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The Villian's Handbook

-Iccy

In order to be truely evil you need power and influence, something most mud admins prefer to keep for themselves. As one might already guess, it's much easier for an admin to be evil than a player.

From the article I get the impression that this so called 'evil dude' is a gal roleplaying on the same mud where she is an admin. This is a known phenomenon which does not require four screens of advice nor skill.

From the article I get the impression that this so called 'evil dude' is a gal roleplaying on the same mud where she is an admin. This is a known phenomenon which does not require four screens of advice nor skill.

Without playing the current versions of the Inquisition, I cannot attest to it's current heroes or villains. I can, however, point out that Aurian, Elanthis and Zaranthis were all characters played by the Author on the original Inquisition, during a time in which the author was not an administrator. The power amassed by each of those was done so wholly as a player.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, especially Robbert for attesting to my status solely as a player during my villainous days.

For the general record, I currently don't play a villain. Sadly, I almost barely play my own MUD... on the account of getting a job and living in GMT +10 while 80% of TI's pbase is in the US. o.0

I apologize if the article isn't helpful for all, but it was not originally written for everyone. It was requested by our players who spent some time about six months ago concerned that we didn't have enough villains, and so it was written for those players. In fact, after it was written many of my own players disagreed with me on several of the points therein, but it's the formula that worked for me. I saw that Mudconnector takes submissions and thought I'd pass it on to anyone interested - for whatever it's worth.

If the article doesn't work for you, or sounds too far fetched, that's fine. I'm curious to see which points the mudding community at large disagrees with, however.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to the comments of others.

Happy New Year!

Regards,
Ephera

I found your article pretty interesting. Even if it's focused on playing the villain role in RP, it'd still help flesh out writing NPC villains.

As Scandum mentioned, you need influence to be an arch-villain. Ideally this would result in some sort of mafia-esque hierarchy of players, or maybe even just being in a high-ranking position in any organization. Saying that you have friends in high places is nice role-playing, but the threat becomes much more real when you've previously demonstrated your ability to inflict pain on those who insubordinate or refuse your demands.

Given the number of people it takes to run such criminal (or legitimate) organizations, you're less likely to be a villain and more likely just a common thug. That's life. Not everyone is destined for power. At least some of the thugs can be NPCs to allow more high-level planners.

Given the number of people it takes to run such criminal (or legitimate) organizations, you're less likely to be a villain and more likely just a common thug.

I'm not certain if one char's villainy overshadows others when two or more people get together to be bad. In my experience, it was like any project - it's just accepted at times that certain people have particular strengths and weaknesses and a 'natural' place they fall into. For example, one of our companions was the murderer, Aurian was the driver, and her husband was the cleanup crew. As the tree grew and more people joined up, they were let into the 'IC clique' based on their IC benefits to the existing crowd. Ultimately, I'd hesitate to say anyone involved was more or less villainous than the others, but the result was that everyone had their own 'brand' of villain and though some occasionally played the role of thug, no one was simply a thug, but a full villain in their own right as well.

However, I've seen it go the reverse, where a poor leader starts collecting people ill-suited to be strong villains. That's when the house of cards comes tumbling down, and (on TI at least) the entire lot of them are caught and killed, ending their chances of pursuing those characters. Generally, I think this happens when the leader themselves wasn't cut out to be a villain, though I'm not sure why it goes that way. Another strange phenomena is the tendency for them to make another 'villain' and try again without learning from their mistakes... *ponder* I digress.

Anyway, I just can't see one truly unique, powerful character making it impossible for others around them to be or do the same. In fact, I'd think that powerful villains would find and band with other powerful villains - kind of like a corporation looking for the best, smartest, etc, employees instead of seeking to hire losers. In reality though, I think it's just birds of a feather flocking. Strong villains do produce their own mafia's, specifically because there's no point in forming strong relationships with weak villain-esque thugs, but a great deal of value in working with others of equal calibur (common thugs are used, abused, and disgarded at will).

-Ephera

>If you're the type of person that doesn't enjoy egging other people on or creating a scene, a villain probably isn't the right type of character for you.

