▶▶ Timecodes / chapters 00:44 - What is a nemesis 04:28 - Creating the big bad nemesis 08:43 - Quirks 10:51 - Equipment 17:55 - Desire 18:39 - Defining the nemesis physical abilities 24:40 - Senses 31:13 - Brief description and mind change
Just thinking about her makes me shiver. She makes me think of the lady from Bill and Ted's hell scene. Give me a kiss chasing them and wanting a kiss.
My big bad went from a cliche "Necromancer wants to use undead hordes to take over the world" to "Ancient Black Shadow Dragon who used to be a god wants to restore her status by consuming the necrotic energy produced by her necromancer minion's profane rituals, in exhange for help in turning the world at large into a pervasive kingdom of Undeath." These videos are immensely helpeful.
My cliche necromancer turned into a Lich whose partner is a dracolich, they are working for the god of undeath, siphoning 1% of all the souls of the dead from the prime material, keeping them from moving on to their destined resting place. They are taking a portion of the souls for themselves. The god of undeath wants to stretch their sphere onto the prime material, but the lich and his partner are actually trying to thwart him by allowing the invasion of the prime material to happen, but attempting to mantle him during his passage between the planes via the spell they've been saving the souls for: Avatar. Ultimately they are still vastly evil guys doing vastly evil things, but until the party can do something about it, he is unbeknownst to the world, the best and greatest hope.
What the change of gender makes me think of is people in the world talking about "Be careful if you meet Jackar or you might be devoured." "Fear Jackar" ... no sign of gender for the possible surprise of what you might encounter, the opposite of what you expected.
Since I'd started my current campaign recently, I'm really just making tweaks here and there. Already had a good idea of my nemesis, but I managed to get some very fabulous changes from this. The biggest boon actually came from considering this video while watching Kung Fu Panda 2; Lord Shen is a fantastic nemesis to deconstruct. His fear was actually what struck me as the most compelling part of his character, so I added an overwhelming fear to my BBEG, Irem. Despite being a confident mage, returned from the Atlantean era to the modern day, he's still terribly afraid of his old nemesis/murderer. She's long gone, but any hint at her embodiment/reincarnation or even her legacy would make Irem stupid with anxiety. I also decided, since his old empire was Egypt-inspired, that he has mechanical prostheses suggestive of the Osiris myth. And he smells of Egyptian lotus perfume.
First i was thinking khorne with a name like worldeater. Then slowly moved towards slaanesh before taking a sharp turn left into Nurgle. I was picturing a Great Unclean one till he said 6ft 450lbs lol
@@gamingsnorlax5405 Dune, which he referenced with the Baron Harkonnen, was one of the most influential works behind 40k. Dune invented the God-Emperor of Mankind.
Can't say thank you enough for sharing your creative process! Really appreciate the permission to be relaxed and flexible while creating and enjoy the process
I love the way you described the villain, especially voice. When i played out a similar theme, my BBEG was gaunt and pale to try to symbolise that despite the fact that he has everything (he was rich), he actually held very little power. Just a cool juxtaposition i noticed as you were describing.
It sounds very nice, maybe the slug is allergic to the dragon. Consuming them would finally make it detach itself from Jakkar. It will be interesting to see her follower too, do they share her hunger or by serving her they are not eaten?
Day 2 of making my campaign following these videos; feeling happy enough with my progress. Thanks for making this series, Guy; it's really helping with my writer's block. Yesterday I laid the groundwork of the adventure: Xalvie wants the ancient holy relic of Val'sophir deep in the Lands Left Behind before her father returns from a great expedition, but has difficulty because she does not want to desecrate lands hallowed by Val'sophir. The themes I have for my adventure I have down as: exploring hostile lands, surviving great dangers, collecting ancient artefacts, and honouring ancient deities. My nemesis I've created is Kekall, of Blasphemy: a tall, lithe, and spiteful person, who is obsessed with the gifts and treasures of the Land Left Behind, with the firm delusion that they are owed these objects. They found a cursed lantern, and twisted by frustration and the cursed thing, swore instead to blaspheme the existence of the gods of the Land Left Behind. They are a Blunt Force Trauma nemesis, with a quirk of their mere touch desecrating and corrupting whatever it is they touch. They shall represent the exact opposite of the party, and ideally evoke revulsion in them as such. They carry with them their demonic lantern, which permanently flows with green smoke, which pools at Kekall's feet and spreads a small distance before it fades away. The smoke gradually corrupts, and when spread onto hallowed places creates a caustic slime that gradually spreads and desecrates it, and develops to prevent access to whatever treasure may be in wait. Kekall is also in something of a 'blind spot' for the creatures and residents of the Lands Left Behind: putting them under little threat or danger compared to the party.
That voice for Jakar gives me the creeps... An excellent job! I would love to go through more details of the character, but that is mostly because I find it easier to learn by seeing and doing. Either way good show and I look forward to the next episode.
my god, I am absolutely in love with this character, what a delightfully horrific being she is! I highly reccomend looking up Krew from Jak II, his appearance and voice delivery could really help with inspiration for Lady Jakaar. I'm actually doing a quick drawing of her right now, and I'd love to see if I could find a way to show you when I'm done.
This is so helpful and since I've found this series I've found motivation to make a game again. My previous game touched an undead war. This one I'm working on due to your series now tells of a part mechanical ghostly woman who absorbs souls through an embedded astral glove and needs to board an astral ship to obtain the soul of a powerful necromancer mage so she can control the glove rather than it controlling her.
The danger with a series like this, one that is projected to take a year, is that by the end, only a limited number of people will actually do the work every week and still be up to date. So far I'm loving this, it's fantastic. I have no access to players at the moment, but am planning for my project to become the basis of a novel - same worldbuilding rules apply, it's just that if I need the action to move past the blacksmith's forge towards the distant castle, I can direct the characters to the castle, whereas PC's might decide that as I mentioned the blacksmith, something of great import lies within. Of course, what would be cool, assuming that I am not alone in having an outlet for my creativity, if there are others out there who are working without a definite player group, could something be organized among ourselves? Is anyone else working here alone?
I am in the same situation. This is a great creative outlet but I don't have players so I should probably check out what discord is... I still don't know. Is it a forum? I thought it functioned like steam.
@@kaelim888 It is essentially a replacement for mumble, ventrilo, teamspeak and general apps for group chats like line and skype. Simple to use and manage and very lightweight on performance. Available both for mobile and desktop/laptop
Im a player in a homebrew campaign, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the NPC "Top hat Stan" is going to be the BBEG, purely because he cannot die and will do anything for money. He had been with the party once, but had betrayed us by stealing another player's sons. Im talking about the little ones you claim as your own, and let me say that he is trying to get to the two in time before experiments are performed. On a race against the clock, this was rather fun in our homebrew campaign!
Im a little late to this but I'm trying to make a campaign for me and my friends. No one else likes world building so I've been volunteered. Your videos are super helpful! Thanks for making them!
I am working along side you Guy and using this really cool book I recently purchased to help. I'm very much looking forward to certain chapters to help clarify my understanding. Also, just saying here, I have accepted your challenges for the new year. Thanks for the modivation and entertainment.
Might I request that the world for this project be made publicly viewable, such that even for details that don't make it into video form, we can at least see and be inspired by the finished product?
Sentence: The Elders of the Sea are trying to stop the spread of the cult of Krae before the next conclave. They try to eradicate villages where the cults are found, but the tribes are so prolific, the Cult continues to grow.
Theme: First impressions may be misleading -Acts of evil may be made out of necessity -The defenseless may be powerful
The Elders are trying to stop the Cult of Krae from spreading the word of Krae to the other Kuo-Toa tribes before their annual conclave; an event in which the tribes birth a new god. Long term the cults are creating the first Kraken, a god the call Krae-Khan Thoughts? Love these videos!
This helped me a lot, actually, even though I have a good "villain" planned. Well, I say she's a good villain, but she's more an intractable; basically, she's an old Lawful Evil PC I used to run repurposed as a potential baddie. She has big plans, certainly, and I think the power is there, but she's not big bad material; more of a recurring character who could be an ally or an enemy at any given time. So, the whole thing about the theme got me thinking, what makes her not an end-game villain? Well, part of the theme I'm going for is that good and evil very much exist, but so does reality. There's good and bad in everything, but there are still certain things that must be done. It's a political/war related setting, really, so there's no real "bad guy" nation, and I want to let my players choose at least some of their alliances. However, that means that the villainess I mentioned earlier isn't really BBEG material because her objective is basically just to reclaim her throne. She was originally made as a PC, after all, so even though she does evil shit, she's not interested in big fish at present and would happily play-nice with them. But that's just the thing-she's cruel and unusual, but she really just wants what's best for her nation. She doesn't really measure-up that bad in terms of how the theme is; hell, she could end-up being a strong ally for the players if they play their cards right. There's no reason to lock her as a villain or nemesis because what she wants is pretty reasonable, in all honesty. So, what makes a _good_ bad guy for this setting? Well, I did some prototyping with what happened to turn into a lich, and then it hit me: my theme is essentially the realities of life-hard decisions, good people doing bad things, bad people doing good things, etc.-(even that much is still a WiP, though) so the greatest offense to that would be from undeath. The best villain is, in essence, someone so bereft of life that they no longer comprehend its nuance, who seeks to end human suffering not by helping those who suffer, but rather by removing the human condition entirely. Not extermination, mind you, but a pure removal of humanity. I've even toyed with the idea of making him some form of automaton-lich hybrid, since I'm using a late-Victorian-esque setting. Much work still to go, I think.
This helped me out so much. My 'Dragon who wants to rule the world' turned into *"Rhol'vyn of the Fallen, once a benevolent protector of the mortal realm, now seeks punishment onto the world for the betrayal of his kind by spreading the remaining life force he has left to resurrect all the dragons unrighteously slain by mortal hands."*
Video #2!!! This was great. I fleshed out my mimesis, but I think I'll make another one just in case. I'm thinking something like competitors. Two main villains who are racing to get the goods along with the heroes...
Guy, thank you so much, before watching this i couldn't make a villian who is in the least bit creative and different, and now i made a character that i trully find interesting. I made an elf Bal'Dar'an "The black sun", a former priest of the god of light now in the service of Vecna, whom he wants to release from his dimensional prison in exchange for bringing back his dead son. Vecna bestowed upon him a right arm (not the arm of vecna) of a long dead mage which has a will of it's own though it doesn't appear so.
You got a regular old Chosen of Chaos as the villain there, in more ways than one, what with the Slaads being chaos-spawn and everything about the villain sounding like an exemplary Warhammer Champion of Chaos Undivided, with some aspects of each ruinous power - looking and feeling Nurgly, with Tzeentchy hunger for power, Khornate behaviour and Slaaneshy appetites. And best part, I'm all but sure that was not a direct inspiration draw and not on purpose. Also, the Slug Slag would be a great insult for her, with what you developed so far. Do depict the entire process of developing her further, though, it's quite fun in its own right and educational for developing stuff.
the BBEG in the campaign im running right now is actually someone from our world trapped in the game world by some unknown force. This gives him some interesting mannerisms that dont quite fit in to a fantasy setting and its quite fun to mess with. He is also quite the schemer so it has been hard for the party to actually get much face to face time with him outside what he allows as per his grand scheme.
I had something similar in my last high fantasy game, except she wasn't trapped (or the BBEG). She was an agent from a futuristic pseudo-religious cult sent to extricate the power of magic from a simulation-/prison-world meant to keep it calm and happy. She had gone rogue a long time previous--she had, quite simply, fallen in love with someone in the game world. She ended up an ally, as the party needed her "Sword of the Administrator"--less a sword and more a blessing--to kill her cult's virus, which was turning the (limited AI) gods against the (true AI) denizens of the world.
I personally think that Lord Jakkar is more disgusting than Lady Jakkar. Who says Lord Jakkar can't try to seduce both male and female PCs? .......Shit. I just imagined too much. I almost puked. Btw, great video, helped me a lot in improving my nemesis.
Hello Guy, I enjoy your videos, and personality. I have been following the videos with a campaign that has been a long time in the making. This is the sentence and theme that best describes my story. Thanks, Joseph Sentence Galafyle is bent on the destruction of civilization by gaining control of a demon army, but is having difficulty accomplishing this because Macklyn holds the final artifact needed to complete the demonic summoning. The summoning must occur on a blood moon. Theme Perseverance to survive against pure evil.
Loving this series so far. My villain went from a no name edgy guy who wants world domination for his patron, to a widowed madwoman halfling who is trying to summon a demon to sire a child that will act as a conduit for cosmic energy to strike the realm and tear it asunder as recompense for the world stripping away her family and friends. It's making me feel so big brain
I feel like a bloated all consuming woman nemesis is a very freudian figure... And that's before he comes up with the oedipus complex inspired line of "come show mama some love"
I think this video also works very well as a stand-alone guide to creating an archvillain. Gave me some inspiration for the archnemesis in _my_ current campaign, too. A few thoughts I had while watching: 15:16 I like this idea with the slaad slug symbiont. Or maybe we could call it a tadpole :D In line with this, yes, I think Jackar might have a rather bloated toad-like appearance, since the slaad are generally frog-like themselves. 15:34 Oh, that is interesting! oo *That* is an unique twist. Hey, how about the title "Jackar the Dragon-Eater"? :) 18:28 Oh yes - he might be in a kind of "race" against this slug. Either he consumes it, or it consumes him. What do you think about that? 21:10 Hah! Toad-like! :) 33:00 I don't know :D I'd be afraid that this would open the way for too much sillyness. I think a villain of this kind should be way past any questions of gender-specification. Especially if you consider the slaads' way of procreation...
