Your View: Antagonist Traits

[Farryn 860]

 

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Well, being a writer, I know that in order to create a great antagonist, you need to know a range of things which I will list and explain here in detail

• One: The antagonist needs to be able to accomplish something. For example, being able to create fear into characters, to be able to get close to their plans, or perhaps cause a great amount of destruction. Regardless, a good antagonist needs to be able to accomplish something and not be just a boring villain who does nothing at all. This makes them one hell of a villain to remember.
• Two: The antagonist has personal desires. An antagonist does not just do something because they are bored, there is a motive, a desire as to why they are doing this. A good antagonist has a reason or motive; such as the greed for power (a common trait), to get back at the world for an event that caused them great pain, enjoys violence, etc. There is always something that serves as the spark for the antagonist, and this is important.
• Three: The antagonist is relateable. and attachable Even if the antagonist may be a monster, I found that most antagonists in book can be relateable to some readers. I believe the same can be applied here. In LotC, we've often had antagonists based on the higher beings, such as Aengudaemons, spirits, etc. However, roleplayers cannot become fully attached to these antagonists as they are a higher level than their characters, as well as a lack of actual interaction between the antagonist and his victims. However, Sescendant antagonists can easily be relateable as they do have humanized traits, they can have motives and goals, as well as the capablity to become a threat. and being hidden in plain sight! Sure, a good Aengudaemon antagonist is fun, but I believe RPers can actually relate more to Descendant antagonists as they would have gone through the pain your character has and relate to them more. Imagine it, your character meets another character and they get along perfectly well, you oocly may even like that character because of how they are and such then boom! Turns out this man your character knew is an antagonist! It creates emotions and a sense of surprise for people, as well as making the antagonist more memorial if you are attached to them and you can relate to them.
• Four: The antagonist has flaws. Never is the antagonist a perfect being or person; just like every other character, the antagonist has flaws. Yes, even if they are a powerful Aengudaemon wanting to change a world, it is more than likely that the Aengudaemon has a flaw that can be used against it. Antagonists with flaws are more interesting and. once again, can be relateable. The amount of flaws they can have are limitless, such as being weak to holy magic, or they can only do antagonist stuff on a particular day, or they have social issues, etc. If the flaws counter their strengths and are done well, the antagonist does come out rather well thought out and interesting.
• Five: Their goals must be unique and different. An antagonist can have a range of goals, from destroying the world, to trying to achieve the power of a god. However, many goals have become rather cliche (such as trying to destroy/change the world) and these sort of goals should definately be avoided. There's so many goals an antagonist can have, such as just trying to kill a particular group because said group did something to the antagonist, or the antagonist is trying to gain a powerful item to bring back someone they love but in doing so, they will be harming many people. Their goal has to fit in with their motives and background and if this is done correctly, you will have an antagonist that is well done and interesting to learn about.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

One: Cliches. Do NOT make the antagonist cliche. Having a list of antagonists who are constantly the same or follow the same cliches and stereotypes are not fun, they are boring and suck butt. When it comes to antagonists, each one needs to be unique and different from the rest, they need a unique motive, a unique personality, appearance, etc, which makes them relativeable and fun to interact with. Here's a list of cliches I have seen on LotC:

