the PC is chaotic evil, and has been made to be completely murderous and villainous, so i dont know how to have NPCs interact with them, and how to get the PC involved with the "good guy" quests. for more context: the party consists of the CE in question, a CN, CG, and LN. lets say the CE were to get in trouble, caught stealing and killing. based solely on the characters alignment, backstory, and personality, i would give the CE a 50% chance to be helped by the rest of the party.

(also, the other PCs dont know who is murdering people)

MY PROBLEM HAS BEEN SOLVED! THANKS

i dont know how to have NPCs interact with them

Actions have consequences. If the PC murders shopkeepers, all of the shops close whenever the PC enters town. If the PC attack merchant caravans, now all future caravans are heavily guarded. Eventually, that PC will have to face law enforcement. Suddenly there's a bounty on the PC's head, which means bounty hunters are looking for the PC. The town also hires adventurers to hunt down the PC. That random guy the PC murdered the other day? That was the nephew of a powerful noble. Now there's a large group of mercenaries looking to kill the PC. How about a paladin of vengeance? Wait, did the PC just try to kill that seemingly defenseless NPC? Well, that's an ancient silver dragon in disguise. Let's hope the player has learned their lesson and that their next character won't be a murderhobo.

how to get the PC involved with the "good guy" quests

They don't. Unless it would be unreasonable for an NPC to know about the PC's villainy, no NPC would want to hire a murderous psychopath to go save some damsel in distress. Eventually, NPCs would hear about that crazy PC, and word will spread of their villainy to all nearby towns.

thanks for the advice. ill try stuff like that

First off how do the other PC's know he is a bad guy when they first meet him?

You know what people say when they find out the neighbor is a murderous villain.

'He was always such a quiet boy." "He helped us out all the time. He seemed so nice."

As for getting the player involved with a 'good' based adventure. How does he know what its about? And why would he care? Its all about what he can get out of the adventure and I bet he thinks he can get more out of working with a group of good aligned players than with having to watch his own back in a group of evil aligned characters.

To me being chaotic just means you do not like authority telling you what to do. It does not mean you can not work with them to get what you want to get the job done. You just will not go along very long. Being chaotic means you are ultimately the most important thing in your world. You have no long term goals.

Being evil just means you tend to the selfish side of everything. You will do whatever it takes to better yourself. Even if it means letting a comrade die when you could have saved him. You have very little impulse control. You should you care about them, they do not really care about you.

If the player is willing to work with you, all of those previous examples consequences are also great starting off points to creating a redemption arc for the chaotic evil PC.  You can sit down with them, and maybe draw up a story line that'll take that character from being Chaotic evil to Chaotic good over time.

If the player isn't willing to work with you, and just wants to be a chaotic prat that makes the game hard for everyone else to enjoy...well...not all players should be playing D&D.

If his character doesn't fit to the adventure or the party, the obvious answer to me is that he have to make another one. For example: All PCs are "Good" and will be involved in heroic quests and a smart pants goes and make a Hitler-like character, well, it just doesn't fit to the game, this character in this case should be a NPC

Don’t let the player run a CE character. It will not end well. You can have some discomfort now and tell them they need a new character. Or you can suffer through some irritating sessions of them being annoying before you have that same  discomfort and tell them to stop. 

Be realistic in dealing with it. Unless you are deliberately playing an evil themed campaign.

As the DM, it's a good idea to do ask yourself a couple of questions:

• Is the impact this character is having on the game is detrimental to others at the table?
• Are the rest of the group enjoying it? Or no?
• If everyone else is enjoying it, are you enjoying it too?

If the answer isn't yes, then you really only have a couple options, but you want to handle it in a calm & professional way.

You'll have to sit down with the player and have a conversation with them. Let them know, firmly but with empathy, what their impact is on the game, and see if they are amenable to changing. Be open to working with them *if* they are open to it. You have options like sorting out some kind of redemption arc. Or realizing the character was possessed & it wasn't actually them driving the body, that perhaps the rest of the team can help solve & bring them back to something less chaotic.

If they aren't open to changing the character, which *is* ok, sometimes people have an artistic vision but they can as players recognize that it's not working as they might have thought & don't want to be a disruption, then you can talk through how to handle changing to a new character so the old one can maintain fidelity to the character concept. Even if it means it gets the character killed. Because it sounds like that where this is headed, or should head, if nothing changes.

If they aren't open to it as a player, then you're going to have to let them know it's really not an option to continue this way because of the disruption. This isn't a single player game. And if one player monopolizes things or is selfish in the way they play, it tends to cause campaigns and games to fail & fall apart. If they are that type of player, you might need to make a hard call and disinvite them. Which sucks, but it's the least worst option. And your other players that remain will thank you for it.

