Greetings, evildoers! In the last two installments of Proper Villainy, we discussed what makes a villain tick. Now it’s time to talk about some good practical evil you can even do in your own backyard.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)

More than any battleaxe marinated in the blood of the innocent could ever be, FUD is the true weapon of the villain. Villains need to keep people afraid to have power over them. This goes for villagers, kingdoms, kings, soldiers — and even heroes.

• Fear

  A gang of criminals could terrorize a village demanding protection money. Together, maybe the villagers could defeat them. But they burn down one guy’s house to make an example of him. The others, fearing they are next, capitulate and give them the money every time they come by. This is how terrorism works. The goal is not to destroy a building or assassinate someone — that could be handled discreetly, perhaps with a surgical strike. The goal is to freak people the hell out. Make them worry they’re next, make them paranoid, make them wall themselves in. And when you’ve scared them that badly, then you can do two things. You can make them dance to try to avoid whatever they’re scared of, and since all their attention is focused on that, you can do something else now that they’re not looking anymore.

  Now, granted, it might not be so Machiavellian as that. That gang terrorizing the village probably doesn’t know any of this. They just know how to scare people to get their money. Different villains use this in different ways – some might be much more subtle than others.

• Uncertainty and Doubt

  Fear’s best buddies, and they dovetail very nicely with each other. Part of the reason the gang could terrorize the village is because they’ve managed to convince them somehow that they can’t fight back. They can’t prepare, they don’t know when the next attack is coming, and for that matter what the next attack will be. They don’t have weapons, they’re just farmers, stuff like that. When you’ve destroyed someone’s confidence in themselves and their allies and friends, then you can control them.

  It’s absolutely critical that villains facing heroes do this job very well. They must either shake the heroes’ confidence in their ability to win. This can be as simple as deliberately killing off the healer first and letting them know he did that on purpose. Alternatively, they can get the heroes by the balls somehow to prevent them from acting. For instance, casually mentioning that the place wired is to explode if they kill the villain. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, they’ll wonder if it’s such a good idea to be here instead of swinging swords. Either way, the heroes are (hopefully) left shaken and unable to do their jobs — giving the villain power over them and possibly the advantage that spells doom for the pesky do-gooders.

Make Them Love To Hate You

As a DM, you should use FUD in two primary ways:

• To advance the plot.
  Kick things off with a little evildoing. Let the bandits raid the village. Kidnap the princess and use the ensuing FUD clutch the entire nation in your taloned grasp. Scare the hell out of everyone, and give the PC’s no choice but to come try and stop you.
• To engage the players.

You need to instill fear in the players (notice I didn’t say player characters) to make them do something to stop this madness. Get them involved by doing something nasty to someone they know – or one of them. You can do this while advancing the plot, or seperately — just do it. And while you’re at it, make them afraid enough of you that they’re worried about facing you because then the real horror will begin. Nothing brings excitement to a battle like a sense of danger and desperation. If you can make the players a little scared, for them there will be no quarry more satisfying than your villain.

Next Time

We’ll continue our journey into the depths of evil by discussing some of the problems you may face (both players and DM’s alike) when playing evil characters. Until next time!

<evil laughter>

Lately we have been experimenting with two dungeon masters in our group. The benefits and difficulties that arise when running “dual-headed” are many, and I hope by outlining some of the experiences that we have had in our group that we can better prepare for others hoping to take the plunge.

Definition of Tasks is important

One of the most important steps that helps co-DMing work is the clear definition of tasks. In our group, we have had two experiences with co-DMing now and they have both taken the form of “one guy writes the sessions, the other guy runs the sessions.” This may not be the breakdown that you choose, however I highly recommend being extremely clear with who does what, and how to handle situations where liberties must be taken with details.

Preparation and communication is key

In both instances, we elected to arrive an hour and a half early for each of our sessions to prepare what we’d like to have happen for that night. During the week (we play on Fri or Sat most times), my co-DM and I would instant message each other with ideas and concerns, and we would generally have most of the plot details out in the open PRIOR to this 1.5 hour cram session.

Heavy communication and clear understanding of character motivations, plot progression, and the player experiences are key to making this partnership work. Often, we would have conversations outlining our thoughts on how everyone was responding to our campaign progress so far.

“They seemed disengaged, lets ramp up the battle this week. They’re eager to hear what happened to our NPC wizard, lets get them to plot point A by the end of tonight.”

Discussions like this led us to some very successful sessions.

