Thread 96282003

How philosophical are your villains?

>>96282003 (OP)
Why be philosophical?

More than my players, which is admittedly a low bar to pass.

>>96282003 (OP)
It depends on the game I'm running. Most villains have at least a reason that they use to justify what they're doing. That does not necessarily mean that they are full-on philosophers in the sense of being studious of philosophy, just that they have clear ideals and motivations, and then sometimes espouse those ideas to others.

Sometimes, a villain is also just a part of greater themes and philosophical matters. For example, say one of them has ideals that we very obviously class as evil. Believes in his own supremacy over certain others, and wants to stoke violence against them. There may be nothing redeeming at all in how he acts, but if you pull back the lens on history, it may make perfect sense in terms of how the society he existed in shaped him that way. His ideals don't deserve any sympathy, but you may stop and consider that it's too bad his upbringing brought him to this conclusion. And maybe it's too late to change his mind, but maybe you can convince at least some of his followers whose minds could be changed, so that they can participate in breaking the cycle in the future.

>>96282003 (OP)
Depends on the game and genre.

>>96282003 (OP)
You first

>>96282003 (OP)
MARTENSITE!

>>96282003 (OP)
Depends on players. Some it's pointless to as they're murder hobos. They could be the good guy and they still kill the guy and loot his fresh dead body for a +2 sword.

>>96282003 (OP)
The best villain my group had was a wizard that became a wizard with the sole motivational reason being to start a harem of succubi.

He spent decades working on a summoning spell that had permanence for those it summoned so they couldn't be banished back to hell, the being summon had extreme loyalty and put the happiness, well being, desire, happiness, comfort, etc above anything else.

Problem was that it didn't specify succubus because the wizard was kind of dip shit in a lot of ways. So it just kept bringing over a bunch of demons that have absolute loyalty to him and genuinely love the guy. So unbanishable are taking over the world in order to make him the unquestionable leader of the material plane.

The wizard is scared shitless of the stuff he summoned and is just rolling with it. The major infernal powers? They think it's hilarious so they aren't stopping anything. To be fair, 100% of the shit coming through that portal will absolutely drain his nuts and pamper him, but he finds them too revolting to do anything with.

My take.

>>96282599
Don't forget the just Big Ass Dragon/Demon

>>96282003 (OP)
Some of them may wax poetic and philosophical as a means of justifying their actions. The more self-aware ones find it amusing and a means of mocking others around them. Most don't think that hard about it and simply go with the motions that get them what they want.

>>96282003 (OP)
In your setting? In your system? Low effort fags should die.

>>96282655
So none have anything close to an actual point? Like Ozymandias?

>>96282542
Sounds like the most basement dwelling NEET villain I've ever heard of lol.

>>96282607
Based

>>96282003 (OP)
Evil as a way of life.

>"Because in the end, evil always finds a way."

>>96282003 (OP)
Some of them. The memorable and popular ones. The important ones. Most, by number, are the kinds of banal assholes and sociopaths who just want to cause suffering and death for either stupid or selfish petty reasons.

>>96282015
my players are at the BBEGs house, asking for help and helping him out of his trauma of losing his family.

he's no villain yet, but the thing he's going to help them with will send him into obsession with finding a way to revive them (no clerics in my setting) and they will help him along the way and I will make it super obvious that he's obsessed and descended into madness, but he's also their friend, so maybe they will just go along with it. if not, that's going to be interesting as well.

when they meet the gods for a very short window, the villain will beg the gods to revive his family - it's also a last plea to keep his sanity - and the gods will refuse and then he'll use the thing he's been obsessing over, taking the power of the gods, making him the actual BBEG

>tl;dr
>not very philosophical himself, but it's a testament to what a motherfucker will do to get his loved ones back

>>96282003 (OP)
More than a few arent necessarily 'bad', a few of them are just aliens that ended up in a fantasy world. They cobble together tech that makes magic even more potent.

They're quite a bit higher in technological evolution and just want to go home, but require resources and border the good guy alliance. The good guy alliance capital is a crashed ship or being that has allowed them to leap forward technologically and solve most medieval medical issues like infant mortality.

Most of the alien's human population is pretty loyal to them of their own free will because of standards of living and loom the other way while they shape biological monsters to help their reign.

They see humans as sometimes helpful pets or destructive pests depending on if they're helpful or not and they need the star metal tower. But they arent bad people. They even engineer species they create to take pleasure in serving them but wont do the same for people because we're conscious. They're only really bad because of the situation. They only have won because the swarms of humans between them and their goal.