If you are all enjoying it, then feel free to lean into a more evil themed campaign. Sometimes those can be fun too.

But usually it's not the gaming experience most people are looking for. Even in evil themed campaigns, chaotic evil is often played as chaotic stupid. And you're much more frequently looking for Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil. It's really hard to pull off Chaotic evil for long, and for good reason.

Just be up front, make your decision, be clear about why & look to work with and compromise with the player how you can. Unless they are unreasonable. If they aren't reasonable, sometimes you just need to let people go.

Don't let it fester. This type of thing can very rapidly become a game killer.

Quote from QuietRPLord17 >>

the PC is chaotic evil, and has been made to be completely murderous and villainous, so i dont know how to have NPCs interact with them, and how to get the PC involved with the "good guy" quests

 Second point first, the *player*, not the DM, is the entity responsible for getting PCs involved in the main plot of the game. If the player doesn't want to engage in the game you are trying to run, it's conversation time. Being polite and kind don't equate to allowing a  PC that doesn't fit the theme or constraints of the game world you are working with. If the player's goal for the character is for the PC to have a gradual change of personality, fine. But, there has to be a workable starting point that fits the theme, and the player needs to bake in the reasons for the PC to join the "good guys" on their adventures. Too often, there are DMs that feel like they are saddled with having to involve a PC in the game world. This is not DM territory. The player needs enough information about the game world to create a PC that fits/makes sense there, and is willing/has a reason to engage with the game world. If a DM were to decide why a PC would or wouldn't do a thing, there would be no reason for the player to be present. That PC just became an NPC, because it's being run by the DM.

Alignment isn't a hard and fast rule, and each alignment is generally not described the same way twice. Chaotic alignment is frequently described as not liking authority, or being told what to do. Other versions of Chaotic might be doing something impetuous just because it looks like fun, or not having much self-control. Evil is easy, it's just selfishness. There's plenty of examples present in the world today. Just drive to or from work, I'll wager you find more selfish behavior than you'd like to. 

Lastly, this whole thing boils down to talk to your players. Set reasonable and achievable expectations. Don't be subtle about giving players information, frequently they miss the subtle clues, it takes a very attentive individual to pick up on subtlety in the third person. Don't be shy about setting hard boundaries of what is and isn't acceptable in your game. Seek player buy-in for game plot-lines and themes. Run a fun game.

Good luck! 

Is the rest of the party evil? How does the CE character act in front of the rest of the party?

It is very hard for a player to control a CE character that does not result in them being written out of the game unless the whole party are evil, at least if the other players act as their neutral and good aligned characters would.

A good ot neutral character on seeing the villinious acts of the CE player would almost certainly do one or more of:

• Report them to the authorities
• Have nothing to do with them
• Kill them

The only way an evil character can get by in the world is by hiding it until they have assumed a huge amount of power. They appear to be good, they do the good but all the time they are doing to to amass power and influence, maybe spreading a few lies in order to do so. If someone stands in their way they might get them killed but only in a way that noone knows they were responsible. 

I would have a discuss the matter with the group as a whole out of game.  Would the other PCs really work with the CE guy as he has acted so far? Warn them how the NPCs will be hostile to the CE player and might regard the others associates. Maybe they want ot run an evil campaign where they have fallen for the lies of the CE player like members of the German workers party falling for the lies of Hitler, but more likely they will want to have nothing to do with the CE character.  The player will then need to create a character that will work with the group or leave the game.

Many DMs ban evil PCs or at least CE PCs because it hardly ever works out for the party

Quote from Jegpeg >>

Many DMs ban evil PCs or at least CE PCs because it hardly ever works out for the party

 
I allow evil characters in games I run under only a few conditions:

Lawful & Neutral Evil in non-evil campaigns: 

• The player must be experienced and one who I already have seen play & trust
• I sit down with the player beforehand, and set boundary conditions
• The player understands and accepts that they may not be disruptive
• The player agrees not to use their alignment to cause intra group havoc, ie attacking other PCs, stealing from other PCs, etc. Evil directs at NPCs only
• The player understands that there is an increased chance of character death resulting from RP & actions, not just normal combat, that there will be real world consequences.

Chaotic Evil in non-evil campaigns:

• The whole group including the player must be experienced and ones who I already have seen play & trust
• I sit down with the player beforehand, and set boundary conditions
• The player understands and accepts that they may not be disruptive
• The player agrees not to use their alignment to cause intra group havoc, ie attacking other PCs, stealing from other PCs, etc. Evil directs at NPCs only.
• The player understands that there is an increased chance of character death resulting from RP & actions, not just normal combat, that there will be real world consequences.
• The group as a whole is ok with it

Lawful & Neutral Evil in evil campaigns: 

• Lets have fun with it

Chaotic Evil in evil campaigns:

• Dont be stupid
• Lets have fun with it

Otherwise, I typically disallow it, and will suggest the player take on one of the neutral alignments, play them as an anti-hero, with some kind of dark past and now they are dealing with the repercussions. 9 times out of 10, that's usually what they are going for anyway. That 1 out of 10 times, it'll be a player that was planning on being disruptive & I weed them out beforehand as they red flag themselves.