To continue developing along, I'll pick up my own exercise then: Keximus is a Vader-type blunt force nemesis, but not the biggest villain in the world. He's a General of his home nation of half-orcs, risen to prominence and power over decades of service, and is one of its major figures. The half-orcs of my exercise setting are mostly bound together in a powerful military-focused nation led by legendary Twin Queens; they are extremely species-centric (though not genocidal to others), and most of these half-orcs are proudly, violently loyal to the Queens, Keximus being no exception, professing a personal love towards them. His entertaining quirk is that he loves to talk and monologue even as he sics troops on the PCs, and seems to NEVER shut up about himself, the half-orc pride, the Queens and his immediate goal. However, he's no clown in action - he's a very capable swordmage and has the power to back up his talk; he wields a single sabre-style blade, wears enchanted plate armor and is large, buff and imposing despite his venerable age. On top of that, he has the loyalty of his numerous half-orc troops, to whom he maintains an almost paternal attitude. He stands out thanks to his love of wearing a peculiar ancient artifact on his person at all times - a relic of the vanished high elves, ancient progenitors of half-orcs in this world, a large glimmering piece of metal that is supposed to be key to opening the Sanctuary of the Void where his desired prize, the Exalted Blade, lies, thus symbolizing his personal knowledge and interest in the high elves and his quest. It endows him with his magical powers, such as brief invulnerability, ability to blink and project force and energy from his sabre and free hand. His goal is to breach the Sanctuary of the Void and claim its relics, particularly the Exalted Blade, through the power of which he seeks to conquer the world in the name of the Queens and half-orcs, and to find a way to cure many debilitating diseases that ravage their race in this setting, which only they seem to suffer from - he is confident the answer to this problem lies within the Sanctuary and with the Blade. He has a personal motivation in this, too - in unlocking these mysteries, he seeks to understand the planar origins of the high elves' former power and to claim them for himself, becoming the Queens' mate, and even potentially transcending the material plane into some greater form, perhaps as a racial deity of the half-orcs. Though General Keximus has a mighty build and imposing figure, he is also clearly old, his body showing signs of his great age: his posture is weakened and his flesh withering; his face is gaunt and a mess of wrinkles, his eyes are pale and his hair is almost gone. He tends to speak in short bursts of heavily emphasised phrases and sound quite dramatic and bombastic, loving to taunt his enemies or extol his troops and faction pride; however, he doesn't ever shout at the top of his lungs, instead relying on how his voice carries and maintaining a tone of controlled, cold power and certainty. He's very driven and focused on his quest, and since the PCs have to be key to it, he claims them as his tools that have to submit to him or be taken by force. He leads from the near-front, sending his troops to claim ground (and try to take PCs) first, but ready to bring his fearsome power to bear if his forces fail, being a remarkably powerful warrior. With his tendency to talk a lot, it's his voice you'll hear first, before you even see him, though the clanking of his and his forces' armor is also quite telltale. He's actually quite neat and clean as far as half-orcs go, but still smells of sweat; however, his high elven artifact makes the air about him have a tinge of ozone, a strong one if he uses his powers. When he's happy, he monologues bombastically about whatever victory has been achieved. When he's sad, instead of moping, he makes loud yet cold threats and promises certain doom and destruction to whoever wronged him (unless that's another half-orc power figure, in which case his rage is more concealed). When he's angry, he makes yet more of such threats and promises. But regardless of mood, it's rare to find him not carrying on about something.
I was thinking that when he/she consumes, instead of just gaining power they gain the powers of what they consumed. Just a thought, but wherever it goes.... a truly memorable villain.
OK, I finally gave in and started a free account at World Anvil :-) So far, it's proven to be remarkably useful! I would love for it to support my system stats as well (Burning Wheel), but even without this, it's awesome. As for this week's challenge, my Nemesis is growing, and the world is growing with her and around her. It's really exciting to see my mind adding more and more details to the structure that I started with the sentence from last week. So far so good, that you for the video!
Towards the beginning of the video you talked of the thing that kind of announces the presence of the baddie, like Darth Vader’s breathing. After your descriptions around the 28:00 mark, I think his tell should be flies or nasty insects increasing in numbers the closer you get to him. Tension could build (at least once) in an adventure as the players encounter flies not yet realizing it is announcing the nearness of their nemesis.
Another interesting way to look at this character is to make him emaciated, and in a constant state of agony. He wants the dragon eggs, because he can use them to make an elixir of repelling to get the slug off his back before it kills him.
Baron Brightwalker, God's Greatest Failure, started as a BFT Nemesis but as i designed him (an unholy light that follows him, golden armour that's massive and reflects attacks, a calm collected personality) and with the theme of consequences, I decided he fit better as a plotter, mentor. He leads this steampunk army hit with a disease and he's so cool, that the players want to help, until it's revealed he was using them to forward his attempt on the throne he feels he deserves, and proves the technology he built is more powerful than the gods he failed.
Actually got several 'BBEG' in mine, all big threats, all with different goals, and while the players are doing their stuff so too will they. The reason It put BBEG in quotes is not of them are necessarily evil, they only are from a certain point of view, so the players could: do away with them, even join all of them, rather than fight them, but of course that just makes other people your enemies.
you are the ultimate love your videos so inspiring and a leader in the world building RPG community keep the videos coming you are my Game of Thrones :)
These videos are so helpful and I love them but I wish that the schedule wasn't so long. I'm making a campaign for my friends to play over the summer (Starting June in my hemisphere) and I wish it wouldn't take a year for the planning to run its course.
I would have made the slug monster some kind of psychic hive mind symbiote that allows the villain to control his minions and force them to obey him (like hypno toad or something). Otherwise, I can't imagine why they would. But in exchange for this power it gets to feed on him.
