Author Topic: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?  (Read 5923 times)

Offline Jabberwocky

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 115
  • Radical Reactionary Habsburg Loyalist
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #30 on: October 30, 2012, 04:24:17 PM »
No problem, pal :-) I remember one of my first epic NPC/villain failures some 15 years ago. It was Shadowrun and I meticulously prepared a powerful NPC whom I really liked. She wasn't plain evil, just very very egoistic. And rude. And crazy as hell. Know what? The PCs killed her off with ease in a scene best described as parodic. Man, was I angry :-D But a few years later (same campaign and PCs) I revived her as a vengeful ghost (technically free spirit in SR2) and the PCs stopped laughing. This time she was truly after them and wanted them dead.
A Hundred Towers? – Our Prague campaign.
Dramatis personae – Cast of characters, both PCs and NPCs.

Offline Ophidimancer

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 956
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #31 on: October 30, 2012, 05:17:55 PM »
Your players already made one for you. You now get to spend the rest of the campaign having Mab torture and hound them for violating the accords. I would make her vengeance so wonderfully awful that it leaves at least the werewolf character wishing for death.... not that The Queen of Air and Darkness would allow that.  ;)

I think the thing about using Mab is you have to emphasize that sh'es unstattable.  It's not like you can fight her, but she also prefers to make things interesting instead of just killing people who violate the Accords.  Have her judiciate that the characters are in violation and then enforce something that the characters find really repugnant and have them do that.  They owe a debt to the Red Court and the Reds will want to collect, but it's not like they care about each other.  This won't be vengeance, it will be business.  So they will be looking to turn the debt into something useful for them while at the same time making it an abject lesson to never mess with them.

Maybe they send your characters up against Harry and friends in a maneuver in the War.  Ha, wouldn't it be funny if the characters just make themselves look awful in front of Harry and Harry ends up a reoccurring antagonist?

Offline Jabberwocky

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 115
  • Radical Reactionary Habsburg Loyalist
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #32 on: October 31, 2012, 03:42:18 AM »
Chrono: Heh, it's 3 AM here and as I'm lying down with a flu and can't sleep a rather entertaining idea crossed my mind. Let's modify a whole story arc :-)
(click to show/hide)

I think I'm going to use that for my campaign :-)
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 03:44:12 AM by Jabberwocky »
A Hundred Towers? – Our Prague campaign.
Dramatis personae – Cast of characters, both PCs and NPCs.

Offline Chrono

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 169
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #33 on: November 06, 2012, 11:26:48 PM »
Love the idea of repopulation. I had thought of letting the characters participate somehow in the extermination, so that would be an added bonus.

Offline Jabberwocky

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 115
  • Radical Reactionary Habsburg Loyalist
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #34 on: November 07, 2012, 10:56:46 AM »
Ah, yes. Plus, I love to confront my PCs with ethical problems occasionally. Not too often, of course, but sometimes it should be hard to meet a decision.
A Hundred Towers? – Our Prague campaign.
Dramatis personae – Cast of characters, both PCs and NPCs.

Offline fantazero

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1217
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #35 on: November 14, 2012, 01:07:28 AM »
I think the thing about using Mab is you have to emphasize that sh'es unstattable.  It's not like you can fight her, but she also prefers to make things interesting instead of just killing people who violate the Accords.  Have her judiciate that the characters are in violation and then enforce something that the characters find really repugnant and have them do that.  They owe a debt to the Red Court and the Reds will want to collect, but it's not like they care about each other.  This won't be vengeance, it will be business.  So they will be looking to turn the debt into something useful for them while at the same time making it an abject lesson to never mess with them.

Maybe they send your characters up against Harry and friends in a maneuver in the War.  Ha, wouldn't it be funny if the characters just make themselves look awful in front of Harry and Harry ends up a reoccurring antagonist?

I'd say put her at a 7 or everything, but there are times when Harry is able to socially outwit the Fae.

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12402
    • View Profile
Re: How Do I Make A Great Recurring Villain?
« Reply #36 on: November 14, 2012, 02:35:58 AM »
It's true, you can fight Mab. Just not with your fists.

I'd give her social skills of around 5ish, personally. Physical skills might be lower, since Mab doesn't get her hands dirty much. Spellcasting skills and Contacts/Resources would of course be higher. I'd probably put her skill floor at 3 and her skill cap at 8.