GMMichael
Guide of Modos
This. And since your reference material is ancient, you might as well look up the Villains Handbook from TSR as well. It's all about creating antagonists.
I suck at DMing. Can anyone help?
This. And since your reference material is ancient, you might as well look up the Villains Handbook from TSR as well. It's all about creating antagonists.
Rune
Once A Fool
You could do far worse than checking out Dungeon World for advice. It's built on the assumption that most of the setting and plot will develop through actual play.
Wicht
Hero
One of the best villain books in my opinion was the one released for Kalamar: The Villain Design Handbook. Somewhere in ancient internet files there should be some tables I did for using that book to randomly create villainous characters, complete with motivation, race, etc. Its an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
Wicht
Hero
Google search for threads on the Sandbox style of gaming. Your analytic mind will be a good advantage with this style. Basically you prep "things" and get some random tables together and let the group explore. It's about encounters and reacting to the player's choices.
Personally I add in the idea of "bangs" where I introduce plot hooks, events, etc. when the PCs stagnate too long (15 min.
. I highly recommend you check out Stars Without Number, Red Tide, and Spears of the Dawn by Kevin Crawford. His games are focused on Sandbox play.
Personally I add in the idea of "bangs" where I introduce plot hooks, events, etc. when the PCs stagnate too long (15 min.
. I highly recommend you check out Stars Without Number, Red Tide, and Spears of the Dawn by Kevin Crawford. His games are focused on Sandbox play.
JackOfAllTirades
Explorer
Add "if someone doesn't intervene, they will achieve their goals," and you can run campaigns for basically ever. Big antagonists can be the hub around which large campaigns revolve, while small antagonists are mainly for side treks, interludes, and the like.
The Grassy Gnoll
Explorer
Steal, for the live of god, steal. But if you're going to steal, steal from the best. Someone mentioned Shakespeare so, how about Macbeth?
There is a civil war. There are three factions: the king, a rebel duke (or his son, or whatever, point is he is an insider, a former ally and someone on whom the king "built an absolute trust"), and a third force, the outsiders, another faction that the rebel uses to try and get to power.
The rebellion is put down but the kings general is bewitched/charmed by a trio of evil female warlocks (GOO Pact if 5e). He then assassinates the king and assumes power, aided by his wife, who *may* turn out to have been murdered by the warlockesses (let's just call them witches) and replaced by a shapeshifter in their employ.
Under the new kings reign life is awful, Stalinist paranoiac state, kangaroo courts, people getting "disappeared" etc. taxes rise. The witches are using this power to give offerings of gold and souls to their GOO master, hoping to increase his power and even help him manifest on the material plane - all very cthulthu phtagn.
In Macbeth, there is Malcolm, the dead kings son, who foments a new rebellion and kills the evil king. For your adventure, Malcolm = the PCs. Maybe have one or more of them as being loyal soldiers/advisors to the original king. They think something is up when the king is murdered and don't trust the general/new king. In fact, he pins the kings murder on them.
They have allies, others who think something's up. But they have to defeat various henchpeople, including the inquisitors the new king sets up to find them/terrorise the locals/capture people to provide souls; plus the shape shifting queen, plus the evil king, plus the trio of witches. Ascending order of BBEGs.
You could mix it up a bit more, even make this all be happening within the, say, Orc community, and then the Malcolm could be the one who goes on the run and turns to
the PCs for help. Interesting moral angle: help the bad guy beat the badder guy because the badder guy is eyeing up the human city states and getting very aggressive and invadey)...Or, if any of the PCs are half orcs, they may even be blood tied to the original king (and all claimants to tge throne, knowing or otherwise, must be eliminated...).
Lots of potential there. And in that last Orc example, the original rebellion against the 'good' king could have had the PCs (on their own if high enough level, or as part of a force) being the 'outsiders' the rebel turned to, but their efforts failed.
