Here’s another video blog that I recorded for Troll in the Corner last week. I’m using the Sony A35 for video and a Blue Snowball mic for audio, cut together in Final Cut Pro X. Please excuse the video jiggery pokery, I’m still trying to impress myself with the software.
Here’s a transcription if you’re interested:
BBEG is an initialism used in table top roleplaying; it stands for big bad evil guy. He’s the guy pulling the strings, playing the foil, and generally making stuff difficult for your adventurers. Here are 5 tips to help BBEG in your campaign to life.
#5 Welcome to failure. Your heroes may be used to succeeding at their plans. They’re heroes, after all! Have the BBEG toss the first curveball at your adventurers by spoiling their immediate plans. If it’s the first time they’ve tasted defeat, it’ll make them even more bitter.
#4 Show their power. Whether they’re physically strong, mentally agile, or magically powerful, your villain should be a force to reckon with. Let your adventurers witness just how powerful their foe is in a demonstration that’s they’re not the target of. They shouldn’t want to be in the villain’s way.
#3 Raise the stakes and make it personal. Take away something your party loves or has worked hard for, and make it clear it was the villain’s doing. There should be a key moment for your players where the BBEG becomes their first priority.
#2 Make them believable – humanize your villain by giving them traits that are admireable or respectable. They may have a reason or root cause for being nasty, or they could just be horrid. Give them something other than doing evil to love or cherish to show that they have some depth.
#1 Make them love their villainy. Being foiled by a bad guy sucks, but it’s salt in the wound if the bad guy loves it. Gloat, monologue, tease, cajole, or just send a little note, but make sure your heroes know they’ve been bested by someone who finds their tears delicious.
Craft your next villain with those five tips in mind, and you’ll have adventurers beating a path to their tower, fortress, or volcanic lair.
I’m Graham for Troll in the Corner, thanks for tuning in. See you next time!
[...] The shoot went well… and instead of turning the camera into a rental, I decided it was high god damned time I started shooting video with a DSLR. I’ve got a Sony HDR-SR7 that a friend and I pitched in to buy ages ago. It’s a good little workhorse, but it can’t scratch the surface of what modern DSLRs can do. My first video project with the A35 was the Nerding Out 3 video. [...]