Venerable Villains: Authority Type Bad Guys

Venerable Villains is a series of posts that delve into different aspects of playing a bad guy in roleplay. Villains and bad guys come in a vast range of shapes and formats, but they are rather rare, and to find them done well is even rarer still. They are also essential to any good storyline or plot for breeding conflicts and tensions. We are going to talk about all kinds of villains and how to make them work. If you want to catch up with any of the other sections of this series you can find the index here: Venerable Villains Index Page.

There are a lot of different types of Villain found in movies and books and other creative outlets. But not all of those types will work well in roleplay. So I found this list of 28 Villain Types and I took from it those that I thought could be suited to an RP setting. I grouped the workable ones into like-typed groups and divided them into a few posts because there is a lot to talk about with this guys! I’m going to look at how and why each of the type groups could work in an MMORPG setting.

I have assumed for this article that you are creating a Villain as a stand alone character. If you are in fact creating a villain to purely be a prop, or a character within your guild or friends story arc then things like the Bully and the Beast might work for that. But we will talk about those in another post. Assuming you want the character to have some RP longevity and life outside of any particular story arc these are best types to shoot for. . I chopped them into Authority Villains, Motivated Minions and the Corrupted and Vengeful. Three sections and three posts and today we are looking at Authority Villains!

Authority Based Villains.

These types are the best for leader-type characters. And that in turn means leader type players. If you are hoping to start up a guild, gang or following for your villain then these types are ones to be considered. They are the ones that make the best Boss-Types. But as I mentioned be careful about choosing these types of bad guy if you, the player are perhaps more shy, and reserved. Not to say people cannot RP outside their own ability at all. But simply that a lot of people find it easier to move within their own general capability.

There is no sense rolling a quick and witty character if you are not quick and witty enough OOC to be able to quickfire back responses IC. Similarly there is no sense in rolling a leader type character if you are not able to be the leading sort with all the pro and cons that come with it. Knowing your own ability is half the battle. When you have a character that fits you it will make them much easier for you to play with and cause you less stress in the long run.

Power Driven Leaders

Authority villains are almost all movitaved by power. Their authority is their power and their motivation and drive as characters is to expand that power wider, farther and deeper. Masterminds, Big Bads, Dragons, Bosses, Corruptors they all fall into the umbrella of bad guys. And all these types seek to gain that power via the control and use of underlings or minions; by exercising authority over other characters to do their bidding and achieve their goals on their behalf. Extending their power by using their power.

Power Driven Solo Artists

Power can also however be a motivating force for non-leader characters. You can have stand alone characters that are driven by power and using authority as a method without running a gang or group. These are the Magnificent Bastards, the Despots and Femme Fatale. Characters that seek their own personal power sources. Now this can be anything from in-the-moment power via the ability to manipulate people to their will and bidding on a day-to-day basis. Or a slow burning use of said authoritative manner to flex their power over others just because they can. These characters can be harder to play and harder to do well. But they can be awesome additions to almost any setting as they could be well placed to cause a good amount of conflicts. And conflicts, friends, breed story.

How to Translate this into Roleplay in an MMORPG

Before we even get into this, let me say this; authority in an MMORPG is always a tricky subject, because the fact is this; you cannot force anyone else in this game to recognise and respect your authority if they do not what to. End of story.  Anyone you meet IC in this game is fully within their rights to refuse any claim you make on authority.

So my advice is this. Don’t make claims. Don’t shout about how important you are. And don’t shove it in peoples faces. Don’t try and force them to respect your character because you say they should. A good practise with RP in general is not to tell people how they should react to your character. But roleplay your character in such a way that it encourages them to react in the way you desire. Show them who your character is, rather than tell them. Act respectful, act authoritative, and people will react to that in turn. A lion has no need to tell people he is a lion.

Motivation and Method

So you have a character and you have him acting authoritative rather than shouting about it. This is good. How do you use that to get up to villainy? Your character is driven by power. So the first task for you is to work out what he as a character believes that power comes from.

Does he want to go into politics, does he believe that therein likes the means to influence his people and culture? Does he believe that power lies in controlling the underworld? And spreading his business and influence therein? Does he believe power lies in physical and martial might? Is he driven to create a warband or army that will be unbeatable and unrivaled by any other that he can use to take and claim anything he desires? Does their power lie in wealth and they deem their need to be for more? Does their power lie in people and manipulating people to his cause from all corners and walks of life so that he can always have a string to pull when he needs something done? What does your character believe is the source of power. And therein lies their goals.

Goals

Once you have their goal in mind it should be an easy enough task to reverse engineer that into smaller story steps. These are going to be the steps that feed your RP from day-to-day. Each step could take weeks, months or years to complete, mind. But your character will have that goal in mind and that will influence and affect their RP every day.

Your warband leader will want to be recruiting the best of the best fighters. Training them up, finding, making or reclaiming powerful weapons and so forth. Your underbelly don will want to eliminate the competition or make allies of them. As well as expanding his enterprises and venturing into new ones. Old ones will also need manned and protected. Your political geared mind is going to want to meet and greet with known figures in the community. And earn and gain favour with powerful and influential groups and so on.

If you are using your Authority Villain to run a group or guild; then these steps will provide you with some nice overarching plots for their storyline. All of them can be broken up into tasks, jobs and aims you can use to make events or encourage RP within your group.

Additional Notes on Authority Villains

They are not easy to spot. You likely won’t look at an Authority type bad guy and know he is a bad guy outright. They are cunning and manipulative and often blend in well with other people. Businessmen, politicians, traders, chieftains. They are also often sociopaths or show some sociopathic tendencies. As such, they also likely maintain some masquerade of normalcy that masks or hides their more nefarious businesses’.

Consider as well; your character’s background. What led them to their need for power? Did they grow up rich and well appointed and knowing nothing else they need to feed that lifestyle by whatever means? Or did they grow up lacking it and crave it due to that perceived loss? What was their influences? Who was the authority figures in their life and how did they act? How did that teach and affect your character and their goals and methods today?

How Not To use Authority Villains in an MMORPG

As we mentioned briefly above there are things you should be wary of and avoid when playing an authority based character. We spoke about not claiming, demanding or shouting about your authority. And that is the main point here. But alongside that, remember that this is not Highlander, there can, in fact, be more than one. And this is an MMORPG and there is likely to be a lot more than one and you need to recognise that and accept it. Other characters are going to have authority too. Their authority does not diminish yours. Theirs might be different, it might be similar but there is room in a story for many Authoritative figures. And it will only help the story grow if you recognise and accept that.

Bad Goals

In general, as well it stands to note for all types of villain to check your goals. There is not point in making goals like world domination, or the ruin or another player or guild (without their consent) because this is only going to cause strike and trouble OOC. I would also advise against any goals that involve the destruction of in-game locations; because you have no way of actually reflecting that in game. And similarly I’d advise against anything that involved frequent gratuitous and public violence. If you are attacking people in the streets constantly it is only going to be a hot minute until you are caught and kicked out of the city entirely. And being barred from community hubs like cities will seriously hinder your access and ability to RP within the community.

Conclusions

These types of bad guy are great for character driven manipulations of other characters for more social based goals. They are great for anyone wanting to build or stir up a group, guild or organisation. They are also a lot of fun. But similarly like with all bad guys they have to be done well. Better to avoid them if you don’t have the desire or drive for that kind of very driven and manipulative kind of character. As they rely a lot more on aura over actions and showing over telling.

I hope you found this useful! Catch us again next time for more on some other types of bad guys up for grabs