Adventure Design 101: The Villain

The villain is possibly the most important aspect of adventure design.  There’s a school of thought that says that a strong villain is what makes a piece of fiction most memorable.  I’m not sure I’d go that far, but there’s no question in my mind that a strong villain goes a good way toward that.  A memorable bad guy can cover for a weak plot or setting and enhance a good one.

A villain can be a lot of things.  The fictional version of Cardinal Richelieu, of The Three Musketeers, and Darth Vader, of Star Wars, are both strong villains, but their personalities, motivations, and approaches are very different in nature… and neither of them is much like Batman’s antagonist, the Joker.  So it can be a little hard to pin down what makes a good villain.

But there are a few questions you can keep in mind to help you design one.

Name

A good villain has a distinctive name.  That isn’t to say it has to be an exotic one — but it should stand apart.  Often this can be accomplished through titles, nicknames, and epithets.  From my examples, both Richelieu and Vader have titles, and “The Joker” is an epithet-fashioned codename.  Even a fairly ordinary name works, though.  The evil brigand lord Thomas sounds a bit flat, but when it’s Thomas the Bloody-Handed or One-Eyed Tom or Gentleman Tommy, it becomes a bit more memorable.

Motivation

Most villains don’t consider themselves villains.  Why is your villain doing the things he’s doing?  Is he misguided?  Power-hungry?  Insane?  Does he simply believe that he’s doing what’s best for his nation/people/world?  Is he just greedy?  A thrillseeker?  Too afraid of his boss, the Bigger Bad Guy Behind the Scenes, to defy him?

Answering what your villain is really like and what he wants is a vital step in developing his character, and that’s why I list it up here, ahead of things like “appearance.”  If you know nothing about a villain other than his name and his basic motivations, you can still improvise the rest and end up with a memorable villain.  If you don’t know the villain’s motivations, though, it gets much harder.  The villain will feel like a cardboard cutout, something placed into the adventure to stand in the party’s way and eventually get beaten upon.

This is a good time to consider the villain’s basic personality, too.  In fact, knowing his motive could help you determine that.  If he’s just too afraid of a bigger villain, then he could be meek and easily intimidated, or cowardly, or maybe he’s being blackmailed by threats against someone or something he loves.  If she’s just in it for the money, it might be possible to convince her to step aside, or even to change sides — if the party can make a good enough offer.  If he’s a megalomaniac, he might be overbearing and short-tempered, or simply grandiloquent with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.

That isn’t to say that you have to feel strictly bound by your decision once the adventure is underway.  Most people have multiple motives, and these can even come into conflict.  But you shouldn’t begin an adventure unless you have an idea of what your villain is trying to accomplish and why.  You can always expand and develop later, but there should be some solid ground for you to start with.

Appearance

Likewise, a good villain should be distinctive in appearance.  The Joker looks like a demented clown.  Darth Vader wears his signature black armor.  Perhaps your villain is unusually tall, or morbidly obese, or dresses garishly.  This need not be a visual distinction; he might also have a distinctive tone of voice or an accent, or she might wear a distinctive perfume.  Don’t go overboard, but try to give your villain at least one quality of appearance to help make him more memorable.

Mannerisms

A distinctive mannerism or habit can help to personalize a villain, too.  Does she have any nervous tics?  A distinctive catchphrase?  Does he constantly straighten his tie, or finger the hilt of his sword, or toss a coin from hand to hand?  Does she stammer?  Does he speak with a rising inflection, as though every statement were a question?  There’s a little overlap between appearance and mannerisms, obviously.

Background

What made your villain this way?  How did he get where he is now?  What sorts of resources are available to her, and how well can she make use of them?  Does she serve a greater master, or does she have exceptional minions of her own, or both?

One trick to making a memorable villain is to connect the villain to the characters somehow — either directly (“I am your father.”) or through the characters’ background.  Did the villain come from the same small town as a PC?  Attend the same school?  Serve in the same military unit?  Is she an old friend, or a long-standing rival?  Is he the guy that one of the PCs has been dating in their secret identities?  Is she the police lieutenant they’d been working with, or the baroness who hired them to complete that strange job two years ago?

The danger here is in overusing this device.  It’s an easy way of making a memorable villain — once or twice.  Do it too often, though, and the players will begin to look askance at every NPC you introduce.  Unless you’re playing Paranoia, that’s probably not the result you want.

Unusual Responses

Finally, most people aren’t entirely consistent in their personalities, and your villain might be no different.  Is there anything that causes him to act in an “out-of-character” fashion?  Does the normally cool mastermind have a weakness for gambling?  If so, and the characters find out about it, perhaps they might escape his deathtrap by challenging him to a game of chance… or perhaps the deathtrap is itself structured as a game of chance, offering the characters an opportunity of escape that they “shouldn’t” have gotten from the coldly-efficient criminal genius.  Is there something that causes the thrillseeking archvillainess to get deadly serious?  What does the corrupt, greedy politician value highly enough to pass up a bribe for?

You don’t need to have an entire hierarchy of villains designed in order to start your adventure.  However, you should definitely spend a little time fleshing out the main villain of the adventure — it makes the adventure “live” better.  Additionally, you’ll want to at least sketch out in broad strokes any important minions the villain might have, as well as any “villain behind the villain” that he might be working for.

Knowing who the villain is, what he’s after, and why is helpful, to say the least, in designing your adventure.  You might not start with the villain every time — sometimes a particular plot or setting idea might provide the inspiration for an adventure.  But all else being equal, I’ve always found that starting with the villain is most useful.  Once the character is established, you may find that the plot and even the setting suggest themselves.

Related posts:

1. Adventure Design 101: The Setting
2. Adventure Design 101
3. Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Problems
4. Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Story
5. Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Make Sense