#The Complete Book of Villains
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Interviewing candidates for the position of villain (Terry Dykstra from The Complete Book of Villains by Kirk Botula, TSR, 1994) This guide includes a section of questions for “Interviewing Your Villain” to better understand their motivation and perspective
#D&D#Dungeons & Dragons#Terry Dykstra#NPCs#dnd#The Complete Book of Villains#D&D 2e#AD&D 2e#Kirk Botula#1990s#Dungeons and Dragons#TSR
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#109
When the doorbell rings, the hero’s kind of hoping it’s the pizza delivery guy.
They open the door to find, tragically, not the pizza delivery guy.
“Uh,” the villain says, “hi.”
The hero isn’t entirely sure what sequence of words would best fit this scenario. “Hi?” is the best they can do.
The villain shuffles on their feet awkwardly. A pause hangs between them, filled by the distant roar of the city beyond. “I thought you’d ask why I’m here,” they say eventually.
“I’m more concerned about how you’re here.”
A smile threatens the corners of the villain’s mouth. “We know where all you heroes live.” The smile fades into nothing again. “Or just I know, now, I guess.”
“Okay.” The hero squints at the villain uncertainly. “I’ll entertain you. Why the hell are you standing outside my door?”
“No one wants to be a villain anymore. Everyone quit.” The villain’s face contorts into some unreadable expression. “It’s just me.”
That doesn’t sound right. From the villain’s slight grimace, they know it too. “Everyone… quit villainy,” the hero repeats.
“There’s nothing to gain from it anymore. We had a vote and I was the only one who wanted to keep going.” The villain’s gaze dips to their hands as if they hold answers. “They left me everything, but… I can’t do it all on my own. So I’m turning myself in.”
The hero stares at the villain for a long moment. “Even [Supervillain].”
“Especially [Supervillain].”
The hero steps aside with a sigh. The villain looks like they’re being invited into a pit of wolves. “You want me to come into your house?”
“My handcuffs are in my living room cabinet and I don’t trust you standing out there. It’s cold, anyway.”
The villain closes the door behind them in an uncharacteristic show of politeness as the hero digs through their drawers. They’re wiping their shoes on the mat when the hero gets back, cuffs in hand.
The villain holds their hands out and the hero clicks the cuffs around their wrists. It’s almost too easy. The question is sitting on the tip of their tongue.
“What’s the catch?”
The villain doesn’t seem surprised by the question. They shrug halfheartedly. “Dunno.” They glance about for inspiration. “All the others have gone into hiding, I guess. You have me, but everyone else will probably evade you for the rest of time.”
“Much like they already do.” The hero manoeuvres them to the sofa in the living room, giving them a nudge to make them actually sit down. “You make it sound like you’ve been left in charge of the entire criminal organisation.”
The barking laugh the villain lets out is entirely fake. Too sharp, too short. “I have.”
“So villany will collapse without you.”
The villain shrugs again, the motion laden with effort. “Not like anyone else was willing to carry that burden—and I’m not either, hence why I’m, y’know…” They gesture vaguely at themself, in cuffs, in the hero’s living room.
The villain goes, villainy is defeated. No more villains, no more big crimes, no more heroes. Everything the agency has worked to be would collapse. The hero would be out of a job. It'd be over.
Yet here the villain is, giving everything up, taking the entirety of villainy down with them. The sole survivor of a shipwreck and wishing they’d gone down with the ship. A ship they don’t seem to realise the hero is on too.
The doorbell rings again, and the hero leaves the villain carefully settling on the sofa to answer it. They return with a giant grin on their face and a giant pizza box in their hands.
“Let’s worry about all this afterwards,” the hero says brightly. They brandish the box at the villain in the hopes of tempting them. “Want some?”
The tempting works; the villain reaches for a slice. “What a last meal.”
The hero sets the box on the coffee table as they flop back on the sofa. “I don’t know, [Villain],” they say with a smile, “I don’t think it has to be.”
