Craft complex antagonists for unforgettable adventures
The final showdown. After smashing aside all the diversions, mental games, tricks and traps, the party has caught up to the villain. They've been forced to face their demons along the way, made sacrifices, but have finally earned the chance to end the villains reign of terror once and for all. That's the kind of villains we want to bring to the table. And in this episode, we're discussing our best techniques for doing just that by creating a charismatic, manipulative father figure villain for our adventure, Corruption in the Temple of Trials.
To create a villain that is not only a powerful character, but is useful in your game isn't easy. They need to be bad people, but obviously not so bad they cross boundaries. They need to be fun to hate, but in a way the players feel compelled to stop, rather than laugh at. And they truly need to be custom-built, because as great as Darth Vader is, he's a great villain for Luke Skywalker and his pals, not for Indiana Jones. Our process is to look at our player characters, determine themes and threads we want to pull at, consider any inspiration points, and fill out our NPC generator with a villain in mind. In The Extra-Dimensional Gateway, we bring up three great villains to inspire our concept. Hans Landa of Inglorious Basterds offers us a ruthless monster under a disciplined, polite exterior. Rhas al Ghul of Batman Begins provides a great model for a mentor, mixed with an "ends justify the means" mentality. Finally, Joseph Seed from Farcry 5 gives us the mindset of a zealot that believes himself the only one capable of shepherding his people to a better life.
Then, in The Conspirator's Conclave, we start to fill out our NPC creator. We get into the nuances of how we plan to introduce this villain, the light version of his "origin story", and his goals. Then we make sure we have some elements from our mystery guide, like a fleshed-out plan for the party to stop, and other suspects for the villains' crimes that might throw players off the scent.
How we build NPCs: NPC Creation in Stages
How we build mysteries:
D&D Mystery Simplified I: Worldbuilding — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)
D&D Mystery Simplified II: Story Beats — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)
D&D Mystery Simplified III: The Details — Hook & Chance (hookandchance.com)
As always, huge thanks to our patrons for making this episode a reality.
Inigo the Brave, David P., Adam F., Alex R., Steve A., Sigma, Kuraidoscope, Skyler E., Deadman, Ninja Duckie, PseuArt, Blackthorne, First Law, Peacockdreams, DM Thunderbum, Marley R., Timewarp, Dangerous Marmalade, Zach G., NoMaam, Michelle T., Adlerious, Chris F., The Senate, Lucas D., Lyla G., The GM Tim, Nevermour, Thomas W., DM Natske, Heavyarms, Leprecan, and Will H-P.