I was thinking of doing a post about emergent villains in campaigns.
I was thinking of doing a post about emergent villains in campaigns. Who were the baddies that you really hated or loved to hate in the campaign? I seem to remember that mostly it wasn't the top shelf bad boss people but more unexpected NPCs like the Patriarch of Kezmarok and such not.
Maybe party antagonist is a better way to put it. Basically my thesis is that the best baddies emerge rather than are designed.
ReplyDeleteWizards of deer men and badgers
ReplyDeleteJames Aulds oh yeah you really went after those Invisible College assholes.
ReplyDeleteI still have a fondness for the solitary Deodand we captured that tried to lure us to our deaths at the "dragons" den. That fellow was quite hilarious.
ReplyDeleteMike Davison he had a lucrative time share deal to tell you about. Totally legit.
ReplyDeleteChris Kutalik I still want to check out that dragon's den.
ReplyDeleteIt's just off the road between Marlinko and Revoca, not a totally inconvenient place to check out.
ReplyDeleteChris Kutalik who would you have considered the "top shelf bad boss people?"
ReplyDeleteThe Autarchs and, yes, the Patriarch. The Eld, early on.
ReplyDeletecole long the obvious bosses like Smok the dragon, the demon-astronaut captain, Grugach horde hetman, etc. I mean some of it is that are very clearly things to be dispatched and have been killed relatively quickly. The Autarchs maybe and Nezarr the Aborted are some of the few baddies designed to be baddies who stuck around long enough to be actual villains.
ReplyDeleteBut NPCs like Lady Szara and the Patriarch were designed to be more like a double-dealing or sinister patrons.
The child stealing diga-witch wasn't really a villain of note - but I remember her and the Simple Woodcutter the most.
ReplyDeleteChris Kutalik i think it has a good bit to do with the threat being non-overt enough that it doesn't immediately escalate to battle
ReplyDeleteBuilding on cole long's point - when conflict is non-overt, there's more time to imagine what exactly the enemy is planning...which works suitably well to magnify their threat.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that they were also taking an active role in the world (contrast with say the Captain or the Grugach Horde hetman -- both of whom had a fixed role of "defend ship" or "leade horde" but didn't really stray from those areas).
Simple. Woodcutter.
ReplyDeleteyeah fuck the Simple Woodcutter
ReplyDeleteHe's still out there.
ReplyDeleteHumza K cole long I suspected as much. I think part of it is that I hate the big scheming arch-villain trope. My non-overt NPCs tend to have a "naturalistic" function, I tend to think about what they do in their spare time in Zem and that includes all kinds of things. Overt big bads just feel very expendable I suppose.
ReplyDeleteChris Kutalik I think that we've had a very good run with scheming ambiguous folks (GG, Patriarch, Lady Szara) - in most cases they were not arch-villains, but wind up aligning as villains b/c of the party's decisions.
ReplyDeleteI think the villains with the most traction in my own game have been characters like Karumakka or the Governor - bad men, but not inimical to mankind in Hill Cantons terms. But they and the PCs found themselves at odds with one another.
ReplyDeleteSo i think that aligns with your assessment in the HC, Humza K
ReplyDeletePart of that is that they have the freedom to be characters. We would never see the Demon-Captain or the Grugach have something absurd like a collection of porcelain tchotchkes (maaaaaybe Smok).
ReplyDeleteBut you can totally see Lady Sz, One Armed Jiri, or even that badgerman wizard doing so. It's the sort of goofy whimsical thing that helps set them aside as an individual, with a relevant personality and outlook rather than a mechanical force.
(That badgerman wizard would totally have been on the top villains list, had he made it more than one session. See also Pavol of the Wizard Crew Team. Personality shines through, even if it's just for 15 minutes before being brutally killed by Taurus)
The badgerman wizard had a few appearances. I hated that guy.
ReplyDeleteOh that's right, he was multiple appearances, it was the deerman guy that was one appearance.
ReplyDeleteWhich one had the creepy golden manservant?
Badgerman guy had the golden manservant. Deerman guy appeared at least twice, tho.
ReplyDeleteI think of the horseheads/manbodies as an emergent faction - not villian per say, but totally something that appears to have started as a speedbump humanoid encounter that has now produced a) a 'sanctuary'/town space b) a race as class c) entangled the PCs in several conflicts.
ReplyDeleteGus L The RCs really could have easily become persistent annoyances on the way to the dungeon for sure. In fact I though that was way more likely. I do like being surprised like that as a GM.
ReplyDelete