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<blockquote data-quote="Wolv0rine" data-source="post: 1822072" data-attributes="member: 9045">Here are some factors that don't see play as much as I'd like them to:Fear.&nbsp; You can have wonderful villains, you can have villians with memorable personalities, fully-rounded goals and motivations and all that.&nbsp; But a truely classic, epic villain should be one who you Fear.&nbsp; I love the villain described by Herpes Cineplex a few posts back, great character.&nbsp; But the question is, was the party afraid of him?&nbsp; I don't get the impression that they were.Case in point, when Warlord Ralts was running the Year of the Zombie game on psionics.net, we were *afraid* of those zombies.&nbsp; The rednecks were tough, but we were confident we could handle them (and when we reached a level too high to even bat an eye at them, I kind of missed them).&nbsp; And the thing we feared more than zombies was kids.Yes, kids.&nbsp; Little kids.&nbsp; Like 5-9 years old.Ralts had added this custom template to these feral kids, and they were terrifying.&nbsp; They ran through storms of fully automatic gunfire, making obscene Ref checks, and never getting hit.&nbsp; They wielded butcher knives and cleavers and came dozens at a time in small, confined places.&nbsp; They were scarier than Frell.&nbsp; And when we finally took down their leader, it was tough, and we lost more than a few characters.&nbsp; And no one in that group will ever forget those kids.Which brings me to another point.&nbsp; The BBEG doesn't always have to be a single entity.&nbsp; Like those kids, or the zombies themselves.&nbsp; They were, onto themselves, BBEGs, but they were groups.&nbsp; There was no Master Zombie, and that was part of the problem.&nbsp; There was no top to go to in an attempt to end the nightmare.&nbsp; You just had to hope you survived the next onslaught.&nbsp; And you knew, eventually, that it was coming.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wolv0rine, post: 1822072, member: 9045"] Here are some factors that don't see play as much as I'd like them to: Fear. You can have wonderful villains, you can have villians with memorable personalities, fully-rounded goals and motivations and all that. But a truely classic, epic villain should be one who you Fear. I love the villain described by Herpes Cineplex a few posts back, great character. But the question is, was the party [b]afraid[/b] of him? I don't get the impression that they were. Case in point, when Warlord Ralts was running the Year of the Zombie game on psionics.net, we were *afraid* of those zombies. The rednecks were tough, but we were confident we could handle them (and when we reached a level too high to even bat an eye at them, I kind of missed them). And the thing we feared more than zombies was kids. Yes, kids. Little kids. Like 5-9 years old. Ralts had added this custom template to these feral kids, and they were terrifying. They ran through storms of fully automatic gunfire, making obscene Ref checks, and never getting hit. They wielded butcher knives and cleavers and came dozens at a time in small, confined places. They were scarier than Frell. And when we finally took down their leader, it was tough, and we lost more than a few characters. And no one in that group will ever forget those kids. Which brings me to another point. The BBEG doesn't always have to be a single entity. Like those kids, or the zombies themselves. They were, onto themselves, BBEGs, but they were groups. There was no Master Zombie, and that was part of the problem. There was no top to go to in an attempt to end the nightmare. You just had to hope you survived the next onslaught. And you knew, eventually, that it was coming. [/QUOTE]

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