friends, families, loved ones. People, places, things, ideas they care about, and affection they're not feigning. Clearly you need to make the party a part of one of those groups, or at the very least make playing nice integral to the health and happiness of one.

This, and add the caveat that reasonable methods also exist. Torture works, but doesn't have to be the first choice. Robbery works, but if there is a legal method that's just as easy, then why risk legal trouble?

It's about not having the moral line in the sand others do. You don't have to do evil things if the regular way is just as easy. But you will cross that line if it's more convenient to do so

Vastly depends on the ideas of what you consider edgy.

Like Alan moore style? I've heard college students call professors edgy for talking about Epistemology. So that words got a lot of meanings.

If you want party compatibility I would think someone highly honor based towards his friends but loathes his enemies could work. Could also go with a riddick type of guy who is bound by necessity to be in the party.

Or just a guy who is really ruthless like a fortune 500 CEO but isn't an imbecile so he helps the party about because they are useful and good friends for later networking.

Why am I reminded of the zodiac killer now?

This is relevant to my interests. I'm starting an all evil party soon, and wounder how this will work out. How does one effectively watches his back against his evil associates? What precautions are in order?

The Irish are not truly evil, they just have a tendency of making all of their decisions while intoxicated.

He did

Ensure goals are not contradictory even short term, anyone identifying as chaotic anything is used as meat shield, always have someone everyone hates in sight.

He said evil, not chaotic drunk

"Edgy" for me always means 90's XXXXTREME!!!!! shit. In case of an evil character that means something like a serial rapist, who after raping and disfiguring 5 women a day climbs a hill, sheds one manly tear and says, though there' no one near him, "I wasn't always like this... This shit world made me like this........"

>Unnecessary evil
???
Please explain how your usual "Using the staff of doom, I will bring the apocalypse upon this world !" type villain is edgy. That's not edgyness, just standard straight villain stuff

So dangle a target in front of my "compadres" so they can occupy themselves with it instead of stabbing eachother.
But what about "mundane"precautions like against behind the scene scheming, sneaking on me in my sleep etc. ?

You could be a mercenary
You can be a loving father and still serve in the armies of darkness. You don´t take pride in your profession but a job is a job.

If you wan´t an Evil™ character there is always the classical the enemy of my enemy type of situation.

Exactly, if it can be done without causing trouble that is great. If you don´t have to kill someone that means less problems down the road.

I once played pic-related. He was a pirate who just wanted money, bitches, and power. Being an adventurer seemed like a way to get that. He was CE, but I tried to avoid full-edge and faggotry by giving him a very calculating mind. Specifically he calculated that if he ever betrayed the Party they'd pulp him, so he was weirdly loyal to the group, even when they weren't really loyal to him.

The party kind of hated me, but they never tried to kill or fire me because I was always very logically evil, and very good at what I did for them. I only killed prisoners when it was inevitable they'd try to fuck us. I never stole from the party, and was actually pretty good at sniffing out loot. And finally, I was the one who got us noble titles and cash money in the end.

tldr: Don't be a tool and it'll work out. I managed to survive an entire campaign as a CE Thief with a Paladin amongst my party members.

>against behind the scene scheming
That's the point of the common foe, most conspiration will focus on him

>sneaking on me in my sleep
Be useful

My Shadowrun character always had fun using explosive collars/vests. Every 12 hours someone needs to either enter a code that disarms the collar/vest or extends the timer. The explosive guy himself wears a vest two. If his life signs stop, or no code is entered after 12 hours = KABOOM. Difference against the regular ones is that his explosive charge can easily level a city block. So no sneaky stabby at night.

Depends on the party to be honest. A neutral evil party with like a single Caligula plays a lot different then all lawful.

Honestly the best thing to do is talk with the guys playing to figure out the basic idea of how the party works. Any advice we give could easily be off the mark.

If you want you could call it "irrational" evil or evil for the sake of evil.

Killing a goon who has failed you ~ alright
Killing a goon just because you feel like it ~bad

Killing a witness ? Well that makes sense
Killing some random civilian ?
For what purpose ?