So many options, but the basics are there: back story, an increasing level of BBEGs to go after, some intrigue and subterfuge if you want it for them being on the run, and - potentially - serious rewards. Plus, GOO becomes a major über villain and if you fancy astral planes action,whoop.
Another option, the rebel is the Macbeth character, and the rebellion wins. Simpler backstory. But the queen/shape changer bumps off the Macbeth character and then blames it on the PCs.
All this, and the key, of course, is a Dagger+1...
There is a civil war. There are three factions: the king, a rebel duke (or his son, or whatever, point is he is an insider, a former ally and someone on whom the king "built an absolute trust"), and a third force, the outsiders, another faction that the rebel uses to try and get to power.
The rebellion is put down but the kings general is bewitched/charmed by a trio of evil female warlocks (GOO Pact if 5e). He then assassinates the king and assumes power, aided by his wife, who *may* turn out to have been murdered by the warlockesses (let's just call them witches) and replaced by a shapeshifter in their employ.
Under the new kings reign life is awful, Stalinist paranoiac state, kangaroo courts, people getting "disappeared" etc. taxes rise. The witches are using this power to give offerings of gold and souls to their GOO master, hoping to increase his power and even help him manifest on the material plane - all very cthulthu phtagn.
In Macbeth, there is Malcolm, the dead kings son, who foments a new rebellion and kills the evil king. For your adventure, Malcolm = the PCs. Maybe have one or more of them as being loyal soldiers/advisors to the original king. They think something is up when the king is murdered and don't trust the general/new king. In fact, he pins the kings murder on them.
They have allies, others who think something's up. But they have to defeat various henchpeople, including the inquisitors the new king sets up to find them/terrorise the locals/capture people to provide souls; plus the shape shifting queen, plus the evil king, plus the trio of witches. Ascending order of BBEGs.
You could mix it up a bit more, even make this all be happening within the, say, Orc community, and then the Malcolm could be the one who goes on the run and turns to
the PCs for help. Interesting moral angle: help the bad guy beat the badder guy because the badder guy is eyeing up the human city states and getting very aggressive and invadey)...Or, if any of the PCs are half orcs, they may even be blood tied to the original king (and all claimants to tge throne, knowing or otherwise, must be eliminated...).
Lots of potential there. And in that last Orc example, the original rebellion against the 'good' king could have had the PCs (on their own if high enough level, or as part of a force) being the 'outsiders' the rebel turned to, but their efforts failed.
So many options, but the basics are there: back story, an increasing level of BBEGs to go after, some intrigue and subterfuge if you want it for them being on the run, and - potentially - serious rewards. Plus, GOO becomes a major über villain and if you fancy astral planes action,whoop.
Another option, the rebel is the Macbeth character, and the rebellion wins. Simpler backstory. But the queen/shape changer bumps off the Macbeth character and then blames it on the PCs.
All this, and the key, of course, is a Dagger+1...
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goatunit
Explorer
Here you'll find a book that I haven't read, but which comes highly recommended by others and is from an RPG creator whom I think is hugely talented: http://www.sjgames.com/robinslaws/
As for personal advice, I suggest you hatch an evil plan and have your villain go about completing his plan. Write it as a short piece of fiction, in which the villain completes his goal. Leave it up to the PCs to interrupt and change--your job is to know what would happen without PC intervention, and then to react accordingly when they inevitably do intercede (or to display the ramifications of their failure to act, if that's the case).
And, of course, the improv rule of saying "Yes, and..." can't be overvalued here. The PCs will feed you a plot if you listen.
As for personal advice, I suggest you hatch an evil plan and have your villain go about completing his plan. Write it as a short piece of fiction, in which the villain completes his goal. Leave it up to the PCs to interrupt and change--your job is to know what would happen without PC intervention, and then to react accordingly when they inevitably do intercede (or to display the ramifications of their failure to act, if that's the case).
And, of course, the improv rule of saying "Yes, and..." can't be overvalued here. The PCs will feed you a plot if you listen.
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