“Rocks fall, everybody dies” is a common trope in table top games, which the Games Master can use to express joking (or in some cases, very serious) disdain or disapproval of their player’s behaviour. When the game has gone off the rails, the party is threatened with death by sudden squishing.
[Spoilers] In Brave, however, ‘rock fall, villain dies’ is more apt.
In most TTRPGs, ending a story arc with a boss that’s just a big bear might not result in the most thrilling conclusion. But Mor’du is a very big bear. A big, scary, rage-filled, super strong bear. So there’s something we can work with.
Presence – 3 out of 5
1 point for ‘big bear’, 1 point for ‘angry and strong beyond reason’. Simple enough. One additional point for the fear factor: Mor’du is not present for much of the movie, and if used as inspiration for your own BBEG, he should remain a dark and shadowy mystery for the most part. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of dread to play off with this villain.
The rumours and hype amongst your NPC would be palpable. Have at least one powerful warrior with a limb missing to establish the fact that Mor’du should be approached with absolute caution.
Atmosphere – 1 out of 5
Aside from being a scary beast, and the surrounding dread, he doesn’t really bring an aura with him. There’s one creepy rundown building in the movie, which he obviously trashed, but I feel like the room is doing most of the work to create atmostphere.
Omniscience – 1 out of 5
There’s no evil scheme here. He lets Merida all the way into his ‘lair’ before registering her presence. The only thing he knows that the players don’t, is that he used to be a dude.
Henchmen – 0 out of 5
All on his lonesome.
Threat Level – 3 out of 5
So, as previously established, he’s a big bear. An oversized juggernaut at that. In close quarters this would be a dangerous monster to be sure, especially if there are no great monoliths around.
I almost dipped to a 2 with this score. He has no range, no magic, not tactics. The one reason he remained at 3 was his durability. It really does take a huge stone falling on him to end the fight.
The real stones, the Calanais Standing Stones on which the movie location was based, weigh around 7 tonnes. Arrows and spears mean almost nothing. Entire clans have tried and failed to bring him down. Without the right kit, or geographical feature, a low-level party is going to struggle.
Finale – 3 out of 5
Converting the movie finale to a D&D battle, what we end up with is more of a ‘gimmick fight’. Rather than using all the spells and skills built up over the adventure, we have a puzzle. Get the bear to ram the rock. Not boring by any means, but not as thrilling as it could be.
However, add in the fact that an NPC (or even a player character?) has succumbed to the same curse, and aggressive NPCs are throwing spanners in the works, then this fight becomes a little bit more interesting. A mix of roleplay and combat.
Of course, you could do away with the standing stones, and make this a much tougher fight. This takes away some uniqueness of the encounter though.
Final Score = 1.83
So we take a bear, and we up the strength, but we also stack on the hit points, increase the ability to take damage, and ramp up his ability to be super aggressive. Doesn’t really feel like a well-rouned boss, battle, but a gnarly encounter nonetheless.
Fear affects and parry add a little extra to the encounter. Parry is usually added to creatures holding melee weapons, but a giant bear batting javelins out of the air is too good a visual.
So despite his power, Mor’du can’t even beat Cruella de Vil in the rankings. I think that tracks – she’s way more of a hateful villain, she provides more of a spectacle, as well as a possible car chase. Her minions aren’t up to much, but at least she has some. A real brains over brawn moment.
| Disney Villain | Score |
| Jafar | 3.83 👑 |
| Lyle Tiberius Rourke | 3.66 |
| Robert Callaghan | 3.00 |
| The Horned King | 3.00 |
| Gaston LeGume | 2.66 |
| Cruella de Vil | 2.00 |
| Mor’du | 1.66 |
| Queen of Hearts | 1.33 |
| Edgar Balthazar | 0.75 |
Thank You For Reading
The other Disney BBEG contenders are right here.
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Gamer Peak 