How to introduce villains?

[Noldor Elf]

I have planned to introduce (hopefully) a recuring villain to my AU campaing. The villain (or actually villains) is going to be a Mohj (a human turned more dragonlike) Magister and his kobold (Mohjborn) servant/assistant.

I have thought about introducing them first separately, without players (and characters) being aware the connection between those two. Naturally, them being Mohj and Mohjborn characters should eventually find out that, bu hopefully not too soon (and not too late).

The Mohj is going to be magister, mostly intrested on illusions, mind affecting spells and like, not very much flashy spells that say "Bang!". Characters will meet him in a abandoned mine where he is searching for some ruins.

The Kobold is going to be Snake Totem Warrior/Assasin, essentially very agile fighter with some dirty and sneaky tricks. As he solely work for his master most likely situation where party could cross path with him would be in a race for some hidden/lost piece of information.

My problem is: Should I introduce the Mohj first (especially as I have that encounter pretty much outlined already) or should I try to invent alternative scenario with the Kobold first and run that? I would like to use the kobold first, as it would give characters probably a small hint that there is a Mohj around. On the other hand, meeting the Mohj first reveals nothing about the fact that there is a Mohjborn somewhere.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It should take some steps to show your villian, first show the thugs, the henchmen and the results of actions done by the villian but keep him out of sight. Let the players come to know his work and build a picture based on the information they gather.

You just have to watch out about making the entrance anti-climatic.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Well, it really comes down to how you want things to pan out. But if you really want them to meet the kobold first then have them meet him. Just don't tel them that he's a kobold.

This can be accomplished any number of ways. Such as the characters are walking through the ton/city of your choice and hear a muffled cry from the alley way. When the move to investigate, as any adventure worth his salt will do, the will find the corpse of a man. His throat slashed and the flesh discoloed from some vile concotion. As they move through the ally and investigate, a small form will leap from the shadows and vault up the alley walls and escape. Make some roles and let the characters try to follow. If they roll well, they see glowing red eyes from the darkness, and hear a sibelent voice taunt them as it gets away. If they roll poorly then they may only get a dry chuckle for their feeble attempts.

Now when thy finally meet the mojh and his wirey sidekick they've built up in their minds how dangerous he is. They've tried to imagine all the terrible ways this mysterious and deadly foe could kill them. And he works for this mojh we've been working against. How much nastier is he then we thought?

A little mystery can do wonders for jump starting a good villian.

-Ashrum

 

[Noldor Elf]

His throat slashed and the flesh discoloed from some vile concotion. As they move through the ally and investigate, a small form will leap from the shadows and vault up the alley walls and escape.

Thanks! That really gave me an inspiration. The party has so far acted mostly as investigators/detectives, especially on somehow "wierd" cases (somehow like X-Files or Brothehood of Wolf). Therefore I can rely on that the party will investigate mysterious murder. I just have to make sure that they can not solve it.

Generally, is it beter to introduce villains while they still are over the partys capabilites or let the villains also start as "equal" od the party and let him grow with the party? I have planned using the latter.

 

[The_Gneech]

If your villain is suitably, erm, villainous, that the PCs will hate him, then make sure that any encounter with him is at least +5 CR above the party, because every player group in the universe immediately attacks any villain they find with their biggest gun.

And, assuming you want the characters to survive, let them know beforehand that the villain is +5 CR above the party.

If you want a villain who is roughly on par with the characters, you need to make it impossible for them to kill him, or they surely will. Failing that, give him some kind of a patron who will raise him, or other mode of coming back. (Necromancers and liches are great villains because you can kill 'em again and again and they keep coming back for more.)

-The Gneech

 

[silburnl]

Thanks! That really gave me an inspiration. The party has so far acted mostly as investigators/detectives, especially on somehow "wierd" cases (somehow like X-Files or Brothehood of Wolf). Therefore I can rely on that the party will investigate mysterious murder. I just have to make sure that they can not solve it.

Personally I'd work the initial encounter into an ongoing story rather than have it turn up as a random alleyway mugging that they just happen to be in the vicinity of - that has a strong whiff of 'you all meet up in a tavern and decide to go adventuring' cheesiness about it. How about if the kobold assassin is doing some freelance work on the side for whichever non-recurring villain is at the root of your next adventure plot? That way you can engineer the story so the PCs can still 'win' the adventure in a satisfying way (ie expose whover is employing the kobold) without you losing a groovy villain that you have future plans for.

This also helps you pace the buildup for your villainous pair. You can have an adventure where the kobold sidekick is a mysterious 'out of town' hitman. Then a few clues/rumours the PCs can chase down as to who this kobold guy is, this can lead naturally into an adventure which *seems* to be about the kobold but where in fact the PCs stumble on to one of the BBEG's minor plots (they get dragged in by rumours of the kobold but he's long gone by the time they arrive). Before long you have a full on vendetta going between the PCs and the villainous pair.

Generally, is it beter to introduce villains while they still are over the partys capabilites or let the villains also start as "equal" od the party and let him grow with the party? I have planned using the latter.

Either way can work but the devil is in the detail of your execution. Having recurring villains who are roughly par with the PCs can be asking for trouble IMO - player groups have a tendency to hit a percieved bad guy with massive, coordinated firepower at the first opportunity which can make framing and staging scenes for the villains a bit problematic (you want to have opportunities for these villains to twirl their moustache and reveal their dastardly plans, right?). The obvious response as a DM is to beef up their EL so they can brush off the player attacks until the Dimension Door they have prepped goes off but this begs the question - if they're so tough why don't they squish the PCs like bugs the first time the PCs foil one of their evil schemes?

Regards
Luke

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Personally, I love foreshadowing. What you could do is to also introduce the kobold and the mojh in the background during an adventure. What if they're doing something nice? What if they're helping someone or aiding a village or important NPC group? They would have their own motivations for doing so, which would not conflict with why they later come into conflict with the PCs. But it sets up that delicious element of moral quandary that comes in the AU setting where there are no alignments.

 

[Melvin the Mediocre]

introduce the kobold and the mojh in the background during an adventure. What if they're doing something nice? What if they're helping someone or aiding a village or important NPC group? They would have their own motivations for doing so, which would not conflict with why they later come into conflict with the PCs.

I second this line of thought. Have the PC's meet the villians in a non-aggressive environment. Even better, have them become friends before they find out what a scoundrel the villian is. It would be especially good if there is a strong reason for the vilian to find out who the PC's are long before they find out who he is. That way he could begin to question the PC's on what clues they have peieced together and what their plans are and use that information against them as well as to plan his future crimes.

 

[Wombat]

In an interesting reversal of the usual pattern, I had my party meet a major villain before they met his minions, though in rather an obscure way. They were in a city tracking down a group of smugglers and thugs and, in finding their hideout, stumbled across an old man who has been subjected to torture. Rescuing him, he turned out to be a goldmine of information about the then-major baddies...

...the only problem was, as they found out later, he was a powerful Illusionist who had faked his own torture wounds, set up the smugglers as a front-organization to ferret out do-gooders, and we systematically feeding the party false information.

Once they cottoned on to this ploy, they were both appalled and extatic -- I had actually slipped a bad guy past their radar and had allowed them to be used by him!

It was nasty, but a lot of fun!

 

[Epametheus]

Through reputation is one way...

In a city is another good way. Lots of innocent bystanders.

Works best if the party doesn't actually know that the guy is their enemy, though. Are Mohj supposed to be killed on sight, or something?