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Playing as a Villain


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So....I have a couple of villain alts. I never use them. Why? I know how to play them, but injecting them into other rp....that's the tricky part. How does one use a villain and rp with others who are likely good? I mean, I envision Darth Vader sitting in the Mos Eisley Cantina having a cold one with Han Solo and my mind has a tought time wrapping around that. So I wonder, other villainy types reading this, how do you rp with your character to make them usable for more than just some epic storyline?

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Villain types are generally outlaws, and as such wouldn't really be welcome in the more normal parts of the game's population. I'm sure there's room for a magnificent bastard Lex Luthor-type who's just too rich and socially/politically powerful to be touched by normal law enforcement but most bad guys I've seen are all Empire/Mwahaha-moustache-twirling-for-the-evulz type one-dimensionals that only exist to serve as a boss at the end of an arc.

 

I feel villains benefit from operating in the shadows. Blog posts and IC forum posts help give them a presence, but it's difficult to do in game just on account of them being The Bad Guy. They have a hard time hanging out in game unless they're being bad guys, and even then it's rough because I find it hard to believe anybody's going to let their villain get picked off in a random open-RP that the Heroes happen to stumble upon.

 

Feel free to disregard since I'm a boring do-gooder anyway, but I think the best way to have a villain in-game is to not have them be in-game until the plot demands it.

 

Alternatively someone could shape a mountain into a skull and have the bad guys hang out in there. I think us light-aligned folks would be willing to give concede that.

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No villain actually ever thinks of themselves as the "villain" -- in fact, from their perspective, they often think they are the 'good guy' and have multiple goals/agendas of their own that they want to fulfill.

 

Sure, one of those goals might be CONQUERING ALL OF EORZEA AND CRUSHING THE HEARTS OF CHILDREN AND KITTENS EVERYWHERE, but all their other goals might be more interaction-friendly. For example one might be that they need some kind of device constructed and thus have to chat and make connections with engineer-type characters. Or maybe want bodyguards and decide to chat some folks up to see if they're hire-able. Or maybe they see one of the good guys and simply find them to be an interesting person to talk to.

 

I think it's helpful to think of your villain less as purely a bad guy, but as a character just like any other character. Every character has reasons they may or may not want to chat or interact with folks. Hell, some villains are not even outright jerks on the surface and are actually incredibly likable people, they just have ultimate goals that stick them in the 'villain' category compared to most folks in Eorzea.

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Alternatively someone could shape a mountain into a skull and have the bad guys hang out in there. I think us light-aligned folks would be willing to give concede that.

 

 

LMAO!!!

 

In all honesty I think you're right. I always feel like my two characters get little to no attention but they are straight killers so it'd be pretty impossible to make them exist ICly around others. Good points all around. :)

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  Hell, some villains are not even outright jerks on the surface and are actually incredibly likable people, they just have ultimate goals that stick them in the 'villain' category compared to most folks in Eorzea.

This would likely be applicable for my alt Krell, but not so for Melodia. She's so unlikeable that aside from her looks, she's pretty despicable. Krell....he could engage. He's got longer range goals and doesnt want to alienate everyone.

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I think there are two main ways to play a villain through RP. Of course the first way is the a-typical bad guy already described. The second way would be the surprise reveal. Play as one of the 'good guys' but find ways to work against them the whole time without giving it away. This requires a lot more work, but in the end when your character is revealed to the the mastermind behind it all, it's so much more fulfilling.

 

Of course the real problem with RPing the villain is that your character is, for all intensive purposes, a throw-away toon. Because once they become known it's very hard to change that reputation.

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There seems to be incredible room for villains in Limsa and Ul'dah, provided they're not of the "out to destroy the world" types. Both cities are filled with criminals and pseudo-criminals, who managed to live "within" the law through influence and bribery.

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I think there are two main ways to play a villain through RP.  Of course the first way is the a-typical bad guy already described.  The second way would be the surprise reveal.  Play as one of the 'good guys' but find ways to work against them the whole time without giving it away.  This requires a lot more work, but in the end when your character is revealed to the the mastermind behind it all, it's so much more fulfilling.

 

Of course the real problem with RPing the villain is that your character is, for all intensive purposes, a throw-away toon.  Because once they become known it's very hard to change that reputation.

 

Againn with Krell, this is doable. He's a cute little charming Lalafell and pretty much as long as Ruru steers clear he's safe to operate in the open since no one else knows he's Ruru's brother. They just see another Lala with an odd name.