Haven't finished the video yet, but the way you described touch reminded me of a water balloon and I imagined this disgusting vile thing popping and spewing nasties everywhere. Don't worry, I'm OK... I only thew up a little bit!!
Notes for myself: Full Name: Archmagus Maximillian Vikram Title: Archmagus Quirk: Emits blue sparks occasionally. Equipment: A staff that siphons arcane energy (counterspell AND dispel magic. It’s a 2-for-1!) or maybe helmets that he puts on spell-casting minions to control them or steal their magic. Desire: To channel the power of the Manawell so that he can power a ritual to replace Mystra as the god of magic.
Minor note. A module needs a BBEG. A campaign setting needs conflicting villains and factions. Nemesis list: Robyn the Lich Zorr'in the ally who has the phylactery. Various undead lieutenants Leadership of freed slaves who support the Robyn and Zorr'in because they're freeing the slaves. Five monatchs ruling the slavery based nations the lich seeks to rule. Abyssal Lord Zorr'in wants to kill and steal it's power. Variety of factions within each nation including tebels seeking to free slaves. Allow PC to create factions in backstory or during the adventure. Lich has legendary magic item that allows animation of vast numbers of undead. Zorr'in and Robyn are usually encountered as depleted Simulacrum depending upon magic items, scrolls and potions for combat. Less likely to instantly kill PCs during lower level encounters. All the villians will try to recruit heroes by portraying themselves as the only thing preventing a worse evil from occuring.
I have crooks and bad folks, a few questionable villains that are generally more good than they are bad (although that's always arguable) but no nemesis. I got nothing going on while watching this but it got me thinking, I need a nemesis.
My setting is Eritrea / Ethiopia set in a fantasy world. It's writing itself - both nations trying to overcome a recent 30 yr civil war while on the border in the Afar Depression of the Denakil Desert are sulfur beds and a huge real world volcano - Erta Ale. I've just looked up the local name for the Straits at the Gulf of Aden - the Bab al Mandeb, which means gateway of tears. How cool is that. Erta Ale is a gateway to the plane of fire. Dwarfs are from Yemen and are a dying people, cursed by a previous Fire incursion a thousand years before. They are searching deep for redemption, and found something best left alone. Erta Ale stirs. Orcs live among the sulphur pits of the Depression 300ft below sea level in one of the hottest places on earth, guardians against the flame. Living by evaporating salt from the lake in the depression, trading it to the outside world for food. Subsistence only, but they have their secret rituals to keep the barrier between world strong. Elves. Well elves are the Colonial Italians. Come from far away lands to inflict civilization upon the local humans. They have left their mark in cities architecture and elements of the language but due to a century of colonial atrocity they are not well liked.
Female is just perfect! It's the ideal antithesis to the typical "Gaia / mother godess / origin of life / Venus of Willendorf"-type. I'd go with the slug-derived super power to shift planes or even better dimensions of existence. That would create fine synergies with the Slaad/different dimension thing as well as the "Devourer of Worlds" function. And it would also symbolise the circularity and infinity of greed: the BBEG needs to eat Worlds in order to maintain the power to go to other worlds and consume them! That would also give it the overwhelming type of 'Galactus'-like "I've ate so many worlds, what could you unworthy worms do to stop me?!"-arrogance and generate the "if we don't stop it NOW, no one can EVER stop it!"-feeling the players need to really drive it home.
Greed is a famine at the feast. An Oni at once bolted and starved being devoured by the far realm slug. A slug that plans on soon abandoning the Oni host and bonding to a hatchling dragon.
My nemesis is a god who is comprised of four lesser deities, who will act as temporary villains that the PCs will have to defeat before finding out a great secret!
I think making the nemesis female is a nice homage to the arthurian tales because camelot was brought down by Guinivere's lust (greediness ) for Lancelot and Uther Pendragon, of course was Arthur's father. If you want to add a little enigmatic prophecy Geoffrey Monmouth's Kings of Britain has an extensive scene where Merlin is foreseeing and describing a battle between a red dragon and a white one.
