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Hey, I'm looking for suggestions in how to create villains, both longterm campaign ones and short, minor threats. How do you usually determine the levels and the powers of the foes, do you use the GM random creation or do you roll them as normal characters and just boost their experience level accordingly? Would a villain be able to have stats or self thought powers to provide a more fun, menacing threat to the players? Should I be able to give the said villain several powers and/or combinations they normally shouldn't have, again to better the campaign and to ensure they aren't found within the first play?


Any feedback and suggestions are welcome as I'm looking to start a new, extremely long (6+ game years!!!) campaign villain.

I usually random roll all my characters even as a GM. I boost the levels a bit, maybe up to fourth, to go up against first level characters. The trick with having ongoing villains is to level them up according to what you feel they earn as their experience so that they stay a threat to your players as their characters level up.

If the villain is intended to take on an entire group of heroes himself, I usually add up the character levels, eyeball it up or down a bit, then assign him that level. Powers are almost never random for me, I usually assign them based on the villain concept.

EXAMPLE: I want to do an adventure where the heroes have to guard a an aquatic base from a rampaging, unstoppable juggernaut There are four 3rd level heroes, so I make the villain level 12. I give him the powers of alter physical structure: metal, underwater abilities, underwater propulsion (from the PU books) and superhuman strength. (1 Major, 3 Minors.) Since he has a lot of powers, and the APS males him pretty tough, I drop him down to level 10. Whallah! The Super-Villain "TORPEDO" is born!

Mediapig71 wrote:If the villain is intended to take on an entire group of heroes himself, I usually add up the character levels, eyeball it up or down a bit, then assign him that level. Powers are almost never random for me, I usually assign them based on the villain concept.

EXAMPLE: I want to do an adventure where the heroes have to guard a an aquatic base from a rampaging, unstoppable juggernaut There are four 3rd level heroes, so I make the villain level 12. I give him the powers of alter physical structure: metal, underwater abilities, underwater propulsion (from the PU books) and superhuman strength. (1 Major, 3 Minors.) Since he has a lot of powers, and the APS males him pretty tough, I drop him down to level 10. Whallah! The Super-Villain "TORPEDO" is born!

Actually it's a criminal genious (Rolled as Natural Genius) and never engages directly in a conflict. The reason I reserve so many years for the campaign is because it'll take long time to be able to build enough evidence and power to run the criminal empire down, if they even are able to do that.

More than any stats or power, the most important thing is a name. It doesn't have to be a great name, just one they can repeat with awe/dread/loathing/barely contained laughter. I remember one night around 4 am i had a suddenly made up villian make an entrance and said he was lord somthing somthing... i mean lord sumsum. Suddenly the players started treating him like a high level gangster.

2nd, have them show up more than once. Have a get away to come back another day makes fighting them even better.

As for power I usually make it up on the fly. If they don't know how much SDC you have you can always crank it up or down during the fight to match the challenge you want.

I usually have 5 villains for each hero.

1) the foil: This is the villain that defeats the character every time. If the PC isn't lucky, or smart then his defeat is guaranteed. Typically his powers specifically target the Character's weaknesses.

2) the mirror: this is the villain who is pretty much a carbon copy of the hero. if the abilities are different, it's usually just a little different or strictly cosmetic.

3) The punching Bag: this guy is the reverse of the foil. He is guaranteed to lose, BUT he will put up a fight, probably delaying the character. And just because the Character can beat him, doesn't mean he cannot do property damage, harm civilians or become more dangerous with a good ambush or plan.

4) The shadow: This guy is the mastermind, behind the scenes kind of guy. he is all plotting and planning, and probably has the phone numbers of the other 4 villains in his speed dial. He can have no powers, or exotic powers. In any case he sets up big threats behind the scenes, and the character faces his machinations far more often than he faces the Shadow.

5) The Untouchable: this is a villain who is pretty much on Par with the hero but is difficult to defeat. It could be another hero who simply doesn't get along with the character, a super sexy but morally ambiguous jewel thief, The Newspaper crusader with a vendetta. In any case, it's hard to initiate a fight and it's hard to call one a victory.

There is a sixth. The Mook: The mook is built with the barest of details. He's a little colour, necessary spandex so to speak. Motivations and backstory are only necessary after the fact - IF - the villain gains traction.

When any of the 5 villains gets cycled out, either he is no longer interesting, or he has been killed/captured, just replace him. Ina party of 4 heroes, you would have a stable of 20 villains (plus any interesting mooks you may create)

Batts

I tend to create an over all controlling villian who has a long term goal and several LTs. then I create bricks, blasters, scrappers, etc to be fodder...some have actual personality, most are just stats on the paper (usually only combat numbers).

Well Villains need to challenged the Hero,not only need a Physical sense but some times it,s a Mental challenged,the hero need to link the Villain to a crime with proof.
Villains need to have ther own Motives and Personalities.