#creative writing#writblr#writers on tumblr#writing#writing community#heroes and villains#hero x villain#yall i have been BALLIN#my burnout isnt completely gone but its a lil better than it has been#the weekend was productive. got three (3!!) new stories done for yall AND I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK WOOOOOOOOOOOO#and it was nice!!! ive missed writing for so long but i had no ideas#and yet here we are :) the burnout may be strong but by god i have a fire extinguisher
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I'd probably have to read the printed version and web version back to back at some point to note all the differences but... ough
#sorry i'm going to be excited about this comic for the next month#nofna#okay having finished this now--#and sorry if this doesn't make sense to anyone who's completely unfamiliar with this comic in advance-#the 'popcorn ending' (printed version) is nice to see but i think the web version hits harder. if that makes sense#so i'm kinda tied on which ending i 'prefer'- i think both are good though#also considering i've read the web version a good 4-5 times and the printed version only once- i probably can't make that judgement yet#easy answer- i do like Nutsedge :] so it's nice to see the ending where nothing bad happens to her#but also- NT suddenly becoming a greenie-esque villain out of nowhere felt a little jarring#as well as SV suddenly turning a corner and becoming a 'good guy' (arguable)- considering the first three books are about#/him being too stubborn to change or accept any outside worldviews . Him suddenly coming to his senses felt out of place#<- probably biased because i like characters being bitter to the end and ultimately destroyed by their own hubris#the web version is probably‚ objectively‚ a bit better#but -#(spoilers- if you're planning to drop ~70 bucks on getting these books)#the conceit of SV actually perfecting his style‚ using it once‚ and then immediately getting tooth-brained- was pretty cool#assuming it's meant to parallel him spending months tormented by trying to perfect it while something's still missing-#and then dying before he can narrate it to the audience‚ so that we never know what he figured out.#hard to articulate these thoughts but tl;dr- popcorn ending also had a lot to think about
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"It's normal for siblings to fight" Okay well it's not normal to be extremely classist and look down on your sister for being non-conforming. Or to go to the woman who ordered the death of your pet to tell her about your father's plans, when he specifically warned you against doing so, because you want to marry the boy you saw attack your sister and her friend (contributing partially to said father's death and your sister being unable to escape on the ship he chartered). Or to think of your sibling as unsatisfactory in comparison to another when you believe her to be dead. I notice that none of the "Sansa and Arya are going to reunite and instantly have no issues" crowd ever acknowledge any of this, which makes it seem like they don't actually believe what they say about their relationship being normal and easily reconciled. People wanting them to have no issues simply because they're siblings is another example of how fandom likes to flatten complex characters and relationships. They get reduced to being bickering siblings when their conflict runs deeper than that. If the author is telling you that they have "deep issues" to work out [X], I don't understand being so adamant about ignoring said issues. I also get the sense it's about ignoring the capacity for a certain character to be flawed, but that isn't going to change the fact that her "slip of the tongue" is very likely to be revealed and a source of further conflict 🤷🏾♀️
#arya stark#sansa stark#house stark#asoiaf#also if it's so normal for siblings to fight then why are you guys losing your minds over us theorizing they won't get along??#the amount of condescending /that's just how siblings act/ takes I see 🙄#sorry I guess? that we read the book and don't just delete parts of the story because we find it convenient?#it's not even like takes about them being enemies is widespread the most I see is that they aren't instantly bffs when they reunite 😭#some people theorize they'll never be close but guess what? that's a completely fair and valid assumption based on their relationship!#personally I think they'll have a sweet reunion before the issues they have inevitably surface again because while they've been through#a lot they haven't fundamentally changed as people or the values they hold#and I think that's going to be very interesting to read about!#I can't figure out why people always take the most boring bland route for how things will play out#mostly because people seem to be unable to swallow the concept that Sansa is a flawed character who isn't perfectly sweet all the time#and the fact that their conflict is instigated by Sansa's classism#which is funny cause in the grand scheme of things her being mean to Arya is such a mild thing that opens the door to a ton of growth#never seen anybody but stansas equating her being a bully to her sister to her being evil/a villain#all we do is point out that it exists in the story...people in this fandom have no concept of nuance I stg 😭#anyways they're both complex characters and their conflict is interesting and I hope we get to see how it plays out#cause it's definitely going to be better then that trash d&d came up with 🙏🏾
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a winning smile
#*sighs dreamily* there’s something deeply wrong with her#fhr#fallen hero#rotating book 3 villain reveal scenarios in my head like a centrifuge#sidestep#god I want it to be dramatic and MESSY especially because I went code diving and vesper’s at negative clue values for ortega n chen#complete gut punch blindside#digital art#OC vesper#blood
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So like. Everyone typically agrees that like Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger or Mr. Voorhees dying are like good things to happen in their respective horror films right?
So tell me why Joker is any different? Michael only broke out of prison once (I think, I don't go here) and has only killed 98 people (excluding the Rob Zombie movies)? Those are rookie numbers compared to Joker.