I really expected more of a response from you Ephera, to be honest, I'm disappointed.


>As Scandum mentioned, you need influence to be an arch-villain. Ideally this would result in some sort of mafia-esque hierarchy of players, or maybe even just being in a high-ranking position in any organization.

The easiest way I've observed is to go straight into the head admin's pants. Using allies tends to lower the amount of victims, as well as taking away most of the challenge. Then again, backstabbing your allies in the end is lovely since the more capable individual is likely to grow severely annoyed with them.

>Given the number of people it takes to run such criminal (or legitimate) organizations, you're less likely to be a villain and more likely just a common thug.

Many muds are designed for solo play which combined with superior game play (which few are capable of) or (more likely) a very dumb playerbase, allows one person to become quite powerful. In most cases even more powerful than the admins since they tend to restrict themselves with various moral rules of behavior. The problem you present is also known as the star wars syndrom: everyone wants to be a Jedi.

The conclusion of the article is quite good. The evilness of a persona isn't measure by their behavior but by the impact of their actions. In theory this means that a truely evil character will either be banned or destroy the mud in question.

So, a villian is basically one who does everything carefully, selfish, and using any means he may need. Right?
I think the article is very good. I usually prefer the 'arise from the shadows, cut bad guy up to pieces, dissapear in those same shadows to come back when their help is needed', but the guide made me think about playing an evil character as well. Great job.

I really expected more of a response from you Ephera, to be honest, I'm disappointed.

Sorry. :P

Anyway, I think you're probably right about admins on many muds. It wasn't taken into consideration in this article because TI's admins have always been OOC and neither RP or game master.

Thank you Ikul!

Let me know if it works out. :)

"The conclusion of the article is quite good. The evilness of a persona isn't measure by their behavior but by the impact of their actions. In theory this means that a truely evil character will either be banned or destroy the mud in question."


There's a difference between an evil "character" and an evil "player". A crap player will do things warranting being banned or that may destroy the MUD.

I don't see how the actions of a "character" however, can be cause for someone to be banned unless the player is taking actions with the character that are considered illegal or immoral. Nor can I see how the actions of a "character" can harm the MUD itself, as I would see it rather difficult for a character to do things that are detrimental to the areas, code, or otherwise health of the MUD. I believe the "impact of their actions" that was being referenced was the impact on the RP world, not the MUD World, and the impact on the other characters, not the other players.

In anycase, I thought it was an excellent article and very relative toward probably most instances of attempting to play a villian.

Thank you, Hades Kane, for your compliment regarding quality and relevancy.

Since we opened about a year and a half ago, The Inquisition has only had three bans - none of which are what I'd call IC villains. Unfortunately, the game (as with real life) tends to be stacked against the success of a villain, and a few of our villains have complained of that recently - but no banning or OOC consequences arise. Just the typical IC ones - jail, execution, torture. This said, the impact of a player on a game has both IC and OOC consequences, but it's a personal opinion that typically very separate issues that should be handled by different parties. OOC 'evilness' does indeed fall to the hands of the imms - IC baddies are well loved by the more, erm... militant of the lawful IC players. :) That's what makes role-play games grand.

Also, though your remarks were perhaps somewhat late, it did remind me to post another article. I hope the next one passes muster and people enjoy it as much as it appears they did this one. Thanks again for the feedback!

I thought this article was wonderful. I have read it many times before and I think it has some great points. I would like to have this as a news file on my games. I think there should be more articles like this out there for people to improve themselves upon.

I don't see how the actions of a "character" however, can be cause for someone to be banned unless the player is taking actions with the character that are considered illegal or immoral. Nor can I see how the actions of a "character" can harm the MUD itself, as I would see it rather difficult for a character to do things that are detrimental to the areas, code, or otherwise health of the MUD. I believe the "impact of their actions" that was being referenced was the impact on the RP world, not the MUD World, and the impact on the other characters, not the other players.

If I piss off every single player then it is indeed easy for me to "destroy" a mud without touching the areas or code. It is also obvious that on many muds I would get banned before pissing off every players on the game, hence I'd either be banned, or destroy the MUD.