Quote from: Ravenswing;830202What the Evil Overlord wants?  To retire.  He's been down and up the ladder, he's got almost enough wealth salted away, and have another year or two to finish construction on his tropical island of solitude.

Now if only he could smash any future threat of retaliation for his decades of evil, find a Trusted Lieutenant/Successor who won't wax him to prevent a comeback, get the good guys to promise to leave him freaking alone, keep his long work to build the Empire of Evil from crumbling into ruin, and ensure a perpetual supply of non-poisoned drinks in coconut bowls with little umbrellas in them, as well as complaisant and creative bedmates without concealed poisoned daggers.

So. The evil overlord is just like the rest of us. There is some comfort in knowing that.

Quote from: David Johansen;830237Democracy (gasp HORROR!)

There's a hook for that in the Eberron nation of Breland.

My input:

As a side project, to invent and promote a new sport. Nothing evil about it.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;830230You just described the setup of Hugh Walker's "Magira" novelization of The Eternal Game (Well, minus the "Evil"...)

and my game on RPoL (except turns are months not years)
=

The evil overlord wants sympathy from the devil.

Quote from: cranebump;830312The evil overlord wants sympathy from the devil.

First, he should try running with the Devil.

The Evil Overlord wants a protégé. There have been several lists made of good ideas to use that avoid the genre tropes, but The Evil Overlord just does not have that one apprentice who can most benefit from the store of knowledge possessed and thus allow The Evil Overlord to pass on that wisdom.

The Evil Overlord wants to stop cruelty to animals. As a child, he grew up in the forest, raised by wolves after his family was killed by bandits. Then, in his adolescence, he was found by a Queen and her retinue, who took him back to her kingdom. The King had died in a war, and the prince was the son of the King's first marriage, and an evil brat prone to wanton cruelty. Knowing how horrible he's be for the kingdom, the queen poisoned the boy and replaced him with the foundling, someone who she could mold into the sort of ruler she thought was best for the kingdom.

But as he was indoctrinated into human culture, he saw the horrific way animals were treated. Dispensable slaves. Forced into wars they had stake in. Worked to death. Left starving on the streets. Force to fight in backalley kennels for sport and gambling. And then and there, he knew, that the only way to make the world a better place was to end the reign of man. The most wicked of creatures. The enemy to all other animals.

His plan took years to put into effect, but he was patient. He learned the human arts of diplomacy, he studied his enemy, learned to mimic their ways. And, when he had learned to read their tongue, he began to study their weaknesses. And this is when he learned of the existence of dragons, huge creatures that had once ruled the world before the filthy parasites built their kingdoms. Somehow, sometime in the prehistory of the world the dragons had gradually disappeared. Leaving man to claim a world that was never his.

Legend sad they had succumbed to a perpetual slumber, hibernating in the darkest recesses of the world. But, if they could be awakened, and set lose upon the world once again, thought the Wild King, they would destroy this horrible rule of men, and set nature back on course.

In pursuit of this goal, the Wild King adopted a disguise, that of The Overlord, clad head to toe in darkest armour, forged from the black irons that had held hundreds of cattle, and the cruel horseshoes that had mutilated thousands of horses. In this identity, the Wild King visited the other races of the world, and told them his plan. the elves would not join him, but....they could not fault him either, and vowed not to interfere. The Yrchs rejoiced and considered him a saviour. The Were-tribes worshipped him as a god. And the Troglodytes, those underground serpent-men who could take the faces of others, saw in his plan the chance for a glorious new rise of the Saurian people.

Only the Dwerrow might have rejected him, but he knew that they were too close to Man in nature, and thus instead he engineered a war between the two, to prevent them from allying against him.

While the Yrchs razed the countryside with renewed ferocity and seemingly unlimited resources, the Troglodytes were more subtle, using the gold and gens they valued little but had ready access to to destabilize the economies of the great city-states. The Wild King used propaganda and fear to start a cold war with the Dwerrow, and the Were-tribes took to hunting any who entered the forests, no longer dissuaded in this by the elves. Meanwhile the Wild King forever searches for the means to awaken the Dragons of old and forever end the world of Man.

Quote from: Spinachcat;830355First, he should try running with the Devil.

Will the Devil have a Blue Dress on?:-)

The Evil Overlord wants his/her/its love restored, and tries everything to bring him/her/it back. Everything the Overlord does causes destruction--sometimes of entire regions. But the only thing that can bring the Overlord's love back is for the Overlord to destroy the thing/device/macguffin that has granted him/her/it such power--and the Overlord doesn't realize that. (with apologies for stealing from Voyager's "Year of Hell" episodes).

Quote from: Spinachcat;830355First, he should try running with the Devil.

Running with the devil can curse you- it keeps you running.

One bourbon.

One scotch.

One beer.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;830271I am stealing the HELL out of this.

Heh, be my guest!

I figure it'd work best with one of my standards when doing Evil Big Bads -- I make them pleasant fellows.  They're urbane and courteous.  One memorable moment was when I was NPCing at a LARP event, and my Evil High Priest and his minions captured a PC for sacrifice.  

Well, sure, of course we were going to sacrifice his heart to Moloch at the stroke of midnight, that was a given.  But would he like some tea while we wait?  Perhaps some padding beneath him -- that stone slab could scarcely be comfortable.  And did he have any relatives to whom I could ship his remains, for burial as they saw fit?  In any event, I was pleased to discuss the philosophy and dogma of Moloch the Hellgod with him, because it would be ever so much nicer if he converted before his death.  And so on.

So I figure the retiring Evil Overlord ought to be in the same mold.  He's sincere -- lying is beneath him, and honesty is the least he can do for the PCs, who've fought him so long and hard.  No, of course the drinks he's offering them aren't poisoned -- where's the honor in that?  Besides, he's hoping they hang around to keep his successor on her toes: Evil Overlords lose their edge too easily, he figures.  Hey, would they like his personal slave masseur as a going-away present?  His back is doing so much better after last month's Unholy Ritual ...

Quote from: Saladman;830263Level 20 in all the classes.



So, Genghis Khan, before the Confucian scholar explained the concept of taxes to him re: the wholesale slaughter of Chinese villages.

I didn't say it hadn't been done before.

-The evil overlord wants revenge. His son was killed by the good overlord(s).

-Nobody knows it but the evil overlord really wants the good overlord's hot girlfriend. Sounds silly but think mythology and it might work.

Simple.

He wants you dead! DEAD! Yes, you! This time it's personal.

A prophecy foretold that the Evil Overlord would be killed by a and he has sent word to each and every assassin in the multiverse and put a price on your head.

Funny thing is that until you start investigating these assassination attempts, you never even heard about this Evil Overlord.