Villains

[Missy]

lol I don't know if he has been mentioned or not either. (Its been a while since I read this whole post) But Piers Anthony is starting to look like a villan to me.

[rklenseth]

Yes, he seems to have gone off the deep end. But he has his reasons for what he is doing that aren't mere criminalistic actions. One will do anything when he is trying to protect something.

[Oasis]

I'd say his reasoning is based on insanity, nothing else.

[kroner]

And regaurdless, isn't the post about villains? Piers Anthony doesn't have to be a thief or kill without reason to be one of those. I haven't met him with any chars but from what I've heard on here, he seems to fit the bill.

[wichita]

Another thread resurrection. I could have started a new one to start it out fresh, but I liked some of the discussion as I skimmed through in this old one. Let's see if we can get a <i>good</i> debate about gaming philosophy going here, with a minimium of bitching about "boo hoo he killed my favorite character!"

So the topic is - how important is the villian to the game. I remember being taught in Lit classes that every good story has a Protagonist (Hero, Good Guy) and Antagonist (Villian, Bad Guy). Without those two elements, you have a dull story. IRL without those two you have Utopia or Hell.

A good villian adds a lot of color to the story, right? And isn't that what we are really making up here - the story about the history of a world? So should we as players get upset when our favorite character gets killed by the bad guy? Should the bad guys get pissed when all the good guys plot the destruction of their characters? I think it's cool in a way that the bad guys could actually win in this story. It adds to the excitement in my opinion. The constant peaceful work, work, work is not only fake...it's boring too.

I don't think I've said what I set out to say here, and it probably doesn't make any sense anyway...so if anybody is following me and wants to try and clarify, thanks. If not...proceed with typical forum business.

[SekoETC]

Without fear, danger and pain there's no adventure and exitement. But often the people who end up in those adventures would much rather be farming carrots! It's true we need villains but it's hard to keep in mind that they are just actors and scriptwriters for this mutual play, and they don't even necessarily see themselves as villains. They just happen to be using rough or questionable means to reach what they want.

[AoM]

It's tough to lose a truly loved character to a villain, even a really well-played one, because on some level, those are the characters we see as being the main protagonists. It's difficult to take the necessary step back and realize that maybe your character just wasn't meant to play the part of the hero.

That being said, my favorite cultures in this game have been forged by the actions of villains, and the the heros that rise up to oppose them. Sometimes, the lines about who is hero and who is villain becomes very blurred, and that's when real drama occurs. So a begrudgingly heart-felt thanks should go out to those who play villains.

[wichita]

So what separates a well played villian from a player who's just being an powermad a-hole? I guess I don't have a well thought out answer to the question yet...it being a big gray area like a lot of other topics.

I think I don't see the abuse of the villian role any differently from say, players that are only interested in building and collecting stuff that never seem to talk or develp any character whatsoever...except that those characters don't kill you I guess. I guess I kind of see that as a bigger danger to the game.

PS:
I haven't lost a Cantr character yet, but I did nearly lose my favorite D&D character this weekend so I do understand the pain. I made a bad combat decision and decided to follow through with it because I was staying true to the RP and his heated emotions, despite what rationalization me as the player saw as the best course of action to keep him alive.

[Yo_Yo]

Now i'm all depressed...

I read the entire thing hoping to see something about my old character Rick in the Krif region...

But it seems he wasn't bad enough.

I'll have to do better this time

[west]

Now i'm all depressed...

I read the entire thing hoping to see something about my old character Rick in the Krif region...

But it seems he wasn't bad enough.

I'll have to do better this time

Who?

[Nick]

Don't know if he's been mentioned on this thread before, but I really enjoyed roleplaying with a great villain, LuNaTiC LaRrY.

[The Sociologist]

It's tough to lose a truly loved character to a villain, even a really well-played one, because on some level, those are the characters we see as being the main protagonists. It's difficult to take the necessary step back and realize that maybe your character just wasn't meant to play the part of the hero.

That being said, my favorite cultures in this game have been forged by the actions of villains, and the the heros that rise up to oppose them. Sometimes, the lines about who is hero and who is villain becomes very blurred, and that's when real drama occurs. So a begrudgingly heart-felt thanks should go out to those who play villains.

That's wonderfully well put, so much so that I can't think of anything better to do than quote it all over again.

[Yo_Yo]

Man... I can tell you exactly why no one remember Rick. Its because everyone suddenly decided to stop talking about him as soon as he did it. He killed something like... 40 sleepers. Kinda makes me mad in a way. He claimed he was purifieing Krif... Didn't go over so well with the other members of Krif. Anywho, Lunitic Larry was a long time ago. Bac in Pok, or close to there. Jerry use to play him.

[griogal]

Three of the best villains were imho Craktar, Maynard and Nathan Holms. Craktar (at least when I got to know him, at the end of his reign) was a raving psychopath, inspiring tales about vampires etc. and by such creating "heroes", like the KFF

Maynard Leeward is to me one of the most intriguing characters I ever met. Everyone in the region seemed to suspect he was up to something but no one had actual proof. I'm still not sure if he really was, or that we (the self proclaimed good guys, who plotted his downfall) suffered from mass paranoid delusions. In my opinion Maynard had everything an archvillain needs and I must admit I miss him.

Nathan Holms, however shortlived his reign was, was a good villain as he was able to provoke the STFers to leave their precious forest

[dikjimgin]

emperor kellan is a villain in the opinion of one of my characters.