New Running The Game! What makes a good villain? what makes a good villain I mean the the actual bad guy of your story or Adventure or whatever I think folks get distracted by motivation and right now as I’m thinking about this I don’t think motivation is actually that important maybe I’ll feel differently later but right now I think there are more mechanical practical things that make good villains motivation gets into psychology and that is a tricky area but there’s lots to talk about before we get into the motivation stuff first of all a good villain does villainous stuff before the reader or or the viewer or the player meets the villain they should probably have some experience of what the villain does we need to see the aftermath of their abilities see what makes them a villain we got a million great examples to pull from but let’s start with the most recent stranger things season four so I guess these are spoilers but only for episode one I think and you don’t need to have seen the show this example is pretty straightforward when vecna I can’t believe I’m talking about vecten again I have a cool job when vecna kills Chrissy at the end of episode one two important things happen and I think it would be easy to get distracted by the first one and not notice the second first of all a cheerleader dies in a pretty horrific way and we see it coming and then we see it happen and this is it’s really important let me tell you why it’s important because she’s not just some random cheerleader she’s a character we’ve met spent time with and gotten to know we like this girl because there’s a sort of cheerleader archetype in these kinds of stories right but she shows us the real person behind the costume she opens up to Eddie and is vulnerable and human and so we like her this is why her really quite gruesome death is Meaningful because the show takes the time to let us get to know her and like her and we can see she is struggling with some darkness and we want to see her overcome it we want to see her win if she was just a nice girl who gets trash compacted four feet in the air it wouldn’t have the same impact we can see she has this dark tension inside her we don’t know its source or cause but she is fighting against something and she’s reaching out asking for help so we hate it when she dies not just because we liked her but because we wanted to see her win and she loses she loses everything okay so that’s the first thing bechna does he kills a cheerleader and we see it happen and so we hate this bad guy we know what he can do even before we’ve met him we hate this dude and we want to stop him awesome but there’s more he kills Chrissy in front of Eddie I mean vecina doesn’t know Eddie’s there that’s not the point the point is because the town perceives Eddie as a burnout and he’s alone with Chrissy which no one will believe is basically innocent the town blames Eddie vechna kills Chrissy and the town blames Eddie that is the second half of vekna’s villainy and it is completely unintended by vechna but entirely intended by the writers it’s that second part the fact that Eddie is now on the Run he’s literally hunted the town turns against him that means anytime Eddie is on screen or anyone’s talking about him we feel for him and blame vekna but even when vekna is not present and no one is in immediate danger the fact that Eddie can’t rest which means the kids can’t rest means we are always reminded of vekna’s villainy and this is good writing so good villains do villainous things they kill people and they make them afraid and worse than afraid I realize for a lot of people imagining horrible things the villain might do to people is difficult you know what that’s fine you can be a successful writer or dungeon master and never worry about half of this stuff but if you want dope pulp fantasy or heroic fantasy villains you need to imagine villainous stuff part of that is knowing your audience you can definitely go too far with this stuff but if you’re just writing a novel then you can just you know write whatever you believe write what inspires you come up with something that horrifies you and rest certain in the knowledge that it’s going to work on someone and vecna is a super interesting bad guy because he can kill people without even being there this makes him very powerful indeed he can murder innocent people without anyone seeing him or even knowing he exists if he had to be there then he would be vulnerable and known people would know what was happening but he has to follow the rules of drama if he’s so powerful he can kill people without even being there just by thinking about them then there needs to be a lot of warning that something awful is going to happen to this person we need several stages these potential victims are going to go through before vekna harvests their souls or whatever they have nightmares and then headaches then they start reaching out for help so there’s several days of growing tension during which the heroes can be learning about what’s happening and dealing with the growing realization that they are currently powerless to stop it now I think it would be easy for a new DM to latch onto this idea and use it against the heroes but best to stick with NPCs you might be able to get away with the last victim being one of the heroes that’s what they do on the show but that is really tricky because players have agency which we do not want to mess with so I would stick with NPCs but good villains also put the heroes on the defensive Eddie and his friends are are hunted by the jocks evil and vechna isn’t there the heroes are hugely inconvenienced by his actions they are never allowed to forget him even when he’s not in the same universe they’re in to see how powerful this is for us as storytellers just being able to rest to recharge to plan to think is a major Boon in this scenario denying that to the heroes puts enormous pressure on them the clock is always ticking you can just show The Players here’s what the bad guy does isn’t it awful and that will work but gosh