I just realized, my nemesis is almost the opposite of Jakaar. A pale, frail, skeletal body chained up as the king of the shadowfell. It's kinda hilarious XD
Nemesis never present - works in shadow of Asa's fear and trauma Name: (Banania) Overall description: A very manipulative and evil spirt brimming with desperate want to extract revenge on her two younger sisters that escaped a similar fate that she didn't. Mostly shows her angelic self in Asa's memories, subtle manipulating. Uses her dead state to scare or guilt trip Asa. Only uses demon self in Asa's nightmares, and covers up her presence with her chaos self so that Asa won't remember it was her. Appearance descriptions: - Angelic self: long silk and silver hair, Opel skin, bright green eyes. Speech: warm, light and strong. Body: lean. Beautiful young woman with grace and confident, feels comforting. - Dead state: twisting and tearing hair, white skin with purple rash, empty stare. Rotten and limp, her appearance only echoing what she once looked like, feels revolting. - Demon self: dirty and tearing white hair (see: corrupted lady in lotr), bluish glow, purple/white skin, contrasting red mix green eyes. Speech: high pitched, angry and guilting. Body: skin and bones. Starved and desperate, bloodied green eyes, chunks of dirty white hair falling or clinging to her boney body, feels dangerous. - Chaos state: chains or black, silver chaos with blinding green light. Strong and thick chains wrapped around Asa's throat, or a consuming black, silver mass and blinding green light, feels restricting. Quirk: influence can be broken by Asa's hope to find her sister, making her motivated instead of miserable. Tactics/tools: fear of disobedience, insecurities like feeling stupid or weak, guilt of not following her parents and doubts of making the choice to live instead of dying. Desire: Dranging her sisters down with her
I think hhe should be gowned in gems and coins. Not fully but like think she had started this crusade he had that shirt and she just never took it off.
I think my characters would be great at shaking her resolve just cause of the way I tend to play them. And maybe I'd have to make another character after but it's worth to convey the message of him/her...not necessarily having the wrong idea but doing it in the worst way they could
I was thinking that the Slug could give the Nemisis dominion over the Slaad, and that conquering the world would allow him to expand her control over the Slaad further.
▶▶ Timecodes / chapters
00:44 - What is a nemesis
04:28 - Creating the big bad nemesis
08:43 - Quirks
10:51 - Equipment
17:55 - Desire
18:39 - Defining the nemesis physical abilities
24:40 - Senses
31:13 - Brief description and mind change
Just thinking about her makes me shiver. She makes me think of the lady from Bill and Ted's hell scene. Give me a kiss chasing them and wanting a kiss.
My big bad went from a cliche "Necromancer wants to use undead hordes to take over the world" to "Ancient Black Shadow Dragon who used to be a god wants to restore her status by consuming the necrotic energy produced by her necromancer minion's profane rituals, in exhange for help in turning the world at large into a pervasive kingdom of Undeath."
These videos are immensely helpeful.
Thank you I'm stealing that, that's awesome.
My cliche necromancer turned into a Lich whose partner is a dracolich, they are working for the god of undeath, siphoning 1% of all the souls of the dead from the prime material, keeping them from moving on to their destined resting place. They are taking a portion of the souls for themselves. The god of undeath wants to stretch their sphere onto the prime material, but the lich and his partner are actually trying to thwart him by allowing the invasion of the prime material to happen, but attempting to mantle him during his passage between the planes via the spell they've been saving the souls for: Avatar. Ultimately they are still vastly evil guys doing vastly evil things, but until the party can do something about it, he is unbeknownst to the world, the best and greatest hope.
Really awesome
That’s fucking awesome
nice!
...I'm sorry Guy, that old lady is actually someone's PC, and you're her nemisis...
"An afternoon without the kids" is villanous motivation I can get behind xD
I would eat newborn dragons for THAT.
"Darth Saber, who had a Lord Vader in his pocket"
😂
"Let's make a nasty nemesis."
"How nasty?"
"Lady Jackar level nasty"
"Oh...that's nasty."
I'd like it if you showcased everything you do with the character, it helps a lot especially for people who are new to being the DM.
What the change of gender makes me think of is people in the world talking about "Be careful if you meet Jackar or you might be devoured." "Fear Jackar" ... no sign of gender for the possible surprise of what you might encounter, the opposite of what you expected.
When you did his voice I was absolutely delighted.
"That's going to give anyone who encounter her nightmares." Dude it's gonna give me nightmares just hearing that.
Personally, I find ostentatious displays of wealth a much more evocative image of greed than the old greed = gluttony conflation.
Since I'd started my current campaign recently, I'm really just making tweaks here and there. Already had a good idea of my nemesis, but I managed to get some very fabulous changes from this.
The biggest boon actually came from considering this video while watching Kung Fu Panda 2; Lord Shen is a fantastic nemesis to deconstruct. His fear was actually what struck me as the most compelling part of his character, so I added an overwhelming fear to my BBEG, Irem. Despite being a confident mage, returned from the Atlantean era to the modern day, he's still terribly afraid of his old nemesis/murderer. She's long gone, but any hint at her embodiment/reincarnation or even her legacy would make Irem stupid with anxiety.
I also decided, since his old empire was Egypt-inspired, that he has mechanical prostheses suggestive of the Osiris myth. And he smells of Egyptian lotus perfume.
Love the creepy slurpy voice at the end. (I'll be sleeping with the lights on tonight). Thanks for the great video!
A patron who promotes greed, desire, opulence and hunger? Guy, you've got to She Who Thirsts, Slaanesh.
