The Campaign Builder's Guild

There are certainly no shortage of examples of this pair in fantasy and science fiction, but here at the CBG it seems we often focus on grander aspects of our settings. To that end, I thought I'd post a thread to help alleviate the slow period of the summer. I find that such small details can really add a lot of character to the themes of your setting. In the past, I've definitely had some examples, but with Fractal Galaxy and Haveneast, I've rarely focused on individuals.

Are there any very notable examples of heroes (or heroines) and their nemeses in your worlds?

How do they relate to the original setting concept?

Are they historic or current?

How has their struggle played out?

Did you base them off of characters from other media?

Is it possible your gaming group(s) will encounter them, or even come into conflict with them at some point?

Great thread! I rarely design heroes and villains without the intention of the players encountering them at some point, and as a result exclusively design them when I make the campaign (as opposed to the setting itself). That said, I do like to employ legends as a means of adding some grandiosity to a setting's history or an adventure, but I like to keep any characters of said legends either long gone or retired to keep the focus on the players.

In a game I ran/run with Sparkletwist in my Opus setting (a steampunk weird fiction world), there's a villain/nemesis (who's actually become more of a begrudging rival at this point) named Kazdin Korrick who runs Korrick Industries, a firearm and general weapons manufacturer. He has a monopoly on the business and has, in the past, used it to his advantage in very corrupt, sketchy corporate moves. He first appeared as a sort of demagogue, trying to stage an assassination on his own life to incite riots and engender a sense of jingoism with the eventual goal of pushing an existing conflict to full blown war to benefit his company. He's opposed Sparkle's characters many times in the past, but he's never been someone they've actually fought with weapons or tried to literally kill. At one point Sparkle's characters were even forced to side with him to overcome a more prominent threat (one that would require a good deal of firepower). I like him because he's a fun recurring threat that doesn't involve him actually trying to kill the characters so much as screw them over. He's out for his own benefit and doesn't care who or what he has to walk on to get there. He's fun and fits the overall light-hearted and sometimes humorous nature of the campaign, and I use him fairly often.

In Fimbulvinter the group definitely has a nemesis, Ivar the Perverse, a cannibalistic sorcerer and ruler of the Bloodbeard Clan - flesh-eating marauders who've disowned the Aesir. They've fought his spies, assassins, and lieutenants, and one of them has sworn an oath to kill Ivar.

They pretty much began the game with Ivar set up as the big bad, since the original PCs were captives of Ivar and the town the characters now defend is like the last bastion against his rule in the kingdom. The local Jarl there is in open rebellion of Ivar at this point and for the last 20+ sessions there has been an increasing build up to Ivar's forces attacking the town.

I've noticed that both of the examples given so far have been about villains that exist in the current time, that the current gaming group might come into conflict with, which was just one of the possibilities given in the original question. However, I think it's the best possibility to really delve into, personally, because RPGs are always more interesting (at least to me) when the events of the world are happening around the players and the players are in a position to be able to interact with them and influence them. I don't really like settings where it seems like powerful NPCs are entirely responsible for shaping events, and the players are just pawns who are along for the ride-- Forgotten Realms had this problem, as well as a lot of Old World of Darkness. There is, of course, a fine line here, as I don't think a video-gamey feeling that the world is entirely based around the players is any good, either. I prefer a middle ground where the bad guys have a plan and they are carrying it out, and will continue to carry it out of the players don't interfere... but of course the players are going to interfere, so they start to often be the center of events as the bad guys realize who the biggest threat to their plans is.

Quote from: WeaveGreat thread! I rarely design heroes and villains without the intention of the players encountering them at some point, and as a result exclusively design them when I make the campaign (as opposed to the setting itself). That said, I do like to employ legends as a means of adding some grandiosity to a setting's history or an adventure, but I like to keep any characters of said legends either long gone or retired to keep the focus on the players.

In a game I ran/run with Sparkletwist in my Opus setting (a steampunk weird fiction world), there's a villain/nemesis (who's actually become more of a begrudging rival at this point) named Kazdin Korrick who runs Korrick Industries, a firearm and general weapons manufacturer. He has a monopoly on the business and has, in the past, used it to his advantage in very corrupt, sketchy corporate moves. He first appeared as a sort of demagogue, trying to stage an assassination on his own life to incite riots and engender a sense of jingoism with the eventual goal of pushing an existing conflict to full blown war to benefit his company. He's opposed Sparkle's characters many times in the past, but he's never been someone they've actually fought with weapons or tried to literally kill. At one point Sparkle's characters were even forced to side with him to overcome a more prominent threat (one that would require a good deal of firepower). I like him because he's a fun recurring threat that doesn't involve him actually trying to kill the characters so much as screw them over. He's out for his own benefit and doesn't care who or what he has to walk on to get there. He's fun and fits the overall light-hearted and sometimes humorous nature of the campaign, and I use him fairly often.

This sounds like quite an adversary, and it's very cool that he's not just a bad guy who wants to kill. Do you have any logs or summaries of the stories he's involved in?

Quote from: Steerpike
In Fimbulvinter the group definitely has a nemesis, Ivar the Perverse, a cannibalistic sorcerer and ruler of the Bloodbeard Clan - flesh-eating marauders who've disowned the Aesir. They've fought his spies, assassins, and lieutenants, and one of them has sworn an oath to kill Ivar.