wouldn’t it be hugely more effective if everyone blamed the heroes for the villains actions yes yes it would okay so uh villains do villainous stuff and they put the screws to the heroes what else well good villains gloat and we need to see it we need to put the villain in front of the heroes and let him sneer at them this is so important the villain can’t just be this abstract concept where if you just kill enough monsters and kick down enough doors eventually the villain is behind one of them we want to keep the heroes motivated we want them to keep the villain at the front of their mind but also we want to be able to give the villain a personality that’s part of the fun and we want to give the heroes the chance to be defiant to talk to the villain remember you’re the dungeon master you could always get the last word in but let the heroes talk to the villain it is fun for them at the end of the hero’s witty retort you can always just have the villain say I wonder if anyone will remember your clever words when your bodies are smoking Corpses the value of putting the heroes and the villain together several times before the final confrontation is huge and hopefully obvious but how do you do it well there’s a bunch of ways I advocated for actually having the real villain show up at the very beginning of the campaign when the heroes are way too low level to do anything about it sure they might let their rashness get the better of them and make a play for the dude right here but so what they are beneath his notice he stuns them or knocks them out and gloats and leaves why doesn’t he kill them well because he wants people to be afraid of him and lose hope and leaving beaten Heroes behind is a good way of doing this of course the NPCs watching might lose hope but the heroes won’t they’ll just get more pissed now I said that in an early video and lots of people have had great success with that technique as a result But It’s Tricky and it really only works once per campaign we need something simpler and more reliable something we can do more than once without it seeming contrived so there’s a few ways and they’re all cheesy but they work super well first the villain could possess someone and his voice comes out of their mouths now this can absolutely work with a PC but that depends a lot on the player and how they feel about being taken over so you can always just have it happen to an NPC someone the heroes like it could be a different NPC every time possessing a character and speaking through them is classic villain nonsense and I 100 guarantee you it will work and your players will be excited and motivated okay second idea Holograms this is more of a Sci-Fi thing I guess although it seems explicitly Fantastical to me but a cool fantasy version of the same thing is to use mirrors or Reflections or even pools of water at certain critical points in the plot you have the villain appear before the heroes in a mirror or a reflection or maybe even just yeah a 3D illusion yeah like a hologram looks totally real but lacks substance lots of illusion magic in d d go crazy this works really well and can be relied upon over and over there’s almost no downside except overuse and maybe you don’t feel confident role playing the villain yet but that’s not how confidence works first you do it and you suck at it and then you learn and you do it again and you suck at it a little less or maybe you suck at it differently and that’s how you build confidence and the great thing about d d is it’s fun the whole time even when you’re sucking at it the point is to let the heroes and the villain interact without anyone involved thinking actual combat is on the line these are interludes not encounters sure you can maybe once try and trick the heroes into thinking that this is the real villain really in front of them and that’s fun but it’s just a trick then later when they think it’s an illusion it’s not it’s the real thing and they didn’t realize it and it’s actually the finale of the story or the adventure and now they’re boned and we can all think of examples of this from movies and TV so possession Holograms both work super well what about dreams this is a fantasy world in which dreams can be Windows into another world most ancient cultures here in the real world assumed because why wouldn’t you that dreams were important that they represented some real phenomenon the gods try to tell you something or whatever the idea of the villain appearing in the hero’s dreams is awesome because it lets you design the Dreamscape you can even ask the player hey your character has a really Vivid dream a dream of something that really happened to you when you were younger what is that dream let the player describe the Dreamscape to you then insert the villain into the dream that is well spooky of course the Dreamscape can also be frightening a dream the villain implanted or really abstract like the Under the Skin World they use in stranger things it could even be a shared dream that is also very cool and spooky the players might not even realize it’s a dream if it’s a shared dream and they’re all there they might just think it’s the next scene in The Adventure then things start to get weird in the dream and the villain shows up totally interactive but initiative is never rolled not an encounter just an inner Hood but if it’s a dream couldn’t it be an encounter couldn’t you roll initiative and play out combat and then when someone dies everyone wakes up and they discover it was only a dream a preview of the final battle in which they get to actually fight the villain and see what he can do all right so that’s three ways to put the villain in front of your heroes in an interactive way possess an NPC appear before them as an illusion or in a mirror or reflection or appear before them in their dreams but there are other ways to remind the heroes that the villain is out there scheming against them these aren’t interactive but they will totally work and the second one is super important stay tuned the first trick and the one I