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I like to make them realistic there are to many one dimesnional villlian. The bandit with a family to feed. The d bee how kills becasue it is part of his religion. No he kills and maims for no reason unless the charecter is supposed to be deranged. Read the serial killer from the siege of Tolkeen for a example of a good serial killer.

Even Hitler was a war hero in WWI that started off as a struggling artist that ultmatiely found most his pathos towards the jews being rejected from art school.

It dosen't make them less evil it makes there evil more believeaBLE

I prefer villains to be powerful, but not seem so right away. The heroes go in thinking their going to have an easy fight and wind up getting their butts handed to them. I excel at these villains.

I like to scatter 2 dimensional pastiche villains throughout my games. after all, a grand majority of the bad guys are just there to be wailed upon by the heroes. I can spend my free time then working on the background NPC's.

Then one day, one of those well worked on NPC's, you know, one that the heroes trust the most, turns out to be the overarching nemesis.

I just don't decide until the PC's and the NPC's have a solid working relationship.

Batts

I guess I am a little different in that the villians often are dbees and supernaturals from Lazlo and Dweoner
and if I want to use pregenerated NPCs they are noramlly good as my campigan is fighting the good fight for humanity so they have to be multi dimensional ino order to be killed

esepcailly the cyberknights

The saying I always liked was "Every villain is the hero of his own story."

Sure, in old-school four-color comics, you would see "I am Evil Man, Evil Master of Evil! BWAH-HA-HA!!!" and that might be good for supernatural demonic baddies, but the realistic human ones don't think of themselves like that.
A mastermind might want to conquer the world because he thinks he would be the best ruler, and the current batch of leaders are incompetent. He might be Diabolic in alignment and, deep down, just want powers and will do anything to get it, but do you think he tells himself that?
A miscreant punk thinks the world is out to get him, and you gotta be tough, man! When he robs a liquor store, does he laugh and think of himself as evil? Probably not. Maybe he doesn't think of himself as "good" per se, but he likely sees himself as doing what he has to to survive.

These rationalizations are pretty flimsy in most cases, and are just there to let them do whatever they want and still think of themselves as "basically okay people."

Brian

BillionSix wrote:The saying I always liked was "Every villain is the hero of his own story."

Sure, in old-school four-color comics, you would see "I am Evil Man, Evil Master of Evil! BWAH-HA-HA!!!" and that might be good for supernatural demonic baddies, but the realistic human ones don't think of themselves like that.
A mastermind might want to conquer the world because he thinks he would be the best ruler, and the current batch of leaders are incompetent. He might be Diabolic in alignment and, deep down, just want powers and will do anything to get it, but do you think he tells himself that?
A miscreant punk thinks the world is out to get him, and you gotta be tough, man! When he robs a liquor store, does he laugh and think of himself as evil? Probably not. Maybe he doesn't think of himself as "good" per se, but he likely sees himself as doing what he has to to survive.

These rationalizations are pretty flimsy in most cases, and are just there to let them do whatever they want and still think of themselves as "basically okay people."

Brian

Well said. I like that.

I have had so many of these villains over the years that it's a wonder they haven't stagnated. But the truth is, and this has been backed up by my players, that it's much easier to figure out what motivates a villain than it is to determine unique motivations for heroes. For most of us, and for me personally, it is exceedingly easy to think of the actions that another person can perform that we personally find reprehensible. I then simply backtrack my thought process on this and come up with a likely situation of why they did it in the first place. Often times, it can be as simple as "hey, they needed the money, that's why they robbed the bank!" Other times, there are far more involved circumstances, for example: "Vald Tegor has betrayed the ideals of the vampires as a race, he needs to be usurped and, of course, punished!" I actually had this villain and it was interesting seeing the heroes fighting for the evil they knew in the interests of keeping the evil they didn't know from ruining the world as the knew it. Good was forced to work hand in hand with evil, which happens quite often in my games, and by the end of it there was some alignment shifting going on. But villains don't always have to be uber powerful to be memorable either. I have a simple trio of sub-human slavers I have fondly named Plague, Pestilence and Famine. Plague is a goblin true cobbler (from one of the Rifters), Pestilence is a Hobgoblin Thief and Famine is a ratling Assassin. Individually they aren't much to talk about, but working together as a team, these three have caused my groups no end of hard times. As I've said... I have so many of these villains that it would take more than an hour to write a post about all of them.

Archangel23 wrote:These are the kind of villians I like

The Villian who is stronger then the PC's and lets them know it, he (or She) may not kill them but the PC's don't stop him either and get their ****'s handed to them.

The Villian who always has a back up plan. The PC's destory his monster he has a trap for them, Get out of the Trap, he has an escape plan.

The Villian that leads the PC's to do what he wants. like getting them to kill a monster just so he can get the bones (or what ever)

The Villain who doesn't die. The PC's kill him once but he comes back stronger, With a new plan, and out to kill them.

and My Favorite The Back Story Villian. The one that really connects with one or more of the PCs. he may be a long time friend turned evil or a long time Rivil. Realtives are the best.

No offense, but I don't know if I would like playing against this villain. If GMed well, it might be good, but it could also be a way for a GM to bully the players. He is stronger than you, slaps you around and you can't stop him, no matter how brilliant your plans are, he has already outthought you and will escape. If for some reason, you beat the odds and kill him, he will be back to life in the next adventure. Sounds like a good way to make the players feel powerless and useless.

But I rather like the one who gets you to do things for him. "You see, Dr. Jones, there is nothing you possess that I cannot take away."

Brian

I run a lot of different systems, and when we talk about villains, there are various types.

My favorite types of villains are:

1) The civilized madman. This guy is ineffably, and unflinchingly polite. He invites you into your house, offers you tea, and has a conversation with you. He's disturbingly likable, and a perfect gentleman. Unfortunately, this guy usually has a problem. He's either insane, a vicious murderer, or his goals are completely opposed to those of the PC's.

2) The well-intentioned monster. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and there is no greater threat in this world than a man who thinks he's right and has the will and resources to achieve his aims.

3) The puppet master. The puppet master is a cool villain because when he finally rears his head, he gloats, goes back and shows you everything he did, and then everyone freaks out.

4) The prankster. You need one of these every so often. Not everyone needs to beat the party up in order to get their goat. In a post apocalyptic world like Rifts, one in about six adventures should be unflinchingly strange and/or silly.

It depends on what I want 'em to be.

Some are couragous, have some redeeming qualities and will fight to the death.

Others have fewer nice qualities, and will rather talk than fight.

Some of my favorite villains can't fight at all, they the "brains" and have loyal minions/bodyguards to take care of the PC's. The kind where, just when you have 'em cornered, a custom-model power armor busts though the wall and he makes a getaway

The problem is that if your players are like Glen Cook's Black Company, this guy will be dead in fifteen seconds. My advice is to give him a trick, like robot duplicates or something in case they flip out and just shoot him in the head.

Balabanto wrote:The problem is that if your players are like Glen Cook's Black Company, this guy will be dead in fifteen seconds. My advice is to give him a trick, like robot duplicates or something in case they flip out and just shoot him in the head.

I find making them metaprorphed adult great horned dragons works just fine for keeping them around.