There were some scenarios where the extra communication (or lack thereof) provided some difficulties. We use instant messaging to do “live” chatting about developments and plot points, and as previously mentioned this sometimes irritated our players because they felt that my focus was not on them when they were asking about events in the heat of battle. Also, there were a few instances where I just plain screwed up in my interpretation of the communicated plot, and we had a little conflict between the two of us as to how to proceed. This got resolved and everything continued smoothly, but trust me when I say that over communicating is better than under communicating in this space.

Leverage your ability to be in two places at once

One of the best things about having two DMs is the fact that you can literally be in two places at once. In fact, some of most exciting sessions were engineered in a fashion to allow us to divide the group and have our other DM take the split off group to some other location and run them through their scene while we would do the same. The suspense of not knowing what is going on in the other group, but knowing as a player that something IS going on in the other group is true roleplaying gold.

This setup also gives a very unique opportunity to have a fully fleshed out NPC in the other DM. Our last short campaign had Vanir as my co-DM and he also played an NPC character at the same time. He was able to use the extra focus that he could bring by knowing the plot to flesh out this NPC in a way that was enthralling, plus he had the time to commit to the character fully. This is sometimes difficult to do when acting as a single DM and is a major benefit to having an extra “man in the know.”

Two heads are better than one

In my experience, having a two DM setup is generally better than having to haul the whole world around by myself. I found gains in character development, plot development, and player enjoyment comes from the addition of a second DM. We are about ready to start the second act of our first experiment in co-DMing, I will provide further insight into our successes and difficulties as they progress.

As the years have gone by, new tools have emerged that can be used to augment your standard pen and paper roleplaying experiences. In the last few years, we’ve explored several different new options in our own campaigns and met with varying degrees of success.

Blogging, for fun and character development

Several years ago, I suggested to my players that we would track our campaign progress via a blog. I would post a summary after each session, and I encouraged the players to post in-character and when they did they would receive a small experience reward for doing so. I enjoyed having ready access to the perceptions and thoughts of my characters, and they enjoyed getting into their own backstory and being able to pull up last session’s summary on a whim.

The universal language of online chat

We have recently made the decision to allow laptops at our gaming table. Having the ability to instant message individual players with private game information has come in handy. We have also used this capability to attempt team-DMing, where one person runs the sessions and the other player writes the campaign and acts as a situational NPC.

The general consensus is positive, however some players have felt that the in-session conversations between the two DMs can be disruptive. Even DMs can become disengaged (or at least appear that way), and this is something that you will have to be aware of if you choose to incorporate this into your sessions.

Miscellaneous Web Tools

I have a personal collection of several links that I use: Wizard’s dice roller, town generator, and NPC Generator.

These tools can really aid in winging sessions, or just adding some depth to your world. If you’re using the dice roller, I still highly recommend actually rolling dice when you want to ensure that your players know that you’re adding some random chance to a situation. I use all of these tools every week, so I can vouch for their function and excellence.

Be united in your choice to use technology

All of these technologies have their own benefits and drawbacks. First, we had some difficulty with people drifting off-topic with their laptops and doing work, surfing YouTube, or generally just disengaging from the rest of the group. This is a situation that you will have to address with your own group, and I suggest making it a part of your social contract to determine the appropriate use of these technologies during the gaming sessions.

Continuing in the spirit of creating better characters, I think it’s important to remember that what you character wears can be very important, and not just from a fashion perspective. Selecting the proper protective gear is be one of the most important steps to ensuring your character’s survival.

Armor & Shields

Armor: the protector of the combatants, the bane of spellcasters. You should endeavor to find and wear the best armor and other protective equipment available to you. Investigate your options before making your decision; your options may be restricted by your class, so make sure that what you want to wear is permitted. You should also keep in mind that the heaviest available armor may not be your best option; if you have a high Dex, lighter armor may allow for a higher Dex bonus, so make sure you do the math to see which avenue presents the best level of protection.

Shields can also give you that much needed feeling of security when facing that mob of ogres. Again, depending on your class, you may be able to use a shield in your off-hand to boost your armor class. However, you will not be able to wield your two-handed weapons or fight with two weapons. There are also some feats whose benefits are negated if you use a shield. Make sure you’ve done your research so you can make an informed decision.

Other Protective Items

If you can’t wear armor due to class restrictions (or you just need that extra feeling of security), you can protect yourself with other protective items. Amulets of Natural Armor, Rings of Protection, and Bracers of Armor are all fairly common (if somewhat expensive) options that will help you feel more secure. Gloves of Dexterity can also help make you are harder target to hit.

