I love that you used "they're not wrong, they're just an asshole." I use that line a lot. I think that the 3 quests idea is genius and makes the world way more dynamic.
An idea I lifted from Blades in the Dark is using clocks. If you're struggling to come up with concrete steps for your villain to take, just give them a clock that counts down.
I think of "Front" in terms of a war: When the Empire sends storm troopers to look for droids, there's movement on the Empire Front. When Killmonger shows up to challenge you for your throne, there's conflict on the Killmonger Front. If you're dealing with the Empire and Killmonger, you're fighting a war on two Fronts.
I started my characters with a discovery of the villain's first quest that has already succeeded. The quests for villains/heroes don't have to start their quests at the same time. When you think about it, no one starts at the same start line.
Thanks for this video, Mike. I'm actually setting up a sandbox campaign, and was struggling on how to make my villain work. I had his motivations and goals, but not how to incorporate them into the campaign without it being railroad-y. But the idea of 3 quests is perfect, and exactly what I need to direct what the villain is doing, regardless of what the PCs do.
Love the idea of giving villains multiple “quests” as well as an overarching goal, that’s cool. One thing I’d add, that I find useful at my table: I have a section for “Factions” in my Notion board for every campaign I run, which can be seen as pretty much like PotA-style “fronts”. Factions have leaders (my capital-V villains), members (the villain’s henchpeople), goals, allies, enemies, etc. That way I can have a couple of villains, the PCs and their allies / sponsors / etc, and rival parties of adventurers as well. Gives me a lot of toys in the toy box.
I liked the idea of "fronts" and wonder how do you phrase your questions if the villain is, for example, a moon crashing down... What quests [other than descending] does it go on?
Front - The Final Moonfall All the other moons of [insert world name] have fallen over the last hundred years. The largest now threatens to crash into the planet, extinguishing all life on it. Recently, evidence has been uncovered that a cabal of individuals are responsible for these calamities. Villain goal 1) Gather more ingredients for the ritual. Villain goal 2) Prepare the ingredients or substitutes if they were twarted. Villain goal 3) Enact the multistage ritual to bring down the moon. Villain goal 4) Protect the ongoing ritual / Twart the attempt of the "heroes" to stabilize the moon. Each of these goals could be a quest or even a series of adventures. Think of how it could still continue even if your players succeed or fail. Hope this helps.
perhaps "Adversary" is a better term than "villain" if including "non-sentient entities". Either way - great info. i remember "Fronts" confused the hell out of me when I first started reading Dungeon World. Then I realized I focused too much time trying to fit this front in the way it's described and realized I kinda already did all that organically. Just like "GM Moves" We always do that regardless, there just wasn't a name for it.
From a learning perspective, I would find it helpful to have some more concrete examples for the things you're talking about for the steps of what the villain does to achieve their goal, but is visible to the characters and not easily thwarted by being an all-or-nothing-quest. You do a great job of providing that when talking about "what the villains want." Thanks, and as always, your videos are great!
This is a great video format where you just jump right in and get to the meat. Other times I haven't been able (or willing?) To sit through a bunch of preamble and place-setting, but videos like this are eminently useful and watchable. Great stuff.
I think this is going to help my The Strange game. While I can do many scenarios with lot's of clues, I should have some kind of driving force that is the face for the players
Killmonger was wrong in that he believed everyone who wasn't black was an oppressor just by default. He became the very thing he sought to fight, particularly after illegally retaining the throne of Wakanda despite T'Challa not being dead and never having yielded the fight during the challenge.
"He's not wrong, he's just an asshole."
Is an awesome motto to help build villains lol
I love that you used "they're not wrong, they're just an asshole." I use that line a lot.
I think that the 3 quests idea is genius and makes the world way more dynamic.
An idea I lifted from Blades in the Dark is using clocks. If you're struggling to come up with concrete steps for your villain to take, just give them a clock that counts down.
