Two Villains That Shape Your Campaign

I’m back.

Thank you for the emails and well-wishes. I had some unscheduled downtime, but all is well. More news on that another time.

Been thinking lately about villains. They’re actually the topic of a writing challenge I started a few days ago to get me back into rolling up some words.

There are two kinds of villains, methinks.

Type I, which we’ll call The Parasite, desperately needs the player characters and clings to them like a mimic at a furniture sale.

Type II, which we’ll call Mr. Plot Factory, needs no restraining order. He wishes the PCs would just go away or die in a fireball, to be honest.

Why make this differentiation? What’s the deal with The Parasite vs. Mr. Plot Factory?

The main difference is felt behind the screen.

Mr. Parasite sucks the mental cycles right out of a GM. Without mercy. He leaves them in a reduced state to enjoy the moment, conjure creative ideas, make great rulings, and provide excellent descriptions.

Mr. Parasite needs the party to go to certain locations, do certain things, and generate certain results. Otherwise, it’s cling-time and he does everything to get the characters back on his track. He pulls every trick out of his bag — Quantum Ogres, three clues, fudged dice, scripted scenes — hoping something sticks.

If the characters don’t follow the villain’s plan, then the GM’s plans are screwed. And that’s not a good situation for us.

Now, Mr. Plot Factory is a different story. Literally.

This villain doesn’t care what the characters do unless they get in the way or prove useful. If the party does get in the way, then it’s hammer time, or frame time, or polymorph time.

And the PCs are guaranteed to get in the villain’s way. To be a pebble in his shoe. Because I’m the one constructing the 5 Room Dungeons — encounters triggered by the villain’s actions, not reliant on player compliance.

The vorpal sword sits stuck in the stone golem’s head, which the villain has corrupted into a power source. If the PCs take it, it’s vengeance time. If they don’t, the villain levels up.

The villain’s just doing their thing. Minding their business. Or army. Or band of thieves. Taking the next step along an evil plan, er, corporate strategy.

Mr. Plot Factory is a dream to GM. Minimal cognitive load. They just respond to the player characters as the campaign goes on. Events and situations arise. Encounters and 5 Room Dungeons trigger. The party learns to love to hate Mr. Plot Factory.

We do not panic when the party does something unexpected. Mr. Plot Factory simply takes a few minutes between sessions and plots his next action. That may result in an encounter, which means gameplay blossoms. Or it might result in a background event whose ripples could be felt soon…

Either way, I’m just roleplaying an NPC. Responding as the villain would, responding as the world would, and not stressing over getting the party moving along a pre-configured storyline.

Whereas Mr. Parasite steals our energy as we constantly try to guide the party and steer gameplay along the published module’s course or some complex story path, Mr. Plot Factory “gives” us energy because we’re playing the game along with our players now.

It’s the difference between hosting a party and stressing out the whole time trying to be a great host, versus simply being a fellow guest and enjoying the event as a guest would.

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

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