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One option you could go with if your characters are the outright murderous, backstabbing killers type is that they dress down to make themselves blend in with the rest of the local populace and literally hang out in the shadowier less noticeable parts of wherever you're RPing.

 

Heck, maybe even throw on a mask - so long as you're aware that your character probably wouldn't be parading themselves around and you RP with that in mind, I think you can open yourself up to different types of RP.

 

If your character is a murderous, backstabbing killer that is far, FAR too arrogant and proud to ever hide it though -- that's a tough one!

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I would suggest finding like "minded" individuals to RP with, kind of like the villain pub idea. My villain characters work with other villainous characters, they may not have the same overarching goal, but they can still pool resources. Also finding a guild to get involved with their story line is another good option to use villain characters.

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I've played bad guys a few times, currently have one who is being very evil running around and, until recently, Askier was a bad guy also so I'll throw out my two cents.

 

First off, being a baddie is a ton more work to get involved, least in my experience, because you have to have a evil plan in mind for the other people you rp with to try and stop but I find it more rewarding.

 

One of the best ways to get a bad guy involved is what I did. Set up some kind thread offering people who are interested a chance. Like when I was planning my event with A skier where he tried to blow up Ul'dah. People joined in of their own free will and I've had tons of rp with A skier.  

 

Another tactic I use is to approach a character and offer them a job of sorts, often recovering a package or item with your villian. You go with heroes, but betray them once you have item and either try to kill them or run off without paying. Is that cliche? Hells yes, but it also works very well at getting a bad character involved. 

 

A final option is to use your good main and create a back story with one of your evil alts and then approach some players offering to hire them to bring down the bad alt you wish to use.

 

I hope that was able to give you something to help get one of your evil salts a chance to be rp and if you're interested, my evil alt Jin'li is currently looking for people of a villainous orientation so that could be another way to get one of your alts involed with a storyline already running. Just let me know.

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There seems to be incredible room for villains in Limsa and Ul'dah, provided they're not of the "out to destroy the world" types. Both cities are filled with criminals and pseudo-criminals, who managed to live "within" the law through influence and bribery.

My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

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My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

 

... Are there really that many bad guys out there who are secretly demons? o_o

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My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

 

 

Haha! Krell is no Garlean. He worked with them and then killed them. He's also no demon. LOL! He's just a selfish jerk who also happens to kill folkks who get in his way.

 

Also thanks to the responses thus far. They are helpful and give me a better idea of how to actually use at least one of them. :)

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My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

 

... Are there really that many bad guys out there who are secretly demons? o_o

In my experiences? If they aren't overtly a Garlean, they're secretly a spy. By my estimation approximately 57% of Eorzea is actually spies for the Empire. Those that aren't are actually Voidsent, or secretly Voidsent and don't know it yet.

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In my experiences? If they aren't overtly a Garlean, they're secretly a spy. By my estimation approximately 57% of Eorzea is actually spies for the Empire. Those that aren't are actually Voidsent, or secretly Voidsent and don't know it yet.

Considering what the Garleans are up to, that's not too surprising :)

 

I still prefer the more petty villain type, maybe that's just because they're more likely to try to impress Aya with gifts!

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Villain types are generally outlaws, and as such wouldn't really be welcome in the more normal parts of the game's population. I'm sure there's room for a magnificent bastard Lex Luthor-type who's just too rich and socially/politically powerful to be touched by normal law enforcement but most bad guys I've seen are all Empire/Mwahaha-moustache-twirling-for-the-evulz type one-dimensionals that only exist to serve as a boss at the end of an arc.

 

I feel villains benefit from operating in the shadows. Blog posts and IC forum posts help give them a presence, but it's difficult to do in game just on account of them being The Bad Guy. They have a hard time hanging out in game unless they're being bad guys, and even then it's rough because I find it hard to believe anybody's going to let their villain get picked off in a random open-RP that the Heroes happen to stumble upon.

 

Feel free to disregard since I'm a boring do-gooder anyway, but I think the best way to have a villain in-game is to not have them be in-game until the plot demands it.

 

Alternatively someone could shape a mountain into a skull and have the bad guys hang out in there. I think us light-aligned folks would be willing to give concede that.

^ ^ This more or less. It's not as tricky RPing out in the open where do-gooders might kick your face in if your character is careful and is not doing blatantly not-good things. RP threads and other more private and/or controlled means can do wonders for when you're actually getting down to bad business.