We, the audience, are supposed to feel catharsis and joy when Jaime Lee Curtis like brutally murders him and then parades his body through town (and all of the people in town are like Hell Yeah this is morally correct because our town has been repeatedly victimized by this man) before tossing that crusty man through a human sized paper shredder. Additionally, this killing was necessary for the character to move on and heal from her past.
All I'm saying is that like, the people of that town experienced wayyy less horror than what Gothamites have gone through just from the Joker. And there is no "self-defense" against Joker, these poor people just have to hope a caped guy shows up in time to save their asses. And most of the time, there is already a heavy body count before that caped guy gets there and gives some speech about the sanctity of life or some shit.
This killing would similarly be healing for Jason. I agree with the other post floating around right now about how his healing journey would not be realizing killing is wrong or whatever the fuck.
In this essay, I will explain why Jason would be lauded as a hero and given a parade for killing Joker and the parade ending with Joker's corpse being thrown into a fucking wood chipper. As well as how even within the fictional context, the moral debate surrounding killing Joker is so fucking stupid if you think about it for longer than two seconds.
#listen that last halloween movie sucked complete ass#but it got me thinking about how people view Jason as a victim and how we view these huge horror names vs comic book villains#jason todd#clovis writes#it's 2am so this is not eloquent#thanks for coming to yet another Jason Todd TedTalk
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I don’t have Creative Campaigning — I like these books, but not enough to pay more than twice the cover price. Ridiculous. So, on to The Complete Book of Villains. Like the Catacomb Guide, this one is an advice book geared toward making really good villains.
There is little by way of mechanics here. Author Kirk Botula rather keeps most of the process very much conceptual. There are work sheets and flow charts. He asks lots of questions about motivation and state of mind. It is easy to throw cackling madmen at players over and over again, but a great villain makes things hard, tests players, keeps them unsure. Not just in terms of “can we defeat this guy?” but also “should we defeat this guy?” Two of the most popular D&D villains — Strahd and Lord Soth — are a tangle of contradictory motivations. You often feel sympathy for them even as you’re trying to destroy them. The Complete Book of Villains aims to create characters like that.
Because there are no real mechanics at play, Villains really transcends D&D. You can use it for any RPG. Or anything that requires a villain, really. I’d be shocked, considering the number of folks who’ve used RPG campaigns as test runs for novels, if no one had used this book to assemble a villain for a piece of fiction. If not, someone should! TTRPGs are actually very good at breaking complex things down into easier to understand systems, so it makes sense that this (and lots of other RPG products) would be a great tool for broader creativity.
There’s other stuff jammed in here too. Tables of motivations, suggestions for monstrous villains (love the idea of medusae as arch-villains), a small rogues gallery of examples. It’s endlessly useful. Along with the Campaign Sourcebook, it should probably have a spot on every GM’s shelf.
#RPG#TTRPG#Tabletop RPG#Roleplaying Game#D&D#dungeons & dragons#TSR#Villains#Complete Book of Villains
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literally the best part of this whole stupid book iwlove weird obsessed horndogs thee villain archetype of all time. he’s so silly. “we could’ve had a life together”, he says to his lesbian ex-neighbour who he’s just shot with a crossbow bolt meanwhile her girlfriend who he’s also just shot is half dead across the room. god i love it here he said me and the bad bitch im going to fumble
#WHAT A FUCKING FREAK IJBOL!!!!!!#MORE PSYCHOSEXUALLY OBSESSED WEIRDO VILLAINS PIXELBERRY I KNOW YOU HAVE IT IN U.#their villains are usually so cringe and one note at least this one is memorable#mind you this could have used more buildup. up until like chapter 19 he still had the benefit of the doubt#his ass was NOT beating the twist villain allegations but the fucking freak allegations were a whole separate beast#and he could be presumed innocent in those. like sure i guess these are just average fanatic werewolf hunter antics.#like EYE had my suspicions. him sending that frat bro to sexually harass mc was a fucking freak move#but like in general he was coming off as someone who was just a normal amount of concerned about a friend of theirs falling in w a cult#like girl why am i following my cringe fwb into the pool house to be all ‘babe this isnt u :(’#i dont CARE i wanna go engage with the twist antagonist who at this point my mc still thinks is kind of normal/their friend!!!#but alas that’s just pb for you. we WILL NOT stick a landing ever. they make all the new writers swear to never write a villain that makes#sense or is well foreshadowed. ONLY side characters who you would never suspect bc they have like 5 lines in the whole book.#like you’ll never be duffy veilofsecrets you’ll never recapture that magic.#anyway. markus choicesalpha the fucking weirdo cringefail stalker incel loser you could have been…kermit looking out rainy window dot png#maeve speaks#playchoices#choices#pixelberry#choices alpha#channing lowe#markus barnes#side note this whole thing probably has a Much different vibe with a male mc#but as it is it’s like ijbol. channing is cringe and emotionally unavailable but how could you POSSIBLY compare to a buff werewolf bitch#he is so completely not a contender that its comedic to me. you think WE could have had a LIFE TOGETHER?#even if my mc had never ever met channing SHE IS A LESBIAN!!!! SHES GAY DUDE STOP IT LOL#and with a female mc and male channing its like yeah whatever average incel number 10 billion. wow youre going to kill me bc some other guy#is hotter than you? eyeroll. at least channing canonically gives great head.
