In this post, I'd like to sketch out the way in which I create villains and main antagonists for the campaigns I create. Villains are the heart and soul of any good adventure. They don't have to be human. They don't even have to be physically present in the campaign. They just have to set up a conflict, against which the Player Characters must contend.
I usually start out by examining the setting I am working with. If it's a pre-existing setting, say Ravenloft, the Forgotten Realms, the World of Darkness or even Faalor itself, I look for groups, factions, races which would naturally be at odds with the PCs. This doesn't necessarily have to be the case, though playing to the PC's expectations should be taken into consideration. There's no sense in setting up a world in which dark elves are the natural enemy and then cast your main villain as a kindly wood elf--the vast majority of the time. I may work with existing groups like the Red Wizard of Thay or Azalin's Kargate, or the Sabbat. Again, it's not necessary to stick with something the players know; I may come up with something just to throw something totally new at the PCs and give the players something to think about. In Faalor IV and the Winter's Chill campaigns, I used an elf of a little-known faction allied with Maelwar.
Once I've decided on a general background, I begin writing a more specific background for the villain. Where was it born? How old is it? I come up with a tentative name and class. What kind of allies, bases and other resources does it have? Most importantly, I think about the NPC's current plans and why would the PCs want to interfere? This is when I think about the heart of the campaign.
Once I come up with these tentative details, I begin to look at the adventure from the PC’s perspective. This is when I begin to come up with the story aspects of the campaign. I need to know how the PC’s start the campaign, their races, backgrounds and motivations. Once I know this, I can play off those motivations by creating counter-motivations in the villain. This naturally creates the conflict necessary for a good adventure.
At this stage, I begin to fill in the details of the villain’s lair, contacts, minions and other resources. Keeping in mind possible adventure locations (places where the PCs will go), I create dungeons, crypts, towns, wizard labs and dark forests appropriate to the villain’s motives, i.e. where the PCs and the villain can physically be in conflict with one another. In Neverwinter Nights, this means laying out areas and placing objects and monsters.
Finally, I will create a detailed list of traits, habits and strategies the villain will use. While I don't always do this, a list like this is very handy when dealing with long campaigns by helping me to maintain a consistent character over time. Once that is done, the campaign is ready to roll.
Some nice villain-related links:
Thursday, December 15, 2005
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