Adversaries - Designing for Scope

Fantasy stories involve a wide variety of adversaries for the main characters. I like classifying them into two distinct categories by their agency. A "foe" exerts influence on the narrative for a single scene, challenging the PC’s interests at that moment and then fading into obscurity. On the other hand, a "villain" exerts influence over the course of a particular story - often times off camera and revealed through command over lesser characters. The bog-standard dungeon crawls of yore were populated entirely by foes. I came across my first glimpse of persistent adversaries on the gaming table in “Against the Slave Lords” with the Slave Lords themselves and the “Dragonlance” modules with the infamous Dragon Highlord, Verminaard.

 

Planning for a short shelf-life

I don't like to invest my limited time into elements that don’t apply to the given conflict with the PCs. In a skill challenge or political conflict I don’t need to kit a foe out with a combat stat block - I'll just assume a normal civilian default, maybe round it up to "above average" where necessary. Along the same vein, it seems silly to include negotiating skills and political connections into the profile of an enemy design for an obligatory thug attack. He's got a few ability scores and an attitude problem, and that should be more than sufficient. To run an encounter with foes I do need understand their motivations though. I generalize them for a logical group. "Why are these foes here? What would make quit the scene?" Just those two little questions help make a group of bandits play differently than a pack of mindless zombies. It makes the goblins distinct from their pet wolves. Having every “monster” mindlessly fight to the death regardless of its particular species and intellect always made a game less immersive to me as a player.

Playing the long game

The very act of recurring an adversary creates a story just as two points define a line - so I'd better make it a good one! The tabletop RPG medium is very different from passive, static media like movies, books, and video games. The players have control over a group of characters who monopolize the point of view of the "audience." While introducing an out-of-character glimpse at a vignette can spice up my campaign, it’s much more important (and challenging) to define a villain’s identity through the experiences of the Player Characters. Much of this comes indirectly - through lackeys clearly marked by circumstances, livery, or name-dropping. Confronting PCs face-to-face is very dicey. I've got to think like a villain and have a couple of fallback plans. Some combination of an evasion ability and the good sense to retreat well before outnumbered and surrounded are called for. I try to avoid the “and he vanishes …” mechanics even if the game system does provide for them with things like “Word of Recall” or “Contingency.” They will often just provoke an arms race with PCs for counter-measures. I prefer having another identity in my back pocket for a “man behind the man” reveal if the original would-be villain falls. My main guideline is to avoid repeating the same style of move in the same story-arc. That’s a key point both for plot AND action scenarios. A wizard the casts fireballs, teleports away, and shows up in another scene casting the same fireballs is boring. A villain ought to be many things, but never boring.

Evolving a roster

I like to have a significant number of intelligent adversaries in play, so it's not uncommon to have foes break ranks and flee if the tide turns against them. In addition to spreading word of the fearsome prowess of the protagonists, it also creates a great opportunity to promote a nameless, faceless antagonist into a proper villain. Sure, goblin flunkies don't usually become mastermind plotters, but a vengeful pack of goblin survivors could develop into a plot of their own. Routed foes could also take on a more comical tone as quirky mini-bosses, destined to jump in between the players and their objectives as an obnoxious foil. Taking down an enemy that has a history with your character - someone who's stuck their thumb in your PC's eye - gives a conflict real character. I have to remind myself periodically not to be afraid of handing out a fatal demotion to my presumptive Big Bad Evil Guys either. Sometimes a villain just doesn't click with the players as a long-term element. Maybe I played him too hammy or maybe her tactics are obnoxious. Is it time for a sudden but inevitable betrayal? Does the dark lord grow so weary of these impudent worms that he will see to them personally? The villainous show will go on, even if I have to make a casting-call in the middle of the story.