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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 276511" data-attributes="member: 1106">A strong impression from the "How to Ruin a Campaign" thread:Some villains are ones that players love to hate, and add to the enjoyment of the game, whereas other villains are such that players don't even enjoy loathing them, and detract from the enjoyment of the game.This has got me thinking about traits which make a villain fall into either category.  In general, I think that a "love to hate" villain needs to have one or more semi-positive traits, such as:Charismatic, authoritative and nobleRoguish, a scoundrel and a con manPossessed of a palpable sense of class and coolCharming, dapper and wittyMysterious and interestingPossessed of an utterly alien, inhuman psychologyHaving a memorable schtick (such as being surrounded by cats)Romantic themes (e.g. doomed, betrayed or vengeful)Skilled and a complete professional (e.g. general or assassin)Have at least some motivations which players can relate to...all of which seems to boil down to "being worthy of the player's respect", or "being memorably cool in at least one respect".  Note that these aren't mutually exclusive of villainous traits:A schemer of many Machiavellian plotsCruel, either sadistically or coldlyMorally flawedLoathed and fearedA traitor and betrayerCowardly and contemptibleGreedy and selfishDomineering and bullyingAnd a "hate to hate", poor villain might draw too much from the following list:AnnoyingUncoolUnromanticOne-dimensionalOverusedOverpoweredUnderdevelopedSick to the point of gratuitousnessUninteresting and dull...but most of all, I think a "hate-to-hate" villain might suffer from a lack of redeeming features.  Perhaps it is important to build the essence of appeal into a villain as much as hate, and that a good villain needs to be used in a way that strikes an accord between overexposure, and not enough exposure.A recent thread by Psion pointed out that bit part villains tend to become favoured "love-to-hate" villains moreso than the "big bad" in the background, and it seemed that this was purely because of the nature of the bit part villain's interactions with the PCs....which leads to another theory: A villain's impact is defined more through how they act directly towards the PCs than any other trait.  Perhaps a "hate-to-hate" villain is simply the victim of misuse by the DM.Thoughts, experiences?</blockquote>

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