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“I wanted to go to school. I know other kids complain about it, but it always felt so normal, and I’ve never gotten… Normal. I wanted to travel. I wanted friends. I wanted to have a pet one day, a dog. I wanted to host a party, like a sleepover or a costume party or something. And I wanted to fall in love, the kind from the sort of stories my family never told"
#born to fuck shit up have you ever read a piece of media that completely rewired your brain chemistry#this is me. I am bitches. I didn't say bitches but its me nonetheless I am losing it.#hall have no idea how many all of us villains posts I have on my drafts like there's#4 of us in the tags and I am gonna spam so much shit bc I cope with humor#anyways can y'all tell Hendry Lowe is like !!!!! the love of my life !!!! aha!!!!!!!!!!#hendry#all of our demise spoilers#all of our demise#all of us villains#book
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i’ll say it, wu zetian is probably my favorite protagonist in any media
#iron widow#a villain protagonist w/ completely understandable motivations? yes yes yes#was hooting and hollering like a sports fan at the end of the book#this book is so anime. i love it sm.#book tag
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“Posture can convey personality and emotion as effectively as voice and gesture.” (The Complete Book of Villains by Kirk Botula, TSR, 1994) This one might be by comic artist Graham Nolan, who is credited for illustrations along with Terry Dykstra and Larry Elmore.
#D&D#Dungeons & Dragons#The Complete Book of Villains#DM tips#DMing#werewolf#Graham Nolan#dnd#D&D 2e#AD&D 2e#Dungeons and Dragons#TSR#1990s
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since finishing vicious a year ago, i have convinced around two-three other people to also pick up the book and read it
spreading the word, as intended
#it’s really something else when someone tells you they liked a book you recommended them#just doing the lord’s work as intended#vicious my beloved#i adore it so much#i also convinced a friend of mine to read shades#since both shades and villains live in my head completely rent free#we’re just out here convincing all of the friends to read books#villains duology#a darker shade of magic#victor vale#eli ever#sydney clarke
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thinking about her (Gith the Liberator)
Thinking about how much I wish she were the deliciously messy, morally complex, and believably motivated protagonist of a Space Lesbians vs. Empire trilogy instead of a flat villain/historical footnote in the Fiend Folio. Unfortunately, DnD.
#mother gith apologia#but SERIOUSLY#they really created this leader of a successful uprising that freed a people who'd been enslaved so long their original name had been lost#and made her a one-dimensional villain with no real personality/motivation#not only does she not get to be the centre of her own story#she barely even has a story#it's all just grist for the “eeeevil-aligned species” mill#we don't really know why she decided conquering the planes would be a great idea#or why vlaakith i betrayed her#because the big assumption underpinning those plot points is “this is what happens when oppressed peoples become Too Liberated”#where's my chonky book series about her + vlaakith i + zerthimon fomenting rebellion together and developing irreconcilable differences?#in the right author's hands it could be so good#let Gith be an actual character 2k23#githcourse#slavery cw#oh dnd lore#as with all their historically “evil” species: there's a lot to unpack here#and I completely understand why some people would rather throw away the whole backpack#sorry about the giant tag essay rant. it will happen again.#I started essaying in someone else's tags and then realised it would be more polite to just make my own post#githyanki
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Sometimes I remember that Jamil is 17 years old and has had a job looking after Kalim basically 24/7 for years, his childhood spent making sure this other child stays alive and safe from assassination attemps while also managing their mundane things. And while I refuse to believe there weren't adults involved while Kalim lived in the Asim household, that is still absolutely an undue pressure to place onto a child - not to mention the whole child labor aspect of it.
