Hey Game Fans, we’re going to keep on keeping on with our discussion of Antagonists and how to get the most use of them in your adventure writing. Every Antagonist has a specific role to play in the narrative you’re putting together. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of them gives you a leg up in finding the spot to put them and how to utilize them to maximum effect. We’ve talked about Minions, Specialists, and Lieutenants in previous articles, so today we’re going to finish up with a discussion about Antagonists. These are the end bosses, masters of disaster, or world breaking tyrants. In some cases they are background elements, like an evil overlord whose minions constantly threaten the neighboring kingdoms. In other cases they are personal enemies that have to be dealt with in some way. We’ve written these articles technically backwards, because we really do think you ought to start with your primary antagonist. Once you’ve decided who or what it is, you can design the overarching scheme and figure out what lieutenants, minions and specialists you can use to build their encounter, adventure, story arc, or complete campaign.
Plot Point 12 The Antagonists (Finale)
I have probably played too much D & D in my lifetime and after a certain point, things start to blend together. I can’t remember how many dragons i’ve fought, or the number of times i’ve been caught by sneaky traps. The dungeons start to bleed together after a certain point, and i can probably call the encounters back if i tried, but there are other encounters that stick out in my mind because they featured memorable villains. I don’t remember every tribe of goblins i’ve ever encountered or every beholder i’ve dealt with, but i do remember the time we were suckered into trying to kill Xanthalar underneath Waterdeep in his super secret underground thieves guild lair...
The Antagonists you choose to build/include in your campaign/adventure/encounter are one of the things that make it memorable for any number of reasons. I remember fondly the time we finished our campaign by slaying the Red Dragon in its Volcanic Lair. I have less happy remembrances of the time the kobold tribe decided it would be a great idea to douse us in lantern oil and then throw matches at us while we were trapped in a twenty feet deep pit. I still remember both of those encounters because the antagonists were memorable opponents in the context of the adventure.
Some critters work very well in specific locations. Orcs and Goblins are pretty omniversal as antagonists go, and you can bump into them all over the place. Other critters need specific reasons to be found in places that aren’t their home territories, like Drow outside of the underdark, or Devils outside of the 9 Hells. Sure, you can put them wherever you like, but they make better villains if you tailor the encounter/adventure/campaign to make them fit into the story you’re telling.
There is another important thing to consider when you’re putting Antagonists together. What role do you see this critter fitting into? Are they minions in nearly inexhaustible supply like the Draconians from Dragonlance or the Stormtroopers from Star Wars? Are they specialists in a key area like assassins or Necromancers that fit a specific role in the adventure/campaign? Are the Lieutenants or key servants of the main Antagonist? Are they the Key Antagonist of the entire story? Some monsters/npcs/antagonists serve in specific roles better than others. It’s possible that the goblin is the Mastermind of the entire campaign, but if he has Dragons of various types, a pet Lich, and Mind Flayers as his go to servants, then explanations are going to be required.
Antagonists
Why does a story need an Antagonist? Well, not every story does. Some adventures revolve around dealing with natural disasters and quests to find lost places, people and things. These adventures usually don’t have an Antagonist that exists beyond an idea to oppose the characters and provide challenges that make those adventures interesting. The ancient mummy who guards the lost tomb of the High Priestess of the Riverlands is a challenge, but doesn’t have ambitions beyond protecting it’s tomb. The rival adventuring party that’s chasing the same leads to the Forgotten City of the Cyclops King probably doesn’t have any designs other than beating the characters to that locale. These are challenges, but they aren’t necessarily Antagonists.
Now if we take a look at both of those premises and put our “hmm, what would that do” hats on, we have a couple of interesting ideas for Antagonists. Maybe the High Priestess of the Riverlands is sleeping in suspended animation and entering her tomb breaks the spell. She awakes to a world that’s abandoned her god and she decides to use the power she still has to marshal an army of undead worshippers to return the riverlands to the worship of an ancient deity of slaughter and destruction.
Maybe the Cyclops King is an ancient immortal being who forged a pact with the races of the smallfolk to live in peace as long as they kept to their own lands and left the Cyclops people alone. Entering his lost city breaks this pact and the Cyclops King has to decide what to do about the interloping small folk. War is a reluctant choice to keep the Cyclopses safe from the outside world.
So what are the defining elements of an Antagonist?
Ambition
Every Antagonist worth the title has an overriding goal that drives them. They have an ambition to achieve something that separates them from other villains and members of society. This ambition is probably the single most powerful aspect of the Antagonist and understanding what drives that specific Antagonist is essential for building their organization (if they have one) or what their goals are.
Power
Every Antagonist has some type of power that helps further their ambition. Whether it’s an economic power like vast reserves of gold, or the martial power of having an army of loyal soldiers. Power is in some cases a goal of its own, and there are many stories of villainous characters seeking out powerful artifacts or enslaving powerful creatures to their will. In most cases these are steps on a path to a specific end game strategy, but without a modicum of power, it’s very hard for Antagonist’s to get off the ground.
