What have you done to REALLY make your players hate an NPC?

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Everyone,

I'm just wondering about some of the lengths you have gone to make your players really hate an NPC. Some DMs like the whole "BBEG destroyed your entire clan thing" but to me, this is just a little staid. Not because the attempted seriousness involved of some DM inspired psuedo-genocide is not good enough motivation, but more that these things seem to be woven into a character's background rather than be an in campaign event that actually happens to them.

For me, the real BIG hatreds are when you have an NPC do something absolutely diabolical in campaign (rather than in a history or background). The best I've done was a subtle treachery over several years of actual gameplay. To finally realise that this guy had really and truly sold them out bit so hard. To take an NPC from implicit and explicit trust for the group to "most hated NPC" was absolutely huge. Even now, several years later we still reminisce on this ultimate betrayal. The fact that they did not see it coming yet in hindsight could see the subtle clues was so much fun - for players and of course me the DM.

So, what have you orchestrated or in turn have orchestrated against you that has really got the blood boiling?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

PS: Oh and by the way, they got him in the end. Some wanted to know why he betrayed them and how, others just wanted to kill him dead, raise him and kill him again several times over. In the end, he died with a good old fashioned twenty on the die. He took several secrets to his grave that the players still have never found out and will never know.

 

[humble minion]

Well, the NPC my players hate the most isn't even a bad guy, particularly.

Darien Skye is an enormously muscled holovid actor (Star Wars campaign) with political ambitions and a set of policies that come directly from one of his staggeringly stupid action flicks. And yes, I came up with this idea before certain political developments in California a few years back...

Why do they hate him? Because I do ALL his dialogue in a horrible Austrian accent, because he is amazingly stupid and yet his wealth and connections always seem to save him from the consequences of his actions, because he hit on the Force-sensitive noble so obnoxiously he almost got himself Force-lightninged to death in the middle of a Senate cocktail party, and because, for a group full of pilots and Jedi, a guy who makes vids with titles like 'Lightsaber of Vengeance', Starfighters of the Fire Planet', and 'Death Prince of the Jedi' is like a red rag to a bull. Especially once they got wind of his involvement in a political plot and did a bit of research by subjecting themselves to some of his work...

This all happened by accident. I've had less luck generating hate for the main villain, ironically enough. Sure, they FEAR him, but they don't hate him as such. I think the key is personal contact. It's really hard to generate visceral hate for Zorgon the Dark Lord who seeks to escape his ancient imprisonment in the dread volcano fastness of Splurgoth. But the guy who you actually have to spend time talking to - that's another matter. It's just a matter of keeping him alive long enough for the hatred to properly mature.

 

[Grimstaff]

Yeah, my players absolutely loathe Mortimer the Smuggler and Erol the gnome from Secret of Smugglers Cove, who have been tormenting the PCs ever since they wrecked the whole smuggling operation thing. These guys wont let up, and even managed to clean out every gp and magic item most of the party had after a near-tpk in the Sunless Garden. The PC's have proven relentless though, pursuing them towards an eventual confrontation in the City State.

The little gnome has a porcupine familiar, btw, who usually comes in invisibly and delivers touch spells when the party's not looking. Touch of Idiocy, Shocking Grasp, all are fun. They may hate the two bad guys, but they really, REALLY, want to kill that porcupine!

 

[VirgilCaine]

In the end, he died with a good old fashioned twenty on the die. He took several secrets to his grave that the players still have never found out and will never know.

Speak with Dead?

Personal contact. Got it.

 

[Crothian]

Be friends with them and have the PCs get betrayed.

 

[Darkness]

Embarrassing them usually works wonders. Use with care, however.

 

[DaveMage]

Can't speak to hate, but I can speak to annoyance.

Once of my favorite things to do is have the party followed by someone. Usually someone much weaker than them - a low-level kobold for example.

The kobold torments them by following them (indicating he represents someone who wants to "keep an eye" on the party), and, whenever they think to confront the kobold, he taunts them with "yeah, you could kill me, but then someone would just take my place."

Of course, this only works with a "good" party, as the kobold never really threatens them, just follows them. Players always seem to get very uneasy when someone they don't know is having them watched.

 

[Sarellion]

Toying with them or betrayal works wonders. I think the most hated villain in my campaign is Rimal Seravis. He was actually not set up as a major villain but as an info source

He was involved in affair, that killed a major minister. My players were blamed for this and they wanted to milk him for information. They waited for him in a brothel in the room with his favorite courtesan.

When he entered the room, the spellslingers botched their stuff, weapons were drawn and a few lucky die rolls later (cool visuals included) Rimal Seravis jumped up the ladder from info source to an accomplished swashbuckler and a villain that played every side, players included.
He cheated lied, got the players to agree to a deal, gave them a henchman as a scapegoat so that they could get rid of the accusations, protected his employer and got promoted by the ministry. I think if they ever meet him again they will throw everything against him before I can say Roll for Ini...

 

[Rel]

The NPC that my players hated most never did anything incredibly dastardly aside from simply attack them. But they could not seem to catch her. The character, who they called the "Blue Demoness" and eventually the "Blue Bitch" was actually an Ogre Magess with a couple extra levels of Sorcerer.

Invisibility at will plus Regeration plus Gaseous Form makes for a very elusive baddie. It got to the point that the party Wizard walked around with half his spell loadout designed specifically to counter and kill her if she showed up (which was fairly frequently). They finally killed her on the next to last night of the campaign and they literally leapt into the air dancing and singing.

 

[Henrix]

Having an NPC steal some of their stuff usually gets the players pretty annoyed.