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Post by friartook on Jul 14, 2015 14:26:20 GMT
It's high time we talked bad guys. I'd like this thread to be a place where we can all share thoughts, theories, opinions and ideas around villains, as well as the villains in our campaigns.
I'll start by talking about the central "bad guys" of my current campaign:
The big background villains in my campaign are a cult of Tiamat worshiping Dragonborn. They are led by a powerful sorcerer-priestess (only the female Dragonborn in my world are allowed to use arcane magic; male sorcerers are culled out and male wizards or warlocks are hunted down and slain) who has succeeded in uniting/conquering the warring tribes of the Dragonborn under one banner: The Cypher of the Many Headed Mother.
This cult is seeking to undo an ancient ritual by which a great dragon war was ended. Several dragons were imprisoned in various locations around the planet (which is actually a moon). This cult believes that if they release all of these imprisoned dragons and undo the ritual, they will release the physical essence of Tiamat, who is said to be imprisoned in the core of the world. They believe that by doing this, all the Dragonborn will be uplifted to their true essence; meaning they will all become actual dragons.
The scary part is, the cult may be correct. One thing is for certain though: the release of Tiamat will break the world (moon) apart.
These cultist believe they are fulfilling the destiny of their race. The flavor of Dragonborn in my world is such that they already consider themselves superior to all other races. So the idea of destroying the world to uplift their own race to a higher form of existence is not morally reprehensible to them.
My PCs are only vaguely aware of all this. They have become embroiled in these great events mostly by chance meeting and difficult choices (and a manipulative DM). They have been involved in the release of one dragon already, and just had a fight with a very unusual war party comprised of Dragonborn of multiple colors, as well as a cadre of Goblin shock troops. This is unheard of among Dragonborn; the tribes divide by color and are always at war and they kill on site any non-dragonborn in their lands. The one Dragonborn PC was close to joining the war party, but then was called out by a member of his former tribe (blue dragon tribe; he is an exile whose life is forfeit to any Dragonborn) and challenged to single combat.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jul 14, 2015 16:18:14 GMT
Love this thread! And I am Suprised the topic of villians has not come up yet. First I'll give my opinions on villains: The most I've learned about villains have come from larps and Warhammer. Villains, in my opinion, are on a spectrum ranging (theoretically) from Sauron to Zod. Zod is the villain with a reason. He truly believes he is saving Krypton. Zod just believes that he has to build of the ones of earth. Because of this we sympathize with Zod and we understand, in a sense, what he wants. But Zod is still a villain, no matter what his attentions. This is a great example of a Villain. On the other hand, as I see it, Sauron has no other reason, then that he hates everybody. He is an embodiment of evil, like the devil. Does this mean that these villians are just poorly constructed? Not really. I don't view Sauron as much a villains, but as a plot device. He is there to further the story of the Fellowship. Both these type of villains are great in stories.
That is what I think when considering my villains, but I didn'tm really make any for Älmara. The evil in Älmara is cultural. Älmarians have become good (though they aren't perfect). While Feltacians, the people from over the seas, are evil at there hearts (though they are all a lot like Zod). In Feltacia they do make evils such as trolls, orcs, and goblins. And some Feltacians are necromancers, evil kings, overlords, etc.
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Post by dmmadmaxi on Jul 15, 2015 17:03:06 GMT
So there are two general protagonists in my world, one is a particular Lich (Male-Drow) who has been wrapped up in centuries of genetic experiments. These experiments have resulted in quite a few of the homebrew creatures we have come up with. Some of these races good and some bad. He has been spending his extended life trying to discover the 'perfect army' so that he could once again delve into the under-realms and destroy the matriarchal society of the Drow and rebuild it into a patriarchal society.
The second protagonist in my world is a race of immortal humanoid catfolk. This race was once numerous and lived as a single race but now are divided into three smaller groups. One aligned with good, one with neutral, and one with evil. The good aligned catfolk live largely like nomadic rangers, leaving little trace of their existence and living off of the land in small bands. The neutral aligned portion of the group relies on magic and stealth for their survival. The evil aligned portion of the race is rather deceptive and does most of its work away from prying eyes. They are responsible for creating many relics that are both potent and evil. Their single greatest relic is the 'Throne room of Khane' which is responsible for starting the 'Sin War' in my setting.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 10:51:08 GMT
We did have that villain DM-nastic (number 10) which we never finished... and episode 16, though no accompanying discussion on the forum, since the forums didn't exist at that point!
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dmgrendel
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Villains
Aug 1, 2015 20:35:40 GMT
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Post by dmgrendel on Aug 1, 2015 20:35:40 GMT
I like to make my villains out of classes that my PCs didn't choose. Bards, Druids, monks... I have a bard who has the ear of a nobleman and uses her influence to advance her agenda... A band of Druids trying to summon an malignant fey into the world... I like doing it to expose the PCs (and myself) to new classes and builds.
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Post by lasersniper on Aug 5, 2015 8:00:11 GMT
I am running two campaigns with only one of them having a defined villain. That one is a Pathfinder game. You see, the way I created the world is that the gods are not native to the worlds existence. They came from a place that exists in-between galaxies, and they just found a hole into the galaxy that was being used by advanced civilizations that were attempting intergalactic travel. Well when the "gods" entered the galaxy through this hole, they wiped out all previous life and logic and rebuilt it as their own. Thus creating the fantasy world of Golarion, as well as reality bending Divine and Arcane magic.