• The 'Dark is automatically evil' cliche: Antagonists on LotC have sometimes been seen as dark, cloaked, and destructive people who wear black cloaks and weave around wicked dark magic. I can understand that many see the 'Dark is automatically evil' cliche but sometimes this becomes to repetitve and unenjoyable. Dark is not always evil, it can be interpreted as evil but not everything that is dark is evil. I have read books and seen films where light has actually been in the wrong; such as a well-loved and famed knight trying to eradicate a peaceful race because he believes it's for the greater good. Or a cleric who has turned against his people because his mind has been corrupted into thinking the world needs no people to be pure. This is an interesting twist, as well as gives the idea of not everyone can be good.
• The 'Antagonists are higher beings' cliche: Yep, this is definately a cliche. Looking through all the events that have occured, it has mosly been Aengudaemonic forces that have been the antagonists. We got Gazadriael for the Harvester Event in Vailor (although we do not speak of such), and Orgon (Orgorn?) for the Orcish Plague during the end of Vailor. However, many of us are becoming bored of Aengudaemons and higher beings, they are beings our characters do not fully understand and the events that come with these antagonists are boring. What LotC needs is more descendant-leved antagonists, characters who our own can intereact with easily, relate to, as well as learn about without needing a massive eventline on riddles and finding information. Sure, these antagonists can still be powerful but they will be fun and nicer to interact with.
• The 'Antagonist hates the world and wants to destroy it' cliche: Whenever I see a villain who fits this cliche, it makes me want to just throw up and strangle the person who made this antagonist/ Those who fit this cliché can take on all shapes or forms. They may be in disguise, and more often than not is looking for the protagonist’s pity. These villains usually have dark and tragic pasts, and have often lost love ones in their lives. As such, they seek revenge, deciding to kill off everyone in the world, or they just want to destroy the world and create a new one from dust (linking with the 'Antagonists are higher beings' cliche). The reason why this is annoying is that ot’s unrealistic and annoying. Since most of these antagonists are grown men and women, or bloody higher beings, it just seems a little silly that they want to destroy the world or blame the word as a whole because of one single event. Even so, if this cliche can be molded into something unique and not horrible, it just needs a clear mind and a lot of work to make this cliche not horrible.

I would list more but I should stop now. However! Do research on the most used antagonist cliches and try and avoid them when developing your own antagonist!

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

In LotC, the antagonist's job is to help make the world more realistic. Where there is good, there is evil. So on, so forth. However, I also believe the antagonists are there to help provide developement for a character; whenever it be physically harming them to cause them to fear the antagonist and go through certain scenarios, or to make a character realise their wrongs or rights when they are with the antagonist. The antagonist is there to help develope characters and allow the roleplayers to be in situations they have never been in before, as well as help them learn more about how the world of LotC works. If the antagonist is done wrong, it just leaves a sour taste in one's mouth and we don't tend to speak of the event again (Harvester event). However, if the antagonist is done right, such as through motives and goals, and providing developement for characters, then the playerbase will be happy and their characters will have good developement placed onto them. This is really important to remember when making an antagonist.

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

Well, a single antagonist is common, but a group of antagonists is also fun when done right. A single antagonist can bring forth a sense of urgance if their goals are to cause trouble or create disorder towards a particular group, although once you know who the antagonist is, the main goal now is to find them and stop their plans. Whereas with an antagonistic group, you may know one member of this group, but you don't know all of them. It creates a sense of who do you trust? Can you trust that character? Is this character one of them? It creates a sense of suspense and panic since you'll have more than one antagonist. Sure, you stopped this antagonist from completing this goal, but in doing so, you allowed another member of this antagonistic group achieve one goal. However, group antagonists do have their flaws; they will require a leader, management over who is in the group, close interaction with members of this group, the characters in this group to have a clear reason for their goals, etc. If anything happens to these, this can bring the group down and cause it to fail. However, that's just my views on this.

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Yes, read what I said above and place it into consideration. However, I do advise doing research on great antagonists, see how those characters are wonderful antagonists, how they fit well into the world they are in, and try and do the same for LotC. Research is extremely useful when it comes to making antagonists, as well as recognising what the playerbase wants in an antagonist.

 

 

... I really need to write a guide on this. For now, I will leave you with this:

 

 

[Shalashask 1112]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?
A motive that is arguably better than the protagonists. 

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?
Their leader being crazy/mad just for the sake of it to seem interesting with a poor explanation of why they are like that.
 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To provide roleplay and conflict when the players themselves are unable to create it amongst themselves.
 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?
A splintered group.

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?
If players are clearly not enjoying an antagonists then end it quickly. Don't let an ET/LM keep their antagonist personas for relevance. 
 

[Archbishop 1784]

I myself really enjoyed the red realm battle. I loved how with each hour of the day we progressed further towards the main keep, only to be pushed back again and then to rally the whole server and push. Make that happen again please.