Play a character like mine. Kinda evil since he goes off a... I guess its a non-aggression principle? Probably not the right term at all.
Like if somebody steals from you, you cut of their hand. If they challenge you to a duel you kill them. No half measures to ensure they won't do it again to yourself or anyone else.

Chaotic evil really isn't as hard to get along with as Veeky Forums tries to make it sound.

It's easy to play as just someone who is emotionally unstable or very fucked up classic Caligula style but doesn't run around trying to think of ways to murder his friends or other crap people tend to do.

And never steal from the party. Its cringey and annoying as hell

You'd think so, but more than a few times I've seen it go bad.

I just tried to run him as a competent mercenary who...maybe liked torture a little too much, and was willing to fuck under a lot of people if he could get away with it. Which is exactly what happened with him anyway.

This kind of depends on the villain you want to play though. I could easily see a king who gets pissed off one day and orders the first low class guy he sees executed.

It is also possible to go for someone who while most feels it's unnecessary he himself thinks it's perfectly logical. Like Anton Chigurh or the likes.

There is a ton of wiggle room here.

I think that you can play an evil character by just not being ridiculously good oriented.

Eg : you're a normal guy who doesnt go out of his way to fuck people over but doesnt help much when hes not profiting from it.

You are vain and petty and a huge dickhead to people you feel deserve it but you still have friends you like/who like you because you're not a bell-end to everyone all the time.

What keeps you from sliding into edgy is relatable traits that others can find redeeming/endeering so that you are atleast an interesting, if some what evil, character.

Edge comes in when you are a brooding cocksleeve all the time, murder people for lulz and just generally be a cartoon villain

Make him a selfish cunt but don't make him needlessly cruel.

Considering how narrow the alignment system can be, just making someone that's extremely driven could fit the bill.

They know what they have or want to do and they make a calculated judgement on whether the end justifies the means.

They don't have to be hyperviolent retards with no sense of morality, property rights, etc, they just have to be willing to do what other people would balk at to reach their goals.

Religious extremists are another option, no bullshit. Played to a T it can be damned fun and interesting without getting painfully stupid or dare I say edgy.

Example, had a forgotten realms campaign using Pathfinder a ways back and a buddy and I decided to collaborate a bit with our characters. I rolled up an Inquisitor devoted to a slightly altered Auril and he played a warrior dedicated to some one sentence barely mentioned earth god and ran hard with it, in his case working in a lot of odd rituals and acts of devotion that were unsettling or interesting and my Inquisitor utilizing him as a means to an end along with the party due to tracking down a cult of sun/summer worshippers that had profaned a temple.

Wasn't over the top, didn't conflict with the flow of the campaign or the party's goals and it was pretty memorable.

Just make a Priestess of Lolth or similar character from an evil society. Evil things like slavery & torture are normal for them. They can be happy, friendly people raised in nuclear families. There doesn't have to be any edge, just missing morals. Evil characters are allowed (perhaps expected) to be nice to their friends. If they have a friendly personality, there's no reason they can't befriend the rest of the party (assuming nothing like grumpy paladins are around). The character could view the world as having 2 kinds of people: friends & disposable garbage. You could even have dialogs like, "Can I torture the prisoner?"
"No, user... They already told us what we needed to know. Why would you even-"
"Because it's fun!"

Basically, "edginess" mostly manifests in personality & tragic backstories. If you steer clear of those, you should be fine with evil." And as long as you make friends the exception to your evil ways, you'll get along fine with the party.

>Killing some random civilian ?
>For what purpose ?
Control through fear.

In that case, you do not do it in random. You carefully choose your targets for maximum effect and removing potential threats.

It only has to look random.

Gaffgarion from Final Fantasy Tactics comes to mind. A mercenary that was all about the dosh and anyone who got in the way was simply dealt with. Practicality incarnate.

I played a LE assassin like this. His main quirk was that he has a personal code to never lie. He was a simple man that strove to be the best by any means, and he was. However, he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. If getting information meant torturing someone with a poisoned blade, he had no qualms about it, but that doesn't mean he went around flaunting about how much he loved making people scream. Quite the opposite, actually. He was a professional.

I KNEW IT, ASS HATERS ARE EVIL!