Nothere Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations There's family honor We've been trying to restore what was ours for 400 years. You think we're going to stop now just cause you don't like it. Addiction/need No I don't want to keep killing people by taking their spinal fuild, but if I don't I'll go crazy and die. Cover How could my son be Superthief? Superthief robbed the city while I was here but he was a thousand miles away. What it matters? I tried. I tried to be good. I tried to make things right. But nothing I ever did was good enough. So you want to insist I'm a villian? Let me show you just what a villian can really do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Im'm the biggest and Baddest there is - and to prove it I'll beat that hero that's always in the papers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations There's always the old, "I am an alien and you humans are just food animals" trope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston GM Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Force of Nature I would call this an antagonist instead of a villain. Whether it's an avalanche, a burning building, a plague, a drought or a planet-killing asteroid hurtling toward earth, something needs to be done to either stop it from doing harm or undo the harm that it's already done. Unaware The person is causing damage without knowing it. For example, everyone they touch gets sick and dies a few weeks later. Oops The person was trying to do something good (or even a trivial infraction), but the law of unintended consequences unleashed something terrible. The person trying to end the drought unleashed a devastating flood. The person trying to create a computer worm (to profess his undying love for his girlfriend) accidentally crashed the country's computer network. It's Just a Job The person is doing what they're being paid to do. And if you pay them more, they'll do what you want them to. Until someone else offers them more than that. It's Society The society fears and hates all members of an ethnic group, or all metahumans, or everyone who holds different beliefs. Or society believes slavery is okay. The immediate problem can be easily solved (I free my kidnapped friend from the slavers), but until society is changed, the problem keeps recurring. The Dangerous Idea Someone has discovered dangerous knowledge. On a small scale, it's not that big of a deal. But the more people who learn this knowledge, the more dangerous it becomes. For example, someone discovers a ritual which will summon an uncontrolled 200pt demon. It's easily defeated by a team of 350pt heroes. Except someone has posted that ritual on wikileaks. And the uncontrolled demons wish to perform the ritual to release their master from his prison. How do you stop an idea? I am the Villain Whether your name is Bruce Banner, or you've been cursed with lycanthropy, something inside you periodically turns you into the enemy. Until you find a way to reverse it, you have to find a way to stop yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alverant Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations I think most of them are already covered. When I consider a villain's motivation I remember that they don't consider themselves to be EVIL (well a few do, but most people don't). "Higher calling" and "ends justify the means" are pretty close together. If the villain have a cause you really believe in, then normal laws and considerations don't apply. Remember the Blues Brothers, "We're on a mission from God." Anything goes if your cause is God-approved. The only one I would add would be "survival". The villain came from a kill or be killed environment and is unable or unwilling to adjust their behavior to fit into normal society. They could have lived in poverty so bad they had to fight for each bite of food and attack other people first because otherwise they were going to attack you. Or they grew up in the wild and only know the "law of the jungle". Or lived in a corporate rat race where getting ahead (or even staying put) meant backstabbing and vicious ruthlessness. They may not be bad people really really deep down, they just feel that their life and comfort are more important than your life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alverant Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations It's also worth pointing out that "greed" isn't just about money. It could be about power or knowledge as well. A villain motivation could be to learn dark magical secrets but to learn those secrets he winds up unleashing undead horrors on the populace and he doesn't care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Querysphinx Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Variations on a theme: Curiosity: What will happen if I do....this? Trying to understand: You have killed several people, but you don't like it when I hurt you. Why is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Pulsar was doing it for Morgan Fairchild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted February 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations *chuckle* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted February 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Ok school is beating me about the free time right now but I'll try to update my list soon. Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizza Man Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations When a Hero goes bad. A Batman type vigilante looses it for some reason. The hero goes lethal. He thinks he's fighting crime, and yes he is stopping it, dead in its tracks. Gunfire bring police to a crack-house. the gang members, the supplier, even several customers are all found dead. The drugs have been piled up and are burning. The money is gone. The vigilante's sign is on the wall. Of course this is just another day in Hudson City. But in a regular Champions campaign? Time for the heroes to go after one of their own...a guy who knows all the tricks of the trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations One of the ones not mentioned is one of Mr Freeze's motivations in some of his Batman incarnations. Trying to restore his wife to health and if that meant breaking the law well then so be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Impudite Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Screw the Rules, I Have Money: A wealthy bad guy who believes society's rule apply to the hoi polloi and not to him and his like. I some worlds, sadly, he may even be right to believe as much... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Arguably less of a villain and more of a victim with a lot of power, there's also the Puppet. This is a being who's been corrupted, mind controlled, or reprogrammed by external forces and may not even be aware of who he or she was, let alone what he or she stood for. Example, in one campaign I'm running, a young woman, a heroine and daughter of another hero was captured by a villain group. He paid Argent to cyborg her up, and wipe her memory. Now she considers HIM her father, and is utterly loyal to him. She commits crimes out of a loyalty instilled in her. The PCs (One of them her REAL father) hope to capture her, and restore her memory. Even if they do, she's probably too far cyborged to be truly 'normal' ever again. In comics, it's not uncommon for Darkseid to try to corrupt/brainwash someone and put them to fighting on his behalf. Superman may have been a puppet for a time, but that didn't make facing him in combat anymore fun. Seeing as the CU has numerous organizations and villains like Menton lying around who can litterally rewrite you, you could easily just take some superhero's write up,change the psych lims, decide if they've adopted new identities or have (to the public's eye) openly "turned". The nice thing about this (Though it sucks for the NPC ) is that you can mix a mystery ("Wait, I've seen that fighting style") , shattered illusions ("But Megastar has been my hero since I was a little boy, he CAN'T be evil! Can he?" ) and the focus can be on saving the puppet rather than just defeating him/her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations If I were to boil the motivations I gave down to more general ones I suppose I'd go with Driven by their own powers (to feed on people or to drive them away) Ideology Loyalty Utilitarianism (committing lesser evils to avert greater or so they think) Fear Territoriality The over-estimation of ones own authority Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations When a Hero goes bad. A Batman type vigilante looses it for some reason. The hero goes lethal. He thinks he's fighting crime, and yes he is stopping it, dead in its tracks. Gunfire bring police to a crack-house. the gang members, the supplier, even several customers are all found dead. The drugs have been piled up and are burning. The money is gone. The vigilante's sign is on the wall. Of course this is just another day in Hudson City. But in a regular Champions campaign? Time for the heroes to go after one of their own...a guy who knows all the tricks of the trade. Looses what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizza Man Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Looses what? it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations "Loses"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations He let loose the IT. And IT killed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Re: Villainous Motivations Updated. Thanks everyone! This is fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.