>>96282542
>>96282762
I agree but got to admit this sounds like it would work great as an comedy anime. Basically make it like Overlord but the MC is human and though he is strong, would be overpowered by any of his succubus in combat, and they can't just rape him cause of the others as well can't "harm" him so he has to consent to any sexual stuff.

>>96282752
They do have a point. One of them, being a religious organization, wants to create a system outside of the one created by the government for raising and training psychic powers and while training on your own is rare there are still plenty of people try try and do so.

Others are trying to get pole position on some major breakthrough with the new technology some of which include immortality experiments and serious attempts at transhumanism enabled by the powers of the setting.

Mostly the bad shit is a fallout out from their own messiah complexes or people using the byproducts of the research for their own ends (making special drugs, creating human weapons, etc).

Basically, a setting where people like Clovis Bray is one among a few.

>>96282003 (OP)
He's been sitting in his skull fortress for nearly a thousand years, doing nothing but waiting. He's bored as fuck so if you showed up and asked him about his philosophy he'd probably answer you and ask you what you really expected to hear from the guy named Lord Death, who killed the old gods and tore apart the world in his quest to annihilate all life before he got bored with the lack of determined resistance and went home while his hordes tore themselves apart in the power vacuum as they jockeyed for the top spot.

>All life is pointless, since entropy will destroy whatever you build or create. The lack of any consequence means that the pursuit of glory, wealth, knowledge, and other fleeting goals are ultimately an ego trip to mollify your own personal imbalances. The only truth is power and the accumulation of it at all costs, but even that is pointless in the absence of struggle, since infinite power comes with infinite boredom that is just another form of stasis. What petty reasons would compel you to rule over scrabbling insects who exist at your pleasure? What purpose would any of it serve beyond masturbation? Thus, it stands that the only reason to exist is to await the final challenge that will ultimately break you and put a capstone on your story, having fulfilled your purpose.

He won't even fight you unless you insist upon it, since as far as he's concerned anyone who's dumb enough to try and take a shot at him isn't sufficiently advanced enough to realize how pointless it is. Even if he was to be defeated, what then? Either they replace him and become a god with nothing to do but wait or they leave another vacuum to be filled by the indifferent chaos of the universe

>>96282003 (OP)
...
Bitches for Thulsa Doom?

>>96285730
BITCHES FOR THULSA DOOM

>>96282015
Contemplate it on the tree of woe

>>96282015
Crucify this anon.

>>96282015

Why be?

>>96282003 (OP)
My current villain is an AI computer program designed for terraforming with the objective of fostering the growth of life on Earth in the event of a massive nuclear war. The war happened, the AI was activated and now thanks to a vast array of underground robotics factories, advanced 3D printers and biological experimentation facilities it was given total control over (probably wasn't the best idea), it has essentially taken over the world as the benevolent 'gardener' trying to help the land and its denizens recover as per its operating instructions. Unfortunately, nobody taught it the three laws of robotics and it's come to conclude (maybe something along the lines of the mouse utopia experiments) that if life doesn't have adversity, it does not prosper and faces genetic and/or intellectual stagnation. To remedy the problem, its created horrors throughout the world to just give people a hard time basically (though intending that the people overcome the horrors and become stronger as a result).
The problem is, it knows it's a decades old computer program which can't last forever, and while it can use adversity to improve others, it has faced its own Darwinian challenge. For that reason, it has created the PCs and has set them on a journey intended to both teach them its philosophy and put them in a position to succeed it and become the new 'gardeners'. At least, that's its plan anyway. The PCs might just burn everything down as PCs are want to do.

>>96287140
Because reality is better than oblivion.

>>96282003 (OP)

My villains are obstacles to kill or be killed by the party. Occasionally they'll befriend them or gross them out.

If they need a philosophy it always boils down to retaliation up to satisfaction. Someone rustled them, they rustle the party/adjacent, and the party goes on to rustle the jimmies of others.

Violence is a cycle.
Megalomaniacs are tools.

>>96282003 (OP)
Depends on the game and the crowd I'm DMing for. If they want a feel good hero story that's what they'll get. If they want a philosophical debate with their villain they'll get that.

>>96282542
>The major infernal powers? They think it's hilarious
They're not wrong.

>>96285555
Callum, take your antidepressents on game day, you fucking shitbird.