by Scott Roberts
July 2, 2001

"Am I Evil? Yes, I am."
— Metallica, "Am I Evil?", Garage Inc., 1998

Last column, we covered in great detail the nature of being a villain as well as some tips for creating a believable one. It was a surprise to me at the time that this would be the start of a trend--both MetaStatic and Building Stories, Telling Games covered similar topics in both of their well-written columns from a StoryBuilder perspective. This column, I'm going to wrap up Villain Week at Skotos by discussing practical means that your villain can actually do evil and villainous things without becoming unplayable or getting killed too soon.

Considerations

If you've followed the advice from last week, you've disassociated yourself from your villain so that if and when he loses, you don't take it too personally. You've also made him three-dimensional by firstly creating a plausible background and motivation in general for his villainy and secondly coming up with a credible reason for him or her to develop a master plan. All of this, though, is like the pre-flight check before takeoff--it's preparation.

There are several meta-game issues which should be discussed before actually plotting out your villain's actions. The first thing you need to realize is that in most online venues, it's laughably simple to kill off the heroes. Most every game has its equivalent of sniper bullets to the head or powerful instant-death magical spells; a bit of sneaking around (or ganging up on) the good guys is all it takes to eliminate them. While this may be amusing to some of you, it quickly loses its attraction for most players. Additionally, it is an unproven theory of mine that players in online multiplayer prose games tend to get more attached to their characters than roleplayers in any other milieu. This is because they play these characters more often than is possible in other milieus and have a larger opportunity to interact with more diverse people, both of which lead to a stronger attachment due to a more developed and involved character.

Killing someone off that a player is that attached to borders on the cruel and unusual for some roleplayers; hence, the players of villains who are compassionate should strive not to do too much to their opponents that is impossible to recover from. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean not killing them; in some worlds, death is merely an inconvenience, but similar permanent damage should be avoided.

Additional meta-game considerations involve scale, scope, and time commitment. If you're going to do something intricate in terms of your plot that involves clues and events which players need to investigate, then you have an obligation to provide information either to players or staffers so that they can follow up on them. Don't plan complex plots which you can't back up by being available as the villain; this will annoy players and staffers to no end. Additionally, be certain that you keep your villain around enough to grant his or her opponents a reasonable chance to find and stop him. Don't just log your villain on to do plot-related things and then log him out (although there are situations where this is warranted); make sure you have a daily routine and interact with those you would normally interact with. Follow through if a plot is foiled; don't just run away (by not logging in) without giving the PCs a reasonable chance to catch you. These bits of advice are subjective depending on the nature of the plot and villain, of course, but should be applicable in many cases.

Evil Is As Evil Does

Now that all the preliminary considerations are out of the way, what exactly makes a good villainous plot that player characters can run? While it's possible to reach for the sky in terms of resources and power for your villains on games with staffs that encourage that sort of thing, that's not as common in many games. Hence, we'll focus here on low-overhead plots that are easy to run with little in the way of resources.

If you've been following my columns, or if you have much experience on online prose games, you know that most players enjoy playing the heroes. From the point of view of a villain, heroes have many exploitable weaknesses. They're kind, they're nice, they like small animals and little children, and they do not (often) do Bad Things. This makes it relatively easy in most cases to take advantage of them. A villain masquerading as a nice person in order to achieve some end is a wonderful way to start. Does your target (because of course you need a target) like to do things for other people such as provide services? Go to them and monopolize their time with your requests, by trying to convince them you are needy. Hoard whatever they give you or do for you and then find a way to sell it for a profit behind their back or otherwise exploit the knowledge they give you. Give them clues to eventually find out that their trust in you was misplaced. In other words, betray them.

Theft can also be an excellent minor evil that's easy to perform, so long as it's done in a game world where theft occurs ICly more often than it does OOCly, a problem which I've discussed in earlier columns. Don't randomly steal things; have a reason to take certain items, preferably those that mean something to the target--but give them a chance to recover them, somehow.

Preying on innocents can be a rewarding villainous occupation, but of course it's limited by the ability staff grants players to execute such plots. If you can pose nonessential NPCs--ordinary people, such as it is--then the scope of the things you can do as a villain is near unlimited. Using nothing but commonly available tools and a convincing storyline involving your victims, you can torture, abuse, annoy, or do any one of a number of things to catch the heroes' attention. Your NPC thugs can beat up and steal from NPC victims, and anonymous messages can be sent to heroes asking for help. You can do just about anything you need or want to do. Be careful not to step on too many toes--it's always a good idea to check with staff before performing complex or intricate plots in such cases--but don't let worry or fear limit your horizons as a villain. Let imagination be your guide. Try to create the sorts of plots that you would want to defeat if you were the hero.

Staying Alive

One of the more difficult aspects of executing a plot as a villain is premature defeat of your plans by the heroes. Good guys can be a real thorn in your side. This is one of the reasons it's good to have staff informed of what you are planning on doing; that way, you can be certain that an objective third party will mediate in the case of conflicts. For the most part, players can be quite distrustful of one another; heroes will not want to tell you of their plans to defeat you any more than you will want to tell them what you're doing, at least not out of character.

If you are planning on running a short-term villain--one or two plots and then the curtain call--it's not all that big of a deal if you get caught early or killed. Long-term villains need to be a bit more careful, however. Avoiding contact with the law, being extremely careful about who they trust both IC and OOC, and making sure that you are as separated from any actual crime is a good idea. Being above suspicion, by cultivating a reputation or developing contacts with those who are in positions of authority or who are well-respected can be another way to gain protection for your villain.

Next Week

It's impossible to cover everything a villain can do in 1500 words or less, so I encourage you to share your stories and ideas in the forum posts about the Mummer's Dance (follow the link below) so that others might benefit from them. Next week, I'll be covering romance in online prose games. Until next time!