How Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Teaches You How to Craft Compelling Villains

How Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Teaches You How to Craft Compelling Villains | Villains in RPGs

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Күн бұрын

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@SupergeekMike Жыл бұрын

Do you have a favorite Darklord or Domain of Dread from “Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft?” Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 40% off any annual membership! www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike

@SLorraineE Жыл бұрын

I love that the types of horror sections include possible pitfalls that people might fall into that make things more exclusionary or bigoted. That's a huge help for avoiding bad cliches and encouraging creativity

@themicahnism Жыл бұрын

I love it too, it goes a long way to make others feel welcomed and safe playing when that kind of info is already in the book. I think they also put it there because ravenloft as a setting has a history of sexist and borderline racist bits of canon and they do away with all of them in the new book.

@ani_anonymuncle Жыл бұрын

Mike: A casual, throwaway joke Me, immediately: Dark Lord Sharptooth, the Tyrant Lizard

@wesleykushner8028 Жыл бұрын

One of my favorite aspects of Ravenloft and the Darklords is that its not about the severity of their sins. It just comes down to their irredeemability. Like there are people in the DnD canon that did worse stuff than Strahd, but that's not the point. Strahd will never change. None of the Darklords will. I also love that the Dark Powers just love the drama and always take a new darklord to a domain when its the most cinematic.

@notanotaku1101 Жыл бұрын

And the fact that this irredeemability is whats keeping the darklord stuck. Strand has the means to leave Barovia, but his pride and obsession with Ireena prevent him from ever seriously considering it. He (and all of the best Darklords) are truly prisoners of their own demons, not any external forces

@wesleykushner8028 Жыл бұрын

@@notanotaku1101 this is why when I run curse of strahd I ramp-up the Christian undertones. The Dark Powers are more Old Testament retribution than unknowable entities. All he has to do is repent. But the devil cannot repent. That's why he's the devil. I also change the lore so that the Barovians deserve to be stuck there too but that's for another video topic comment section.

@notanotaku1101 Жыл бұрын

@@wesleykushner8028 have you ever read the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis? It's definitely a theological allegory so it might not be up everyone's alley, but it runs with that whole idea of the doors of hell being locked from the inside, which is what your idea made me think of.

@wesleykushner8028 Жыл бұрын

@@notanotaku1101 oh yeah that's exactly it.

@eskiyodo Жыл бұрын

Mike mentioned a player character being a reincarnation of the villain pre-evil juice drinking. Imagine a villain trying to bring a loved one back to life, and the player character is a reincarnation of that loved one.

@TheBriguy1998 Жыл бұрын

This is basically the story of a couple characters from League of Legends. You have this guy named Viego who unleashed a plague of undeath upon the world when trying to ressurect his dead wife, named Isolde, and then this other girl named Gwen who is basically Isolde's childhood doll come to life and embodies the best parts of Isolde from when she was alive. Basically, Gwen needs to defeat Viego to stop his evil mist from turning the whole world into undead monsters while Viego is trying to capture Gwen and use the echo of Isolde's soul within her to try ressurecting his wife again (which would probably not work as intended and just make things worse).

@aidanmillow566 10 ай бұрын

The Ravenloft book actually more or less mentions that as an option, it provides a list of ideas for people that could house the soul of Tatyana (Strahd's... his whole deal basically) and one of the suggestions is one of the PCs.

@MogoPrime Жыл бұрын

My head is spinning with ideas for a cruel and yet sadly justified dark lord, his methods and motifs and realm aspects and… oh man. I like Mike!

@mkang8782 Жыл бұрын

What it boils down to is this: antagonists built like this provide the DM with more to work with. Think of any TV series antagonist whose scenes and appearances you enjoyed because they were clearly more than a cardboard cutout. If it helps, build them as if they were a character you were going to play. Good insight and advice, as always, Mike. Hope your puppy is better soon.

@marywockenfuss-thecraftypl6461 Жыл бұрын

I'm still watching and can already tell I need my own copy of this book. This will be a huge help for my campaign.

