The issue mainly arises in the lack of tangible consequences which can be forced upon villainous characters. In any realistic circumstance, most people who do wrong onto others get what's coming to them sooner or later (be it by the law, or merely just by somebody who's fed up with them taking it upon themselves). Note I said most - I'm sure we can all think of examples of some pretty terrible people (or petty crooks, perhaps) who flew under the radar and never managed to get caught.Â
So we're presented with one of two possible outcomes for the villainous character: A) They're going to get caught eventually, or B) They're going to manage to never be caught.Â
If it's B, this will probably only happen if the character is very, very intelligently played (rare - and that's no insult to you or anybody else; the top reason most actual intelligent criminals end up getting caught too is that it's just really very difficult to plan out flawless heists every single time), or the character is very, very lucky (in which case, expect other players to call foul on it, because nobody likes to be told over and over, "sorry, my villain slipped your grasp by luck again"), or, the player is pretty much god-moding (e.g., no matter what the good guys post that they're trying to do to capture the villain, the villain slips their grappling attempts, parries their blows, and then posts throwing a smokebomb and disappearing without letting anyone try to react at all, etc.).Â
In other words, B is just a very unlikely situation to keep plausible over time. So let's look at A.
Could the character, if caught, manage to get free? Sure, that's possible - but it gets tricky, because if it's said to be happening of NPCs (for example, escaped from a Maelstrom prison, or bribed one of the guards to be set free, or knows someone on the judges' panel and was able to blackmail their way into an innocent verdict, and so on), then doing it more than once or twice basically pushes the character into B territory in a hurry (in particular, the "very very lucky" or "god-moding" camp).Â
So, next branch - caught, and can't escape. What happens then? Well, in most pre-modern societies, even moderate villainy is punished by a short drop with a sudden stop - in other words, execution. But, to be fair, even a prison sentence of a mere year would basically mean the character is rendered unplayable during that timeframe, so what's their player to do, either way? Fantasia and rename? Well, there's $20 spent. So, is the newly repurposed character also a villain? Cool, let's take bets on how long it takes for it to cost another $20. And another. And another.
Your mileage may vary, but my own experience is that most villain characters end up falling somewhere into category B, and usually the lucky or godmoding results. The player just flat out refuses to accept any kind of consequences for the character's villainy, and if the issue is pressed, they'll force their side of it by just blacklisting the heroes and moving right along.Â
So, what's to be done for conflict? Well, many roleplayers make use of NPCs, who may be visibly imaginary in the game, and the players simply post on their behalf as if they were there. That way, when the story arc comes to a close and the goods have cornered Iron Toe Joe in his lair, if ol' Joe ends up dead or hauled off to the Wood Wailers to spend his days in a cell thereafter, nobody's out any money over it.
So we're presented with one of two possible outcomes for the villainous character: A) They're going to get caught eventually, or B) They're going to manage to never be caught.Â
If it's B, this will probably only happen if the character is very, very intelligently played (rare - and that's no insult to you or anybody else; the top reason most actual intelligent criminals end up getting caught too is that it's just really very difficult to plan out flawless heists every single time), or the character is very, very lucky (in which case, expect other players to call foul on it, because nobody likes to be told over and over, "sorry, my villain slipped your grasp by luck again"), or, the player is pretty much god-moding (e.g., no matter what the good guys post that they're trying to do to capture the villain, the villain slips their grappling attempts, parries their blows, and then posts throwing a smokebomb and disappearing without letting anyone try to react at all, etc.).Â
In other words, B is just a very unlikely situation to keep plausible over time. So let's look at A.
Could the character, if caught, manage to get free? Sure, that's possible - but it gets tricky, because if it's said to be happening of NPCs (for example, escaped from a Maelstrom prison, or bribed one of the guards to be set free, or knows someone on the judges' panel and was able to blackmail their way into an innocent verdict, and so on), then doing it more than once or twice basically pushes the character into B territory in a hurry (in particular, the "very very lucky" or "god-moding" camp).Â
So, next branch - caught, and can't escape. What happens then? Well, in most pre-modern societies, even moderate villainy is punished by a short drop with a sudden stop - in other words, execution. But, to be fair, even a prison sentence of a mere year would basically mean the character is rendered unplayable during that timeframe, so what's their player to do, either way? Fantasia and rename? Well, there's $20 spent. So, is the newly repurposed character also a villain? Cool, let's take bets on how long it takes for it to cost another $20. And another. And another.
Your mileage may vary, but my own experience is that most villain characters end up falling somewhere into category B, and usually the lucky or godmoding results. The player just flat out refuses to accept any kind of consequences for the character's villainy, and if the issue is pressed, they'll force their side of it by just blacklisting the heroes and moving right along.Â
So, what's to be done for conflict? Well, many roleplayers make use of NPCs, who may be visibly imaginary in the game, and the players simply post on their behalf as if they were there. That way, when the story arc comes to a close and the goods have cornered Iron Toe Joe in his lair, if ol' Joe ends up dead or hauled off to the Wood Wailers to spend his days in a cell thereafter, nobody's out any money over it.
Lydia Lightfoot ~ The Reliquarian's Guild «Relic» ~ Lavender Beds, Ward 12, #41
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