Non-Armor Options

While this conversation on armor and protective accessories is all well and good, you might need a few options that can help keep you alive long enough to find some gold for your shopping spree. If you’re a spellcaster without the funds to purchase magical items, you may have some spells in your repertoire that can improve your AC. There are also a handful of feats that will boost your AC. Combat Expertise will allow you to swap attack bonus for armor bonus. Dodge grants you a +1 to a named opponent. If you’re using a double weapon or two-weapon fighting, you can take the Two-Weapon Defense feat to add an armor bonus. You might also want to check out the Combat chapter of your PHB for other combat-based actions that can help you, such as Fighting Defensively/Casting Defensively, as well as rules for cover and concealment.

Yeah, we know you’ve seen this one on the Internet a hundred times. But the fact of the matter is Vanir likes to draw robots. So here you go, comrade!

(P.S. – This is the same robot that regularly says: “Buy a crib shirt or I will destroy your house.” Think about it. Do you have robot insurance?)

Also, we’ve dropped the prices across the board on our shirts and gear at the StupidMerchant so check it out and buy a shirt!

Last year, I began co-DMing with my good buddy Eric. He introduced me to the world of writing episodic content, which is content that can be dropped in anywhere along the line in the campaign and may or may not be relevant to the storyline.

The method is very simple:

1. Create a hook – this can be as simple as making a spot check or as complex and multiple NPC interaction. Simply put, this hook should be somewhat generic and simple to incorporate into normal campaign scenarios such as travelling on the road, drinking at the tavern, crawling a dungeon, etc.
2. Create the Good Stuff – From this hook, you can then shunt off into whatever side quest or event that you want to have happen. In our last campaign, we took these opportunities to throw puzzles at our players, give them money or treasure, or further the grand storyline.
3. Gracefully return them to normalcy – When planning episodic content, try to have each one resolve in a way that it can be gracefully re-incorporated into whatever was going on before the episode. Unless you intend to do so, try not to strand your players in a location that they don’t want to be in.

There are many benefits to this method. I’ve found that the flexibility and richness that episodic content can bring is very refreshing to both my players and to me as DM. So long as I can craft a feasible generic hook to get them headed in a new direction, I can take my players somewhere that I want them to go for awhile.

There is an art to creating hooks that aren’t obvious, but I’ve found that a little practice, confidence, and conviction won’t make these episodes appear “tacked on.” I’ve had much success with this approach and have Eric to thank, I hope everyone will give this a try and see how it works!

Your villain probably won’t see burning, raping, and pillaging as acts of blackest evil. They’ll see it as “Things To Do Wednesday Afternoon”. Nobody wants to think of themselves as a bad person. The human mind has a lot of powerful emotional defenses against this. My favorite of these is called cognitive dissonance, in which a person’s mind basically believes what it wants to believe and perceives reality in a way that supports these beliefs. Any ideas presented that challenge these beliefs are almost always discarded (and in many cases, violently attacked). Through this, our villain can justify what he’s doing in a variety of ways that relieve him of the responsibility of his actions:

• It’s YOUR fault!
  The reason I’m burning down your house? You didn’t pay the protection money that you clearly owe.
• I was just following orders.
  What better way to relieve yourself of guilt than to have it not be your decision? Blame the Dark Lord!
• Cold, Emotionless Logic.
  It’s a whole lot easier to do bad things if you just view it as a bunch of stats and abstract concepts. For instance, deaths turn into “acceptable losses”.
• It’s always been this way.
  My family has been enslaving the dwarves for 87 generations, there’s nothing wrong with it, and I don’t see any reason why it should change now.
• A sense of entitlement.
  You can do whatever you want because you DESERVE IT. Whoever invented prima noctis was totally into this. The right to deflower all virgins in the land because you’re the lord of the place goddammit — that’s some USDA A-1 prime grain-fed angus entitlement right there.
• You fools have no idea of the power you are dealing with.
  A massively inflated ego is a wonderful tool for dismissing naysayers. And when you cultivate it long enough to get dreams of world domination, you say cool things like the previus statement! You can’t believe you’re doing anything wrong when you won’t listen to anybody. Yours is the only opinion worth listening to, and who cares that it stopped being grounded in reality decades ago?

Once again, evil people are still people. They still have to live with themselves somehow — even if that means descending into a big pit filled with neuroses. The really scary part is that it probably isn’t even a conscious decision. The easiest way to live the lie is to believe it yourself.

Now take these twisted ways of viewing the world, and try to see the world through your baddie’s eyes. You can use this to help create the foundation for a believable villain’s behavior. Later this week, we’ll get into some specifics on how to play as one. Until next time!

<evil laughter>

There’s something about having a hoard of polyhedrals spread out in front of you that just makes you oh so very happy, and there’s really no explaining the phenomenon. Those colored dice have a special power that can strip even sophisticated conversationalists of their ability to say anything more intelligent than “ooh, dice!” And for those so addicted, there really is no substitute.

