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Tell me What are the 5 things you think a Good Villain must have?


Who do you think are the 10 best James Bond,s Villains? (Thats main villain and Goon!)

1) Dispicable - you have to really hate the guy
2) Respectable - you still need to respect him, his capabilities and his word
3) Elusive - he must be next to impossible to pin down in a fight to the finish on the characters terms
4) Threatening - he must have the ability to be of some sort of signifigant threat. Weather he can cost the PC's their jobs or devastate the planet, he needs to have that capability.
5) Redeemable - the great villians once were, or have the possibility to be great forces for good, but their choices have turned them to a path of evil and there is the possibility that they could possibly be bbrought to the path of good.


Great examples of great villains showing all 5 qualities.

1) Saurman
2) Magneto
3) Darth Vader
4) MacBeth
5) J Jonah Jameson

These vilains are also great villains except they lack quality 5), they are beyond redemption

1) Palpatine
2) Sauron
3) Apocalypse
4) Shylock

Intelligent - a smart bad guy is a dangerous force
A good back story - virtually nobody is bad just because. There should be something that turned someone evil
Well-rounded - even the worst villain has something they cherish. Whether it be giving their pet monster a scratch, a weakness for kittens, or genuinely loving their child, there needs to be something that fills out the villain, rather than the "bad guy cookie cutter" approach

Beyond that, I agree with Jefffar's Despicable, Respectable, and Threatening (okay, so that makes 6, it's new math ya know)

Minions. While villains can be evil and capable by themselves, the minions are what makes a villain good, since it shows he has the resources to get the job done.

A Goal. You can create the most dastardly villain ever, unstoppable (or very close to), evil, intelligent, charismatic, etc, but if they don't have a goal they don't do very much.

A Plan. Naturally, since every villain has a goal, they have to have some idea of how they want to achieve that goal, so they set the "Dastardly Plot" into motion to achieve that goal.

Intelligence. An opponent can be stupid without much problem, but a good villain has to be smart enough to come up with a working plan to achieve the goal as well as take care of anything that tries to foil the plan.

Hard to Kill. This isn't necessarily invulnerability or super powers or magic, or what have you, but there must be some quality about the villain that makes them difficult to kill, to provide the players a challenge.

Depending upon the setting and the villain, I find the harder it is to justifiably label them as 'evil', the better. It's often strikes as more effective to have a 'villain' who is, really, just an antagonist rather than 'evil dastardly evil-dooer", someone who simply has an agenda and goals that might oppose a group or the establishment, but are really quite justified. Really, someone who can maybe symphathize with if you're in the more tolerant moral ground, but the more duty bound or zealously good will still label as stains that need wiped.

What needs to be remembered is that as there is more than 1 type of hero, there is more than one type of villian. If you want a really great villian I suggest you model the best (or is that the worst?) qualities of several of your favourite villians.

Jefffar wrote:What needs to be remembered is that as there is more than 1 type of hero, there is more than one type of villian. If you want a really great villian I suggest you model the best (or is that the worst?) qualities of several of your favourite villians.

Make sure the NAME is original though.. don't go with Adolf Zedong or Spectre Blofield or something.

Okay, found two more essentials....

A 5 year old advisor

A really cool secret lair

1. personality
2. scemes
3. ninja
4. ninja
5. ninja

How much is Kusu paying you?

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Po ... rlord.html

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Po ... lord2.html

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Po ... lord3.html

How about a few hundered things that a good evil overlord needs.

It depends a lot on the type of villain you want.

For a mastermind type:

1) A vast intellect and cunning. He has to be able to come up with a wicked plot and have a fair chance of executing it.
2) A realistic goal. "I want to rule the world!" "Why?" "Uh... well... you get a really cool chair" doesn't quite cut it. The villain needs a larger motive than ruling the world. He needs some grand vision that, were he to win, he would implement.
3) Contingency plans and adaptability. If he escapes at the end and plagues the players again later, so much the better.
4) A code or theme of behavior.
5) A reason for the PCs to fear going up against him. Maybe he's got ninja cyborg demons guarding him. Maybe he's allied closely with corrupt but hard to implicate government officials, and pushing him too far leads to the PCs' agency being taken down. Maybe he likes to test his bioweapons on meddlesome agents.
Also, not at first encounter, but subsequently: A reason the PCs want to get him, other than XPs or finishing the mission.

For a thug/minion:

1) An iconic theme. Oddjob made the fat angry Asian with a bowler hat famous. Who could forget Jaws and his, well, jaws? The tricky part is to not make them cheesy 1960's Batman style charicatures. Unless you're going for that sort of thing.
2) One area of competence they are deadly at. A sniper who hacks into a computer to track his prey then swinglines across the street and tries to swordfight him is just silly.
3) Cool but plausible uniform/costume. Orange jumpsuits may work for volcano lair guards, but not for the guy trying to trail the hero in Paris.
4) A reason to fear him.
5) Something to be gained from beating him. A clue on his person, dying words, info he offers in exchange for a reduced or commuted sentence and government protection, etc.

gaby wrote:Tell me What are the 5 things you think a Good Villain must have?

My personal checklist goes as follows:
1) Purpose. The villain has to have a reason to do whatever he does.
2) Ruthlessness. The villain needs to be able to run roughshod over whoever stands in their way.
3) Style. How does the villain accomplish his aims? Is he simple and businesslike, or does he do everything with flair?
4) Conflict Signature. How does the villain fight? HtH? Sniper? Through minions?
5) Resources.


Who do you think are the 10 best James Bond,s Villains? (Thats main villain and Goon!)

I don't have ten, but I have always liked:
1) Goldfinger and Oddjob.
2) Drax and Jaws.
3) The Russian woman and her blond bruiser from "From Russia With Love"
4) Scaramanga. One of the only reasons to watch this film.
5) Bloefeld.

FIVE QUALITIES OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL VILLAINS...

1. A driving reason to do what they do; motivation
2. A good reason that they are/became evil in the first place
3. Some trick or well developed power up their sleeve; highly competent
4. A distinctive voice
5. A distinctive look

Yeah, there are more, but you'll notice that all of the great villains have at least those five. Compare Darth Maul and Darth Vader. When I saw Darth Maul, I smiled at the simple, yet effective elegance of his truly MENACING look; I mean, they couldn't have designed a better villain to visually stand up the the look of Darth Vader. Maul was so "new" and yet he had that dynamically evil quality. Next, Maul is quite competent; in fact, he seems to be better at light sabre fighting than Vader ever is, with his ninja-like moves. And he had a neat "trick" up his sleeve in the form of his double-bladed light sabre. So far, so good; Maul has #3 and #5 in spades.

But he fails in #1, #2 and #4.
#1: All he states in his too few lines are: we will have revenge. Okay. Lame. I mean, this guy could've had some great lines but Lucas decided that silence was more menacing.
#2: No backstory whatsoever. I mean NONE. At least when Episode 4 originally premiered, Obi Wan fills us in on Darth Vader's backstory.
#4: Closely related to #1; the guy doesn't have a distinctive voice, and we don't get to hear enough of it; man, this is what makes villains that we love to hate!

So, while he has a neat gimmick (#3) and the coolest look (#5), George failed in creating a lasting villain. Hey, I still like Maul and won't armchair-quarterback George because it's tough to sit in the creative chair. I'm just using poor Maul as an example of how you can create a cool looking villain without making him/her a lasting, memorable one.

Maul was ever really a true villain . . he was a henchman. Bobba Fett falls ito that category too (unless you get into some of the expanded universe stuff).

Doku and Palpatine were vilains.

1. Growth- Just as the players grow in experience and abilities a good villain should too.

2. Elusiveness- He should be hard to catch or kill, for whatever reason.

3. Ruthlessness- A villain should be ruthless. People love that.

4. Intelligence- The intelligence should primarily be demonstrated in foiling the characters plans. Examples of this would be Belloq taking away the Ark of the Covenant from Indy twice (not to mention the idol) and Vader showing up at Bespin before the Falcon.

5. Belief- A good villain should believe in his cause. Since he is a villain by definition he will believe in the ends justifies the means, hence the villainy. One of the great things about Vader is that he wanted "to end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

Of the 5 I think Ruthlessness, Elusiveness and Intelligence are the most important. The other 2 may not be but its what i like to see in a villain.