Hey there guys, first post and decided to make it big. Wanted to ask the forums for opinions to help improve the campaign whilst also making new, more weathered DnD players and DMs so I can have my own community to talk to.  Naturally, I hope we can be proper in how things are settled. Saying that something is just flawed, that doesn't help.  Give feedback, to help me and anyone else glossing over this thread. Lastly, I will eventually release some completed form of this campaign to allow anyone with interest to play this campaign, that way they can have the same fun I will. I will also make a Discord server should this thread turn big to allow for more organized info and discussion.

So I'm currently making my first big and original homebrew campaign. Building it with the intention of two big factors: an evil party, and a reactive, faction based world. I will give the intro to give you an idea.

The Monster Prophet's chest shattered, impure flesh and cracked bone falling down as the heroes of Gener kingdom finally slew the bringer of blight to their lands. The death of Valer led to the dispersement of his forces and army's key figures, alongside resources and territory.  Some left with shattered spirits, accepting their fate as sub being, others for practical reasons to start a new life. However, a chosen few of his closest aids chose another path. While most of their powers had sizzled out, the fire in their hearts were far from being swayed. They would see this to the end. No.  Matter.  What.

Quick summary: Party is composed of primarily evil characters who once served under a demon king guy, but his failure led to them losing power (hence their starting at level 1-3). They want to conquer still, so they are going to try and take over the lands. There will be complex elements in this, like managing armies and resources, taking over towns, political interaction with enemy kingdom and evil creatures for support, like hags and dragons.  Ultimate goal is to purge the Gener kingdom.

I will of course, offer all info I create, but this is the key starting point for now. Ask questions, and let's see how good this campaign could be!

Its rare that people create a world that is specifically designed with more evil characters in mind.  I think that will give them an excellent platform to be evil and domineering and yet still have a part of society that they are accepted in.  

Do you think there will be pogrom type events where the forces of good go out and start purging areas that have been given over to evil?  Will the forces of good still be trying to redeem their enemies or has the time for words passed and gone on to only swords will do?  Don't forget to allow bribery as an option for cities and towns to avoid being sacked, tithing to the remaining forces of evil that refuse to be stamped out as they carve a new land for themselves.  I am also interested in what inspiration you are looking towards for how places under occupation will be like.

good luck, and have fun.

Just for clarification, are you looking for players so that you may run them through this campaign, or are you relaying campaign plot/ideas so that feedback may be offered?

As the title implies, I'm looking for feedback, whether that be someone with a passing interest and wants to put in there two sense, or possibly become a keep figure in developing the campaign as a whole. This campaign isn't even near alpha stage. However, this is my first truly unique campaign I'm brewing, so I want people to point out major flaws should they occur or provide info that could elevate the fun the campaign can provide.

As for what HeroZero said, the key influence was in fact that there was a lack of campaigns dedicated for evil characters, hence why I wanted to try and create such an epic world for it.

Since the "good" kingdom would naturally despise an enemy like Valer to come, they would actively try to subjugate them, whether it be taking back towns, making outposts, influencing the unaligned factions and assassinating key targets.  Also, the party themselves will also be doing this in an effort to bolster their forces.  Here are a few examples of what the party will be able to do to support their efforts:

Gain an alliance with hags, as the "good" kingdoms hatred of hags and unholy deals pushes them into areas where mortal men can't make such deals

Find old weapon caches used by the previous big bad to equip the armies or themselves.

Causing rebellions to cause trouble within the "good" kingdom itself, distracting them from taking key measures in fighting off the party.

Hiring/acquiring high ranking people, like a magic blacksmith or a lich who could help build a castle with that one spell you have to repeat for a year.

There will be a lot of actions the party can take and many paths they can choose, whether that be becoming royalty themselves and waging war with their own army, or becoming deep vestiges of evil blessed by evil gods to try and one party army their way.  I'm also going to add elements to the good kingdom so that there is some incentive outside of being evil to combat them. As an example, the dark elves have had their ears removed by high elves to prove how high elves consider themselves superior to their brethren and express loyalty to the "good" kingdom.  You know, playing to their ethos and whatnot.

I would say before focusing on individual 'key' points such as particular alliances to be had, that you make a concerted effort to develop the setting itself.  Ask the questions of how the 'evil' guys are viewed in places, are they using incredibly brutal methods to gain territory, are the 'good' nations using just as brutal tactics (burning whole towns that didn't fight the horde) are they in some ways worse than the 'evil' guys?  