The only person to survive the event was a brilliant scientist who was working on a new power source at the time. Because of the nature of his experiments, the "reality cleansing" caused an explosion that fused him with reality itself. Which resulted in him becoming a being kinda like Doctor Paradox from Ben 10, practically immortal. His actual name he abandoned millennium and took the name Dr. Tinkernut for his own reasons.
His whole goal is to put existence back to the way it was by killing the gods and sealing the intergalactic portal they are keeping open. With that finished reality, in theory, should go back to the way it was. No magic, no magical creatures, no different planes.
Tinkernut is a Mastermind Villain, making intricate plans and getting people to carry it out for him. Taking millenniums to set up correctly, my players are sitting right in the middle of his endgame. I just can't wait until my party decided to join him or fight against him, as overthrowing the gods is not the most evil of things to do, especially if they believe his accounts of the gods' actions.
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Post by friartook on Aug 5, 2015 12:56:23 GMT
His whole goal is to put existence back to the way it was by killing the gods and sealing the intergalactic portal they are keeping open. With that finished reality, in theory, should go back to the way it was. No magic, no magical creatures, no different planes. Tinkernut is a Mastermind Villain, making intricate plans and getting people to carry it out for him. Taking millenniums to set up correctly, my players are sitting right in the middle of his endgame. I just can't wait until my party decided to join him or fight against him, as overthrowing the gods is not the most evil of things to do, especially if they believe his accounts of the gods' actions. This is a great villain concept! I love the sympathetic motives. The question is: if "reality" gets up back in place, what happens to all the life that exists that the gods created? All the previous life was wiped out in favor of the gods' vision, but now that vision has a life of its own. Ah, moral dilemmas...they're good for the soul.
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Post by arnil on Aug 14, 2015 7:53:00 GMT
In my campaign I'm currently running (https://dungeonsandtulu.wordpress.com/) i have three main villainous factions a giant that leads a group of giants trying to kill all the elemental lords. A human trying to summon forces from the far realm to kill the gods. And a lich trying to kill the Arch-Fey. Basically they all feel these beings are usurping their world and wrongfully ruling. They might be right too. They don't have names but the giant is based on my friend from work who is 7 feet tall with a huge beard and snake bite piercings. So I intend to have the giant have two daggers in his lip.
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Post by joatmoniac on Aug 14, 2015 23:11:41 GMT
They don't have names but the giant is based on my friend from work who is 7 feet tall with a huge beard and snake bite piercings. So I intend to have the giant have two daggers in his lip. Great ideas, and what a badass friend to have inspire a villain in your campaign world. I would definitely make the daggers super special, and somewhat of his last ditch effort when the players are about to beat him. Then again they could be an epic opener, have him rip them out and throw them out as lightning bolts? to summon creatures to his side? who knows?
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Post by whipstache on Aug 14, 2015 23:24:11 GMT
Villains, in my opinion, are on a spectrum ranging (theoretically) from Sauron to Zod. I don't actually see Sauron as a villain because he doesn't really have a personality. It'd be like calling a giant asteroid that's on a collision course with earth a "villain." Do we have to stop it, because if we don't it will destroy us all? Sure. But that's not what makes a villain. For my money, Saruman is actually the villain in LOTR. And, I think he's a pretty darn good villain. The main thing about a good villain, whether sympathetic or not, is that s/he gets an emotional reaction. A great recent example of this is Kingpin from the Netflix series Daredevil. The way they portrayed his childhood gave a connection. So when he gets super Kingpin violent, the emotions are twice as strong. Complexity is crucial.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Aug 15, 2015 0:52:38 GMT
Villains, in my opinion, are on a spectrum ranging (theoretically) from Sauron to Zod. I don't actually see Sauron as a villain because he doesn't really have a personality. It'd be like calling a giant asteroid that's on a collision course with earth a "villain." Do we have to stop it, because if we don't it will destroy us all? Sure. But that's not what makes a villain. Exactly my same thoughts (I believe I wrote that...) I just put him under villain because he is an entity with malicious intent. He opposes something (in this case, good), therefore he falls under the definition of the word "Antagonist" or "Adversary".
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Post by dmmadmaxi on Aug 15, 2015 0:57:41 GMT
yeah but being VILLAIN versus being an ANTAGONIST is COMPLETELY two different things.
I agree that villains have a developed personality with traits that put them in direct opposition of the 'good guys'. He does not have to be the destroyer of worlds to be evil...
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Aug 15, 2015 1:27:10 GMT
Then I am merely mistaken. Please forgive my linguistic blubbering. I understand what you are saying (and what I missed in translation) it is duly noted, thank you. I've been working hard on my antagonist for an upcoming campaign and have used a lot of these ideas when building him. So all of this is good to know.
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Post by dmmadmaxi on Aug 15, 2015 1:55:27 GMT
don't get me wrong, no one was trying to point errors out. Just share views of what things are. Your good either way almarian!
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Aug 15, 2015 2:01:21 GMT
I know, but I looked the words in a dictionary and you guys were absolutely correct.
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