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

The best antagonists are player create, generated through dynamic RP and unique lore which the players themselves are personally invested in as their personal characters. Artificially created antagonists for the sake of having an antagonist never work.

 

For good player antags, see:

• Nephilim
• Those wraiths that created the elder tree dragon

 

And a final point of advice:

DONT MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT BATTLES, FIGHTING AND DESTRUCTION. Don't be a ******* Micheal Bay. Think of deeper more meaningful ways for your antag to interact with people beyond boom boom pow magic missile KAPLOW taint taint netherrack death

 

[Elindor 666]

1)  A simple enough purpose sought after through various means as interpretted by its antagonist major players. The playerbase should understand what their goal is, but not always comprehend why they are doing certain actions.

This requires a bit of good leadership, sure, but also smart people who can build their own avenue to take over the world from.

Virtually untouchable OOC. The second your average player feels they have equal power in a situation because they can whine in OOC, the encounter is a waste of time. Players need to have some fear. You could make strong suggestions that some deaths are a PK. No rules, just pressure.

Interactivity without antag players required. Either mobs that are minions or clues left around, etc. Something that makes an antag event not completed just because a player has now got the special item in their inventory or an enemy has been defeated. Expanding on this in 3.

 

2) Interacting with special people to push the story along. Nothing worse than being out of the loop because a thing happenned while you weren't online and now X group have another important item which will allow them to further special snowflake their way to private victory. 

Being overcomplicated and having pages of lore to explain their special race abilities when no one else ever sees it.

 

3) To create an opportunity for players to write a story that is a part of this much bigger world. The greatest part of the first Undead for me was that while I was investigating what Aegis was I was finding more and more about the Undead. So I now had a purpose that wasn't going to stagnate as long as they were around. For me it was to understand Iblees. Along the way I had some personal interactions with Undead, and some large attacks. But when they weren't around there were still scientists studying taint, journals from the battlefront, shadows in character's minds that drove them insane, or just killing some zombies. We found ways to be doing something with Iblees when no one was online to do it.

 

4) I always found the cultist groups to be annoying because I don't like combat based roleplay, but also because the players were a bit scrub. Though I expect some smaller groups works for other people to make PVP events. The thing to watch out for with other groups is if they are not the best roleplayers then you end up losing some of the fear. So distancing the real enemy from them tends to be a good idea to preserve fear of consequences of facing them.

 

5) There's nothing wrong with cliches. They're cliched because they have been used a lot, and they have been used a lot because they are solid ideas to work from. It is just immaturity and angst to deny the solid foundations that are cliche. So don't dismiss an idea just because it has been done heaps. Build it, personalise it, add  character. If you intentionally steer away from cliche you end up with whatever the heck was going on with the attempts to rewrite our creation lore.

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

37 minutes ago, 吳憾戰士14 said:

• Those wraiths that created the elder tree dragon

 

i created that dragon for myself not silly wraiths . . .

 

 

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

I am so against antagonists in general, but honestly if there's a /need/ for one. It just needs to do something to engage multiple playerbases. All the antagonist should provide honestly is a movement for roleplay to continue, in such a way its minor 'railroading' of a story.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

If you use Iblees again I'm actually going to ******* die. But honestly, the main thing to avoid is placing the power in the hands of people who'll abuse it for personal gain. To create good antagonists/protagonists. They need to be made in such a way where no OOC attachment drives them or their actions, it should be a story driven by RP and all decisions should be made in hindsight of such.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To progress RP when the norm has become stagnant

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

Splinter groups, to allow for the groups to engage multiple playerbases

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

i hate antags

 

 

[Krism 67]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

The actions of the antagonist need to be far-reaching and clear. An all-powerful antagonist sitting in some citadel of evil in a corner of the map won't work. He/she or they're minions should be actively being out on the map and making a clear threat of themselves. Potential terrorist-style attacks on city's, corruption of certain terrain areas and other stuff so people actually feel that some overarching power is threatening them. Also great ET opportunities in there.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

As slightly mentioned before, if you have an antagonist you need them to be active and a clear threat, always looming over the people. If he

/she/that becomes some kinda bad thing I guess just sitting somewhere far away, there might as well not be an antagonist.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To create suspense and a sense of meaning in the world. Also especially in these times, we need someone people might be able to fight together, as in the races, so Oren might stop beating the **** out of everyone because they're bored.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

There should be a single overarching antagonist. This person should have some powerful minions of chaos, who can go out and actively create chaos in the world.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Hit me up if you need building manpower.