@Draakhart_961 Жыл бұрын

I feel you in the conflicted feelings but I agree, this book holds a treasure trove of ideas for compelling antagonists. Big fan of the pitfall warnings, and the array of examples: some very big domains with general concepts, others very intimate in comparison. My own two cents for a fun source of inspiration: looking at the Group Patrons found in Eberron Rising from the Last War and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Though not comprehensive, it gives you an idea for the sort of allies, enemies and subordinates an NPC might have, as well as resources they have at their disposal. As a fun added benefit, makes it easier to run the villain as a patron if the group somehow ends up as allies to them.

@Gerendiell Жыл бұрын

We just finished a small Ravenloft Homebrew-Oneshot. Darklord was not tooo special, just a Night Hag that tried to produce offspring from a nearby village in the woods. But the story of a young girl gone missing, the old ghost of a mother, mourning her child - the first failed attempt of the hag in a long row -, all of that mixed with eastern europe names and flair (and let me tell you, the folklore from these parts is way creepy) gave the party some hefty chills. And when the hag was defeated, the party tried to leave the area, taking the half turned child under their wing like true heros. Only to realise that: 1) One of the players wanted his character to originate from the village. He was called to make a WIS save and failed, so he was not able to leave the domain, returning to the village without concrete memories 2) After they managed a high roll to calm/befriend the child earlier, it gave the party a thankful smile before vanishing into the mists. As part of the domain, she can never be saved, but the effort was worth something, at least to her 3) Cutscene: In the hut of the hag, her maimed parts crawled together again, forming a new body. She might have been defeated now, but even temporary death will not stop her from trying again 4) Cutscene: A group of four strange wanderers arrives at the village, searching for a place for the night and they are greated by the player character that just returned And even though the party couldnt manage any lasting change, they were content in foiling the plans of the hag in this turn of the cycle.

@bristowski Жыл бұрын

This is a good channel. I like Mike.

@terryquick7564 Жыл бұрын

Just listening to your description of the two charts, humanoid under curse, mayhem, trying to bring back a loved one, my first thought is Mr. Freeze

@quinnsine1650 4 ай бұрын

5:05 LITERALLY DOING THAT SOON 🥰🥰🥰

@leeway3739 Жыл бұрын

Your comments about your dogs at the end...I feel you

@BigKlingy Жыл бұрын

This might seem dumb but bear with me. I don't have much experience with Ravenloft, but the way it describes the Domains makes me think of the Palaces from Persona 5, or some of the late-game levels in Psychonauts. I've always enjoyed it when a story lets you LITERALLY get inside the villain's head, and even more when it becomes a dungeon. Your generic greedy mob boss suddenly gets a lot more memorable when you find out he views other people as literally walking ATMS. On villains having defeats tailored to their personality, flaws or themes, I've always thought each Ace Attorney game's Big Bad was a great example of that. They're always so powerful they need to be taken down in an outside-the-box way that ties in with their character. It's hard to describe without giving away huge spoilers, but I'll put one of the fan-favourites, Justice for All's, in a reply.

@BigKlingy Жыл бұрын

SPOILERS FOR THE 2ND ACE ATTORNEY GAME'S LAST CASE The final villain hired an assassin to kill the victim and take Phoenix's friend hostage to force him to defend him. He's ultimately defeated by showing the assassin he videotaped the murder to use as blackmail. The villain's severe mistrust and penchant for backstabbing EVERYONE backfires on him spectacularly, and now, just like Phoenix, HE'S stuck with a "sadistic choice": either go free with a very angry and vengeful assassin hunting him down, or confess and go to jail for murder to escape him.

@RottenRogerDM Жыл бұрын

Van Ritchten Guide is a must buy for new dms. It is a great idea book and a little light on the lore. Old Ravenloft DMs and collectors should buy at half price unless they want to help out the local friendly game store.