 

Being able to plot things out with the people involved helps a lot, too, IMO, so the goodies and baddies alike can have some reasonable pacing for story developments. And twist!!

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There seems to be incredible room for villains in Limsa and Ul'dah, provided they're not of the "out to destroy the world" types. Both cities are filled with criminals and pseudo-criminals, who managed to live "within" the law through influence and bribery.

My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

Not all villains are criminals, outlaws or cookie cutter evil! Simply playing an antagonizing individual can be extremely rewarding and fun. It's amazing how great it is to just play a person who's just -mean-. SOCIAL VILLAINRY. Myessss.

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There seems to be incredible room for villains in Limsa and Ul'dah, provided they're not of the "out to destroy the world" types. Both cities are filled with criminals and pseudo-criminals, who managed to live "within" the law through influence and bribery.

My kingdom for a competent enemy mastermind that isn't

 

1) Garlean

2) Secretly a Demon

3) "Secretly a demon"

4) A Garlean who is also a demon

Not all villains are criminals, outlaws or cookie cutter evil! Simply playing an antagonizing individual can be extremely rewarding and fun. It's amazing how great it is to just play a person who's just -mean-. SOCIAL VILLAINRY. Myessss.

For my money, the best villain is the one that opposes your character specifically. Doesn't have to be world changing, but should make a personal impact. That's much, much harder to do though so I see why people don't go for that.

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How to integrate Villains into RP...

 

For me, my antagonists do not walk around looking for heroes to foil. (although playing a common thug can be refreshing sometimes too) Those I play are usually already integrated into storylines through OOC communication with the players. They have personal goals and personal targets. It is also much easier to do since ... well, you can't affect the world setting anyways.

 

I have also integrated my antagonists into other storylines, where they are NOT playing the villain so that I can explore the character's past and different aspects of their personality. None of my non-good characters think of themselves as villains. They have a purpose, a mission, or a path in life they need to follow for whatever reason, and sometimes it results in harm to others. Some have an internal code that they follow, others... have no moral compass to restrict them what-so-ever. But they all do think they are doing something that needs to be done, or is worth doing.

 

Although Rae will never think of herself as a hero either. She is not delusional. :lol:

 

AND while Rae is not technically Garlean ... it would be a shame to lump and dismiss all Garlean affiliated characters as stereotypical non-imaginative "Garlean villains." One of my favorite antagonistic characters to play against in this game is a Garlean loyalist and she is a hoot and a half to RP with and complex as hell (you know who you are).

 

Else you are going to miss out on a lot of great potential RP. I love the Garlean Empire as a whole in that their mission statement is not necessarily wrong.  And people from the Empire are not all evil boogy man that Eorzeans tell their children about.

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For my money, the best villain is the one that opposes your character specifically. Doesn't have to be world changing, but should make a personal impact. That's much, much harder to do though so I see why people don't go for that.

 

In my past roleplaying experiences, I have always found this approach to be much more successful. Stereotypical boss-style villains tend to get boring fairly quickly because the arcs can never be resolved if it is someone's main character - nobody is going to allow their character to be killed permanently, so it just turns into trading vigorous monologues. "You are evil!" "Yes, yes I am." "We shall stop you!" "Nay, I shall behead your stepmother!"

 

Having personal villains or antagonists always seem to allow for much more interesting storylines. Maybe a slew of other PC's do not view the person as a villain, but instead consider your character the antagonist. Manipulation, drawing lines in the sand, personal feuds - all of those things seem to have much more long lasting capabilities than traditional mustache twirling villains. The latter tend to work fine for a specific, partially pre-constructed storyline where they are not someone's main character - but tend to fizzle out after that.

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I still prefer the more petty villain type, maybe that's just because they're more likely to try to impress Aya with gifts!

That explains why Aya likes C'kayah more than Kage :P

 

As someone who's gotten an antagonistic rival of sorts... it's pretty interesting. You both become each others' supporting characters of sorts while playing your character's 'own main story' at the same time.

 

And then sometimes you see villains who don't really see themselves as either a hero or a villain. Sometimes they're also the most terrifying and competent of villains that you want to cower away from. Others you just want to wring their necks or kick them a head bop.

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I still prefer the more petty villain type, maybe that's just because they're more likely to try to impress Aya with gifts!

 

Haha zaiaku showers Aya with gil just for bringing him water.

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