Recurring villains | DM's tips & tricks #5

Recurring Villains in Dungeons and Dragons Campaigns

There are very few things that will get a party going like a villain who has thwarted them before. In fact, there's only one motivating factor I can think of that's more effective, and it's something your recurring villains will inevitably do at some point, and that's stealing from the party.

In any case, if you are playing a multi-session game (as opposed to an encounters-based play style), you should consider putting at least one recurring villain in your campaigns and adventures. Not only will it encourage action from your characters, but it will make for hours of fun that everyone at the table will enjoy (unless he wins ;). Below we'll talk about the types of villains I like to use as a dungeon master, and then some advice on how to use them in your campaigns.

Types of Recurring Villains

• The Actual Bad Guy

This villain is also the antagonist of your story as a whole. He could be an evil wizard or a wicked viscount, whatever the case may be, he is a well known opponent from virtually the beginning of a campaign. Most likely he will operate through proxies, or captains of some kind until some massive great conflict at the end of a story arc.

• The Rival

One of my favorite kinds of Villains is the rival. He could be the leader of a rival adventuring group, vying for the same rewards the party is winning, or trying to steal their rewards from them. Or the rival could be a rival of the party''s benefactor. Or even a town sherrif, jealous of the party''s notoriety as they continue to save his small town and he gets none of the credit. No matter the role of the rival, he is bitter, though perhaps not completely evil or antagonistic.

• The Accidental Villain

The accidental villain depends on the actions of the players throughout the course of the game, and it requires you as the dungeon master to insert more of a personality into an NPC. This rival is someone that the players have wronged, whether knowingly or not, who is out to either thwart their plans, or even worse, completely destroy them. The Accidental Villain is someone who may not constantly pursue the party, but will show up at opportune times seeking some kind of vengeance for the supposed slight. In the Mürmaids campaign, for instance, Captain Conchlan would make an excellent recurring villain. During second dungeons and dragons session, the player Jon tried to remove Conchlan's hand while interrogating him. Conchlan escaped, and his connections in local thieves' guilds from his history as a smuggler will ensure an almost endless supply of bounty hunters, thugs and other miscreants to hunt the Mürmaids to the ends of the earth.

• The Trickster

The Trickster is a harder one to pull off, but is a fantastic villain that will provide your game with hours of fun. I've used the trickster usually not as the main villain of a campaign, but usually a captain, one of the main villain's subordinates. This recurring character is more of a nag than a threat, and he defeats the party by endlessly frustrating them, and repeatedly escaping their grasp. One of my favorites is a gnomish illusionist thief who dogged a powerful warrior for many sessions, making every step of the party's progress through the mountains a trial, and whenever it came down to actually laying hands on the gnome, he always got away. He eventually met his end at the hands of the leader of the party, and you should have seen the look on his face when he finally grabbed the gnome's shirt, looked him dead in the eye and knocked his lights out. It may have been the happiest moment of that player's two-year adventure with that character.

The Recurring Villain Story Arc

So how does a recurring villain fit in? First of all, it has to be a believable NPC. He has to have real motivations, a real backstory, and you have to keep track of how and why he operates to create a level of consistency. Second, he has to be recurring. Third, he has to be victorious sometimes, and lose other times. Most of all, though, you have to keep him alive until the time comes to put him down.

I'll go into the elements of a good, convincing, memorable NPC in a later post, so let's skip right ahead to the story arc and how he gets worked in to your story line.

1. Introduction; the villain is brought in, and the animocity between the two parties begins. Whether the players know it or not, they have met someone who will stick around, and they have created a situation to motivate that NPC to interact with them again in the future.
2. Second conflict, the villain wins something; whether just a minor theft, or the loss of an encounter, or the loss of a party member, the player now have a reason to hate the villain; he has taken something from them, and gotten away with it. If this villain is the big bad evil guy of the campaign, it should be his subordinates that accomplish these first wins, but the party should know who is behind it.
3. Punctuated appearances; not every encounter or even sub-plot should involve your villain. Give the players a break once and a while, so that when he comes back, it will be that much more frustrating for them. But, don't let up too much, make sure the villain tries at some point to strike again, even if he isn't successful all of the time.
4. The players get some wins; eliminate a subordinate, get something they lost back from the villain, or force him to run from an encounter.
5. Eventually the villain loses; if your campaign will go on for a long time, you can have more back and forth. Maybe the entire party dies at some point, and they pick up with new characters, but somehow, your players need a chance to eventually defeat the object of their ire.

Recurring Villains at Low Level D&D Campaigns

The villain should always be a little bit more powerful than your party, at least in some ways. Conchlan, for instance, is backed by large, southern banks, and has a plethora of resources at his disposal. He might not stand up in a fight to the party, but he certainly can hire someone who can.

But we all know low-level d&d characters die off really quickly. So how do you keep it balanced? I like to use subordinates. The gnome in the above example, for instance, was a lieutenant of some greater evil. Conchlan will likely hire some assassin or something at first, or perhaps a thief to infiltrate their band and steal something of value (like get his boat back). Even if he kills one of the party, or even two, the party will survive to keep the story running, even at low levels. The key is the motivation; this subordinate isn't really interested in slaying all of them, bur rather winning something back.

Keeping Your Recurring Villain Alive

As you see by the story arc, the villain is going to lose sometimes, and often long before it is time for the party to defeat him completely. So how do you keep him alive to accomplish all of the things a villain needs to do? Let him run away, let him have allies that help him escape, allow him to have magical powers of healing, or if you really need it, give him a regeneration ring. Whatever it takes, though, keep him alive.

Recurring Villains at Mid-Level D&D Campaigns

Once your players get up there in levels, then things can get more interesting. No longer are subordinates necessary, but if it is direct conflict with the villain, make sure he is powerful enough to make an enjoyable encounter (a merchant, like Conchlan, isn't a match by himself). Basically, there are two options. While the players grow, so does the villain. He gains abilities, powers, hit points and even magical items as quickly and successfully as the party does. Or, it can just turn out that the villain wasn't in charge the whole time anyway. The Villainous Viscount was being pupetted by a death cult, or even the king himself. In a great old campaign, the party arrives to deal with an evil wizard who has been harassing a town, but even once dealt with, it turns out that the mayor had hired the wizard so he could justify raising the town's taxes.

Letting Your Recurring Villains Die

Finally, the time has come. The party is powerful enough, and you don't have any major plot points to tie the villain to, so you have no real need to allow him to mysteriously regain enough hit points to get out of the situation again. So....after so much work and story weaving, your villain can die. Two pieces of advice here. First, let your players enjoy it. let them do whatever they want to the villain, and let them relish in the high fives as he finally falls to the dirt. Second, take away his magical items. IF they will make the party over-powered, find a way to lessen the powers. If he could all of a sudden burst into hyperspeed to escape, and it was boots of speed, make it an amulet that operates on charges, and the moment the party abuses it, have the charges run out. If his sword was badass, make it only that badass for characters of a certain race and alignment combination, and boom, they now no longer have the party-slayer to use.

This was a terribly written article. But still, I hope it inspires you to add more details to your campaigns, and I hope that your next villain really gets under your players' skin.