I would advise against making a mustache-twirling villain for one very significant reason: you're playing the result. Â I cannot stress how hard this is to overcome for RP purposes. Â The problem here is that people are saying there's a difference between a "villain" and a "criminal" when those are exactly the same thing. Â Criminals, even Robin Hood types doing their best, are still violent and taking wealth that technically belongs to someone else. Â It's definitely wrong.
A criminal is just a better thought-out character, and it seems like there are a lot of people here saying that having a good self-respecting reason to commit crimes and do bad things somehow makes them different classes of character. Â It doesn't, it just means you've provided the background. Â You've gone beyond "I play a bad guy" into "I play a thief who didn't have any money, looked at all the people with money around, and simply rationalized that he was taking money from people who were taking money their own way."
It's the difference between playing a "beautiful" character and an "elegant, voluptuous character with a charming and polite manner". Â The former tells you what you're aiming for, the latter is actually a character. Â I believe we're having this conversation elsewhere.
If you're playing a villain specifically to play a villain, you're working backwards from a result, and your character is going to reflect that. Â It's far better to build a human character; you'll have a lot more detail. Â Other characters will have different ways to relate to that character. Â Most importantly, that character is going to make a whole Hell of a lot more sense.
Even if your character is meant to be an evil-doing evil demon doing evil for evil's sake, he needs a reason. Â If not, he's a cartoon villain, and you're skipping some 95% of the character work.
If you want to make someone morally ambiguous, you need to say why. Â You need to say how. Â You need to give him a personality. Â You want to generate some conflict? Â Your person doesn't need to be a "villain" he needs to be "confrontational", "bitter", "vindictive". Â You can build a remarkably frightening, but remarkably understandable, villain that way.
Always make sure that, if you're going in blank trying to slide into a niche, and you're aiming to be a villain, don't make that part of your character concept. Â A cardboard-cutout villain isn't really a character anymore, he's a prop.
A criminal is just a better thought-out character, and it seems like there are a lot of people here saying that having a good self-respecting reason to commit crimes and do bad things somehow makes them different classes of character. Â It doesn't, it just means you've provided the background. Â You've gone beyond "I play a bad guy" into "I play a thief who didn't have any money, looked at all the people with money around, and simply rationalized that he was taking money from people who were taking money their own way."
It's the difference between playing a "beautiful" character and an "elegant, voluptuous character with a charming and polite manner". Â The former tells you what you're aiming for, the latter is actually a character. Â I believe we're having this conversation elsewhere.
If you're playing a villain specifically to play a villain, you're working backwards from a result, and your character is going to reflect that. Â It's far better to build a human character; you'll have a lot more detail. Â Other characters will have different ways to relate to that character. Â Most importantly, that character is going to make a whole Hell of a lot more sense.
Even if your character is meant to be an evil-doing evil demon doing evil for evil's sake, he needs a reason. Â If not, he's a cartoon villain, and you're skipping some 95% of the character work.
If you want to make someone morally ambiguous, you need to say why. Â You need to say how. Â You need to give him a personality. Â You want to generate some conflict? Â Your person doesn't need to be a "villain" he needs to be "confrontational", "bitter", "vindictive". Â You can build a remarkably frightening, but remarkably understandable, villain that way.
Always make sure that, if you're going in blank trying to slide into a niche, and you're aiming to be a villain, don't make that part of your character concept. Â A cardboard-cutout villain isn't really a character anymore, he's a prop.