rely on all the time and it never fails is dramatic irony dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters don’t and this is a major source of tension in fiction simplest example uh we see a shock two people having coffee together at a table in a coffee shop they are relaxed and happy and vulnerable unsuspecting the camera pans down and we see there’s a ticking bomb under the table do the people drinking coffee know about the bomb they don’t act like it who planted the bomb will it go off will the heroes foreign that is dramatic irony it really ratchets up the tension because the audience knows about the danger the heroes do not and the audience can’t do anything about it we want to warn them but we can’t we’re hostages not them they’re innocent and about to be innocent victims but we have knowledge and so we experience the tension alone without the characters on screen able to act out our emotions for us which is sort of their job normally dramatic irony is a very powerful tool Frank Herbert used it all the time we all know there’s a traitor in Dune and we know who it is way before the heroes do it’s obvious how to do that in a novel or a movie but how do you do it in an RPG you’re running you just use a cutscene you describe to the players the camera cutting to another location describe the location just like you were setting any other scene what do we see what happens who’s there what do they do then you can show the villain doing their thing without the heroes even around to see it or know about it brilliant I do this all the time but because I’m a writer I used to write up these little interludes I can write a scene showing the villain in his lair with his servants I can really play up the idea that this villain is powerful and terrifying and the players can’t do anything about it all they can do is read someone watching dusk described it as threat fiction that’s a little reductive you could use this technique to convey any number of things including what is going on back home with everyone you left behind what did The Peasants think about the heroes after they left you can put anything in a cutscene now sometimes a player will say how do our characters know this and the answer is they don’t it is a dramatic conceit I’ve done this dozens of times with many different groups and I have never seen it be a problem everyone at the table has had the experience in movies and comics and books of seeing the villain plotting or whatever while the heroes weren’t around so they get it it may not be to your taste but I know it actually does work even when we were kids and I did this stuff I never had a player try to exploit this knowledge and really I’m not even sure what there is to exploit yeah there’s a villain and he’s super evil but they knew that already this fiction is also a great opportunity to show the heroes how effective they are being every Milestone I write up a little thing showing how pissed the villains are that the heroes are making progress and also how insanely dangerous and lethal the villains are if I do a good job the players feel badass because they see their successes are pissing off the bad guys and they feel like we did that it lets me show them that success has consequences not just failure but they feel like ultimate Victory is impossible because the ultimate villain is too powerful and I can tell you this works I did this several times to great effect in dusk I’ve included links to all the fiction I wrote for that game and if you stick around to the end of this video we might have a surprise guest for you another way to put the villain in front of the heroes before the final confrontation is by proxy in other words we don’t meet the villain before the end we meet their lieutenants and this is very powerful and necessary I think the chain of Akron met Ajax the Invincible in the first session and everyone was very impressed but then it’s like literally 20 sessions later and he is now a distant memory that is not good the players shouldn’t forget about the villain sure I could have ajax’s wizard mind control someone and taunt the heroes remotely or appear before them in mirrors all that would be great but I realized after the fact that a major problem with the chain of Akron campaign was the fact that Ajax had no obvious lieutenants in capital right they fought the black Iron pact but do they remember their names your campaign might have a very high level bad guy that the players are eager to fight eventually but regardless of how well you set this bad guy up and establish what he can do if the players are too low level to do anything about it right now then I think you need lieutenants for them to beat every once in a while every level or every three levels or whatever so they know they’re making progress the players need to feel like they are making a difference and they are getting closer to the villain without actually involving the villain in any way and lieutenants make that very easy and fun you could have lieutenants for every Milestone everyone is nastier than the last one and you can make them each unique and give them different personalities and Powers and it’s just fun to make up bad guys and as they die they praise their Master you have defeated me but you cannot defeat the one above all so that’s several ways to keep the villain in the players minds and let them interact with him in a non-combat environment possession Holograms and dreams then we have a couple of ways to remind the players of the villain without interacting with them directly cutscenes and lieutenants what else do good villains need well I think stranger things shows us that good villains need to be solved low pan is an unbeatable Immortal God but for a brief moment during his wedding ceremony he is vulnerable once the players learn that they have learned how to beat him most of stranger things is about the kids learning or figuring out how to beat the villain this is a classic dramatic Arc at the beginning the villain seems invulnerable but he has weaknesses it could