Last week, we talked about the villainly art of poison use, specifically how to get the poison into the protagonist. Now, we’re going to talk about purpose—what’s it for, and what do you do with a poisoned hero?
The first thing to keep in mind is, as I noted last week, that your plan will usually [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, poison | 
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Most of the time, we have to deal with the heroes face to face and skill to skill, by weapons, minds or tongues. But sometimes we’re lucky and we can let poison do some of the work, as long as we know how to use it.
For purposes of this exercise, I’m going to define poison [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, poison | 1 Comment »
Most of us don’t really have much by way of limits on our behavior, aside from the ritual ones imposed by the source of power or those imposed by our need to at least consider PR. Some, though, have a more awkward issue: the fact that most of the eyes watching them from behind the [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, young audiences | 1 Comment »
Every now and then something gets me to sit back and look at the numbers on some general villainous demographic. Not considering a career change, mind, just indulging in tangential curiosity. Then I find something interesting. Like this week’s revelation, courtesy of a shouting match between the minions: it’s a lot better than it looks [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, comic relief villains, Generic Villain | No Comments »
My contract usually forbids this sort of blatant hinting and fourth-wall pounding, but the Management’s busy applying to library school; she won’t notice a thing, and even if she is paying attention, I’m pretty sure she won’t care. So let me make a couple of things clear.
One: I’ve been doing this regularly for two years [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain | No Comments »
You are The Main Villain, and it’s your time. The part where you reveal yourself to those foolish heroes who choose to defy you. You’ve got your best armor/biggest coat/creepiest prosthetics/most intimidating combination of visible magic effects, the spot where you’re supposed to come in is just right, and all you have to do is [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, first impressions, Generic Villain, poses | No Comments »
Let’s face it: the mad scientists among us are prone to some questionable behaviors—and I don’t mean morally questionable, that’s all of us, but questionable in the “seriously, what were you thinking?” sort of way. One of the most popular of these behaviors, from the biologists who make up the majority of the mad scientist [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, experiments, Generic Villain, mad science, superhuman powers | 1 Comment »
Most of us have a pretty good idea how to deal with protagonists who figure their claim on victory is due to their greater moral fiber or their Power of Love and Friendship. This isn’t about them. This is about offshoot parallels of theirs who most often show up in gray and gray morality pieces [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, common sense protagonists, Generic Villain | No Comments »
Happy New Year from the minions, the Management, and me!
So you’ve won! Your greatest foe is (at least apparently) dead, the allies are scattered, the minions are cleaning up the mess, and it’s time to party. And why not? It’s good for morale, it’ll let you de-stress yourself a bit, and it’ll be fun! But [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, PR, victory celebrations | No Comments »
RPG Blog Carnival this month is on the topic of Heroes, Living and Dead—and having appealed to the Management’s sense of the ironic, I’ve persuaded her to let me take the first stab at it. I talk about living heroes all the time, those little impediments, but I haven’t done quite so much about the [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, dead heroes, Generic Villain | 1 Comment »