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Hamming it up with antagonists is one of my favorite parts of GMing, but effective antagonists that the Players will love to hate but also fear are difficult to write for RPGs. I've found that I tend to rely on having these two kinds of baddies in almost all my games as part of the antagonist roster. They're The Traitorous Mentor and The Force of Nature. The Traitorous Mentor is an NPC that is always there to help the PCs with the support they need in terms of logistics or intelligence, they keeps the plot rolling when the PCs get stuck and prevent the game from running into BSOD scenarios. Can't find any clues to where is the McGuffin? They give you a hint to let you figure it out. PC gets themselves killed by an unlucky critical? They happen to have experimental cloning tech/ancient forbidden resurrection magic. Internal party conflict escalates and threatens to dissolve the group IC? They step in and have everyone talk things out like mature people. But as the name suggests, The Traitorous Mentor is just using the PCs. I like this type of antagonist because they let me hold the PC's hands without making it too intrusive or running into the "why isn't the mentor solving everything themselves" as well as "why doesn't the bad guy just kill them before they catch on to his plan". By the time the PCs figure things out, they will have grown to rely on this helpful individual and the betrayal will give them a much more personal stake into stopping them than saving the world alone would. The Force of Nature is instead an unbeatable monster way, way over the power level of starting PCs and they know it. Usually other NPCs talk about this antagonist in hushed tones and would rather not ever cross them. Sometimes the Force of Nature is a sleeping lion you don't want to wake up like the Tarrasque. Sometimes it is a madman that runs around butchering important people (who may or may not deserve it) like Sephiroth. Ideally it will be an entity that helps and hinders the PCs both with its actions, and doesn't really consider them more than a nuisance (if it even notices them) so the PCs know it has to be stopped but they must figure out how. I like the Force of Nature because it is a threat that I can build from the start of the game and make sure it has an impact on the PCs and the setting. Clever PCs can take advantage of it to destroy their other enemies, it makes for perfect "Oh poo poo" moments when it shows up, and finally taking down the giant monster that you've been terrified of for the majority of the game feels pretty rewarding. All this from a single NPC that doesn't even need to be able to speak. My minor antagonists tend to be more varied but I use these a lot for the big threats. I don't want to over rely on either, but so far I've been keeping things fresh and no one but me has noticed.
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Apr 15, 2014 11:44
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 18:31 |
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