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Getting ready to start a new character for the D&D Adventure League sessions we play. I wanted to create a bad guy this time. But then it occurred to me, can you even REALLY be a bad guy? I think all campaigns are designed assuming the character's are going to be good.

If we were all bad guys in our game, how would that work? We could easily take control of the town, support Strahd, so he'd support us. Sure, here's Irena. Have at her! Is there a reward? Awesome, thanks Strahd! Here's more kids for more pastries. These things are awesome and they help us keep control of the towns. It's only a matter of time before we kick the Gypsies out and control all trade in Barovia.

Do campaigns really support evil?

I already know I'm going to ruffle feathers by trying to steal from shops/people all the time. Teaming up with captors to get a slice of the ransom instead of freeing the prisoners, etc. People will hate me as much as we hate Stranger! But really, I feel like I'd be breaking the campaigns.

"Pssst. Hey. Guard. All these guys are here to break out the prisoner, FYI. Tell your boss I'm the one that told you. I'm sure there's a reward."

Been a while since I read the old rule books but IIRC, while it was allowed that characters could have evil alignment, it was discouraged.

The original rules didn’t even have the evil/good axis. Just law/neutral/chaos

Chaotic Evil is the main problem. It doesn't lead well to group dynamics.

The other two:
Neutral Evil - really selfish asshole
Lawful Evil - follows some evil code or system

are a little bit easier. Chaotic evil just stabs everyone in their sleep and runs off with their stuff.

Unless he has something to gain be pretending to play along, for now....

Ok, lets run with Neutral Evil. In Barovia, it seems being bad has a lot of advantages. You can easily gain from others' suffering. Does the campaign support the party giving Strahd what he wants, namely Irena? Not helping Irena's brother in the beginning and turning him in to the people at that first building where the enemy brought all the suits of armor to life to attack us. So instead of having his back to collect info and weapons, give him up as a prisoner and get a reward? I'm assuming the campaign is written assuming we will want to bring down evil/Strahd. What if we didn't?

I replied, but it was too spoilery.

The campaign accounts for the possibility of an evil PC or two. The outcomes are about what you would probably expect. Escape from Barovia with Strahd's blessing is probably the best of them. Plenty of other options.

If the entire party is evil and does really bad things in Barovia, Strahd probably just kills them all anyway. He would likely get jealous and thinks only he can do bad things to Barovia.

Mordigan has been pretty close to chaotic evil, imho. It's caused a lot of problems for our party, but it's also been among some of the most interesting stuff.

Of course, he didn't murder an entire town's guard...