Have they been eradicating or enslaving the evil races, and if so have they been doing this for centuries?  If you are familiar with RA Salvatore books King Obould Manyarrows may be something to use as a backbone of sorts.  The Big bad evil guy that was defeated was trying to take over the world.  Was he doing it just for spite or was he doing it to give these marginalized races a chance to live in sunshine, have adequate food, and not be hunted out of wherever they lived because you know "Orcs just really ruin the neighborhood".  Create at least a loose structure of sorts for how you think the world IS and HAS BEEN in the recent past.  The mechanics of what options the players can pursue to reach their goals in the campaign should be something that comes about from the structure of the world.  

As an example you mentioned starting rebellions to give the good guys something else to deal with on the home front so they are less effective on the field of battle.  Is there already those that dislike the status quo enough that they would jump at the chance to dethrone their monarchs, or councils, or whatever their method of rule is.  If war had been going on for a while against the Evil Guy maybe conditions in the cities and towns have deteriorated.  Food shortages because many of the farms were either destroyed, or those that were tending them went off to battle and never returned.  Blights were summoned against the goodly races and they are still struggling with that.  The idea of them mutilating certain races just because of their appearance is a good start think upon those thing.  Sometimes the good guys aren't so good when war looms, and people want to see something done about it.  Real world similarity to this would obviously be a holocaust type event with the races being marked (like the ears) or something as simple as putting any half-orcs into camps such as what was done in the US to the Japanese Americans.  Not always will it be brutal but much of it should be unfair even when they felt justified with the ends.

Things to ruminate upon, 

I already considered some of those things. The big bad Valer originally saw (insert horrible event regarding treatment of lower species), so he decided to do something about, hence his title as Monster Prophet.  And the "good" kingdom has already done bad things, like the previously mentioned ear cutting. They also use slavery and many things based only on racial differences rather than money purposes.  I'm actually working currently on the history of races and their interactions, so that I know who is likely to be where and what their alignment is likely to be.  Another point I'm going to bring is how the "good" kingdom used scarecrow tactics, portraying the fighting back as treasonous, evil, and mindless to support their own cause. Hell, even the metal dragons are gonna side with the evil guys eventually because of how the "good" country discriminates. I do need to decide how long these grievances have occurred, thanks for bringing that up.  I'm going for more of a good only to themselves for the "good" kingdom, that way while the characters will have some personal stakes, they are partially probably doing it to satisfy some carnal desires. I want a a balance of being actually evil and going robin hood. If I went too evil, I'm afraid I might cause some uncomfortable situations. Like how dismemberment is fine, but maybe **** would be too much, know what I mean? No sick fantasy fulfillments.

That sounds fabulous, I like the shades of grey for the good guys.  I agree with your parting statement as well, if this is something you want this to be distributed there is no need to go into gory details for some of those thing.  At most mention certain horrific acts as dark rumors and allow those using the setting to decide just how horrific they got in that regard.  

Ok so I have some of the races decided so far. Here is the basic rundown.

Humans: Own the shit. Controls the "good" kingdom, and use their own visage in comparison to everything.

High elves: Due to their figure and magic, were accepted into the human kingdom, at the expense of developing a hatred with dark elves for disgracing them with ear removal.

Wood Elves: Not as accepted, but not the lower class either.

Dark Elves: Slaves and disgraced with lopped ears.

Dwarves: While not necessarily matching the stature of humans, their appreciation for art and weaponry make them worth keeping around.

Dragonborn: Usually kept for manual labor as serfs, or simply enslaved/banished if they are a color dragon born.

Halflings: There disinterest in settling down keeps them away from the humans.

Gnome: Kept around the high elves as servants for their tinkering capability, great for magic weapon and item creation.

Tieflings: Tails lopped and enslaved.

Genasi: Not very much around, but those who are are usually enslaved.

Firbolgs: Cleared out of forests for resources and outposts, incurred their wrath.

Goliaths: Because of their lack of appreciation for aesthetics, usually clash with humans. They've remained where they are thanks to their fortitude, but they are way too pressured to continue for much longer.

Halflings and Goliaths relatively neutral, the mixed races typically slave classes or at least second to third class citizens.  Maybe the Goliaths are a common mercenary force to hire?

