Story is only as good as its Villain

[verbosity]

I am a GM almost done writing the outline for a new campaign, but I don't have that perfectly devious and yet lovable bad guy yet. I'm talking about that sort of nemesis who keeps reappearing, both inspiring excitement and tension all at once. You know, the baddie who makes half your players laugh and the other half of them curse?

 

How about sharing your most successful campaign villain and why you think s/he worked so well.

 

Thanks in advance,

Verbosity

[KA.]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

The 'best-loved' Villain in my game is Shadow Tiger, but he is hardly lovable.

Scary might be a better word.

But, even though he doesn't fit the mold you asked for, I will share a bit of information about him.

In the early days of Champions, there was a Villain named Cheshire Cat.

He was a teleporting Martial Artist, who was basically a thief.

He would put up a good fight, and beat up a PC Martial Artist if he got the chance, but he really wasn't a bad guy.

Also, he had a DNPC wife that he deeply loved.

In my campaign, one of the players was using a Martial Artist character, so I thought Cheshire Cat would be a good fit for his 'nemesis'.

But, the original Cheshire Cat was not really tough enough to stand up to the PC, since CC was built on fewer points.

So, I decided to give him a 'radiation accident' (major incident that changes/boosts a character's powers all at once, rather than the usual steady increase).

Here is what happened.

The PC's had been annoying the local Viper nest and interfering with their operations.

Cheshire Cat worked for Viper, (as did his wife, a technician) so he and some other Villains, were used to capture the heroes.

The local nest was testing a Dimensional Gateway, that they hoped would open a path to the 'Shadow Realm', a place where great mystical power was available. (Sure, maybe this would have made more sense for DEMON, but I didn't have the DEMON book at the time.)

The Gateway was an unknown quantity, for all Viper knew whoever was sent to the Shadow Realm might be instantly killed, so they wanted to do some testing on expendible subjects.

Anyway, the PC's were chained to a post, inside the effective area of the Gateway.

Neither of them was strong enough to break their bonds.

The Gateway was powering up.

One of the players remembered that Cheshire Cat had a really bad temper (Berzerk when taunted).

They figured that if they could get him to attack them in a blind rage, he might shatter the chains or the post so that they could escape.

So they started taunting him.

Them a lot of things happened at once.

Just as the Gateway was powering up, Cheshire Cat did a half-move Teleport and attacked.

He did indeed break the chains and the players dove for cover out of the gateway.

Just as it reached full power, Cheshire Cat instinctively tried to teleport away.

Boom!

Teleportation and Dimensional Gateways do not mix!

There was a massive explosion.

Cheshire Cat appeared to be dead.

Many of the Viper personnel were very badly wounded.

The players were forced to flee for their lives, taking as many people with them as they could.

It appeared that most of the Viper people got away through some sort of escape tunnel, and the players left by going up through a tunnel that was collapsing behind them.

Cheshire Cat was not seen again.

 

A few months later, the players began hearing stories of a new Villain.

A vicious hateful killer named Shadow Tiger.

He would steal, but he was just as likely to kill while doing so.

 

Finally, the players met him face to face.

His first words were to the Martial Artist that taunted him:

"You killed my wife!"

It seems that she had died in the explosion, and he held the Martial Artist fully responsible.

Not to mention the fact that he had spent what seemed to him an eternity in the Shadow Realm enduring unspeakable torments and gaining great power.

 

Now we have a Nemesis!

 

I guess the advice I can offer is, Make the Main Villain "Personal".

 

Not just someone that the heroes run into from time to time, someone who has a linked or similar origin. Someone who is defined by his hatred for the heroes. Someone with a legitimate grudge.

 

On the other hand, (try not to get whiplash, because I am taking a sharp turn )

 

A good 'villain' that would fit what you describe would be a character that isn't really a villain at all.

More of a foil than an opponent.

It could be a powerful NPC hero that wants the PC's to be a bit more 'extreme'.

He might want them to 'lighten up and have a good time'.

Someone who just doesn't fit in with the group, but has enough pull, power, or some sort of relationship with the PC's that they cannot just ignore him.

This type of character shows up all the time in comedies.

The wacky uncle that gets the family involved in some hairbrained scheme.

The crazy boss that gets into some kind of trouble that only the characters can get him out of.

Think of Kramer from Seinfeld, that kind of person.

The person who always drags you into their mess and expects you to solve it.

An NPC hero could do this sort of thing on a major scale, and the players could be both charmed and exasperated when he showed up.

 

Just my opinion,

 

KA.

