Thread 96910674

How do I write a villain who is always two steps ahead?

>>96910674 (OP)
>>>/lit/

>>96910674 (OP)
In RPG terms, you do realise you can hear the poor fucking players planning, right? Just make up some bullshit about your villain reading body language like a bene gesseret or picking up bullshit clues like Adam West Batman, or whenever they announce an action, go I KNEWWWWW YOU WOULD DO THAT! like Stallone's Dredd.

>>96910782
Does every thread on this board need to require the words "in my ttrpg"?

>>96910674 (OP)
Anyway, this is a difficult thing if you're stupid. I mean that genuinely, it will be hard for you to write smart characters if you yourself aren't smart. But assuming you're the GM, which you should be, you probably already have a rough idea for a story outline written. If this is the case then congrats! Your villain should now know more about the steps they need to take than the players do. The problem is making this seem fair to the players. You can't just have your evil Black Knight go do the plot without your players, but you can have him subvert their expectations from time to time.

While I'm begrudging the retard who is immediately directing you to /lit/ because he cries about half the threads on here, he is partially right, read a few books to gauge characters or their methods that can be similar to what you want from your villain. Have your villain be smart, have them slight the players in tricksy ways, have one dungeon where they found out the important artefact has already been taken (but assuage the players by ensuring they still earned loot of some sort).

I'm not sure how to fully help you, because I don't know your game system or story, but I'll believe in the best for you & guess you can glean some ideas from this already.

>>96911538
> Does every thread on this board need to require the words "in my ttrpg"?
It is admittedly different preparing a villain for an rpg as opposed to writing them for a a book, if only because suspension of disbelief regarding “villain was prepared for that exact thing you just did” is a mite harder to pull on a person sitting in front of you compared to a passive outside observer like a reader

>>96910674 (OP)
First, you have to have goals for your bad guy. If you don't have any development for him other than to be a punching bag for your "heroes" then how is he going to be able to be ahead of the party.
Second, you need to have a path for the bad guy to go on to achieve his goals. His tasks are going to shape everything else that is going to happen in the adventure.
Third, you need to think about tow different things to present the PCs, red herrings and McGuffins. The bad guy should be seen as the one that creates the red herrings. The other thing you can do is have the bad guy snatch McGuffins right as the PCs are about to acquire it. (think of Radiers of the Lost Ark).

Like him?

>>96911791
First off. Korra is a idiot so anyone can be two steps ahead of her. Second, the show was poorly written.

>>96911829
Okay here is a better example than fussy anon

>>96910674 (OP)
>>96911538
No seriously just write a book. ttrpgs arent good for conventional storytelling.

>>96911832
I don't know who this is.

>>96911872
Lord Yoshii Toranaga from Shogun

>>96911872
>>96911902
If you want to see a serious example of the concept. I would recommend watching Shogun.

>>96911902
He was great, but also admitted that he was riding the dragon and any of his plans failing would lead to complete disaster.
Skill and luck.

>>96910674 (OP)
Don't. I mean, you obviously can just listen to players plan, as >>96911525 says, and you can also call the session when players do something unexpected and take your time thinking up contingencies meant to counter whatever the players did the villain retroactively had in place all along, but don't. Smart villains are fine, villains who start off knowing more about what's going on than the players are fine, and not mollycoddling your players is great, but if players come up with something unexpected, don't devalue it by having the villain actually expect and prepare for it all along. Just let the villain have elaborate plans and let players be the unexpected element ruining those plans, as God intended.

>>96910674 (OP)
Aside from just metagaming the PC plans and justifying it by saying the villain had spies, a crystal ball, or is jus that smart, you can also set them up where they're manipulating both sides of a conflict.
Then no matter what happens, it's moving their goals forward in some way, and so they're always able to claim that the PCs did exactly what they wanted them to do.

>>96911829
>Korra is a idiot
So are your players.
>the show was poorly written
So is your campaign.

another one of these threads. keeping a steady 20 aren't yah

>>96912036
Anon you might be surprised that people on the internet are different people.
You would be one of those players that it's way to easy to outsmart because you're too ASSuming.

>>96911985
IMO he knew how to hedge his bets. A lot of it was more than luck.

>>96910674 (OP)
Write a villain who is three steps ahead. Then, remove one step.

>>96910674 (OP)
Write the adventure around the villain's plan. He should have all the pieces almost lined up, with a back up plan in the event of a setback. This way the villain can fail forward, still moving on with his plan, just in a reduced or more arduous capacity. Stealing some mcguffin or killing an important npc will still feel like a win to the party, just not a victory. This also leaves room for the party to fail forward. The party might not have stopped the current phase, and the end might be harder, but they can still stop the next step with what was learned.

>>96911538
>Does every thread on this board need to require the words "in my ttrpg"?
Nah, it would just be nice if more of them were about tabletop games.
Any answer to a question about games should boil down to "that's how the game works" not "that's how I wrote the outcome".

Every now and then make the guy show up, kill someone or something and say some cryptic phrase.
The players will come up with an explanation that's likely better then yours. Pretend that was always the case.

>>96910674 (OP)
You should always be two steps ahead, the players plan right in front of you.

The players are discussing what they'll do right in front of you. Just make up a fuckin' response! What, are you concerned they'll ask to see your notes?

Sure, I got my notes right here, buddy.

>>96910674 (OP)
The easiest way to do it is to put him in a position where he has a lot of influence over the players, directly or indirectly. Maybe he or one of his minions gives quests to players, occasionally helps them, or has some kind of way to know more or less what they are doing via some magic item or whatever.

I once played in a game where the villain turned out to be this rich merchant who sold us magic items, but they were all "marked" by him. He could not only monitor us, but directly affect us in battle if he wanted to. We only discovered him after one of the players got too greedy and tried to steal things from him, which triggered an early battle in which he proceeded to rape us after destroying our items. We only had 1 advanced magic user, everyone else only knew the basics, so yeah: rape.

>>96910674 (OP)
If you're not smarter than your players or at the bare minimum better at improvising than they are, don't. Any attempts you make will come off as stupid contrived post-hoc railroads.

There's plenty of ways to make compelling antagonists even in political situations that don't rely on them being able to consistently out-Sun Tzu your players. Know your strengths and weaknesses as a GM.

>>96912920
Now that's a step ahead of OP

>>96910674 (OP)
>write a villain
Nigga, you are on a board dedicated to traditional games. Consult either /lit/ or /tv/ for how to handle linear narratives

>>96910674 (OP)
Railroading

>>96919754
Nigger, RPGs have had villains since fucking Bargle in 1983.

>>96919807
>Clueless faggot doubles down on being clueless
Which part of "games" you don't understand exactly that asking for writing tips? The whole point of those things is interactivity and being always reactive to what happens.
So no, you are not going to write a villain that's two steps ahead, because this is a non-linear, INTERACTIVE narrative, you dumb fuck.
Next time check what's even the main theme of the board, never-game

>>96919979
>you are not going to write a villain that's two steps ahead, because this is a non-linear
Ok.
Let me get this straight.
You are suggesting that he takes steps laterally as well.

>>96919807
Any answer to a question about games should boil down to "that's how the game works" not "that's how I wrote the outcome".
Nigger.

>>96910674 (OP)
Take notes from Shane the Shy.