I can see an outline forming, Humans the force supreme, they breed fast and have a knack for conquest the Elves as you mentioned are the magic enforcers needed to fill out the ranks with gnomes as their trusted advisors (or perhaps pets, very well treated pets...) and even weapons developers.  Sounds like the firbolgs will not be trusting of anyone contacting them, very territorial of their forests (something similar to the elves of Krynn) shoot first talk later.

Do you think the dwarves will be somewhat of a merchant/artisan class then?

Drow, Genasi, Tieflings in the slave class and typically mutillated or 'docked' in some way as a slaves brand of sorts.  For Dragonborns maybe go the extra step and the metallics are perhaps low level citizens but not slaves with the chromatics being used for the very worst jobs up to and including cannon fodder on the battlefield.  Something along the lines of being forced to march in front of the main armies to use up the enemies arrows and spells.  If you want a little more sinister-ness to the metallic and chromatic dragonborn relationships maybe the metallics are typically the taskmasters for the chromatics.  Someone has to punish them for their evil ancestry, blood always tells.

Feel free to say no, that doesn't fit.  These are all just suggestions to keep you thinking about your world YOU want.

Well, the Dwarves wouldn’t be so low since they’re craftsmanship gives them some association with beauty in the eyes of humans, and genasi are kind of difficult to consider, since they are usually from the elmental plane, and also have a human body type. I’m unsure if they’d be high class or middle, but certainly not low class, except for maybe the earth and fire. Maybe have the wind and water on upper classes

I wouldn't actually think of merchants, and artisans as a lower class.  Merchants control vast amounts of wealth many times rivaling nobility, which grants a significant amount of political power.  He who controls the trade routes, controls quite a lot.  They just wouldn't have the technicalities of birth to grant them the inherent power of nobility.

I wouldn't say merchants. They're just craftsmen, who have a decent share of the market in terms of weapons. Also, races that aren'y human tend to have more taxes just because, so while elves may receive only a minor taxation, dwarves would get a larger cut taken, only supporting themselves thanks to the amount of sales they make. At least that's my reasoning for them not being higher. If there is a better way, I'll probably do it.

Sounds like solid reasoning.

My input would be don't get your hopes up too much and perhaps have a plan B to opt out here. Evil parties tend to be fun in theory, but quite horrible in practice. Your players may play murder hobos for a few sessions and burn out, or you may find the plot elements are just too unsettling for the players to want to continue with. Either way, a whole evil campaign is ambitious, and might leave you feeling disappointed if the players wish to abandon it.

Here's what I'd do; have a point in the campaign after the first few sessions where the party are going to really turn the tide and it's clear there's a real threat to Kingdom now. At that point check with your players how they're feeling about playing the villains, you should have a good idea at this point just by observing how they play. If they're showing fatigue from constantly having to think of and do dastardly actions then you switch it. Start them off with a new party of neutral/good characters who are opposed to what the previous party have accomplished. This will be great as they can really link these characters backstories into what has already gone down. The original PC's become NPC's the party have to now fight against.

It's only a suggestion and one which might not be needed. But from what I've read and heard evil parties are not commonly played for good reason. Still, from what I can see you've done as much as you can to make it as enjoyable an experience as can be for your players. Have fun.

So, Jimbo not sure if you read everything in depth but he is looking to make a complete campaign setting, not for instance a one shot.  Plenty of times people want to be the "Bad" guys and from the sounds of it with the ideas he(or she) has already floated there would still be plenty of room to be the heroes even if you have to murder a city of humans, would normal adventurers feel bad about clearing out a warren of goblins?  Probably not, so why should the bad guys feel bad about destroying their oppressors.

One of the reasons evil parties aren't played frequently is because the world is made for good guys, his idea is to make a world for the bad guys.

Too be honest, I am one of those guys who doesn't actually use alignments. Sure this is an "evil" campaign, but I feel like it limits character role-play rather than enhance so I don't use it. I moreso developed it so that people can feel like they do as they please, like ransacking a town or starting wars on their own terms.

OK hit a roadblock. Not sure how big to make it. In terms of actual space and actual amount of towns.

Aim for 4-5 major cities, one of them may be just ruins or in the process of rebuilding after the last war.  One coastal, one with at least river access.  Probably a similar number of smaller towns.  A few hamlets,outposts, or watchtower type locations with the option of a number of abandoned/destroyed villages.   Start there and decide if you feel like you could add more.  If you want rough realistic distances... that is a little more than I think about.

This is awesome idea. 

I would make a lot of maps to go with this.