So, what is your Favorite "Villain" race these days?

[Deset Gled]

To me at least, designating a cultist as the default bad guys is just as lazy if not quite as problematic.

To be sure, laziness is often the goal for me, not a pejorative. It's very useful to have a quick and easy way to communicate to the players "These are the bad guys. It's okay to kill then." Or, alternatively, "You don't have to pause the quest and have a moral quandary here, it's okay to move on with the main plot."

You can always use vermin or undead, too. But something with more tactics is often pleasing.

 

[MGibster]

To be sure, laziness is often the goal for me, not a pejorative. It's very useful to have a quick and easy way to communicate to the players "These are the bad guys. It's okay to kill then." Or, alternatively, "You don't have to pause the quest and have a moral quandary here, it's okay to move on with the main plot."

You're not wrong! For me, a game world is primary designed as a playground for player characters to adventure in. Whether the setting is filled with nuance or stark black & white contrast between good and evil, the most important thing is that it's fun to adventure in. If there's a lull in the game, throw in some Illinois Nazis and let the players bash 'em around for a bit. It's just good, clean fun.

 

[Tonguez]

To me at least, designating a cultist as the default bad guys is just as lazy if not quite as problematic. We have a long history of othering people for belonging to different groups after all.

Nah in a world where actual Evil* gods/devils/demons/powers exist designating their dedicated followers as cultists isn't a problem IMHO. It's not as if these are merely heretical errors of doctrine, these cults advocate torture, murder, blood sacrifice and worse.
That said Oive also done campaigns were otherwise good heretical sects have come into conflict with a larger religion and PCs have been put in the moral quandary of orthodoxy v justice

 

[MGibster]

Nah in a world where actual Evil* gods/devils/demons/powers exist designating their dedicated followers as cultists isn't a problem IMHO. It's not as if these are merely heretical errors of doctrine, these cults advocate torture, murder, blood sacrifice and worse.

This is a very similiar argument among apologist for always evil races. And I'm one of those apologists who has made similar arguments in the past.

 

[Dire Bare]

This is a very similiar argument among apologist for always evil races. And I'm one of those apologists who has made similar arguments in the past.

Truth.

In the real world, a "cult" is a small religious group that you don't belong to. Very much "the other". They might be problematic, they may not be. Plenty of folks from the larger, more established religions end up doing lots of evil, you can't blame it all on the "cults".

In my game, a cult can be an evil one . . . but isn't necessarily. I apologize above for not clarifying that.

A classic not-evil D&D cult is the Cult of Halav in the Mystara setting. A smallish group of folks who worship a cultural hero and see the current ruler of the kingdom as his reincarnation. Not evil, but can be antagonists.

 

[Dire Bare]

This is a very similiar argument among apologist for always evil races. And I'm one of those apologists who has made similar arguments in the past.

While we are still growing and improving as a hobby and as individuals, I'm tired of arguing with folks who for some reason need an entire fantasy species to be always evil to have fun in D&D. Not interested in those type of games anymore, or in those conversations.

 

[BookTenTiger]

My players helped design my latest campaign world, and they designated humans as the face of the opposition. The idea is that the realm used to be a lot more diverse, but a single entity called the Sun King took over and put humans in charge of everything.

In reality, a lot of the humans in charge are actually aberrations in disguise. So that's fun!

 

[DammitVictor]

I prefer antagonists to villains, and I sprinkle potential antagonists throughout my world and invite my players to choose which ones to hate. Vicious, cruel orc tribes can be allies or enemies. Hobgoblin slavers working for human mercantile companies, the Elven Imperial Navy, ancient undead necromancers...

 

[Tonguez]

This is a very similiar argument among apologist for always evil races. And I'm one of those apologists who has made similar arguments in the past.

The difference as I see it comes down to fantasy essentialism v choice. In the case of Race evil because they made that way, they are being denied choice. That's different to a human death cultist who makes the choice to do bad stuff for their god- we know it's a choice because other humans don't do the same stuff.

 

[overgeeked]

Almost always humans.

I don’t do “inherently evil” races. I’d rather make the stereotypical “bad guy” races sympathetic. It makes things far more interesting.