be vekna isn’t vulnerable unless someone has the sword of costs in other words he has some Kryptonite or he relies on some artifact to keep him alive or his powers come from the Moon and he’s vulnerable during a new moon I can’t tell you what your villain’s vulnerabilities are because I don’t know your villain but good vulnerabilities aren’t like fire or lightning they’re things you need to quest after they’re plot coupons you need to collect they’re places you need to go and rituals you need to perform or disrupt there you know in a situation where vechna can only be killed by the sword of costs because then only the player who wields that sword can make any progress but you can make it so that once he’s wounded By The Sword now he’s vulnerable and everyone can fight him ideally there are multiple fail States maybe you decide there are four obelisks the heroes must visit and perform a ritual at and there’s a lieutenant at each one and an epic fight with a countdown cool well what happens if the players fail once or twice or even all four times it should still be possible to meet the villain just harder right so now whether the players succeed or fail something dramatic is going to happen and remember failure doesn’t mean the heroes die no no it just means Lieutenant completed the ritual or maybe the heroes defeat the lieutenant but his minions complete the ritual this kind of scenario of the villain has to be solved the players can fail without it grinding the entire game to a halt this makes each confrontation really dramatic the players remember their successes and failures and wonder what it’s all going to mean in the final confrontation now how do the players know what the villain’s weaknesses are or how to beat him well that’s where your lore delivery device comes in remember that it’s almost like I play in these videos so that’s it folks good villains do villainous things the players see those things and hate the villain good villains gloat over the heroes using Illusions or possession or something so the players know this is an initiative it’s just an interlude and good villains have entertaining memorable lieutenants so the players have someone to fight now while they’re too low level to fight the actual villain and when they beat the lieutenant they feel like they’re making progress we’ll worry about the villain’s motivation later but for now I hope something in this video made you think Aha and your adventure suddenly got more dramatic as a result if you want to talk about this video with other like-minded folks come by our Discord Link in the doobly-doo if you want to support the channel we got a ton of dope Minis on our website like for instance all the Beast heart companion minis are back in stock like feathers the Albert any character can have a companion a pet right if your wizard finds a baby Albert or an egg do all bears lay eggs hell’s legs if your wizard finds an owl bear egg couldn’t you raise it up and have it as a pet yes you can and we got rules for that in the Beast heart PDF and an entire class A Very Cool Custom class that specializes in pets and you get this PDF free if you buy one of these minis one of these minis yep there’s five of them you got feathers the owl bear or you could get Spike the dino a pet Dino Jason’s really sad because he loves the and it is the one we sold the least of do people not like pet dinos I guess it’s D and D right dinos are more Ray harryhausen than high fantasy maybe you’d like a pet hellhound well here is Maxine the hellhound our friend Zach medir painted these and I think they’re amazing I didn’t know Zach was let’s go to painter check this out Jerry can we get a close-up she is glowing from the inside that is awesome super cool you want to pet dragon we got you covered here is zix the dragon wormling of course what you really want is a pet mushroom right everyone wants a little mushroom dude to follow him around so here is Mott the spoiling rules for each of these pets and a bunch more are in the Beast heart which as a reminder you get the Beast heart free if you buy one of these minis I don’t know why we didn’t do that before but we’re smarter now that’s it folks thanks for watching I mentioned the interludes I wrote for dusk you can find links to those below but my friend and YouTube neighbor Dale Kingsmill was one of our players and she read all this stuff out loud on her Stream So with her permission here is a sample of some of that threat fiction until next time peace out it’s called the black acolyte the orb went dark what does it mean blood load Forex spun around and glad wildly at his assembled lieutenants the other demo goblins avoided his gaze he turned wait I need to make glasses give me a second I don’t want to admit it but I do he turned to the figure in Black acolyte what does it mean the black acolyte turned from the window overlooking the sprawling Camp outside and surveyed the assembled dimmer Goblin leaders brittle tools but sharp it means the northern tower has fallen the shrouded figure oiled Fallen impossible impossible what did you see in the Stone Forex frowned there were five elves two elves then a goal a dragon knight what seemed a demi-theist to my eyes how could five such oppose a blood Drinker how could they even survive in our world At The Mention Of The Barrel man assessorations susuration saturation it’s not a word I’m familiar with I’m trying my best oh that’s a jet hey Matt um uh At The Mention Of The Barrel man assassination past among the demo Goblins the presence of one of the hakan was always a sign that fate had taken an active interest in the world the black acolyte flowed toward the planning table and picked up a missive scribbled onto the vellum the exact description our agent in dalrath gave 5. rat catchers he called them your informant said the goal was a war leader death Captain sergov spoke to the acolyte a gold War leader could do it they could move where they wanted strike whenever they pleased and then fade back into the world even with the power of the bleeding