I think of "Front" in terms of a war: When the Empire sends storm troopers to look for droids, there's movement on the Empire Front. When Killmonger shows up to challenge you for your throne, there's conflict on the Killmonger Front. If you're dealing with the Empire and Killmonger, you're fighting a war on two Fronts.
I started my characters with a discovery of the villain's first quest that has already succeeded. The quests for villains/heroes don't have to start their quests at the same time. When you think about it, no one starts at the same start line.
That makes a lot of sense. After all are they really a villain if they haven’t performed any villainous actions?
Thanks for this video, Mike. I'm actually setting up a sandbox campaign, and was struggling on how to make my villain work. I had his motivations and goals, but not how to incorporate them into the campaign without it being railroad-y. But the idea of 3 quests is perfect, and exactly what I need to direct what the villain is doing, regardless of what the PCs do.
Thanks for the video!
Love the idea of giving villains multiple “quests” as well as an overarching goal, that’s cool. One thing I’d add, that I find useful at my table: I have a section for “Factions” in my Notion board for every campaign I run, which can be seen as pretty much like PotA-style “fronts”. Factions have leaders (my capital-V villains), members (the villain’s henchpeople), goals, allies, enemies, etc. That way I can have a couple of villains, the PCs and their allies / sponsors / etc, and rival parties of adventurers as well. Gives me a lot of toys in the toy box.
I liked the idea of "fronts" and wonder how do you phrase your questions if the villain is, for example, a moon crashing down... What quests [other than descending] does it go on?
Maybe how is this effecting the world, how does the falling moon effect the tides? Or earthquakes effect the cities, etc.
Front - The Final Moonfall
All the other moons of [insert world name] have fallen over the last hundred years. The largest now threatens to crash into the planet, extinguishing all life on it. Recently, evidence has been uncovered that a cabal of individuals are responsible for these calamities.
Villain goal 1) Gather more ingredients for the ritual.
Villain goal 2) Prepare the ingredients or substitutes if they were twarted.
Villain goal 3) Enact the multistage ritual to bring down the moon.
Villain goal 4) Protect the ongoing ritual / Twart the attempt of the "heroes" to stabilize the moon.
Each of these goals could be a quest or even a series of adventures. Think of how it could still continue even if your players succeed or fail. Hope this helps.
perhaps "Adversary" is a better term than "villain" if including "non-sentient entities". Either way - great info.
i remember "Fronts" confused the hell out of me when I first started reading Dungeon World. Then I realized I focused too much time trying to fit this front in the way it's described and realized I kinda already did all that organically. Just like "GM Moves" We always do that regardless, there just wasn't a name for it.
Love this. Thanks Mike.
It's so important to interrogate what constitutes villainy. It great when PCs end up realising they are on 'the wrong side.'
From a learning perspective, I would find it helpful to have some more concrete examples for the things you're talking about for the steps of what the villain does to achieve their goal, but is visible to the characters and not easily thwarted by being an all-or-nothing-quest. You do a great job of providing that when talking about "what the villains want." Thanks, and as always, your videos are great!
This is a great video format where you just jump right in and get to the meat.
Other times I haven't been able (or willing?) To sit through a bunch of preamble and place-setting, but videos like this are eminently useful and watchable.
Great stuff.
I think this is going to help my The Strange game. While I can do many scenarios with lot's of clues, I should have some kind of driving force that is the face for the players
Perhaps "antagonistic force" would work instead of villain or front. This could refer to a person, organization, or calamity.
what's the difference between a D&D villain and an RPG villain?
A good villain can drive a campaign
I like to have my villains accidentally send something to the PC's house, then go send mercenaries to demand its return... 😉
Killmonger is wrong though...
Wha?
🥺
Killmonger was wrong in that he believed everyone who wasn't black was an oppressor just by default. He became the very thing he sought to fight, particularly after illegally retaining the throne of Wakanda despite T'Challa not being dead and never having yielded the fight during the challenge.
New recording set up?
Apropos of nothing, every time I've paused the video it has made you look as though you were about to sneeze. :)