Most every story has some kind of villain, even if it's something abstract, but it's especially true that tabletop games have villains. Part of the nature of the gameplay dictates that a story is more accessible and rewarding if there's a villain to confront and triumph over. Creating an interesting villain can take work, but the rewards are many: your players will be interested in the character, ready to interact with them, and engaged with the story around the villain, to name just a few benefits. For some people, all they need is inspiration--check out this list of villain ideas for that--but some folks have the idea and need help putting it into practice. Read on for a full guide to creating an interesting villain from the ground up.
The first step is in choosing an idea. I've taken one from the list linked to above--the urban terrorist. But if we don't have an idea already, here are a few things to keep in mind about your villain:
- Why do they do what makes them the villain? Do they stand to gain something from it, exact revenge on someone, fulfill some personal goal, etc.? One thing that applies here and elsewhere is the idea of having a reasonable villain. This is not a requirement; you can certainly have a totally deranged villain if you want to. But in my experience, players are far more intrigued by an enemy who makes some kind of sense to them. In the urban terrorist example, the villain looks at society and sees something wrong--that's their main motivation. But most all of us see something wrong with society, so we identify with the villain's perception, but not their methods. This creates a complex situation as the players must carefully define moral and existential issues to communicate with the villain (as opposed to "stop sacrificing babies," which is not complex).
- How far do you want the villain to be able to take their plans? This will define almost every action you take when the villain is present in the game. If you would let your players overwhelm the villain in session two is that's how it worked out, then know that going in. Then you can plan for a villain whose time in the spotlight is limited and should be maximized. Inversely, you might be planning for the villain to constantly elude the party until a truly dramatic final battle can take place. In that case, you need to design a villain who is reasonably capable of constantly outfoxing the players, which creates its own problems (how do you keep players feeling empowered as they constantly fail to the villain no matter what? do you make the villain insanely powerful to explain their escapes? if so, how do will the players ever be able to overcome them?). By anticipating these problems, we can build solutions right in to our villain. Since most people will fall somewhere between these two extremes--no scripting and total scripting--use a combination of both approaches that feels right.
- How can you escalate the villain's plans? As a story progresses, you want the stakes to become more dramatic. Again, the length of your campaign matters because it determines the pacing of your villain's actions. But generally, you want a regular reminder that the villain is at work even when the players are up to other things. In Listen Check, a D&D podcast, I had the villain of the campaign begin to create terrible nightmares in the minds of the players when they didn't pursue his morally objectionable quest--the nightmares came whenever the players slept, so it happened with notable regularity. You can do something like this: the urban terrorist always strikes at midnight for secret villain reasons, which then creates drama around the time; players and NPCs alike will be wary around that time. Or you could reserve actions from the villain for when you need to add drama to the players' lives. Answering these questions tells us about our villain, and we should be sure that the idea we had to start can work with our needs for the campaign.
Beyond these considerations, you're essentially building a character like normal. I've written about this from the player perspective before, and I think that process can be helpful for making a villain. After all, the main NPC that the GM usually builds a campaign around is the villain, so it's worth taking time to really invest in the villain as a character. Knowing how the villain would act not just as a part of the plot but also as a person is huge. A villain with complexity is practically the holy grail of tabletops, and it's fairly attainable if you really think about them as a person outside of the story.
One thing I personally enjoy in writing villains is to give them contradictory ideals. By this I mean that my villains are often very idealistic people who have been led astray by something in their lives. The players will be able to see over time that your villain's talk about morals and ideals is genuine, and part of the identity of the villain becomes complicated by this puzzle--why is the villain like this? This wrinkle can be a fun detail or a defining feature, depending on how you play it. I've run games with an angry god with a tragic past (a detail) and an anarchist princess who toppled her own kingdom (a defining feature). It's up to you how much this idea is a part of your villain.
When you introduce this villain to the story for the first time, you are establishing the tone of the campaign. Is your villain menacing and mysterious? Condescending and chaotic? Silent and surly? You're also establishing how your players are going to feel next time they see the villain, so be careful to handle things right. I personally never prepare any language in advance with the occasional exception of riddles, and I recommend improvising most of your game if you're comfortable with. But if anything in a game is ripe for writing ahead of time, it's a villain's part. You want the villain to come off exactly as you intend, so at least for the first introduction, give yourself room to prepare.
You also need to go into the campaign knowing that the villain, despite all your work on them, is not the star of the show. We want them detailed so that when it's their turn, we're ready. But if a villain is constantly around and the players can't do anything to them, it's just disempowering for the players. Be ready to introduce your villain and get them out of the scene as soon as their purpose is served. Be comfortable with playing the villain in brief scenes and then allowing the players to do the heavy lifting of creating a story in reaction to the villain.
And I recommend that when you introduce your villain, you hold back on showing how powerful the villain is at first. Let's return to the urban terrorist example. The first time I have my players meet this villain, the urban terrorist is going to seem like a completely ordinary person. They'll be able to escape the scene capably, but they won't be superpowered. Then, I would gradually reveal more and more abilities in the villain until finally, they are revealed to have placed bombs all over the city, due to detonate at midnight. This massive race against the clock would be the climax of the campaign. Seeing a villain become more and more powerful is more dramatic than having a villain who can cast "Wish" from the first moment.
That's all for now. Coming soon: a guide to epochs of history in my gameworld, a variety of descriptions of common items, and a guide to the craftspersonship of each culture in my homebrew setting. Until next time, happy gaming!
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