I hope you’d agree with me that a TTRPG set in the Incredibles would be amazing. Super heroes abound but heavily controlled, scrutinized and often ostracized. Retro-futuristic vibes. Good grounds for a superb adventure.
The villains in Disney I’ve scored so far tend to perform well on Presence (because they are great characters) but fall away on being an actual villain. The bad guy in the first Incredibles movie is a brief part of the story with very little time to brood or boast around the heroes, but his setup is very powerful.
I’m being vague about who the villain is because I don’t like spoilers. The villain of Incredibles is the worst kept secret, but someone is always watching a great movie for the very first time and its a nice twist.
Presence – 2 out of 5
Buddy Pine (a.k.a. Syndrome) is a backstory-based villain. When your characters write a compelling backstory, you want to include it in the campaign. When the backstory involves falling out with your biggest fan/wannabe mentee, you can find a way to make that come back to haunt them.
Syndrome is definitely a fun villain. Enjoying his evilness, pointing at flaws that other baddies fall into, etc. When all is said and done, behind the gadgets is a spoilt, bitter young man. He’s not scary. His robots and sci-fi tools are daunting, but he himself is not. He also suffers from being a secret villain, he will not be able to contribute to the campaign until the second act.
Atmosphere – 3 out of 5
The second act of this story/campaign is a glorious location to host a TTRPG adventure. The island, lava decor, scifi labs, its all such a great backdrop for the tale you want to explore. Before that, Syndrome isn’t having any influence on the world, we’re in a generic city landscape which his robot has an effect on, not him.
Omniscience – 4 out of 5
The heroes that Syndrome hunted down were all in hiding. Not only did the vindictive Buddy seek them out, he had a pretty good idea of what their powers were. Just a few battles with the current model of Omnidroid was needed before the next upgrade to be strong enough to eliminate them.
He’s also clearly intelligent and focused. The glimpse into his childhood bedroom did not suggest great wealth, yet in his mid-20s he’s acquired his own tropical island complete with state-of-the-art evil lair. He’s making a fortune developing bleeding-edge technology. Apart from Mirage and his machine-gun-wielding goons, it appears as though he’s managed all of this with very little support. He’s a genius.
Henchmen – 4 out of 5
One of my very, very minor issues I had with Incredibles upon first viewing was that Mirage wasn’t a superhero. I know that’s a bit unfair to assume, but when she turned up with a name like ‘Mirage’, I thought she was going to have powers and her reasons for helping the anti-hero villain would be more interesting. Instead she simply a very good manipulator with very unclear reasons for assisting with hero murder.
We do get a turn from her, but it’s very limited. As a henchmen NPC she’s not adding much beyond exposition, in my opinion.
The standard goons present a range of competency, and many have neat gizmos that improve their threat level. Those flying discs would an incredibly fun edition to your TTRPG. At the end of the day though, they are just goons.
But you could put all of that average to one side and still score Syndrome highly based on his Omnidroids alone. It’s not just because they are lazer-blasting, near impenetrable, colossal cannonballs of destruction. It’s because of the fact that Syndrome is designing them specifically to the a threat to the heroes.
In Dungeons & Dragons, in most TTRPGS, ‘balancing an encounter’ is an important part of hosting a game. Fights that are too easy rarely entertain, fights that overwhelm will only really gel with certain players. Having a villain perpetually sending out better and better droids to best the characters is a concept you can have a lot of fun with.
Only thing stopping the Omnidroid from scoring 5 out of 5 on its own is that your players can beat it stealing the remote, or getting it to punch itself… both of which are relatively easy to do.
Threat Level – 4 out of 5
On his own, Syndrome is another human antagonist with no oomph. He’s accident prone, and there’s nothing about him as a creature that suggests danger.
His gadgets on the other hand, make him potentially incredible boss fight. The jet boots already make him a higher Challenge Rating, because melee is very quickly no longer an option.
It’s the gloves that make Syndrome a real problem. ‘Restraint’, ‘stun’ and especially ‘paralysis’ in D&D are conditions that can lead to serious grief for the player characters. You are less able, or completely unable, to take actions yourself and any attacks coming your way are going to be assisted or magnified. The fact that there doesn’t seem to be a way to ‘save’ from their effects makes them all the more threatening.
Furthermore, the way they seem to undo the effects of gravity on their target is wild. The ‘telekinesis’ spell in D&D can lift one target with considerable weight, but quite slowly. Syndrome’s Gauntlets can affect several people at once, and move them around as quickly as Billy’s arms can swing. He sends Mr Incredible across the island by accident. However you translate this into stats, these gauntlets are incredible handwear.
Why not 5 out of 5? Firstly, Billy reduces his own threat level with clumsiness and ineptitude. Secondly, if you include a high-powered item like this in your TTPRG for a villain to use, you also have to imagine it in the hands of your players after they loot the body. Be prepared for these gauntlets to break your game immediately.
Finale – 3 out of 5
Another example of a great, action-packed ending to an adventure that is set up by the villain but not led by the villain. If you played your adventure the same way the movie plays out, Syndrome will be present for a little while, but it’s really the Omnidroid whos the BBEG in the end. You could improve Syndrome’s part by having him flying, directing the monster to attack the heroes, whilst the players have to figure out how to get the remote away from him?
If you did that, this is a truly terrifying final fight for your TTRPG.
Final Score = 3.33
Glass Cannon: used to describe a character with high offense and low defence.
Syndrome is an extremely good example of this. If he gets the drop on a level 5 adventuring party, the results would be horrific. Catch him unawares, or attack him from range, or get one good hit in on him, he’s likely to crumble.
| Disney Villain | Score |
| Hades | 4.00 👑 |
| Jafar | 3.83 |
| Professor Ratican | 3.66 |
| Lyle Tiberius Rourke | 3.66 |
| Billy Pine, a.k.a Syndrome | 3.33 |
| Elsa of Arendelle | 3.16 |
| Hopper | 3.16 |
| Robert Callaghan | 3.00 |
| The Horned King | 3.00 |
| Judge Claude Frollo | 2.83 |
It’s obviously fun to imagine ‘X vs Y’ scenarios, and when I look at my top 10 BBEG Disney villains it helps to confirm whether than bad guy is in the right place. Would Billy be a better BBEG than Elsa? Absolutely. If he’s quick on his feet he could probably take her in battle, and he’s definitely more determined to be evil. Does he beat Lyle? It’s going to come down to who makes the first move, but he’s not a patch on Rourke’s tenacity or ruthlessness.
Thank You For Reading
The other Disney BBEG contenders are right here.
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