First i was thinking khorne with a name like worldeater. Then slowly moved towards slaanesh before taking a sharp turn left into Nurgle. I was picturing a Great Unclean one till he said 6ft 450lbs lol
@@gamingsnorlax5405 Dune, which he referenced with the Baron Harkonnen, was one of the most influential works behind 40k. Dune invented the God-Emperor of Mankind.
Please I need more of this series. This is actually helping me so much and I thank you sincerely
Guy, your portrayal of the nemesis is just amazing. You alone brought it to life!
Can't say thank you enough for sharing your creative process! Really appreciate the permission to be relaxed and flexible while creating and enjoy the process
I am loving this series so much!!! Thank you Guy :) I'm building my campaign with you!
I love the way you described the villain, especially voice. When i played out a similar theme, my BBEG was gaunt and pale to try to symbolise that despite the fact that he has everything (he was rich), he actually held very little power. Just a cool juxtaposition i noticed as you were describing.
It sounds very nice, maybe the slug is allergic to the dragon. Consuming them would finally make it detach itself from Jakkar. It will be interesting to see her follower too, do they share her hunger or by serving her they are not eaten?
Day 2 of making my campaign following these videos; feeling happy enough with my progress. Thanks for making this series, Guy; it's really helping with my writer's block.
Yesterday I laid the groundwork of the adventure: Xalvie wants the ancient holy relic of Val'sophir deep in the Lands Left Behind before her father returns from a great expedition, but has difficulty because she does not want to desecrate lands hallowed by Val'sophir.
The themes I have for my adventure I have down as: exploring hostile lands, surviving great dangers, collecting ancient artefacts, and honouring ancient deities.
My nemesis I've created is Kekall, of Blasphemy: a tall, lithe, and spiteful person, who is obsessed with the gifts and treasures of the Land Left Behind, with the firm delusion that they are owed these objects. They found a cursed lantern, and twisted by frustration and the cursed thing, swore instead to blaspheme the existence of the gods of the Land Left Behind.
They are a Blunt Force Trauma nemesis, with a quirk of their mere touch desecrating and corrupting whatever it is they touch. They shall represent the exact opposite of the party, and ideally evoke revulsion in them as such.
They carry with them their demonic lantern, which permanently flows with green smoke, which pools at Kekall's feet and spreads a small distance before it fades away. The smoke gradually corrupts, and when spread onto hallowed places creates a caustic slime that gradually spreads and desecrates it, and develops to prevent access to whatever treasure may be in wait.
Kekall is also in something of a 'blind spot' for the creatures and residents of the Lands Left Behind: putting them under little threat or danger compared to the party.
That voice for Jakar gives me the creeps... An excellent job! I would love to go through more details of the character, but that is mostly because I find it easier to learn by seeing and doing. Either way good show and I look forward to the next episode.
my god, I am absolutely in love with this character, what a delightfully horrific being she is! I highly reccomend looking up Krew from Jak II, his appearance and voice delivery could really help with inspiration for Lady Jakaar.
I'm actually doing a quick drawing of her right now, and I'd love to see if I could find a way to show you when I'm done.
The creative process is so beautiful in motion.
This is so helpful and since I've found this series I've found motivation to make a game again. My previous game touched an undead war. This one I'm working on due to your series now tells of a part mechanical ghostly woman who absorbs souls through an embedded astral glove and needs to board an astral ship to obtain the soul of a powerful necromancer mage so she can control the glove rather than it controlling her.
The danger with a series like this, one that is projected to take a year, is that by the end, only a limited number of people will actually do the work every week and still be up to date.
So far I'm loving this, it's fantastic. I have no access to players at the moment, but am planning for my project to become the basis of a novel - same worldbuilding rules apply, it's just that if I need the action to move past the blacksmith's forge towards the distant castle, I can direct the characters to the castle, whereas PC's might decide that as I mentioned the blacksmith, something of great import lies within.
Of course, what would be cool, assuming that I am not alone in having an outlet for my creativity, if there are others out there who are working without a definite player group, could something be organized among ourselves? Is anyone else working here alone?
I think you'll find plenty of people to work with if you head over to the discord.
I am in the same situation. This is a great creative outlet but I don't have players so I should probably check out what discord is... I still don't know. Is it a forum? I thought it functioned like steam.
@@kaelim888 It is essentially a replacement for mumble, ventrilo, teamspeak and general apps for group chats like line and skype.
Simple to use and manage and very lightweight on performance.
Available both for mobile and desktop/laptop
@@dall3n88 Very concise, thank you XD. A few channels I subscribe to say to check out their discord but I never had reason to until now.
Keep these coming man. You are revolutionizing my thought process.
Im a player in a homebrew campaign, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the NPC "Top hat Stan" is going to be the BBEG, purely because he cannot die and will do anything for money. He had been with the party once, but had betrayed us by stealing another player's sons. Im talking about the little ones you claim as your own, and let me say that he is trying to get to the two in time before experiments are performed. On a race against the clock, this was rather fun in our homebrew campaign!
