What media villains would translate well to D&D?

[DreadPirateMurphy]

In the discussion on the media boards, somebody mentioned in a poll thread that Gul Dukat from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 had the complexity to be a great D&D villain in a campaign. Who else would? My thoughts:

In Serenity, the agent of the Alliance was a good example of a zealot willing to do anything for the sake of the greater good. He would slaughter children, kill without remorse, and keep secrets for his employers. He strikes me as an excellent Lawful Neutral antagonist, working against the player characters for his patron without any emotional investment.

Hannibal Lechter strikes me as a good model for a Chaotic Evil dragon. He plays with you because he is bored. He does disturbing things just to get a reaction. He relishes the personal secrets he wrests from you. And he is very, very clever and unpredictable.

Rutger Hauer's character in Blade Runner would, in my mind, make a very interesting warforged character in the Eberron setting. The secret comes out that the warforged created for Cyre have built in expiration dates. Maybe those of other nations do as well. That would be an interesting rational for the activities of the Lord of Blades. Maybe word gets out that there is still a creation forge running in Sharn, and a set of replicants...err, warforged, are out to find a cure for their built in terminations. Do the players help, or try to stop them?

What other antagonists from books, movies, or TV come to mind? Keep in mind that I'm interested in how you see them fitting into a D&D campaign.

 

[Dragonbait]

fun topic. I think I'll go the cartoon rout.

Cobra Commander and his colleagues are great villains, suitable for running or being high-ups in the Emerald Claw or some other military villains.

Megatron, the Beast Wars version, is good for a villain who is slightly higher level than the PCs, and progresses at about the same rate as they do. He is cunning, educated, can be charming and talkative, and can be just downright evil. He works best when he is not so much more powerful than the PCs that he could dominated them in a fight. He needs plans and webs, and should always seem like he knows more than others and has several Aces in his pocket.

 

[Mycanid]

Well, to be honest I always thought that the storms from the 80's movie Big Trouble in Little China would do well in the 3.5 ruleset. Especially Lightning (my favorite) - as the clerical prestige class that throws lightning around whose name I forget at the moment.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Magneto.

He is a great villian, I think, because his goals overlap with the heroes' goals. They aren't the same and his methods are vastly different, but they often enough have the same enemies and overarching desires. It's the politics and the morality differences between them that make them enemies instead of him being the usual antagonistic roles of heroes and BBEG.

I've done things like this in D&D, but never as well as I had hoped. I've never quite gotten the similar goals thing down right versus the PCs. I've done it through NPCs vs. NPCs satisfactorily enough with the PCs intervening, but I've found it very difficult to work into the PCs usual goals and such.

 

[JohnSnow]

What media are we allowed to draw from? You mention movies, TV and books. There's tons in comics: too many really, so I'll leave those out of the current discussion.

Both the mastermind from the DaVinci Code and all the people he manipulates. I could easily see some religious heresy, especially in Eberron.

Some others...the mayor from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and lots of the lawyers from Angel fit great. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are chock full of good villains and supporting characters, especially for an Eberron campaign. Heck, you could do worse than to model a PC on Harry Dresden himself.

I almost think any well-characterized villain would work. Some, obviously, translate better than others.

 

[Sandain]

I think it is hard to top IRL villains.

Hitler
Saddam
The AL Queda guy
Pol Pot
Stalin
Vlad Drakov

etc

 

[Kunimatyu]

I think it is hard to top IRL villains.

Hitler
Saddam
The AL Queda guy
Pol Pot
Stalin
Vlad Drakov

etc

Maybe, but this thread is about media villains. Feel free to comment on the portrayals of the above in modern media and how those would translate, however.

 

[gizmo33]

Are we talking about "media evil fantasy roleplaying" ? (Ok, that probably belongs on the Gygax thread - sorry)

 

[Sarellion]

Alfred Bester the Psi Cop from Babylon 5 for the villain that is dedicated to his people. End justifies the means.
Emperor Cartagia (Bab 5) for the cackling madman.

 

[smootrk]

Locutus of Borg. (a special type of Inevitable or Formian leader)

Gaius Baltar

Darth 'anybody'