Needed: Villain manerism/idiom/quote

[kkoie]

I'm just brainstorming here, but see if any of this helps.

The villain and flookies have an annoying lisp.

Has a fetish for snakes and over exagerates the "ssssss."

Odd twitch, like a jerk of the head or something.

Odd habit of cocking their head when talking (you know, like what a dog sometimes does, cocks their head at a 45 degree angle).

Always has a scrunched up, angry look on their face.

Blinks twice as much as anyone else does.

Voice sounds like its full of cotten (hard to imitate without actually sticking something in your mouth)

anyway, I think you get the idea.

K Koie

 

[Roland Delacroix]

I've been meaning to run a particular villian type for a long time, one i'm ripping off from The Simpsons. Basically a highly charismatic overlord with tons of followers who means to overturn the king and take over the lands. Howver, he's just the nicest guy, ever. Totally sympathetic to the PCs, pays his followers well and benefits, always polite and cheerfull. When played right it should be the PCs toughest challenge to defeat him because he's just so NICE. Especially when the king is a selfish bastard.

Can't remember the name of the episode, but this guys hires Homer at like ten times what he makes at the plant, free unlimited donuts, employee lunches and picnics all the time, etc. He kills some james bond type and even when his secret missle silo is being overrun by govt agents he takes time out to help Homer with some personal problems. In your campaign I can see it now:

Paladin: Halt Overlord! We have come to foil your..

Overlord: Can you please excuse me a moment, my head engineer Bob here and I were talking. So Bob, I really think you and Trish were right for one another. Let me hook you up with a good counselor, on me. Heres his card. See you both at the picnic monday, enjoy the weekend and try to relax.

Bob: Thanks Boss. You're the best!

Overlord: Now where were we.....

Paladin: Erm.....

 

[Psion]

Give us a bit more to go off of. What is the villain like?

Fair enough. Thus far, I can only tell you his stats and background, but I am trying to flesh him out before the weekend. He is a 16th level telepath. He is one of an order of "inquisitors" devoted to an oppressive emprie called Drakar. Drakar is a military theocracy that reveres a LE deity named Idan.

Is he a particularly religious fellow? Perhaps his "seedlings" all bear holy symbols of that god

Well, yeah, but about 1/3 of his fellow lackeys are priests. That would be wholly unsurprising.

Maybe they all quote sections of holy text favored by the villain ("My name is Legion, for we are many..."), or use an oath favored by the villain ("By the Vulture's blade").

Yes, yes, that is the sort of thing I am looking for (scribbles furiously).

Alternately, perhaps he himself has some kind of subtle insanity that is manifesting itself through his seedlings; heck, maybe he manifested Mind Seed as a self-defense mechanism, "shunting" the madness into others to spare himself its ravages

No. I can see how that would be interesting, but in this case the seeding is part of a deliberate plan by Drakar.

The villain might be remarkably superstitious, causing his seedlings to hunt out his preferred good luck charm and carry it with them at all times ("Hmmm...this is the third guy carrying a rabbit's foot on a silver chain. You think its some kind of cult or something?").

That would be good, too.

 

[Hattersai]

Yah Kefka...okay back to my FF obsessed world.

 

[Black Omega]

I do like the lucky charm bit, that could work well. 'Tenting' fingers can work, but add something to it like a speach pattern. Affect a mock english accept to go with it. If the accent doesn't go with the seedling at all it might be too obvious but it's also clear then something weird is up and they'll pick up on it faster when the next one asppears.

 

[Deadguy]

A speech pattern one can be very effective. Remember Babylon 5 and the members of the Psi Corps:

Be seeing you and then the mock salute

A combination like that, played out, will slowly stick in the mind of the players, provided you have plenty of in character speech at other times. Phrases that spring to mind (!) are:

When the storm comes
You might be surprised
As He wills it

You might also want to add a small phsyical trait like a tendancy to headaches - something that might crop up naturally, but occurs in all the seeded individuals. It allows for a worrying wild-goose chase, when someone close seems to have been caught out!

Good luck for the weekend though!

 

[mearls]

I had a telepath in a campaign once who was so accustomed to speaking via telepathy and other direct mental contact that the mannerisms and modes of speech he used there spilled over to his speech. He used direct sentences. Spoke in short bursts. Tended to flow his sentences together. When he consciously tried to avoid this, he used elaborate, long sentences that he carefully crafted in his mind before speaking them aloud.

Thus, there tended to be long pauses between his sentences as he slowly considered his words.

He was well aware of his shortcoming and took pains to cover it up, but rarely succeeded.

I experimented with taking obvious breaths between each burst of speech, but couldn't really get it right, the idea being that he wasn't used to breathing and speaking at the same time.

When in doubt, give an NPC a pet imp. Or a mysterious, silent bodyguard clad in fullplate. That always gets my players.

 

[Nightfall]

Well here's my thought, and please Psion, take it for what it is.

He's urbane, very polite as long as he's in control AND is respected (has an inferority complex because he feels the rest of the theocracy feels it's better than him). When angered, he tends to emphasize the wrong syllabyes and/or flusters his vowels. But even still, he commands a great presence, as he has a sleek appearance as well as striking feature, that of small streak of silverwhite hair.

He pefers to subjugate through intimidatation, blackmail and psycological warfare. Finally he has a fondness orderly things, like tea time and reading poetry at twilight. He's a creature of many habits, but he's still a little flexible when it comes to dealing with people, as he views them as either threats or pawns.

 

[FireLance]

I had a telepath in a campaign once who was so accustomed to speaking via telepathy and other direct mental contact that the mannerisms and modes of speech he used there spilled over to his speech. He used direct sentences. Spoke in short bursts. Tended to flow his sentences together. When he consciously tried to avoid this, he used elaborate, long sentences that he carefully crafted in his mind before speaking them aloud.

Thus, there tended to be long pauses between his sentences as he slowly considered his words.

I like the idea of a telepath's speech closely mirroring the way he thinks.

A more subtle clue could be a behaviourial trait like a love of reading elven poetry. The PCs could encounter a shopkeeper reading a book of elven poetry as he minds the store, a guard with a book of elven poetry in his equipment, or a peasant who quotes elven poetry to them.

 

[hong]

When in doubt, give an NPC a pet gimp.

Hmmmmm.

a mysterious, silent bodyguard clad in fullplate.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.