Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
It can be take exception for Game Masters and players of tabletopRPGs likeDungeons & Dragonsto create clever villain distinct from Saturday - morning sketch stereotype , yet there are few fiber as cool as the villainous mastermind . To this oddment , the pourboire , trick , and guidelines in this clause are meant to help RPG gamers put themselves in the brake shoe of " Masterminds " and craft villainous program that are tenacious and competent .
What is avillain , exactly ? In some story , a villain taste to shoot apart or destabilise a relatively functional society into order to benefit from the chaos , or re - make the world edict into something more aligned with their twisted aesthesia . The comic - Holy Writ mad scientist trying to take over the world are dandy examples , or demented criminals like the Joker who relish chaos and madness . Other villain are invested in continue or strengthening an unjust position quo for their own sake , such as dictator ruling an oppressed state , offence bosses overwork the have - nots of fellowship , or religious inquisitor oppress heretic . The consistent through - line of these typicallyLawful Evil , Chaotic Evil , and Neutral Evilvillains is a large degree of self and a willingness to de - personalize the people around them , understand ally , enemies , and strangers as tools to be used up , rather than people with dreams just as valid as theirs .
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When track down a tabletop RPG drive center on on battle against nefarious Einstein , aDungeon Master or Game Masterneeds to verify their villain are dangerously competent ( though not unvanquishable ) and at least occasionally relatable ( though still ultimately villainous ) . Most significantly , a scoundrel ’s deeds and behavior should never outshine or invalidate the action of player characters , but give them a hazard to develop beyond said villain ’s ambitions . To maintain this equilibrium between " melodramatic klutz " and " frustratingly invincible villain , " GMs and players concerned in creating friendly bad guys can draw on the follow principles to mold their role creation and decision - making process .
Villainous Mastermind Tip #1: Give A Villain A Direct, Straightforward Goal
Rule the world . Gain the power of a god . Live everlastingly . Become smutty plentiful . Become famous . Become have it away or feared by all . Cleanse the world of hell . exist at all costs . Turn hoi polloi into dinosaurs likeSauron did in Spider - Man . The goal of a villainous originator can be rationally mundane or utterly bonkers . What ’s important is that a scoundrel ’s rightful , final goal is clear , lineal , and something they genuinely hope . No one hatch a class - farseeing scheme to take over the world if they they ’re not passionate about wrench it into a reality . Of course , nothing stops a scoundrel from attempt to keep their true destination secret until the very last moment , but Game Masters should not underestimate the power of their players to sniff out a villain ’s rightful nature and motives .
Villainous Mastermind Tip #2: Come Up With Multiple Evil Plans To Achieve The Villain’s Goal
If there ’s any truismGame Masters run a campaignshould remember , it ’s this : Players will always do something you did n’t design for . This roleplaying principle holds doubly straight for the malevolent strategy of a GM ’s villainous NPC . The more complicated an evil plan is , the more likely a player is to disrupt it with out - of - the - loge thinking ( or really , really good dice rolls ) . To counter this , a GM should give their originator at leastthreeevil plans conduct to the same final goal ; if the player wrecks one architectural plan , a villain can simply funnel all of their resource into the others . Whenever possible , a GM should also create a flowchart displaying the multiple phases in each evil architectural plan and the possible outcomes of each phase angle . If an evil plan has too many steps in it , or too many possible points of failure , the villain ( and GM ) should go back to the literal drafting circuit board .
Villainous Mastermind Tip #3: A Villain’s Choices Should Always Be Pragmatic (In Their Head, At Least)
In a chilling monologue near the end ofThe Hunger Games : Mockingjay - Part 2,President Snow , tyrannical ruler of Panem , cheerfully intromit to Katniss that he ’s " … not above kill children . But I ’m not uneconomical . I take spirit for specific rationality . " This statement of baldly pragmatical amorality is a right rationale both Game Masters and RPG actor should keep in brain when they have their " evil characters " make " vicious decisions . " Tempting as it may be to have a villain flush puppies and eat babies , villain are far more threatening ( and spookily relatable ) when their actions have a twisted figure of logic behind them . This does n’t mean a scoundrel needs to be sane , rational , or without fault , but even the most unstable villains should make awful decisions coherent with the desire they follow - " If I do this bad matter , I ’ll get something I want . "
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Villainous Mastermind Tip #4: Villains Shouldn’t Start Out Hostile To The Heroes
Most gamers today do n’t start out playingtabletop RPGs likeDungeons & Dragons . Instead , their RPGs are often played on home computers or console , which essentially narrow the theatre of possibility for resister . A estimator RPG ca n’t simulate every possibility , so it constrains the actions of both role player and NPC to maintain a cohesive plot ; merchant will almost always deal goodness to player characters , enemy will almost always lash out them on sight , and villainous masterminds will almost always bump a reason to put the main characters on their personal hit list . By comparison , atabletop RPG has few limitations , meaning nefarious Einstein NPCs do n’t take to be unfriendly towards actor fictitious character upon first encounter . An adventuring party that has n’t blockade a villain ’s architectural plan yet might be ignored , sweet - babble , stag upon , or just bribed to keep their aloofness , and after a demonstration of substantial competency or fight art , they might even be scouted out and hold a tempting task fling by a scoundrel with an opportunistic bar .
Of of course , at the end of the twenty-four hour period if the political party proves to be a dour pain in the neck or genuine menace to anevil whizz ' plans for world domination , the baddie should believably just send their best the great unwashed to murder them . That ’s only usual gumption !
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