Crafting your main villian
A well crafted game is designed to tell a story; one that your players will live out vicariously through their characters. As with any good story, you’ll need to bring conflict to the players. Most games out there revolve around combat, so your best bet in creating that dynamic story is to have a dynamic villain to set the tone.
Now, before we get into details, I need to point out that this post is only relevant to you under two conditions. The first condition is that you are planning on running an extended campaign, one that, with any luck, will last a few days or longer. The second conditions is that you’re creating a story of good versus evil. In order to establish a strong opposing force your players will need characters to fill a specific void. Your players will need to have something to gain by defeating the villain other than, “oh, cool. The princess is safe now”.
This post will help you make a villain your players will want to defeat, not just be required to defeat.
Commander Villain
The Commander Villain is a pretty easy one to build. The idea behind them is they are the leaders of a known opposition. Sometimes this will be an evil military army who is conquering the kingdom, other times it can be a high level demon raging war on the material plain. The specifics are pretty narrow and don’t require much effort.
The key thing that you, as the GM, will need to remember is that this person or creature is very strong, very smart, and very organized. They are in command of a some kind of structured organization and they will need to be mentally capable of doing so. The true beauty of having a villain of this magnitude is it will encompass your entire game. Every place your players go and everything they do will remind them of who their threat is and what they are doing.
Tips:
- Make some kind of base that the villain works out of. Some place the heroes can strive to and plan on attacking.
- Give the players some detail on the Commander’s faction. This will help them to understand the structure of the opposition.
- Create a second in command villain. Someone who does a lot of the hands on work.
Senseless Villain
This villain is actually a little trickier to make than you would think. The reason for this is the senseless villain has only the motivation of chaos to rule themselves. Traditionally, the senseless villain won’t have any true followers or cohorts. Everything they do will be under the assumption of “I”. “I take, I devour, I destroy”. Everything else is just a tool to be used.
A great example of this would be how the Joker was portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Night. In the film, the Joker didn’t want to gain anything other than chaos. All of his actions were motivated by what he could destroy, whether it was physical, mental, or philosophical. The line, “Some men just want to watch the world burn” was the only thing the viewer needed to understand him.
Your Senseless Villain just wants chaos. Nothing more, nothing less.
Tips:
- Have the villain hire outsiders to use as a distraction to confuse the heroes.
- Think of an overpowering character flaw (rage, a fetish, a compulsion, etc) and have that consume the villain. This could be a devise the heroes use to eventually defeat the villain.
Personal Villain
My favorite. The Personal Villain has done something directly, and intentionally, to the player’s characters. One major factor that will make this type of villain different is instead of someone telling the heroes they should act the villain will motivate them instead. A Personal Villain will demand the players take a certain level of control in how the story unfolds for it is their responsibility to enact their own personal justice or vengeance. No one else’s.
I once made a game that was designed to be played from level 1 to 20 in Pathfinder. I started out my players, many of them new, with a simple mission of search and rescue. It seemed that a local farm girl had been kidnapped and was being held in an abandoned dungeon.
After the party had saved the girl and killed the captor, an orc, they returned the maiden home and decided to all go home for some much deserved celebration (they were all characters who grew up together in a small town). When they got home they found all the building were on fire and everyone was killed and left on display. It turned out the orc who captured the girl was really the son of a powerful orc general, who learned of the party’s doings. The players had no way of stopping or defeating this powerful foe and were left with a simple message. “Now we’re even”. This single moment set the tone for everyone in the game. Everything they did from then on would be to increase their strength and eventually bring vengeance to the villain.
Tips:
- Have the players play out a back story that builds up to the villains purpose. It’s easier for them to fight the villain if they have first hand memories.
- Try and build the villain to compliment the party’s strengths. Give them a challenge.
- The villain can have a close connection with one of the player’s characters, like a family member or mentor. Just be careful not to alienate your other players.
Heroic Villain
“A Heroic Villain? You must be crazy!” I am crazy, but that’s beside the point. The Heroic Villain doesn’t define the players but defines how the world sees the villain. Your players are still playing a force for good and the villain is still an evil presence in the world. The villain, however, is either a once good being turned evil or an evil being pretending to be good. Either way, this will cause some friction for the players. Instead of getting help, the players will face an overwhelming opposition from the majority population causing them to perform in either secret or heavy resistance.
This is a tough villain to make and even tougher to keep players interested. Try and make the game more about exposing the villain rather than defeating them as they are. Players aren’t usually fond of, “Cool, you kill the bad guy! Oh, by the way, you guys are all fugitives now.” This could be great for a mid story twist but not your final encounter.
Tips:
- Have a strong back story planned out, something that the players would have access to.
- Give your villain many qualities that you would give a heroic figure. Larger than life-ness, well loved, a strong belief in their personal morals are sure winners.
- Remember that most of the population loves the Heroic Villain and some would not be afraid to fight for their honor.
There are many different kinds of villains that you can make up, and you should. Don’t be afraid to try a few ideas out. Just remember that when you’re aiming for the long game a sense of completion is essential. If you can gain that, then everything else is just gravy.
