Some games lend themselves to playing villains a little more than others. Everquest II, for instance, has a whole set of evil races with their own evil quests that make it pretty easy to make a character who's simply "one of those". Final Fantasy 14, on the other hand, doesn't really.
But!
One thing Final Fantasy 14 does have in spades is grey area. Are the Ul'dahn's good or evil? The opening cutscene has Brass Blades planting somnus on a wagon so they can extort money from the driver, after all. Grey area is a petty villains best friend.
Background aside, as someone who solely plays villains in FF, and does so actively, I think I can speak to this. I wrote in the shy RP guide that it's good to approach RP as if you were a supporting character in someone else's roleplay, and there's nowhere that this applies more than to villain characters. Heroes abound in Eorzea! But without villains to struggle against, what do they actually have? That's right, nothing. Be that something for them!
In C'kayah's case, he's a grey area villain: he doesn't twirl his moustache in a dastardly manner while plotting the death of everyone around him. Instead he's a morally flexible man trying to make his way in a morally flexible world, and choosing to do so on the wrong side of the law. It's easy to get a lot of play with him: He's out there in the world. He acts openly. He'll discuss black market dealings in a public tavern, for instance. This provides hooks for other people to act on.
The other thing I do with C'kayah is to offer his "services" as a villain for other people's arcs. I did this when I first started playing, and it turned into the NHSC, which at its height had 9 player character grey area villains working in other people's arcs. More recently, a similar thing is happening with my new organization, Tylwyth Narah. This is really just an application of the idea that I'm playing a supporting character in someone else's story. It doesn't mean that this is all I do: C'kayah has his own story in which he's the hero, after all. But playing the supporting villain does get me a lot of RP.
Setoh, on the other hand, is evil. He's a rigidly ethical man with no morals to speak of. A contract "cleaner", he's much like a genie: If you hire him, he will do whatever you ask him to do. It might not be what you want him to do, but it will be what you asked him to do. But because of this, it's a lot harder to play him openly. I partially get around this by not playing him a ton, but I also tend to play his actual crimes out in party chat instead of public say. This allows him to develop a reputation without being out there all the time. OOCly, Setoh is purely a supporting character. He plays in other people's arcs on request, and that's it.
One thing to note with both C'kayah and Setoh is that neither of them are stereotypical villains. Even Setoh, who is pretty damned evil, isn't your standard "I expect you to die, Mr. Bond" villain. Neither are supernatural. Neither are Garleans (no offense to those who play Garleans!). They're both ordinary men living in an extraordinary world.
I'll end with one big sticking point that I always make sure people understand when I'm talking to them about playing villains: Expect to lose! While the villains can (and do) win sometimes, most of the stories we tell each other in the game - and that is ultimately what roleplaying is: storytelling - end with the heroes victorious. As a villain you have to be comfortable rolling with this. It doesn't mean your character dies, necessarily. Just that you should expect your character to fail. To lose.
That said, roleplaying a villain can be a very rewarding experience, and one I can't recommend enough.
But!
One thing Final Fantasy 14 does have in spades is grey area. Are the Ul'dahn's good or evil? The opening cutscene has Brass Blades planting somnus on a wagon so they can extort money from the driver, after all. Grey area is a petty villains best friend.
Background aside, as someone who solely plays villains in FF, and does so actively, I think I can speak to this. I wrote in the shy RP guide that it's good to approach RP as if you were a supporting character in someone else's roleplay, and there's nowhere that this applies more than to villain characters. Heroes abound in Eorzea! But without villains to struggle against, what do they actually have? That's right, nothing. Be that something for them!
In C'kayah's case, he's a grey area villain: he doesn't twirl his moustache in a dastardly manner while plotting the death of everyone around him. Instead he's a morally flexible man trying to make his way in a morally flexible world, and choosing to do so on the wrong side of the law. It's easy to get a lot of play with him: He's out there in the world. He acts openly. He'll discuss black market dealings in a public tavern, for instance. This provides hooks for other people to act on.
The other thing I do with C'kayah is to offer his "services" as a villain for other people's arcs. I did this when I first started playing, and it turned into the NHSC, which at its height had 9 player character grey area villains working in other people's arcs. More recently, a similar thing is happening with my new organization, Tylwyth Narah. This is really just an application of the idea that I'm playing a supporting character in someone else's story. It doesn't mean that this is all I do: C'kayah has his own story in which he's the hero, after all. But playing the supporting villain does get me a lot of RP.
Setoh, on the other hand, is evil. He's a rigidly ethical man with no morals to speak of. A contract "cleaner", he's much like a genie: If you hire him, he will do whatever you ask him to do. It might not be what you want him to do, but it will be what you asked him to do. But because of this, it's a lot harder to play him openly. I partially get around this by not playing him a ton, but I also tend to play his actual crimes out in party chat instead of public say. This allows him to develop a reputation without being out there all the time. OOCly, Setoh is purely a supporting character. He plays in other people's arcs on request, and that's it.
One thing to note with both C'kayah and Setoh is that neither of them are stereotypical villains. Even Setoh, who is pretty damned evil, isn't your standard "I expect you to die, Mr. Bond" villain. Neither are supernatural. Neither are Garleans (no offense to those who play Garleans!). They're both ordinary men living in an extraordinary world.
I'll end with one big sticking point that I always make sure people understand when I'm talking to them about playing villains: Expect to lose! While the villains can (and do) win sometimes, most of the stories we tell each other in the game - and that is ultimately what roleplaying is: storytelling - end with the heroes victorious. As a villain you have to be comfortable rolling with this. It doesn't mean your character dies, necessarily. Just that you should expect your character to fail. To lose.
That said, roleplaying a villain can be a very rewarding experience, and one I can't recommend enough.