[oblivionsbane 714]

14 hours ago, Sky said:

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

1.

 

The most important quality of an antagonist, by nature, is to be an INCREDIBLE THREAT to the players. Antagonists should be super aggressive or plotting, take land if given the chance without the permission of the owners, and beyond all, they should make the player feel like there is an actual threat to not only their lives, but to the entire realm and their way of living as a whole. Secondly, and almost just as important as the first, is that the antagonist should be ROLEPLAYED VERY WELL and the teams behind it should have a concrete plan of the antagonists goals, its reasoning, and it in general as an organization. An antagonist's most important qualities are to create an immense, next level threat to the players while offering very good, thought out roleplay.

 

2.

 

There are three major problems that antags in the past have had:

 

The first is that antagonists tend to be fundamentally changed and rewritten halfway through their existence, sometimes more than once, without any real involvement by the playerbase as a whole. This just makes players feel uneasy about the status of the antag and breaks their immersion and vision of what they are fighting. It makes me think of this small dance I went to once where the person playing the music never let a song finish. Even if the song sucked, we'd rather listen to it than the parts of four other songs the guy played instead. Let Antags run their course, and if you DO want to change them, then do it in a fluid, organic, and reasoned out way in character.

 

Secondly, antags tend to not be as aggressive or even as powerful as they should be. Like I said in the very first paragraph, the purpose of an antag is to make the playerbase feel like they are actually being threatened by something. Antagonists should be taking land from nations, sinking cities, wiping out armies, and killing aenguls and daemons, because otherwise, it's very hard to take them seriously. If you don't, you get a situation like the necromancers and their creations these days, where they are more of a minor annoyance or threat to be beaten than an actual threat. It causes beating them to seem meaningless and routine, rather than a triumph or something to be celebrated. The antag shouldn't be mindlessly superior, though, unless they are supposed to be crazy and mindless; they should act in a calculated, thoughtful manner to reach their goals. This would not only be very fun to roleplay, but it would also help to involve more of the playerbase as players will have to come together to beat these bigger threats. (Also, while I'm not going to write a paragraph about it, giving an antag clear goals and a plan or strategy to achieve them is important.)

 

Lastly, antags should be completely focused on creating roleplay through conflicts and their lore while remaining the antag. There should not be some leader of the antag's army being a huge pacifist and going and making friends with the enemy unless it contributes to the overall plot, and there shouldn't be a PvP focused leader who is just there to beat you at PvP. They should have a balance, and if they can not do that, then they should do their best to be good at roleplay and figure out a way to make a balance. For instance, why would a leader antag fight most of the time anyways? They should be in the back calling down mobs, and that leader antag should take a small army or two to beat. Big bads should be fought by the entire server plus a couple special appearances by a greater being. Antags have the potential to create scenarios that would otherwise NEVER happen, and that should be taken and used as much possible

 

3.

 

The job of an antag is simple, to provide overarching, interesting conflict and world roleplay to everyone. They should create an atmosphere of fear, dread, and of course, threat. They should be tasked with superior and more powerful roleplay than normal evil groups such as the necromancers, while having the resources and manpower in roleplay to act as an actual, serious, worldwide threat. They should take land and destroy things people put time into, because that is what will cause people to look and think, "Maybe we should focus more on that." I recall the antag in Anthos where they never really did anything but raid. Leumaelin was lost because of a dirty trick no one had a clue about and nothing ever expanded from it, and the Cloud Temple was lost because they wanted an excuse to move it to the center of the map. Overall, people didn't really consider the Scourge a real threat. If things such as the antag gaining land are ignored, then they should just keep taking ground until the people of the server realize how big of a threat they actually are. An antagonist should help make the world feel more alive by acting as a threatening force of nature, practically a mechanic of the server; their sheer presence and existence should have our characters shaking in their boots.

