dazz.log 001 Making BBEG/Villains Awesome
To Make a ttrpg Villain…
Wanting to build that amazing Villain in your story or Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal (BBEG) in your TTRPG adventure? When you make the villain/BBEG, they are integral to the plot. In an adventure or campaign, they tend to be the reason the plot is happening. Thus creating a villain for TTRPG or game use requires framing the plot and other things around the villain/BBEG. A lackluster villain can tank a game, and make things a groaning snooze-fest for the players. Too strong, too powerful and players clock out in apathetic groans.
We can apply much of this to creating villains for stories, too.
One of the best methods to craft a quick and useable villain is to fill in the details of the following statement created by (9) How to be a Great GM - YouTube that I have slightly modified:
Villain/BBEG, assisted by Others, wants Something by a Deadline but is having difficulties getting it because of the Protagonist/Heroes.
Villain/BBEG
Who (and often what) is the villain? This will involve several PARTS:
Choosing the species is a great place to start. In my short story, Harvest of Horror in the horror anthology Macabre and Monstrous, I decided my villain was a demon tree! What species do you have access to in your world? Are there worldbuilding tensions you could play off? How about mirroring the party characters, picking something which directly confronts them? Remember a villain for a ttrpg campaign is a passage for the players to have fun. The villain should help them do this, however ‘fun’ is defined for your group.
What does the villain want to do? The best tool I found for this is a list of Villain(ess) Motivations by Darcy Pattison.
My villain in Harvest of Horror chose: I want to rule the world!
Once there is a motivation, it’s time to figure out who your villain(ess) is. Next, decide what they do for a living. This can be their career or an occupation they are pretending to be while having a different side gig. For my villain Aichil, being a demon in the world of Pangorio, his choice was Leader/Demon. In his case, his species also was a “career” of sorts.
Maybe your villain is full-time, maybe they’re the village baker with a special side-gig of spectacular sedition. Do they have all the resources they need to accomplish their villainy - like a business owner or wealthy lord - or are they spendthrift? Stealing to get ahead?
Again, you’re going to want to reflect your players initial intentions or backstories. Is one of the players a noble with a sordid past you can connect to in the shadows? Are your players throwing around gold coins, or eating foraged weeds to survive? Using your villain’s ‘career’ to reflect and foil the party themselves means planning to put intentional wrenches in their way, without shutting down their flow.
With that decided, the next thing to decide is the Story Goal. Since his motivation is ruling the world, it means starting somewhere and so his story goal is to control the town of Rookery Hollow.
Every real villain needs Attitude. Aichil is arrogant, conniving, impatient, and ruthless. Yup, this demon tree is bad to his heartwood.
The final step of this part is what is at Stake if they fail. For my villain, it is the withering of his power and possibly getting destroyed by a demon hunter. Depending on the sincerity of your party, whether they’re looking for a world-shattering game or a baker’s sweet roll dilemma, the stakes are going to be dependent on what they’re looking for. Make sure the escalation makes sense.
OTHERS
Deciding whether your villain works alone or with others will determine how they operate in the story. Solo villains have to be more hands-on and in the mess of things while those who have minions can step back, work from the shadows, or sit like a spider at the center of a web pulling strands.
The quantity, quality, and competence of these minions and such will reflect your villain's economic and social status. For Aichil, he has to grow his minions. This forces him to be patient, something he lacks. That pent-up impatience can then serve as a flaw, perhaps even a fatal one, in the story.
SOMETHING
This is the plot. The villain or BBEG is the driving force of the plot so it is important to know what the steps taken to achieve the story goal are. Sure, we have the motivation and story goal but … how do they do it? Sometimes figuring out my plot needs some inspiration so I go looking at random quest generators. There are many out there but the three that I use the most are Plot Hooks generator for fantasy tabletop RPGs | Here Be Taverns, donjon; Fantasy Random Generator (bin.sh), and Quest description generator (fantasynamegenerators.com).
I often combine several into one! These quests can also inspire me by making me realize what the villain is NOT going to do and so figuring things out is a process of elimination.
DEADLINE
If you want that ticking time bomb feel to be another driving force motivating your villain to take greater risks, be more aggressive, and possibly make mistakes, be sure to not only create a deadline for the villain but the consequences of failing. What will your villain lose or suffer if they fail to reach that deadline?
PROTAGONIST/HEROES
This is where it is best to decide who and what is gonna be countering all your villain's hard work. This is important in determining how the villain will react when they discover the who and the what that has been meddling in their precious plot. This is an integral part of your villain! Are they truly despicable? Are they to be reviled or pitied? Are they redeemable? With TTRPGs, this is your adventure party, and as a GM you’ll be tailoring your villain and minions to challenge and entertain the party going up against them.
You do not have to carry out these steps in order. They can be worked out in any order you wish. What matters most is making sure all the steps are done. Now get out there and build your greatest villain/BBEG!
Thursday on We Aren’t Dead Yet:
Villainesses! We talk villainesses, historical and mythological femme fatales!
