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Villain applications are gone! Whee! It’s been almost two weeks and there’s been a noticeable increase in evil activity now that everyone and their mother can murder, steal, and enslave to their heart’s desire. As a result, many more people are also being impacted by these new villains, one of whom would be me. I play primarily non-combative women so it’s to be expected. Personally, I think terrifying or difficult circumstances are great ways to develop my characters and usually find them pretty fun. But with the evil flood gates open wide there’s going to be some who struggle with creating quality, enjoyable experiences. That’s understandable, and I’d like to offer some critiques and suggestions from the perspective of someone often on the receiving end of villainy. For this post I’ll be using examples of villainous RP I’ve encountered in the last week, and showing how they can be improved, and also some things you should try to avoid. These aren’t rules, obviously, but they are things I think everyone would benefit from. Killing - When It’s Unnecessary Roleplay Scenario: Bandit One distracts clueless and mostly defenseless woman. Bandit Two sneaks up behind her with a bow, ready to shoot. Bandit One draws his sword and demands that the woman give up her money or else! Bandit Two creeps closer to the woman, making a sound. Woman hears said sound and turns around to see Bandit Two. Bandit Two shoots woman, Bandit One slits her throat to end her misery, and they make off with her purse. What’s wrong with that? The bandits wanted money and they got money, why would they care if they killed a random woman? They were certainly acting within their characters, and that’s all that matters, right? Indeed! Nothing is objectively wrong here, however it’s not very much fun for the victim. When you kill someone in roleplay that character dies and forgets all about the incident. All that’s left for the victim to do is go to the monks, then go about their business like nothing ever happened. There are no lasting impacts, the whole scenario may as well have been voided. As harsh as it may sound, it was a waste of the victim’s time. Killing.. kills roleplay. If you leave your victim alive they have the chance to grow from their experience. The bandits could have given the woman a chance to react. To cooperate with them, or beg, or run, or even fight back. Or they could have simply wounded her and left her for dead. From there she could have rallied up the town to search for them, or given the local doctor some medical RP with her injuries. The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to avoid killing your victims. If you take anything from this post, please take this. Killing a character kills roleplay. But certainly there are some situations where a character has to die, right? To that I say, but of course. Killing - When It’s Unavoidable Roleplay Scenario: Halfling Lady is casually gardening. Troll with Club encounters said Halfling lady and tries to squash her with his club. Halfling Lady dodges the club, then screams for help and tries to run away. No one hears, or responds. Troll with Club knocks Halfling over, then grabs her and runs off into the woods. Halfling Lady screams and flails and acts indignant. Troll with Club promptly sits down and bites her in half. Well. You can say the same thing about the troll as you could about the bandits, that it was acting in character. It wanted a snack, that’s what it got. There’s a little less possibility of letting the halfling survive, since it wouldn’t make much sense for the hungry troll to just not eat her. I suppose he could bite off an arm or leg and decide he doesn’t like how she tastes. or accidentally let her slip away. Regardless, my point is that there are going to be some cases where death is inevitable. Maybe your character doesn’t want to eat anyone (maybe they do…), maybe they’re an evil monster and someone has stumbled into their lair. Maybe they’re an assassin targeting a person of import. Maybe they’re just a serial killer. Doesn’t really matter, your character’s victim’s fate is sealed. Then what? Simple. Give them a good death. Make it interesting, fun, unique. The troll could’ve taken the halfling back to his cooking pot and made a stew. That would’ve been more amusing than being bitten in half on the spot. Presumably this person is at your mercy by now, this is a chance to really show off your evil rp. My suggestion for you, when you’re about to kill someone’s character, is that you ask yourself: Is this death worthy of being a perma-kill? If this person killed off their character and wrote up a death post on the forums complete with pictures and dramatic music, would the comments be, “Awesome! Did this actually happen in RP!?” When the RP is concluded, will your victim thank you for the cool RP? Aim for that. Do your best to have fun, and give your victim a fun time too. If you must kill, make it count. This kind of unavoidable murder RP is actually pretty rare from what I’ve seen. Now let’s move on to my favorite! The type of villainy that has probably increased the most! (At least for me.) Kidnapping and Slavery Roleplay Scenarios 1: Slaver hits clueless and sort of defenseless woman over the head. Woman is unconscious. Slaver locks woman up in a cell. Woman wakes up. Slaver goes about other business. Woman is locked in a cell alone for two IRL hours. It’s pretty obvious what’s wrong here, and it can easily be avoided by being attentive and giving your victim something to do. I’ve had fun experiences with both random kidnappings and actual slavery, and all you have to do is interact with the captive. Just like in the killing example, this is your chance to show off your RP ability. Throwing someone in a cell or knocking their character over the head repeatedly so that they have nothing to do besides emote how much brain damage they’re going to suffer from isn’t really stimulating RP for your victim. This one is hopefully pretty easy to do, just RP with your captive. Side Note! Unconsciousness! It is actually a lot harder to knock someone out than the movies portray. In order to hit someone over the head hard enough to render them unconscious you would also be causing some pretty serious brain trauma, and are just as likely to kill them instead. Even if you do knock them out, they’ll only be out for a few moments. Most people go along with the movie cliche because it’s simply easier for everyone involved (I’d rather not RP permanent brain injury just yet), but it is something to keep in mind. And as mentioned previously, your victim’s RP is pretty limited when they’re out cold. Torture I haven’t actually had many recent experiences with torture and from what I have seen so far, those dedicated enough to evil-ness to become torturers have a pretty good idea on how to do it well. The same basic suggestions remain, be attentive and give your victim quality RP. They didn’t ask to be tortured, so it’s up to you to keep things going. In addition, be careful about other people’s sensibilities. If you think someone might not be as comfortable with gore, tone it down. Other people might want a lot of gore, or perhaps they’d prefer more psychological torture instead of blood. There also comes a point where there's nothing more your victim can do besides emote screaming, so try to keep a conversation going if you can. Respect The Other Player As I said, your victim didn’t ask to be your victim, you have most likely set your RP upon them. So be considerate in how you use their time. And don’t assume I’m, well, vilifying villains. Respect and consideration goes both ways. There are probably just as many bad victims as there are bad villains. Every player needs to do their part in creating roleplay and being considerate to others. Bonus roleplay scenario of both slavery AND killing done well: Druid woman is snooping around the old white rose ruins. Encounters a band of slavers that have taken up residence. Druid is knocked over the head and placed in a dungeon. Slavers continue to RP, including branding the druid’s arm. Slavers take woman back upstairs, they just happen to be near a tree, and proceed trying to ‘break’ her. Druid makes an attempt to use her powers on the tree. Chaos and tree-burning ensues. Slavers accuse her of being a witch, and decide she must be killed. After several detailed emotes, the druid is executed and her body burned. What makes this work? The slavers were attentive, they RPed in detail, and even though they chose to kill the druid, their IC reasoning was solid and the death was done well and thoroughly. All around an enjoyable RP session. All you need to do is remember… Killing kills roleplay. If death is necessary, make it good. Interact with your captive with detail and attentiveness. Be considerate to other players. Really, if you just keep number four in mind, you'll be golden. Go forth and be evil!