Dark Age Of Camelot: Pluck Yew!

In the movie "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones", Jango Fett explained to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "I'm just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe." Everyone, of course, realizes the truth of this statement. Sir Fett was a deeply misunderstood man, a hardy soul attempting to survive in a wide, cold universal society.

Survive by killing, stealing, and terrorizing, naturally. But why hang on trifles?

Every story has a villain. The plot needs its antagonist to keep moving, and the hero needs a foil to give him character and depth. If everyone wore shining armor, but no one kidnapped the damsel, those valiant knights would spend most of their days shining their suits and playing shuffleboard. Light needs darkness. Angels need demons.

And we need our bad guys. We need the brave few souls who would risk our misunderstanding and ire to get our goats. Oh, certainly, we can point to a race of creatures and say, "Orcs destroyed my family. I loathe them!" Such a one-sided rivalry, however, can get old. After all, the orcs attack everyone who trots through. We need enemies who will interact with us, who will deviously attempt to ruin our character's lives while giving the players a healthy dose of fun.

Some of my most exciting times came from a pair of guilds who played off each other as enemies. The one, full of heroes and do-gooders, sought to stop the maniacal designs of the other. The evil guild, of course, spent a good deal of time fighting in its own ranks as they plotted and schemed against the light.

Humans need opposition. Our brave souls need shadows to chase them. The guilds would not have produced the same thrill without each other. But this pairing only worked because of one thing.

Mutual respect.

Playing a villain is not easy. Emotions often run high, especially when you are spitting invective at the object of your loathing. It becomes easy to let your feelings run off with you, making you, as a player, angry. Perfectly nice people who play villains as characters often get branded in less than flattering terminology, as everyone believes that the person at the keyboard must be just as nasty as their character.

We had a standing rule in those guilds. Out of character, we all remained friends. Our characters might hiss and spit at each other, but out of character, we remembered that we all played together for fun. As intelligent adults, we understood that certain boundaries did not get crossed. Most importantly, we stayed in constant out of character contact, via private messages, to make certain that no one had misunderstood our intent.

I recently spoke to a roleplayer in a predicament. "I attempted to start a roleplayed rivalry with someone in my guild, which is a roleplaying guild," she said, "but he took it all wrong. Now he hates me as a player." This made me think about the job of a villain, or in this case, of even the antagonist in a roleplayed scenario, and about the job of the people who play off the bad guy.

As a villain, your first responsibility is to not use roleplaying a villain as an excuse to act like a jerk. I really cannot say it more plainly than that. Some people enjoy keeping their kind, real life selves behind a dark façade, and people who blame roleplay for their bad behavior give them a bad name.

You must also know where the boundaries are. Certain topics should always remain off-limits when playing the villain in the general populace. These topics merrily disregard anything resembling taste, tact, or social correctness, and will make people almost universally uncomfortable. I will not tell you what to do with your own guild, but see to it that such things stay private.

Always know your audience. Some people I know fall into the category of "roleplaying themselves". These are the people who speak as they normally would in the everyday world, only substituting "aye" for "yes" and "learning" for "experience". Their characters have no real character, and anything done to their character is done to the player as well. While this is certainly not my style, and I respect their decision, I would not attempt to roleplay a villain against them. You will make a real life enemy.

Check in with those you roleplay with. Use sends to transmit messages such as "OOC - By the way, I'm just roleplaying this. I don't feel that way about you. I just wanted you to know that this isn't personal, and it's all RPd." Until you have roleplayed with someone for a while, you cannot know if they will understand your line of playing without some explaination. Better to be gentle and explanatory than to upset. Everyone plays the game to have fun, and your role as the villain is to help facilitate that.

Have a sense of humor. The villain has to realize that if he acts like a villain, people may treat him like one. If you are refused groups by roleplayers whose characters would not want anything to do with yours, well, you understood the possibility of that when you chose to roleplay on the dark side. Be good natured about the reactions of other people.

Do not create a villain that does not possess a single redeeming trait. Try not to create a character that you cannot make work with a variety of scenarios. When you are looking for those last two bubbles to get your level, you will thank yourself for giving yourself the ability to at least work with that group of do-gooders.

The villain has a heavy burden to crawl out from under. Unfortunately, we cannot assume that everyone on a roleplay server is actually a roleplayer, and some people really are the horses' rumps that they portray. People are understandably wary of people who do not act nice-nice, and I consider this a tragedy.

What about those who play the forces of good? Do not be so quick to take offense to things. Yes, that person calling you names may well be a card carrying idjit, but treat him as if he is simply roleplaying. Send an out of character message to him, asking him. That should clear it up fairly quickly. Remember that you are playing a character, and if you, the player, are becoming angry, you may need to step back and see if you are taking offense to things you should not.

Roleplaying is not all about "Good sir, could you tell me where the trainer is for Paladins?" and "Let us go forth and slay in the name of God!" Roleplayers are not always nice. They should not have to be. The villains, however, must be careful to always designate clearly between in character and out.

A well-roleplayed villain can really spice up a hunting party, a raid, or a roleplaying scenario. Dare to be evil! But do it right. Next week, I'll discuss a part of the stock in trade of the bad guy: the clever insult.