I am highly addicted to dice, and every year at Gencon, I have to make several Will saves to avoid buying everything I can grab when I pass the Chessex tables. Fortunately for me, my very wonderful husband keeps me anchored to reality, and I settle on a new set or a scoop or something. I did pretty good this year and only bought one set (blue Nebula), and are they nice!

If you’re anything like me, you have those special dice that are reserved for special purposes. I have a set of d6’s that I only use to roll up my characters. I have a set of d8’s that I use almost exclusively for my healings or longbow/sword damage. And of course, I have my ever-favorite (until it rolls too many single-digits, anyway) d20. It’s translucent green with white numbers, and I can’t start a session until I have it on the table, along with whatever other dice I’ll need.

For those of you who feel hopelessly addicted, feel no shame. It’s a perfectly natural response for one who rolls dice as we do. Just remember, you’re not alone; there are others who love those polyhedrals as much as you do.

We’ve all been here before. The Real World has seeped too far into our prep time, and we’re not feeling particularly motivated. How do I deal with it?

1. Distract With Shiny Objects – allow the players to find some loot or some random magical items to pour over for awhile. Let them shop, and interact with the next town down the line.
2. Roleplay with one another – stir the pot a little between two characters and let some good old fashioned roleplaying take place.
3. Speak directly from your prepared statements – I prefer episodic content, so you can simply inject previously prepared encounters or side quests directly into the bloodstream of your campaign when times get tough. Think of it as a content transfusion.
4. Throw a tantrum (in-game, of course) – Let the rogue wizard blow up an entire section of town, including your character’s favorite inn. Have someone from the thieves guild get caught pickpocketing an expensive magical item. Doing something unexpected could get you out of your rut and give your players something exciting to react to.
5. If all else fails, take a week off – In cases of extreme lack of motivation, it might be good to have the group get together to play a different game, watch a movie, or do some other activities. Burnout happens, and sometimes allowing yourself to relax will help the ideas flow more freely. I wouldn’t suggest doing this every other week, but occasionally it can make all the difference.

Now that I’ve shared some of my secrets, how does everyone else fight those dry spells?

There are many ways to draw your players into your campaign. Some of my favorite mechanisms involve a little planning, however they can go a long way toward crafting a good player experience.

Giving the character something to do

This one is probably the largest no-brainer in the group. If you want someone to be immersed in your world, give them a role to fulfill or a task that they can achieve. Some of these can grow up organically (such as creating a special random encounter for your fighter, something that I did in our session last night) or require some planning for the less “crunchy” players.

I find that most of my preparation time is ensuring that there are some tailored activities for each player available during the session. It is unwise to attempt to graft too many of these encounters in one night, as it can look forced and stretch your DMing resources rather thin, but used sparingly you can engage even the most despondent player.

Giving the character something to have

The age old lure of something fun… encoded into our DNA when we received our first blanket or stuffed animal as a child. The lure of some fun weapon or item is extremely strong, and for that reason I have continued with a lesson learned from my first DM, Chuck.

Chuck’s method was to create a “Chuck Item” which was a very powerful (yet balanced) item that was put into the world for the sole purpose of giving the character’s player a major dopamine hit. Not everyone would happen across their big item, but when they did… wow. I can still remember the look on Stupid Ranger’s face when her first character Lillian found her Chuck Item, and stories of that victory are still being told. I will leave it to her option to re-tell what that experience was like for her, but suffice it to say it was fantastic. Some of these items were placed in the path of the players, and others were out there in a quest style format that could be pursued at the option of the group. Unfortunately, my character Clegg never found his… it was truly the one that got away.

If you’re not feeling overly creative or are concerned about creating balanced magic items, I suggest you look at the Weapons of Legacy or the Magic Item Compendium for a wellspring of fantastic items. Picking and choosing items from those books to suit your party usually ends up with engaged players eager to use their newfound toys, which provides you with some hooks for future exploration.

Giving the player something to do

This last tip for further immersing your players came as a shock to me. I found, that by really listening and letting your characters explore their world in ways that suit them they will immerse themselves. As previously mentioned, I reward my players with a small experience reward for doing things above and beyond what is established as normal in our group. I found that this small carrot will really have players get involved in ways that continue to shock and amaze me.

A great example of this is during the Evensbrook campaign. The group found some interesting vials in a shop that eFreak’s character took some special interest in. I didn’t think much of it, but the following week eFreak showed up with some actual vials that she created and she was really excited to share with the group.

Immersion is good for everyone

Capturing and focusing on the elements of your campaign that strike chords with individual players in the group is good for the group at large and for you as the DM. By doing your part to provide an immersive campaign, you will cultivate an environment of excitement that will reward you with many opportunities to build upon.