Slay the dragon, kill the ogre, yada yada yada. They make for grand quests and all, but it's the arch villains that provide some of the best conflicts. The nemesis of the group is someone who knows them well and just keeps coming back for more.

Regale us with tales from your most notable villains (whether from a GM or player POV). Who were they? Where did they come from? What made them so hated? What happened to them in the end?




One of our PCs picked up a cursed ring that gave him a few powers. He was a mage who (thanks to the ring) was slowly turning to necromancy. His name was Quil.

He ended up leaving the party to "study" something or other. (the player wanted to start a new character because his mage was so at odds with the rest of the party.)

A year or so later (in game of course) the group found themselves involved in a rather desperate battle to stop a group of rebels from overtaking a coastal city (the rebellion had already claimed 4 major cities). It was a pretty heated battle, no clear sign of who was going to win; and when their old friend Quil showed up they rejoiced in anticipation of certain victory.

Until Quil's small army of undead soldiers descended on them at his direction. Eventually the PCs had to leave the city, one of them was dragged out on the brink of death.

They faced Quil four more times after that, and each time they grew to hate him more. Sometimes just mentioning the neromancer got the party in a fit. On their final encounter they manged to fill his body with arrows, yet he walked around and talked and cast spells as though he hadn't felt a thing. He struck two of them down and their bodies were devoured by his undead. A few blessed arrows and a holy sword were more effective and they were finally able to bring him to his knees. When he pleaded for mercy, the knight in the group beheaded him; and with his death his undead fell lifeless to the ground as well.

There were a handful of other recurring villains these guys faced, but none whom they detested more than the necromancer.

Good thread concept..

Here's the notable villans in my current Rifts game:

- The Bastard Batillion

A group of transdimensional mercenaries that are hired to get revenge on the players for some transgression. The Bastard Batillion are somewhat inept but there's a lot of them and they show up at the most unlikely (and inconvenient) times. The party is not sure who hired these guys, but they're really getting sick of them. The BB has tracked them through three dimensions. Last time, they showed up during a wedding, disguised as guests.

- P.T. Barnum & Company

Yes, the same P.T. Barnum of "Barnum & Bailey" circus fame. A sorcerer in his show accidentally opened a dimensional rift and Barnum ended up in the Rifts universe. He studied magic and became very powerful and evil. He ruled a Bronze-age type planet with an iron fist until the party happened along and liberated the people. Barnum and a handful of his goons barely escaped. Since then, Barnum has sworn to destroy the party. One of his gimicks is to send robot lions at them. He is also surrounded by a small cadre of circus-type characters: Smash, a Greot Hunter strongman; Doodles, a sinister clown who is an Sunaj assassin; Lady Aubrey, a gorgeous and deadly wild animal trainer (and a Shifter); and The Amazing Kelli, a powerful Mind Melter (psychic).

- Lord Incryth

A Spugorth intelligence in the Corkscrew Gallaxy that the characters unwisely double-crossed to make quick buck when they were stranded at a Kreegor space station. They've only crossed his agents once so far, but the party came very close to being captured alive (way, way worse than death).

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;493253- P.T. Barnum & Company

Yes, the same P.T. Barnum of "Barnum & Bailey" circus fame. A sorcerer in his show accidentally opened a dimensional rift and Barnum ended up in the Rifts universe. He studied magic and became very powerful and evil. He ruled a Bronze-age type planet with an iron fist until the party happened along and liberated the people. Barnum and a handful of his goons barely escaped. Since then, Barnum has sworn to destroy the party. One of his gimicks is to send robot lions at them. He is also surrounded by a small cadre of circus-type characters: Smash, a Greot Hunter strongman; Doodles, a sinister clown who is an Sunaj assassin; Lady Aubrey, a gorgeous and deadly wild animal trainer (and a Shifter); and The Amazing Kelli, a powerful Mind Melter (psychic).

+1 good sirrah, work in an Egress and yer golden.

Glyrenden

I took this guy from a short story and kept him about the same, save for adding on my best Sean Connery voice. He's a trim, bearded wizard in his 50's with grey hair, a red cloak, and about 10 gold rings. He is a transmutationist and the world is littered with his experiments and hostages. No one will kill him because if they do, none of the people or things he changed will go back to what they were. He makes his living as an assassin for the crown.

In his free time, he's an asshole. He has a raging god complex and is old enough to think of lives as toys. The party happened into his realm, and had about half a dozen adventures cleaning up messes left behind by his magic. Later in the game, they allied with him against a worse wizard.

In one of our of second edition Shadowrun games one of the player characters became the bad guy. I played with a group in the Marine Corps that was composed entirely of active duty Marines, like myself at the time, and one of the PC's eventually decided he didn't need the rest of the group. he spent a lot of time setting it up-and discussing it OOC with everyone else. In the end at a critical moment he betrayed them, and nearly killed them all. The player then handed over the character and brought out his new character and the hunt was on.

I don't know. There were tons. They were probably better than yours.
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Don't despair; they have pills for that now.

This particular villain crossed genres and games. He was known only as Merrick. Although his appearence changes from game to game his name and reputation ("Nobody knows where he is from. He knows things") remains the same.

In my fantasy campaign he was a spellthief who looked like John Hawkes. Then he showed up in a biopunk campaign as a genehacker who looked like Adrien Brody. His last appearence was in a spy game as a shady lawyer who looked liked Norman Reedus.

Regards,
David R

Right now? Otto Goddamn Motherfucking Skorzeny.

Julius Evola is also slated to make an appearance soon, as a wheelchair-bound sorcerer plotting apocalyptic rites from his castle in Abyssinia. How's that for an archvillain.