Endgame
Every Antagonist should have a specific solution or final plan that fulfills their ambitions. Whether it’s opening a portal to a dark dimension that allows the fiends of Khortok to enter the world or dominate the royal court of the King of Highfall, every Antagonist needs a criterion (if only for their own sense of self) that determines when and how they win.
Antagonists that have a firm grasp on these three elements are much easier to flesh out. The skeleton of what you want this enemy to do is fully formed and is waiting for you to layer the musculature and the skin on. At this point, all you really need to do is decide the scope of the story you’re trying to tell, and how the Antagonist is involved.
Example 1: Adventure Scale
At this level, (and especially if you’re layering clues and seeds for further interactions with this Antagonist), the characters stumble across some of the Antagonist’s assets in the middle of an operation of some kind. Whether it’s the vile skaven warriors of Clan Pestilens poisoning the wells of Waterdeep, or the Moonshadow pirates attacking the home city of the characters, the Antagonist is an ephemeral presence to the characters who may or may not be aware that the Antagonist exists. The characters should be fairly capable of either unraveling the plot they are working or stopping it directly. It’s highly likely that at least one of the Antagonist’s specialists or lieutenants catches wind of the failure, and the characters are at least put on a list of things to deal with eventually.
Example 2: Arc Scale
This is a much longer story you can build and gives you the space to build complex plots and interactions for the characters and the Antagonist. Ideally what occurs is that the characters discover something related to a goal of the Antagonist and take steps to involve themselves in that story. Whether they are racing a lieutenant to a hidden relic in the crypts of Menzoberranzan or preventing an Orcish horde from overwhelming the North, the characters have multiple ways of pursuing their goals and these stories have multiple adventures tied to them. As they move towards completing their goal, it’s very likely that the Antagonist will take note and then you can have a lot of fun creating minions, specialists, and maybe even a lieutenant to deal with them.
Example #3: Campaign Scale
This is a start to finish epic that tells the story of how these characters prevent the Antagonist from completing their objectives. From the humble beginnings of stumbling into the Antagonist’s plans all the way to a final confrontation with the Antagonist, this is their hero’s journey. With a story stretching across multiple story arcs and culminating in a grand finale where the world is at stake. These Antagonists are often the hardest to prepare because you at some point will probably need to prepare a stat block for the Antagonist itself.
How to work through this Plot Trap?
This is a Plot Trap that’s fairly easy to handle. When you sit down to build your encounter/adventure/campaign, you need to decide who your primary antagonist is and what minions they are likely to use. This is an area of design where i am inclined to say embrace the Cliche. An Orc Warlord likely has Orc minions, just as Lich likely has skeletons by the hundreds. Don’t worry about the cliche, it’s actually fun one.
Like we said at the start, If you’re going to write an Antagonist focused story, you should build the Antagonist first and work from there. This requires a lot of setup and prepwork on your part, but it’s totally worth it. Knowing what your Antagonist wants and the resources they have to hit that goal gives the framework to build encounters, adventures, and long term story arcs to enrapture your players in epic adventures. Don’t skimp on this prepwork.
Variations
There are a couple of variations on this theme that all work roughly the same way. Let’s take a closer look.
Solo Act
Some Antagonists don’t have the hierarchy of minions to carry out their plans. Ancient dragons or powerful elemental forces of power typically fit this bill. They often have bizarre plans that make sense to the Antagonist, but are mystifyingly hard to follow for anyone else. These Antagonists are more likely to be things to thwart or banish than to destroy, because of the scale of power that they are typically operating in.
The Good Antagonist
Antagonists can be morally or ethically good. The crux of their ambitions and resources drive them to a series of actions and activities that they perceive to be for either a perceived individual good or a greater good for the world around them. These characters honestly and sincerely believe they are on a righteous path and in some cases their followers believe likewise. A crusading paladin who leads an army to burn out the corruption in the nobility of his or her home kingdom is pursuing a good cause. Whether this cause drifts over time or not is up to you as a storyteller and you can tell some very interesting stories with these characters.
Conclusions
Antagonists are an important part of any RPG or Fantasy experience and they deserve a lot of thought and planning to implement. There are a lot of ways of looking at how to build your antagonist elements, but i typically go with a pyramid structure. The apex of the pyramid, Antagonists are the answer to the questions you’ve been asking. Who do these minions work for? Why are they doing what they are doing? What’s the end goal of all of this? The Antagonist answers all of these questions and knowing your Antagonist allows you to craft powerful stories with these creatures.
I hope this gives all of you some insights and ideas on incorporating this style of a Plot Element into your game without it becoming a burden to your fun. If you’d like to see more of these, or have a question about a specific plot element that you’d like to know more about, drop me a line on twitter, which you should be able to see over there on the right side of the screen. Game On,
Game Fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment