Interesting Enemies

[Klaus]

What interesting Enemies have you seen players take/be assigned? What makes for a good Enemy?

[Stormwind]

My take on enemies from my experience (amber based), is that the ones that I have enjoyed the most have been one of two types:

• Open enemies - those who are openly hostile towards you, but perhaps someone with whom you need to work with in order to achieve your goals (I've always had a lot of fun with these guys ... and trying to convince them to work with you can lead to a lot of interesting situations) e.g. Eric(vs Corwin) or Jurt(vs Merlin)
  
• Hidden enemies - these guys might be anyone, but for whatever reason they are plotting against you (here the fun is figuring out who is behind things, and what, if anything, you can do about it). e.g. Fiona(stabbing) or Luke(early second series)
  

[Trevelyan]

I think the best enemies fall into one of two completely opposite camps. Either:

1) People who have nothing against you personally, but their objectives run counter to your own and so they inadvertantly make your life difficult at every turn. These guys are difficult to reason with since you are essentially asking them to drop what they are doing to make your own life easier, the obvious retort is that you might just as well stop what you are doing that makes their life more difficult. You can't really hate them since they aren't often inherently bad, and likewise you are limited in the extent to which you can take action because you don't want to raise sympathy by making them the victim.

Or:

2) People who hate you personally, often for no other reason than that you are still breathing. Often they'll dress this up as some sort of rivalry, but when it comes down to it, they are just looking for an excuse to object to everything you do. There is no reasoning with them and everyone else seems to think that you are both as bad as each other. Bonus points if you hate them too. Incidentally, the ADRPG term for this second type of enemy is "brother".

[Rel Fexive]

There are two types of threats: cosmic threats and personal threats.  The first is all the usual Chaos-invading, Brand-remaking, throne-taking malarky that threatens the whole universe including you.  The second is Eric, or Luke, or Jasra, or Julia or that guy who just hates you for whatever reason.  And this one can graduate up to the higher weight class too.

The best type of personal threat, by the way, is the one a character creates for himself, especially if it is by accident or without even noticing.