@nielsvandersteen4619 Жыл бұрын

This actually made me buy this book. Best advert for a book like this ;)

@MorningDusk7734 Жыл бұрын

I would love to hear your thoughts on how the planes work in D&D, perhaps just an informational or a "how I run them" type video. I've been working on my homebrew and was curious about your experience vs what I'm thinking of for them.

@manueltorresart2345 Жыл бұрын

Sometimes watching you talk about something sparks some creativity on my. I had a couple ideas about villains concepts (that I should flesh out at some point) that I'd like to check.

@Nocny_Informator Жыл бұрын

I'm making a Villain with his loyal agents, that's gonna show very often, every party member gets at least one agent that's made specifically for them (there are more of them than the party). And in top of that I want to make their relation personal, as much that I can. For example Sun Elf Paladin's rival is his cousin, a Dark Elf that was also a paladin at some point. Our Kitsune Samurai's rival will be a Lizardkin Gunslinger (not a lizardfolk) with a cowboy theme (it's a little reference to something happening in real life)

@laurelgrey7602 Жыл бұрын

Oh no, poor doggie. Feed them some canned pumpkin. (Plain, not pie filling). It should help with their digestion. I've used it a couple times with different dogs

@TheLandlockedViking Жыл бұрын

Mike: “…their own private Idaho” Me, who lives in and loves Idaho: 😵😵😵 lol

@SupergeekMike Жыл бұрын

Lol it’s a movie reference, that’s the name of a Keanu Reeves/River Phoenix film

@seanfulldark Жыл бұрын

Or really play on the one rule that people forget about the litches. You need to destroy the heart which is often stored in a jar deep in their home base! Or encourage your party to run, run because oh they can summon a army and you do not have enough power to deal with that army! Literally I developed two bosses that set up a very interesting system, the first one was a zombie paladin(not an oath breaker, but on the oath of treachery! His lich setup is explained that as long as he keeps his oath he is harder to kill but he also is bonded but to his weapon of choice that is used to brand his oath to his mistress or master. ) and one of his skills was haste now if you screw up on the haste three times if you're a living character it just instantly kills you because you die of exhaustion, not if you're undead so the goal was to make him lose concentration three times in a row. Bad rolls for the DM still worked in favor for the party one failed agility jump,(the dungeon had invisible platform so everyone had to make a roll to see if they got lucky on landing on the invisible platforms, this included the boss!) then catching up with the party so it forced that one separation point, then two spells actually managed to be pulled off against said character which caused him to fail constitution checks every time he cast haste which of course in his style was to be the first thing he cast. The second was a undead sorcerer shadow naturally she resurrected an entire pirate ship that she destroyed early on with one of her big spells, her legendary action was literally to raise the dead and create a army of undead within 1000 feet! The crew complemented that pirate ship was 200, on average level 10 but the captain of course being a level 20 who was also resurrected because he was killed on said pirate ship! Good motivation for your crew to run! Especially after wasting a good chunk of their spells on the boss in the first place!

@ger_hynes Жыл бұрын

Sorry to hear about your dog, Mike. Hope you've gotten some sleep since.

@flawlix Жыл бұрын

I still use the Book of Vile Darkness for inspiration for anything dark and nasty Edit: but now I want this book also

@DanSolo41 Жыл бұрын

It's pretty damn close, which is good.

@christenh359 Жыл бұрын

Adding another book to my wishlist.

@rikkirattus Жыл бұрын

I've never done any sort of story writing villain first. I almost always lead with worldbuiling or protagonists So this is a great video, primer and reminder to read VRGtR

@christenh359 Жыл бұрын

Adding another comment The “horror genre villains” would seem possibly helpful for other games like Call of Cthulhu, or (possibly) Candela Obscura.

@nichtanonym3393 Жыл бұрын

Anyone else going to run a campaign in the domain of tepest?

