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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GM Dave" data-source="post: 5953558" data-attributes="member: 6687992">Ways to introduce a villain.1>  The direct and in your face method.  Someone denounces the person and tells the players how they were wronged and that the other person is a villain.  Everyone and their cousin knows Sauron is evil.2>  The personal confrontation.  The villain tells the players they are evil and their master plan to destroy the world.  The villain is so sure of their power that they are calling the heroes out in a challenge to prove they can't do anything to stop the villain.  This method is popular with Evil Gods and major Demons.  Dr Doom will often follow this pattern just because it would be too easy to win by stealth without anyone appreciating his brilliance.3>  The Oops, did I step on you method.  The villain inadvertently catches the heroes in part of their plan.  The villain might have a problem with a king and drops a mountain on top of the castle as the players are in a tavern in the nearby village.  The blast of the crushed castle wrecks much of the town and awakens the players to the villain's presence.  Red dragons that attack out of the sky burning up towns and villages are similar troubles.4>  The 'So that what that was' method.  This gets to be more subtle.  The players see something going on like giants throwing rocks at something or you see a pair of ships battling while on the shore.  It is too far away to interfere in the events and the identification of the villain in the storyline might take time to find out who was doing what in the events.  This is how Star Wars starts for Luke.  He sees the battle in the sky but doesn't know that Vader was involved in the attack.5>  Look at the Bones!  This method is again a subtle style.  You have the players see the wreckage or carnage of what the villain or monster has done.  Villages destroyed, powerful dragons ripped apart, ships broken in half, and Kraken left on the beach (Pirates of the Carribean).  These are all signs that something powerful has occured.6>  Look to the sky!  Omens are another way to hint at evil or change.  Celestial changes or un-natural weather patterns.  Rain, thunder, snowstorms, comets, missing constellations and more signal trouble.  The Game of Thrones and Avatar the Last Air Bender have a comet in the sky.  Major magical trouble is often marked with the land responding like when Arthur was wounded.7>  Strange Luck is another method.  This method features some event occurring near the players that is the byproduct of a villain's actions.  I gave this example to Sharkbone Podcast recently.  The player's are sitting in their favourite inn when a griffin crashes through the ceiling crushing several patrons.  The next moment a large scaly claws scoops up the griffin and hauls it away.  The group now knows their is a dragon in the area and it is big.  Other ways this can be used in say a super hero game is to have a major hero come smashing through the group's secret HQ or have some criminals of a major boss choose your star ship to shipjack.8>  Competing for the prize.  This can be direct or indirect.  The direct style is to have the players seeking some object and have the villain send people to retrieve the exact same object.  This is the Raiders of the Lost Arc approach with the call to oppose the NAZIs efforts to get the Arc of the Covenant.  The indirect version of this is having the two groups just be in the same location at the same time but for different reasons.  This is common in things like Snatch and Pulp Fiction.  The villain is not planning on a confrontation but the presence of the players provides a third group to complicate a mission.  Think of a bank robbery where the villain is planning to deal with the police while the players are in the bank to get into a safety deposit box.9>  Rescue force or We lost Jones.  The players are hired to rescue someone or explore a spot where people have gone missing.  The Alien and Aliens movie use this method.  Usually it is an NPC type of person that is not personal to the characters that goes missing.  Any finding of the person is usually to recover a messy corpse.  This follows the philosophy that when in doubt on what to do give the readers a body.10>  The Invitation.  Again, it requires a powerful and assured villain but they can attempt to hire the players by showing off their operation.  It is a chance to go for a ride, have a nice lunch, and discuss nuclear annihilation.Players often represent a step up from the usual members of the organization so an offer of employment can benefit the villain.  It is up to the players to see if they can stomach the future choices if they accept the position.  This is often done in super hero comics but can be found in other stories.</blockquote>

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