 I think CE characters are viable in functional, non-evil parties, but CE played as the murderhoboiest of murderhobos isn't. It's not going to be fun for you or the other players. And even if the player finds it fun, it won't stay fun for long, as it's going to end with the character dead and/or the game falling apart.

This is 100% a problem that needs to be sorted with an out-of-game conversation with the player. What do they want out of the game? What does their character want out of life? This may end with them reining it in, redoing their character's personality, making a new character, or leaving the game.

Only works if the player and the PC are not idiots. An intelligent CE will still use sense when committing evil acts. If he is a moron and goes out of his way to be obvious, he probably would not have lived as long as he has. Tell him that murdering a town official or torturing some shop owner is fine, as long as he works to not get caught, by authorities and his fellow PCs.

First, there is CE and then there is CE.  To get a CE character in with a both a LN and a CG character takes intense planning on the CE characters point.

Basically, the CE character has to play someone that KNOWS he has to hide his behavior from the other characters.  He cannot assume the other party members will overlook things and not kill him outright.  

Think CEO of a criminal corporation.   They are knowingly breaking the law, committing crimes but HIDING them.

Make this very clear to the CE player and tell him that if he screws up not only you let the players kill him, but he will not be able to play another CE player afterwards.  Once you go CE and the players kill you, you have to play a CG, NG, or LG character or the other players will assume you are up to your old tricks.

Things he can NOT do include: steal from the party, kill people he promissed to let live in front of them, etc.

Things he can do include:

• Make deals with bad guys and keep them.  This includes evil gods.
• Use inhaled or ingested Poison on prisoners before you let them go.
• Kill people before they surrender
• Do horrendous things on side missions
• Lie to the other PCs about things you find out. "The Drow are attacking the Derro" rather than the Derro are attacking the Drow.
• Leave out key information when talking to the players like  forgetting to mention the drow are outcast because they do not worship Loth.

Quote from QuietRPLord17 >>

…how to get the PC involved with the "good guy" quests

They won't. The people offering the "good guy" missions just won't offer them to the PC (or to any of their known associates).

What the PC (and, by association, their associates) will get is the "bad guy" missions. Pirates, terrorists, bandits, organised criminal groups and the like will seek them out for employment.  

Greenstone

Your assuming that no character can hide their true nature from anyone. This is false.

The interrogator(person doing the hiring) would role a perception check and the character would role a deception check.

As for the evil character unless he is the guy being interviewed for the job then he just needs to stand around and look good.

No spy would ever get away with anything if NPC's could just look and tell what the target character is all about.

If the CE character isn't interested in doing the adventure/quests that the rest of the party have accepted, then the CE character can stay behind in town - the player of that CE character can then roll up a new character which will fit in better with the campaign.

If the CE character starts murdering townsfolk, I would expect the LN character to either hand the CE character in directly, or simply inform the lawful authorities about who has been doing all the murders. The LN character wouldn't want their own reputation to be stained by the actions of a murderous character.

Yeah, I'd say that you haven't given that character's actions any consequences. So it's not all on the PC. So for example, if a PC kills an NPC in a town and there is a witness somewhere there will be consequences for the party.

In one session the party were interrogating a clerk and one of the players delivered a swift kick to the clerk, who promptly died. The players met the entire force of town guards which was essentially overwhelming force. Due to an incredible stroke of luck they did manage to flee if they promised never to return. They've still to this day had to avoid that town and in an upcoming plot point...not having that settlement on side is going to HURT.

In a different campaign a similar character was locked up after theft. They had a hand cut off. Town guards in that settlement weren't messing about, so I couldn't either. 

Fact is that even a chaotic evil character NEEDS to be intelligent and wise. Without those they're just another idiot criminal who gets locked in stocks, or has hand removed, or even executed. So, if said PC is too stupid to not commit acts of evil 'just because' there are going to be consequences. 

Finally, what are your other PC thoughts? What is the reason that the other characters haven't kicked them from the group yet? Why are they keeping said character around? Do they know it's an option to turn the evil dude in? Do they know that they have the option of killing the PC themselves. Because those are all legit courses of action.

Worst comes to worst, outright kill the character and/or expel the player. But there's loads of story techniques for forcing the player to rethink their actions.