Jafar has sat smugly atop the leaderboard for a long time – and for good reason – but I think we finally have a true contender.
It seems so obvious that an actual god would make a good villain for your TTRPG, but most gods would actual be too powerful. Your level 5 fighter isn’t going to stand up to Ares and expect to scuff his armour. What makes Hades compelling though, is that he’s not directly involved in his own scheme. He’s a manipulator, a mastermind, until all the pieces are in place.
21 people have played Moriarty on TV. Twenty One. Add up all the movies and stage shows and audio productions and we’re closing in on 100 variations. The Professor’s shown up in at least five different video games too.
It’s not simply because Sherlock Holmes is a compelling character/story. There are many storylines that do not include the Professor. He’s been seen and heard in so many times because he is a great villain. A Big Bag Evil Guy that enjoys begin mean and intelligent and better than everyone else. He is so successful that he will often bully Sherlock out of sheer boredom.
So a Table Top RPG villain based on Moriarty is a good idea. I would argue that, with clear evidence to prove it, that the rat crime lord based on Moriarty is an even better inspiration for your BBEG.
Ah, what could have been. Early on production, Elsa called ‘Greta’ and was a cold-hearted villain. I thoroughly enjoy the more heart-felt, nuanced take we ended up with, but I can’t help wondering what darkness we missed out on.
Elsa is still a villain though. She gets good right at the end, but before that she plunges her kingdom into ice, nearly kills her sister and several NPCs and only gets more and more powerful.
If this was the basis of a Table Top Role Playing Game, what we have hear is an adventure with two very different outcomes. Either the heroes convince Elsa to listen to sis and find her compassion… or they have to kill an ice queen.
Spoilers: And yes, I know who the ‘real’ villain is, we’re going to score them at the same time. He’s not worth a separate score sheet, and Elsa makes a much more fascinating BBEG.
In this highly serious, prestigious and highbrow discussion, it is important maintain a strict standard. There should be no favouritism, no biases or personal prejudices.
The fact that Yzma is a particular favourite of mine should have no bearing of proceedings. We are here to determine her merit as your TTRPGs model for a quality BBEG. Individual preference must be placed to one side in order to maintain the validity of the debate.
As a wise scholar once said: squeak squeak squeakedy squeakley squeaky squeaken.
In order to figure out which Big Bad is the best for any Roleplaying Game, we must hold them all to the same standard. Otherwise, this very serious discussion lacks credibility.
Having said this, certain villains would be poor for the average fantasy adventure, but excellent for very specific game types or storylines.
The villain of Coco (spoilers incoming) would be a pitiful BBEG in a regular hack and slash. With a game more centred around roleplay, or a game where everyone is a travelling bard, this dastardly individual has some merit.
Not every Disney movie has a Big Bad Evil Guy. I recently skipped Bolt (unless you count the pretend villain… or the lawyer) and I went right past Cars (that one car is a bit mean?). Of the movies that do have villains, not all of them are going to make good inspiration for the Big Bad in your Table Top RPG.
Lady Tremaine is not going to win this imagined contest. She might win last place though. She’s not taking on any adventurers with any amount of success. Even in a game where you play the talking mice…
Not every story makes for a great basis of Role-Playing Game. Some stories are surprisingly good. A Bug’s Life might not have as much combat as your average D&D campaign, but not closer: A plucky hero journeys through unknown lands to gain the aid of a bunch of performers to help save a group of farmers from the Big Bad Evil Guy and his army.
As soon as you imagine the circus troop as a bunch of bards – persuading and performing and sleight-of-handing their way around the villains, it suddenly makes a lot of sense. Hopper, the main villain in question, is superbly suited for the BBEG role.
“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.
I’m one of those people who is very fond of Black Cauldron. Where most people find it too dark for Disney, to bleak and weird, I was very much on board.
Re-watching Black Cauldron for this blogpost, I found that I enjoyed the movie just as much as when I was young, but my thoughts on the main villain were altered greatly. I’d remember him as this all powerful tyrant that would be in contention for the topic TTRPG Disney villain, but he’s a little… wimpier than I remember.
That might not necessarily be a bad thing for your campaign though.
It has been a busy six months – moved house, second child was born, family highs and lows, work has been tough – and blogging needed to be put on hold. As did all of my gaming, D&D and video gaming, for a time.
Now that the dust has settled, I’m gaming again. I’ll soon hopefully be blogging about the two very different games I’ve started up: Snowrunner and Bloodborne. I plan to write an idiots guide to Bloodborne at some point, as my experience with it was similar to the one I had with Dark Souls (I never got gud, but I somehow made it through).
I’ll also be picking pack up with the Disney Villains in D&D series I was writing, hopefully next Wednesday. I also plan to do a bit more regarding my teaching side again – now that I’m part time, the love of the job as greatly returned.
I’m also posting some more gaming videos to YouTube. Mainly so I can blog about them here, but the videos have been getting a few views, so we’ll see where that goes. I’ve always had a mind to do some chilled live streaming, but that’s a ways off.
The one thing that will be shelved, for now, is Dungeon23. I had such a good run, even managed to catch up into October despite now blogging about it, but I will need to be a lot more free before I can finally finish that project.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to visit this blog in my absence. Hopefully this is me back for good. Writing is not my biggest skill or my greatest hobby, but it is certainly cathartic. It’s good to be back.
Gamer Peak 