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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 6098883">I don't think there is one right answer to this. Each GM and each groups has their own sense of what makes a villain and how villains should be run. But I did do a blog entry on this subject a while back, saying what works for me: <a href="http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/goods-of-villainy.html" target="_blank">http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/goods-of-villainy.html</a><a href="http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/goods-of-villainy.html" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/goods-of-villainy.html" target="_blank">It</a> is basically a list of rules I try to follow. But for me the most important one, and the one that players have given me the most positive feedback for in play is: villains need to earn their place. I think most of my players really hate it when the GM treats the villain as his favorite character in the story and either grants him direct plot immunity (PCs can't kill him until the big confrontation) or sets up the whole campaign around him from day one. I used to do this, back when I first started GMing my Ravenloft campaigns. But over time I realized this wasn't fair to the players. So I changed how I handled villains. Now my villains get the same treatment any other NPC does. They have to survive to become a true nemesis of the party (and frankly not many do). Whether the players kill my villain through cunning, or a stray arrow does him in, I have heard from players countless times that they appreciate it when they realized my big baddy wasn't getting any special treatment.For example, something I used to do, saw many GMs do, and even saw advice columns suggest, was allow the villain to escape at the last minute so he could fight another day. Basically fudge to get him to safety. I made a conscious decision not to do this stuff any longer back in the mid-90s. In a campaign soon after that there was a series of adventures involving the plottings of an evil cleric (a little fuzzy on the precise details). When the players confronted him early in a cathedral, where he was caught a bit off guard, they were able to last him with enough spells and steel that it was clear he wouldn't survive. He tried to flee out the window (nothing wrong with letting them try), but one of the players fired an arrow at him while another cast a spell and he died an undignified death as he was squeezing himself through the window frame. One of the players told me after the game (and in fact mentioned it many times after) that he really appreciated it, because he knew as a GM, that was typically not how or when you'd want the bad guy to die.</blockquote>

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