They pretty much began the game with Ivar set up as the big bad, since the original PCs were captives of Ivar and the town the characters now defend is like the last bastion against his rule in the kingdom. The local Jarl there is in open rebellion of Ivar at this point and for the last 20+ sessions there has been an increasing build up to Ivar's forces attacking the town.

I am always entertained by what I hear of Fimbulvinter, and considering the initial pitch of the campaign, he sounds like an excellent fit. How common is the cannibalism in the setting, given the state of the world and failure of crops, etc.?

Quote from: sparkletwistI've noticed that both of the examples given so far have been about villains that exist in the current time, that the current gaming group might come into conflict with, which was just one of the possibilities given in the original question. However, I think it's the best possibility to really delve into, personally, because RPGs are always more interesting (at least to me) when the events of the world are happening around the players and the players are in a position to be able to interact with them and influence them. I don't really like settings where it seems like powerful NPCs are entirely responsible for shaping events, and the players are just pawns who are along for the ride-- Forgotten Realms had this problem, as well as a lot of Old World of Darkness. There is, of course, a fine line here, as I don't think a video-gamey feeling that the world is entirely based around the players is any good, either. I prefer a middle ground where the bad guys have a plan and they are carrying it out, and will continue to carry it out of the players don't interfere... but of course the players are going to interfere, so they start to often be the center of events as the bad guys realize who the biggest threat to their plans is.

I don't disagree. One of the options I wanted to be sure to leave room for would be older heroes who've since faded into legend, which might to some degree inspire the player characters or their adversaries, e.g. Achilles and Hector, or Arthur and Morgana/Mortred; but it's obviously going to be a lot more likely, given the context of the website, that people will be talking about nemeses in current campaigns, which is totally within the bounds of my questions :)

Quote from: HoersI am always entertained by what I hear of Fimbulvinter, and considering the initial pitch of the campaign, he sounds like an excellent fit. How common is the cannibalism in the setting, given the state of the world and failure of crops, etc.?

Pretty much ubiquitous, even among the "civilized" bits of the setting. It's mostly what anthropologists would call survival cannibalism (think the Donner party) out of desperation, but the Bloodbeards elevate it to the level of ritual and engage plentifully in exocannibalism, capturing and eating their enemies and others they can subdue. Right now the party's town is an exception because sparkletwist's character, after a lot of adventuring, managed to create a magical cauldron using her Dwarf-learned knowledge that converts anything placed in it into food. If she hadn't been proactive about feeding the town things would have gotten pretty ugly.

There are still some animals such as reindeer herds and wolves who are already well-adapted to a cold environment and which have managed to survive to some extent, but agriculture and animal husbandry are virtually gone and I'd say that at least half of the pre-Fimbulvinter human population is dead, probably more.

Quote from: HoersThis sounds like quite an adversary, and it's very cool that he's not just a bad guy who wants to kill. Do you have any logs or summaries of the stories he's involved in?

I was involved in this game also, as Weave mentioned, so I'll chime in.

The initial plot, as Weave mentioned, was that he was going to stage an attempt on his life in order to drum up sympathy for him and rage against the would-be assassins. The goal of the party was thus to thwart this attempt, and they made a rather coy warning to him that "We should get you out of here right away, any assassination attempt made here would surely succeed." He went along, knowing that he'd been thwarted. Later on, he exploited one of the party members' being attracted to him-- he's a rather handsome and dashing fellow, despite being a corporate bastard-- to lure her to a rendezvous where he was going to murder her in cold blood. This is the closest they came to an actual fight, but the party managed to set him up in a scandal instead, where it looked like the rendezvous was where he went to hire prostitutes. Eventually, as Weave mentioned, they did have to work with him, but they managed to convince him to give them everything they needed in exchange for assurances that he wouldn't be prosecuted for his misdeeds after it was all over. (And, for me as a player, that was the most fun because it kept a fun villain around as a viable threat!)

Quote from: sparkletwist

Quote from: HoersThis sounds like quite an adversary, and it's very cool that he's not just a bad guy who wants to kill. Do you have any logs or summaries of the stories he's involved in?

I was involved in this game also, as Weave mentioned, so I'll chime in.

The initial plot, as Weave mentioned, was that he was going to stage an attempt on his life in order to drum up sympathy for him and rage against the would-be assassins. The goal of the party was thus to thwart this attempt, and they made a rather coy warning to him that "We should get you out of here right away, any assassination attempt made here would surely succeed." He went along, knowing that he'd been thwarted. Later on, he exploited one of the party members' being attracted to him-- he's a rather handsome and dashing fellow, despite being a corporate bastard-- to lure her to a rendezvous where he was going to murder her in cold blood. This is the closest they came to an actual fight, but the party managed to set him up in a scandal instead, where it looked like the rendezvous was where he went to hire prostitutes. Eventually, as Weave mentioned, they did have to work with him, but they managed to convince him to give them everything they needed in exchange for assurances that he wouldn't be prosecuted for his misdeeds after it was all over. (And, for me as a player, that was the most fun because it kept a fun villain around as a viable threat!)

Sounds like even though he was a manipulative and self-concerned villain, he doesn't quite fit the black-and-white mold so much of being a kill-on-sight target for the players (with no major repercussions), which is cool.