tree opposing them a goal War leader could adapt upset Forex exclaimed definitely avoiding addressing the fact that he ignored the missive when it first arrived wrote it off as meaningless detail how could five defeat a blood trigger and an entire fist I really like that there that each like Squad are called a fist I like that um we don’t know that they did sire death Captain sogov said all we know is they stole the orb if they can steal the orb it doesn’t matter if they eliminated the Oh wrong wrong voice if they can steal the orb it doesn’t matter if they eliminated the entire fist the acolyte said it means they’re operating unopposed unopposed the acolyte shroud the acolytes shrouded head turned to the howling demo Goblin leader and this movement alone was enough to bring vorax to heal unopposed for at least several days inside our territory I care not for body count they are free to do what they want in our territory and this is unacceptable but why vorax asked fuming striding back and forth across the top of the high tower why us here now when we are so close so close about to Mike he made a snatching motion with his hands then vorax peered at the black cloaked figure do your people have enemies that you have not told us about the acolyte ignored him our informant in Dole wrath reported an entire Village disappeared two weeks ago I took it as a sign our plan is working villagers deserting their homes fleeing South to he looked at death Captain sergov to bediger dreadlord yes around our new world he stretched out a thin hand his jet black fingers turning pale white as some hidden light illuminated them he touched the map a twin to the ones sent to the watchtowers stroked the fine boned stroked fine boned fingers against the red ink Cloud on the map that represented the bloodwood he suddenly looked or appeared to look at death captain zergov but what if they tried to go through Captain sergov did not flinch from the black acolytes hooded gaze it’s possible dreadlord she admitted then would it not be tradition for these mortals to seek a band of their own these rat catchers Heroes to save the townspoken poetic if they have one of the midnight Stones sergav observed it will make operating in the bloodwood easier for them and harder for us to track them if they can unlock its power we did they defy us they Define me vorex exclaimed he placed his hands on the giant black stone sat on the pedestal the master Stone we will find them we will send the Red Death by Elite he thrust a finger at death Captain Zerg off find these elves and whoever was foolish enough to trust them and bring them to me alive I will drink their blood before no the Accolade said what you dare defy me I command the stranded figure Strode across the tower his cloak billowing like smoke he reached out a thin arm and grabbed bloodlord vorax by the color of his breastplate lifted him up pulled him in close and hissed at him remember who gave you the midnight Stones the black arrows remember who raised you above the other blood drinkers I could drain your life in an instant and lay this filthy stinking Camp to waste before your corpse was cold spammy I could like to spare me the acolyte tossed for exercise the other demo goblins in the tower were all astutely avoiding looking at the scene except sergov we will strike where they are weak the acolyte announced find the humans The Villages they’re in our world somewhere these elves are hiding them protecting them find these helpless peasants exterminate them and The Elves and the fools they’ve enlisted to help them will simply fade away go back to whatever homes they might enjoy for the moment vorextun to sergov you will take 10 of my Elite find and exterminate these villages and should we in the course of executing your will death Captain sergov bowed slightly come across these rat catches vorax glanced at the acolyte studying the map in that event you are ordered to eliminate them you will bring me their skin and the ward off’s red arm as a trophy the acolyte’s head snapped around what what did you say uh for for you Lord Forex bowed and script we will deliver her red arm to you the acolyte once more Strode to confront vorax describe this elf to me it was a a road elf dreadlord vorex coward with a red arm ritual tattooing or red was it red or Crystal what does it matter it was a filthy crawling word elf it doesn’t borax think carefully bloodlord vorex’s eyes darted around the room looking for allies it was yes it was red Crystal blood red ruby a ruby right arm the black cloaked figure Drew itself up to its full height towered over the demo goblins black smoke billowed out from its cloak making it impossible to see where the fabric ended and the Perpetual cloud of soot began hearts and he whispered he reached out a hand and caressed vorax Redford cheek the demo Goblin leader trembled you have done well vorax you have exceeded all my hopes for you he turned to death to death Captain sergov who stood a little straighter to attention you will not hunt these elves and their allies these rat catches focus on the villagers and should you encounter these Elven Heroes with their dragon knight you are instructed to give them a wide berth do not engage even to defend yourselves do you understand are we to ignore them vorax called out let them pick off our troops one by one no the black Accolade in toned I will deal with them personally you it is fitting that I be the one it is fate calm yourself vorax we are closer than I dreamed to our goal your goal all this work the new world and we are still no closer to freeing the what above all fear not my faithful servant the acolyte turned to study the master map you will stand before your Patron air long this my goddess has promised you no acolyte vorak said Darkly your goddess promised you and you he said looking to each of his lieutenants all heavily armed and battle scarred willing to die on the bloodlord’s command have promised us poo https://t.co/aNdlmf3sAE
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) October 26, 2022