And every time I dwell on it I'm just all
But also I want to punch every single adult involved who decided that this was a totally good and a normal idea and there's nothing wrong whatsoever with this arrangement.
#twisted wonderland#jamil viper#I am seething#and shaking#also why are there so many parallels to Shizuki here and why do I keep on being drawn to this kinda characters?#surely one could write a responsible reliable character without heaping on a servant role#and some complicated relationships and history#anyway if Jamil ever wants to go on his villain arc (again) I'll be the first in line to be his right-hand henchperson#just. man#be free#make a mess#scheme like no one's got anything to lose and you've got everything to gain#he deserves it and I'd love to see it#(and to be completely honest I'd find it kinda hot probably)#(so he's free to lure me into his plans whenever I'll dive right in)#so yeah basically ever since I read Scarabia's book Jamil's definitely been one of the blorbos in rotation
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Again not a dungeon meshi reader/watcher but every time I hear about that laois guy I get reminded of how my system had/has a hyperfixation on dragons so intense that we got that big fancy dragonology book and we treated it like the damn dragon Bible for like years
Now, obviously, we understand that there's different interpretations on mythical creatures, and no one interpretation on a dragon is necessarily gospel, but that multiple interpretations on the classic tale of beasts of scale and fire are completely valid and to be expected!
however if you call an Eastern dragon a coatl I'm going to come to your house and slaughter your family
#THEY'RE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT#yes they have similarities but coatls have WINGS typically and dont usually have other limbs. they're more serpentine birds#meanwhile Eastern dragons (Chinese depictions for example) don't typically have wings and are more lizard-like#like Mushu !!!!!!!! Mushu is an Eastern dragon#and then there's drakes and wyrms. which are entirely different bc they can't really fly#drakes are more like draconic horses or dogs. no wings but four limbs and a tail with a reptilian appearance#wyrms are more serpentine with no limbs and no wings. though i think some interpretations of wyrms give them like.. two forelimbs#then there's wyverns. wyverns have two legs and two wings instead of the typical eight limbs (four limbs two wings)#(i also perosnally hold true to the interpretation of wyverns with poisonous stingers for tails but that's just me cause i think its cool)#..... how much of this is just me talking abiut dragons#explodes.#oh yeah and obv there's the HTTYD interpretations which i adore! they're interesting#the designs are so fascinating and from what ive seen seem to have some science behind them#and arent just the typical western style of dragons. which nothing wrong with the western style it's a classic ofc#but it's still fun to see some variation!!#and ofc there's WOF#which holds true to Western dragons in simple anatomy but has its own variations and of course its own lore#then there's. fuck i forget the name but it's a fantasy story based in China i believe#i loved it so much it was so cool#anyways it had a dragon character named Seryu. I love Seryu. he my favorite#anyways i liked the interpretation of dragons there bc iirc it held true to ummmmm some Chinese mythology involving dragons#cause Eastern mythology of drahons is . so much diffetent than Western#Western dragons are commonly very monstrous creatures‚ usually very animalistic#they tend to embody the Christian concept of greed/gluttony hence why they're so typically monstrous/villainous#which i find interesting but i wont get into that#meanwhile. i wanna say Eastern dragon legends more revolve around the idea of a dragon as more of a godly/fae-type creature?#that's probably a poor comparison but that's how i interpreted it. agian im probahly wronf about all of this#im some weirdo rambling about dragons on the internet. dont trust me explicitly#i need to get more dragon mythology books#HELP I REACHED THE TAG LIMIT I DIDNT THINK THAT WAS POSSIBLE GOOD LORD OKAY I'LL SHUT UP NOW
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well yk. personally speaking its the way cyrus was a hero with utterly unshakeable conviction and then carried that exact same conviction through with him as a villain. idk abt u tho.
#cyrus becker#switching sides changed everything for him#switching sides changed nothing for him#he is the exact same but completely unrecognisable! dont u love that for him#i woke up in the middle of the night to write this down in my book so i dont forget and then i went back to sleep.#this is the first thing i did when i woke up this morning. your honour im normal about him#because everything is abt them now: do you think fawn/river ever saw the things cyrus did as a villain#break heralds knee/telepathically kill people/potentially murder blaze#and thought 'what happened to my brother?'
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