Things You'll Need:
- Dungeons and Dragon rulebooks
- Pencils
- Dice
- Character Sheets
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Step 1
Think in reverse of how a normal Dungeons and Dragons campaign would work. While normally your characters are heroes who want to vanquish evil wherever it can be found, instead they will be playing the evil cultists that they are used to fighting against.
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Step 2
Establish which cult the party will belong to so that your players know what sort of characters to create. You could also pre-generate characters specifically for the campaign and have the players pick which one best suits them. A party that belongs to a cult that venerates the lawful evil arch-devils will behave very different than a party that belongs to a cult that worships the chaotic evil demon lords or neutral evil Yugoloths.
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Step 3
Create specific roles for each character in the secret cult to fill. One should take the role of leader of the cult, providing spiritual guidance to the others and acting as the face of the group when dealing with evil creatures or other cults. Another character can act as the merchant or land owner who provides the front where the characters can meet together in secret. One character should also be a fighter or other martial oriented class to act as an enforcer. At least one of the players should take on a cleric character who has a direct divine connection with whatever entity the cult venerates.
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Step 4
Build in conflict between the party members by having them working towards slightly different goals for their budding cult. While several of the characters should be dedicated to seeing the cult flourish, others could have secret agendas such as overtaking the leader's position, using the cult to assassinate a rival, or even be a mole working for an opposing group.
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Step 5
Make the characters work towards their cult's devious ends without being discovered by the surrounding populace. The party will be working in secret to establish a beach head for their religion or evil cause in an urban area that is predominately filled with good aligned people. Their activities will probably involve theft, kidnapping, sacrificial rituals, contact with evil outsiders, and even murder. If they get caught doing any of these things there should be serious repercussions, such as being jailed or executed if they can't weasel their way out of the accusations being leveled against them.
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Step 6
Give the party specific goals to achieve, such as converting a high ranking public official to their ranks, killing a paladin who is on to their schemes, taking over a nearby lumber mill to use as a base of operations, or finding the spell components necessary for opening a permanent planar gate to their patron deity's realm.
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Step 7
Throw a wrench into the party's activities by forcing them to deal with unexpected problems such as a party of good adventurers who stumbles onto their cult, an opposing cult moving into their territory, or an unscrupulous person who discovers their deeds and blackmails them for money and favors in exchange for not revealing their true natures.
