This was my next to last panel at the convention this year. It had a solid moderator and I was able to chat with my fellow panelists about what it takes to create a really solid story antagonist and what that might look like. There were some excellent bits tossed around and I don’t remember many of them very clearly. These are the notes I was working from, so if you’re trying to create a lasting ‘bad guy’ for your game (or story even) hopefully you can find some inspiration.
Panel description:
Having an antagonist is great, but what takes them past the level of mustache-twirling villain, and into the realm of the Big Bad Evil Guy? Panelists will discuss how to build the structure of minions and influence for your BBEG to stand on, so the heroes have to climb in level to reach them before the final showdown.
My notes:
Antagonist is a better term than “Big Bad Evil Guy”. The best antagonists don’t see themselves as the bad guy. How scary was the operative from Serenity? Who did you hate more from the Harry Potter series, Voldemort or Delores Umbridge?
Be creative.Not everyone is a mastermind with 56 plot lines weaving in and out of their minds, but do any little bit you can. Take on something small if you feel like you don’t know where to start. Look at your character and create from there. What do you really know about? Slide some of that into your character, and use that as a starting point.
Crazy example – If you’re a hair stylist, allow your character to wear a hair style that you’d love to see, then leap off from there and make it a quirky part of that character – the character constantly tries to get others to color their hair or braid their beard or something. Those little bits of flavor make a very rich game. Then… grow that.
In the ‘Big City’ there’s a fashion explosion of magical hair styles. Hair stylist becomes the new, hot profession. This proliferates and generates lots of requests to learn at the top school.
Only this so called school is secretly backed by the mind flayer society. They’re creating these techniques to cause hair to fall out and skulls to soften so they don’t get hair in their teeth and their meals are easier to get to.
And they in turn get all the ‘product’ they use from a magical factory / distribution center where the true big boss is running the entire thing.
Your heroes can do the traditional ‘missing person’ quest to get into this OR they can get one of these hair styles. When their hair all falls out they can quest for new hair!
Work with what you know and use it.
Antagonists don’t just stop being ‘bad guys’ when the players aren’t around. Players leave and come back and things have changed. New guards in town, less favorable deals at the potion shop, any sort of thing that might hinder the quest, even just a little.
Example – in a game I run one smaller antagonist cut a deal with the players. The players left that area. When they returned they found the deal was in place, but the small antagonist was now the head of a bureaucratic structure (that he created using charm spells) that was doing tons of shady things, but with an entirely legit staff. His new position changed the leverage point for the players.
In the end, keep notes. Write down a handful of small things and circle back to them when they fit. You don’t have to be a mastermind, you just have to be mindful. Hopefully there are some game masters out there that get a little bump from this!