Posts Tagged by villain
| March 9, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Benson |
Are you planning a one-shot session for a convention game, or perhaps as a break from your regular campaign? Here is an easy to remember framework that you can start with to prepare a four hour game. 1 – The Villain You need a villain, and since this is a one-shot your villain needs to be over the top. An evil wizard tormenting the townspeople is not going to cut it. You need an evil wizard who is stealing the townspeople’s babies from them in…
| December 23, 2011 | Posted by Patrick Benson |
There were many fine entries, but Gnome Stew reader ManiacClown is the winner with his brilliant mash up of holiday cheer and cold war espionage in this gem of a comment: Kris “Santa” Sinterklaas is many things. Among them is an international criminal mastermind, kept alive on a life-extending alchemical mixture. For centuries he has schemed to bring the world under his jolly boots of doom, earning the trust and admiration of people the world over so that none would suspect until it was too…
| December 9, 2011 | Posted by Patrick Benson |
Would your group play in a session that had Santa Claus in it? Sure, you can write off the legend of Santa Claus as nothing more than a myth used for entertaining children with, but let’s look at some of the finer details: He has an arctic base of operations. He passes judgment on others and decides whether or not to reward or punish them for their deeds. He has an amazing industrial complex at his disposal to build whatever he needs. He has an…
| October 17, 2011 | Posted by Martin Ralya |
Of the many ways to give the big villains in your campaign depth and make them fun for the PCs to go up against, one of my favorites is having a developed set of motivations and other cues for the villain. If you know what the villain wants, what they’re like, and how they approach the world, you can switch into “PC mode” when you’re planning or when your players surprise you. In other words, you can play your most important villains just like your…
| July 20, 2011 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
This is the final installment of our smart villain series, in which we discuss the smart villain’s gear. Prior parts discuss Overview, Community, and Lair External and Internal defenses. The final line of defense a smart villain has is his personal possessions. If his contacts, his lair, his tricky tactics, and his guardians fail, all he has left are his stylish pants and whatever he has in them. Your smart villain’s gear should be appropriate to their flavor and well suited to the tactics you…
| July 4, 2011 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
In the first three parts of The Smart Villain, we talked about general approaches to smart villains, the community, and external lair defenses. This time we’re looking at interior lair defenses and tactics. In our final installment we’ll discuss the smart villain’s gear. So as the smart villain, your base has been breached. Good thing you knew this would happen and you’ve planned accordingly with: Traps: Much like outside the lair, traps can play a key role inside. As before, if there’s a chance your…
| June 1, 2011 | Posted by Matthew J. Neagley |
In part 1 of The Smart Villain, we gave two general approaches to how smart villains are handled in game. In parts3 and 4 we’ll discuss the smart villain’s lair, and in our final part, we’ll take a look at the smart villain’s gear. This time we’re discussing, in depth, some community based strategies for your smart villain to employ. To the smart villain, community is of great importance. Not only does the community serve as an information network and a resource base, but they’re…