 

4.

 

Both, I believe there should be an overarching antag who delegates the fulfilling of his interests to lower level antagonists who in turn create conflicts on several fronts. For example, imagine we were fighting an other-worldly foe, say BIGBADGUY who tells his 5 Generals to take Axios. They rip open one portal on Ceru because it's a small threat, two on Asul because no one actually lives there and they can build a base of operations, and two on Tahn because it is the biggest threat. Now, let's say just those TWO portals on Tahn are actually enough to hold off the rally that the forces of Tahn could muster, while Ceru was struggling to fight off one, and they are gaining land rapidly on Asul. This is the fulfillment of everything I've described. Everyone is involved, the enemy is taking land and providing a threat, and THINGS ARE HAPPENING. You don't have 3 generals attacking one small Wood Elven village, you have two generals and a massive, unrelenting force whittling down at the strongest grouping of players. Now imagine this all goes through warclaims, and all five of these generals have their warclaims at the same time. Also, BIGBADGUY should be strong enough that players need direct help from Aenguls and Daemons to beat them if they ever do fight them, and I don't mean Aengul A bestowing tons of power onto player B. I mean Xan himself coming down and trying to fight the guy and losing, so Gazardial gets pissed and goes to have a pissing match with him and barely breaks even. Want to make it even more terrifying? Make it so there is more than one BIGBADGUY. Hell, have the fighting create a giant crater in the ocean that is causing crazy, mutated fish. There are so many options, you just have to realize that you are undoubtedly going to piss people off at first, but they'll get over it and they'll move on in roleplay; that is what creates immersion.

 

5.

 

Antagonists have been something I've given a lot of thought to, if you couldn't tell. Like I said, the playerbase is going to be upset with whatever you do, but if you ask me, creating conflict RP always makes someone upset because someone loses, so you might as well stay the course and let that anger mellow out into in-character hatred and anger. Losing your town and having your character grow bitter and vengeful towards the antagonist is the clearest sign that they are doing a good job. After all, the antagonist brought you character development, and that's what we're all here for. If the guy RP's well, he'll undoubtedly get more land in the future after things are said and done.

 

Also, think about the most successful movies and games, Star Wars, Halo, and Gears of War to name a few. They all had antagonists that went way over their heads, the Empire, the Covenant, and the Locust. Fighting an antagonist that you immediately are even with isn't exciting, challenging, or even any fun. Struggling and fighting tooth and nail to beat an enemy is all of those things.

[Man of Respect 5471]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Reasonable intent. I honestly think that all the antags on the server have never had something actual besides one end, but why? Why do they want to destroy the world?

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

The ridiculous and stupid seek for power and "serving the great master", but to improve on their character's feelings. To be honest, the "IM SOULESS" thing is the most ridiculous one possible. You don't have feelings, this is the most edgy and cliche thing.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To bring justice on their point of view or to reach a certain end. They're not evil, in essence, but they're evil for a good part, yet, seen as a benevolent god for another part that isn't an antagonist. Rebellion leaders?

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

An antagonist FFA. There's each different group, and all these groups are frowned upon by everyone else. If they go FFA, it'd be awesome as every different one wants to end the world.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Feelings, please.

 

Azdromoth and wraiths are the biggest joke i've ever seen.

[Ducklingator 795]

I think you should have the sprite race take over Oren and we'll move on from there. I'll be their leader, and we'll attack everybody with cute needles

[Smaw 2376]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

First and foremost, there has to be some form of emotionally driven pursuit. It doesn't need to be an unwavering desire to conquer the world, that doesn't ebb and flow, regardless of circumstance. Good Antagonists are still characters, with real feelings, motivations and fears.