@nadirku Жыл бұрын

I am not sure I am happy with the initial villain Idea I had from thinking about this video, though this might be more a problem with me that the method here. Starting of the PC idea of a Stout Halfling Rogue with the Chef feat, and Proficiency with Cooking tools, who is adventuring to find interesting ingredients, and recipes (even ones that cause poison damage, and/or the Poisoned condition), the villain would be taking that to an extreme, willing to cook anything, or anyone to make the best meals possible, with the villain's food acting something like a corrupt Hero's Feast, granting buffs, but also causing addiction/penalties after the effects wear off. I was initially intrigued by the idea, but on second thought, something about a "Mithral Chef Drug Lord" BBEG, and an army of food "junkies" seems to be in excessively bad taste, and overly easy to mishandle.

@johnnnysaint01 Жыл бұрын

Not even done and I think it’s a great video

@Stephen-Fox Жыл бұрын

Using those initial charts for prompts - I think, for me, I enjoy using more... Open-ended... tables for that sort of jumping off point. Nothing wrong with them, I just enjoy the more open ended results that e.g. Mythic GME 2e's elements tables provide. I think UNE - Universal NPC Emulator - is also be good for that sort of random NPC creation and as such could be used for villains, but I've no experience with UNE myself, just that it's a tool Trevor Devall swears by on his AP channel, Me, Myself & Die.

@TheOprative9 Жыл бұрын

I had an Oni leading an army of goblinoids die early from a barbarian rolling an opportunity attack with disadvantage...and rolling not 1 but 2 natural 20s. I'm fixing that by having the villain of my next arch be a necromancer / transmuter obsessed with creating a new life form. They are a vampire that sends simulacrums to deal with matters he would have to oversee directly AND he's got tens of clone tanks with clones of himself squirreled away in various lairs across the land. And if even all of that fails, this villain has a ring of mind shielding that his soul is going to go into if he is killed with no way of escaping, recovering, or respawning. Take THAT players lmaoooooooo.

@BlackOpMercyGaming Жыл бұрын

I know it is usually a “it depends on the circumstance“, but do you prefer running a villain that has “good“ motivations, and is understandable, or a mustache twirling evil villain

@donnellobrien4123 Жыл бұрын

I think that I prefer Villains with good motivations, but it can also be exhausting for every force your PCs oppose to have moral complexity. I definitely always try to include both in all of my campaigns for balance.

@samsampier7147 Жыл бұрын

I like all the above. The mustache twirling, tying women to railroad tracks, villain can be a great in a humorous campaign. In a light-hearted campaign I adore misunderstood villains or heroes with bad publicity. In a grey or dark campaign destroying truly despicable villains are good motivators. The PCs managed to perform a good deed, despite the big problems they cannot fix.

@SupergeekMike Жыл бұрын

Stay tuned for a video in July ;)

@BlackOpMercyGaming Жыл бұрын

I agree that mustache twirlers can be super fun, but personally, I love the really “heady” stuff… where you stop a villain and then find out that he was a hero for another culture doing something to save a village, but at the expense of people he’s never met…. Being the PC’s villages… that kinda thing…. Heroes and villains just come from a point of view

@BlackOpMercyGaming Жыл бұрын

@@SupergeekMike aaayyyeeeee! I always stay tuned in lol… you’re my favorite (non-actual play) DnD channel…

@sleepyspartan1367 Жыл бұрын

I actually have a couple player characters that could make a dark lord each characters. My first one is a Paladin that made themselves into a deathknight that hunts people down if they commit evil acts and punishes them accordingly. This seems fine at first but consider the why that person committed their act. Perhaps they murder a person who the target of the deathknight knows that person committed a rape or murder and got away with it. The deathknight also won't spare those who prevent them from passing their judgement. This would be something the party could be an interesting villian for the party to go up against. The other character is a mindflayer that has fused themselves with the very fabric of reality (you could make this their end goal and something the party wants to stop) and goes about using their power over reality doing what they consider good but that might differ from what is considered good by everyone else. Perhaps they see enslaving a race is better for everyone