Character Theory Lets hear it for the bad guys

[Owl Knight]

I stepped out of my usually character in a 1x1 recently to write a scene taking place between my partner's character and the villain of the story. It was a ton of fun to try and get inside the mind and motivations of an antagonistic character and I was wondering if anyone else has ever played a really fun villain. How did you approach it and what dastardly deeds did you do?

 

[Idea]

I visited this thread a few times now, and I realize that while I came close, I never actually played a villain as a main character. I played sort of villains in three circumstances:
1. I played a guy who had a few screws loose (yes one of those "insane" types. Ended up murdered by his supposed teammates very early in the game)

2. An ancient and powerful evil being that was sealed away inside a child. They control the child (most of the time) and planned to recover their own body. Again, didn't go far this time because the RP itself never kicked off

3. I also played some villains for some RPs I GMed. Never got far enough for things to get that dramatic.

So yeah, on this site at least, no real villains, and certainly not long enough for exciting stories of evil deeds except in backstory (that first dude went around killing people and stealing their identities. He was impersonating the king of the city when he met his "allies").

One case though does spring to mind. It was back in my early days of RPing, so really edgy, but back in he first RP forum I played two villains. One was a scientific experimental monster designed to overthrow the leader of the world of that RP forum (that place is like one giant continuous RP rather than many different completely unerelated threads), who was ultimately defeated and now had been reborn. Other than attacking people I didn't get him to do much.

Now Charles on the other hand... the boy wasn't a villain but those spirits that took over his body sure were. He was host to the splinters of a spirit from a researcher who, in his dying moments, split himself apart as part of the process to become such a spirit and be able to live on. The spirits were just as much my character as he was though, hence counting them here. Anyway, these spirits were relentless in thing Charles to go after the remaining splinters, and they would use his own body to commit atrocities as an "incentive" to get him to move his ass there. From killing his first friend In a strange world, to threatening many others, they did many horrible things.

This character was the first character I ever got romance out of. Another character took pity upon him and decided to help him out in both finding the splinters and taking control over their power. She eventually began developing feelings for him and I jumped on that bandwagon. At one point though, he was out with her when a cop stopped him, recognizing him as a kid that ran from home. The spirits took over and gave a very hands-on greeting to the cop's internal organs right in front of that girl.

Needless to say, after she fainted that was the end of their relationship .

And yes, in retrospective, I do realize just how edgy the whole set-up was.


I hope it was an entertaining read at least

 

[Onmyoji]

Oh yes. I used to play villains a lot. My 'main' villain characters were Voldemort (Harry Potter rp) and Orochimaru (Naruto rp). I played them more than once in different group rps.
Not to mention I also had some Cruel Warlords™ and Crazy Scientists™ OCs with varied degrees of edgyness. Those were only in 1x1 rps.

Playing the main antagonist in a group rp was quite a unique experience.

In those group rps I had, we had parallel plot lines, one was for 'good' characters and one was for 'villains'. For example in case of Harry Potter rp, it was 'Howgarts' and 'Voldemort + Death Eaters' factions.
Each faction had their own storylines that converged in certain points. 'Villains' were doing their stuff but then decided on a 'Villanous Plan' that would affect 'good' characters faction. 'Good' characters had their own interactions until they had to face the consequences of the 'Villanous Plan'. There were also random encounters in between, when a 'good' character may have spotted a 'villain' doing something somewhere.
Being the main villain in the group that had other villain characters too, my role was more of an overseer rather than a character that actively paricipated in events, unless my character decided to show up and fight during some major plot event. Most of my character's interactions were within the 'villain' faction. Most of the players doubled, so usually one player had a character in each faction, so it's not like someone was left out.
Anyway, it was a good experience and I enjoyed it. Setting 'villanous plans' in motion was fun! And it was quite a breather from playing 'good characters'.

Now, in 1x1some of my characters were not exactly villains, more like characters with grey morality, that still did more bad than good from other characters' perspective. For example, a scientist that didn't value human lives and used people for terrible experiments to move science forward.

And then there was my favourite (at the time) archetype, Cruel Warlord™. I probably liked to play such characters because it allowed for some degree of epicness within 1x1 (somewhat similar to Nation Building, I suppose) and also plenty of personal interactions. Those characters were ones that could pretty much burn a village as a display of power, kill people left and right, and stuff like that. OW THE EDGE. Somehow those rp were actually about romance. Don't ask.

To sum it up, playing villains and evil characters was unique and fun in some ways, and cringy in some others. I can say it was a 'phase' that I went through, because during the early years of my roleplaying history I played predominantly that kind of characters... And then I (grew up) got tired of it. End of story.

 

[peritwinkle]

To be frank I have never truly played villains, mainly because the villains in my story might have only been villains in my other characters’ eyes. Have I played what I considered to be an antagonistic character before? Absolutely, and I sometimes enjoy it far more than I do playing the main characters.

Think George R. R. Martin’s Tywin and Cersei Lannister. Saying they were inherently bad people would prove you have not paid the series enough attention. They did bad but necessary things for a reason they thought to be noble and, in my opinion, that’s the best kind of villain.