 

An Antagonist should still be capable of love and humour, and sometimes it can be the former that drives them to commit unspeakable acts.

 

I would consider an Antagonist that could appeal to each race in an individual way, by affecting something very close to them. For instance, in terms of the Elves it may be their Druidism or Dryad population, and for Orcs, it would resemble some form of Spiritual corruption. 

 

It needs to have a very real consequence for winning too, and no amount of rules should be protecting the community from these circumstances. Losing land, towns, or structures should be a very real threat handled in a way that gives the community the chance to defend themselves.

 

Equally, and by the same token, the Antagonist should be defeatable, and able to be raided by parties that find where they are. It should also be something the community can be involved in by the way of kidnap or integration into whatever ranks may be available within this Antagonistic group.

 

I would not focus on the primary evil of whatever the cause may be, but instead, a central figure in the progression of it. For instance, say there was some form of Spectral Entity that wanted to cause harm to the world for whatever reason. There would be a servant under it that explored the world at first, looking (for all intents and purposes) like a regular person.

 

He would begin to develop bonds with people, plotting against them with deception, and ultimately betraying them for one reason or another. This would grow exponentially, and instead of being aware of the overarching Antagonist, people focus on a more relatable character that stems from it.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

An extremely powerful entity/power that cannot be overwhelmed or warded off. The ET should be relying more on their own cunning and intelligence to work around their weaknesses, than simply overpowering every group they come across to try and strike fear into everyone.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

Ultimately, to create a story that people can engage in. In this, there would be the potential for a lot of character development, and would allow a healthy state of progress outside of typical nation RP.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

Both, at once.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

For the love of God, take into consideration what is being mentioned in this thread. Countless times in the past, people have been underwhelmed with Antagonists, and for much of the same reason.

 

Do not be afraid to upset people OOC. If they lose something and whinge, it's a personal issue they have, not one that should influence what true RP should be.

[Praetor 1550]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Be adaptable. PVP or RP should both be things. Don't make antagonists out of Lore Masters or ET because all they'll do is try to act cool and write paragraph long emotes. Take from everywhere so nobody complains about muh rp or boring ass 3 hour long rp sessions. Don't try to be too creative cause if you go too far it just ends up looking retarded. Create it simple, let events make the antagonist a complex thing. Don't follow some stupid storyline, don't moderate the antag beyond making sure they're not just going on powetrips. Give them a vague goal and let them do whatever the **** they want. 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Being OP, being led by LM's, ET's, Admins... Following a (rigid) storyline, being more edgy than Reaper, shying away from either PVP or RP. Being unbalanced and unfun for the players. Being rigid and unwilling to let the players modulate the experience.

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

Be fun.

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

One main antagonist with small groups inside of it for particular nations. Sometimes do big **** together.

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

[zaezae 1098]

Just be a good character. An antag shouldn't exist just to make everyone's lives brighter since so many people hate danger so much.

[bungo 3965]

Im going to keep this short but here you go.

 

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Don't make it invincible, don't make it a generic black/white evil antagonist.  Give it motivations and reasons beyond "I am evil and I will destroy everything."

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Do not make them invincible/indestructible or overly powerful.  A good example of this is 3.0 Antag vs 4.0 Undead.  4.0 Undead had an aoe attack which never missed and you couldn't avoid.  3.0 Antag was really strong but once you understood how it worked and functioned with was easily killable and it's attacks were dodge-able.

Do not make them align with any faction, that just alienates players.  However certain player-groups aligning with the antagonist isn't bad.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To provide chaos and fun.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

There needs to be a central figure but there can be groups under the antagonist.  

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

[TeaRex 52]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

Creativity, accepting (of others ideas or comments), and leadership!

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

Over-powered qualities. An interesting antagonist could be very weak, but have such a strong system of followers that he cannot be touched!

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

Go against the protagonist in any way, create (irp)  life-changing rp!

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

Splintered group of antagonist entities

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

I would recommend doing something similar to the Undead events in Athera. Those were fun!