[Kirby]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

Black Paladin has always worked well for me. I've used him as sort of the Darth Vader type villain as far as fear factor and personality go (as well as trying to imitate James Earl Jones's voice as Vader). I vary his true existance, though: I've had him be human, undead, and an invisible spirit. I haven't used him in 5th Ed, yet, but in 4th, his Danger Sense annoyed the party teleporter as well as his own teleportation annoying the rest of the party to no end (except the flying brick who had Danger Sense as well; it just bugged him a little).

 

Whenever Black Paladin showed up, you knew something evil was happening (not just a bad crime, but something evil) and he was a villain they couldn't predict. About 6-10 years ago, that group's biggest BP surprise came when the PCs were following some skilled, thug, Aryan terrorists (Biff & Cherry) in an airport parking lot and Black Paladin (unrelated to the Aryan plot) teleported in and started beating the tar out of two of them before the PCs could consolidate their forces and fight him to a standstill. He did this so the PCs would actually come hunting for him. They "discovered" he was at the edge of Chinatown and went to attack,k but he ambushed them. This time he used a skilled sniper who shot one PC in the heart (bringing her to negative BODY), another in the head (a brick, so just knocking him out) and then when an NPC mentor (from the Protectors) healed the PC, the sniper essentially shot the healer's hand off at the wrist.

 

The PCs eventually landed on the roof with Black Paladin and beat him (the roof was booby-trapped with grenades, that ended up killing BP). What they didn't know was the BP had made a deal with a Chinese sorcerer/demon/thing that if BP died in the Chinese "thing's" employ, BP would be resurrected as an undead entity, which made him a tad more powerful. (One of the PCs [the one shot in the heart] always used gas attacks against BP and this new "state of being" removed that "flaw.")

[MitchellS]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

I think Foxbat fits the category best of all. He's lovable and hated, charming and annoying, all at the same time. We don't have too many villains like that in our game but we did once have a situation involving Bat-mite and Mxyzptlk.

[Hermit]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

I had a villain named James Marrow, aka "Bones". He was a comic book crime boss, in the style of Kingpin, only old, and very thin. Ghoulishly so. Hiding behind a facade of respectablity, he had no super powers, but he employed many bodyguards or mercs who did. Bones loved to rub his 'respectable businessman' cover in the faces of the heroes. By having him hide in plain sight so they could see him but not just punch him out, the PCs saw him as all the more dangerous.

 

Man, they were glad when he died.

[chariot]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

In my longest running campaign, I had 3 continuing villains who made life difficult for my heroes.

 

First there was Marcus Stillwell, who was variously disguised as: the terrorist Atomic Knight; the drug kingpin The Candy Man; and his final incarnation that never actually saw much game time, criminal mastermind The Monitor.

 

Marcus was bonkers, plain and simple. But he had money and talent to back it up. In his clouded mind, he knew he was going to be the greatest super-villain to ever make a hero tremble. But there were no heroes worthy to be his adversary. So he made one out of his own son. Had lots of fun playing with the hero for many years: is he your father, is he not your father--- is he really dead this time?

 

Then there was Despair, who was a pretty blatant rip-off of Fear from the Wrath of the Seven Horseman adventure. But my version of Fear was much more gothic, with zombie servants and vampire coutiers. He never did fill out the entire 7 slots in the Horsemen, but I used Despair as a wonderful plot device for many years; in the process we killed a God, and gave birth to another (twins in fact); corrupted a hero (player left the campaign) and turned her into a Horseman; and resurrected an assassin who had been hired to kill the PC's years ago but who had failed and died in the process (he was a little ticked off when he came back, and took the name: Pain).

 

Finally there was Damien Blackwood. Father of a hero and a heroine; father of at least two villains; had a blind werewolf manservant; was possibly the most powerful magician on the planet. Damien wasn't really evil, but he was ruthless and self-serving -- another plot device more than a combatant. But it was almost always assured to be a twisted good time if the name Blackwood was mentioned.

[Kirby]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

I think Foxbat fits the category best of all. He's lovable and hated' date=' charming and annoying, all at the same time. We don't have too many villains like that in our game but we did once have a situation involving Bat-mite and Mxyzptlk. [/quote']

I'll second Foxbat, but include a qualifier that he has to be used correctly. His ideas must be extremely absurd, yet workable. Also, he's not an idiot, just insane.

[Asperion]

Re: Story is only as good as its Villain

 

I discovered that the villain that fits what you are looking for in your campaign is not so much as created by evolves during the campaign. Do not try to force one in but sit back and watch the way the the PCs respond to the villains that you use. Eventually you will discover that one villain fits what you are looking for.

 

As an example in a campaign that I ran reciently I created such a villain. That villain actually turned out to be a NPC that the PCs absolutely loved and went out of their way to find and not a villian. In response I created another villain who was more of a one shoter (at the end of the campaign).