Im a little late to this but I'm trying to make a campaign for me and my friends. No one else likes world building so I've been volunteered.
Your videos are super helpful! Thanks for making them!
I am working along side you Guy and using this really cool book I recently purchased to help. I'm very much looking forward to certain chapters to help clarify my understanding. Also, just saying here, I have accepted your challenges for the new year. Thanks for the modivation and entertainment.
Might I request that the world for this project be made publicly viewable, such that even for details that don't make it into video form, we can at least see and be inspired by the finished product?
I wouldn't mind a video watching you fill in the rest of the descriptions. I think seeing the way you work out the character is rather helpful.
Sentence: The Elders of the Sea are trying to stop the spread of the cult of Krae before the next conclave. They try to eradicate villages where the cults are found, but the tribes are so prolific, the Cult continues to grow.
Theme: First impressions may be misleading -Acts of evil may be made out of necessity -The defenseless may be powerful
The Elders are trying to stop the Cult of Krae from spreading the word of Krae to the other Kuo-Toa tribes before their annual conclave; an event in which the tribes birth a new god.
Long term the cults are creating the first Kraken, a god the call Krae-Khan
Thoughts? Love these videos!
This helped me a lot, actually, even though I have a good "villain" planned. Well, I say she's a good villain, but she's more an intractable; basically, she's an old Lawful Evil PC I used to run repurposed as a potential baddie. She has big plans, certainly, and I think the power is there, but she's not big bad material; more of a recurring character who could be an ally or an enemy at any given time.
So, the whole thing about the theme got me thinking, what makes her not an end-game villain? Well, part of the theme I'm going for is that good and evil very much exist, but so does reality. There's good and bad in everything, but there are still certain things that must be done. It's a political/war related setting, really, so there's no real "bad guy" nation, and I want to let my players choose at least some of their alliances. However, that means that the villainess I mentioned earlier isn't really BBEG material because her objective is basically just to reclaim her throne. She was originally made as a PC, after all, so even though she does evil shit, she's not interested in big fish at present and would happily play-nice with them.
But that's just the thing-she's cruel and unusual, but she really just wants what's best for her nation. She doesn't really measure-up that bad in terms of how the theme is; hell, she could end-up being a strong ally for the players if they play their cards right. There's no reason to lock her as a villain or nemesis because what she wants is pretty reasonable, in all honesty.
So, what makes a _good_ bad guy for this setting? Well, I did some prototyping with what happened to turn into a lich, and then it hit me: my theme is essentially the realities of life-hard decisions, good people doing bad things, bad people doing good things, etc.-(even that much is still a WiP, though) so the greatest offense to that would be from undeath. The best villain is, in essence, someone so bereft of life that they no longer comprehend its nuance, who seeks to end human suffering not by helping those who suffer, but rather by removing the human condition entirely. Not extermination, mind you, but a pure removal of humanity. I've even toyed with the idea of making him some form of automaton-lich hybrid, since I'm using a late-Victorian-esque setting. Much work still to go, I think.
This helped me out so much.
My 'Dragon who wants to rule the world' turned into *"Rhol'vyn of the Fallen, once a benevolent protector of the mortal realm, now seeks punishment onto the world for the betrayal of his kind by spreading the remaining life force he has left to resurrect all the dragons unrighteously slain by mortal hands."*
Video #2!!! This was great. I fleshed out my mimesis, but I think I'll make another one just in case. I'm thinking something like competitors. Two main villains who are racing to get the goods along with the heroes...
Holy crap, I am actually troubled by your voices of the nemesis. Great job.
Guy, thank you so much, before watching this i couldn't make a villian who is in the least bit creative and different, and now i made a character that i trully find interesting. I made an elf Bal'Dar'an "The black sun", a former priest of the god of light now in the service of Vecna, whom he wants to release from his dimensional prison in exchange for bringing back his dead son. Vecna bestowed upon him a right arm (not the arm of vecna) of a long dead mage which has a will of it's own though it doesn't appear so.
You got a regular old Chosen of Chaos as the villain there, in more ways than one, what with the Slaads being chaos-spawn and everything about the villain sounding like an exemplary Warhammer Champion of Chaos Undivided, with some aspects of each ruinous power - looking and feeling Nurgly, with Tzeentchy hunger for power, Khornate behaviour and Slaaneshy appetites. And best part, I'm all but sure that was not a direct inspiration draw and not on purpose. Also, the Slug Slag would be a great insult for her, with what you developed so far. Do depict the entire process of developing her further, though, it's quite fun in its own right and educational for developing stuff.
Excellent series, thank you for your work. I've really developed my story with this series.
the BBEG in the campaign im running right now is actually someone from our world trapped in the game world by some unknown force. This gives him some interesting mannerisms that dont quite fit in to a fantasy setting and its quite fun to mess with. He is also quite the schemer so it has been hard for the party to actually get much face to face time with him outside what he allows as per his grand scheme.
I had something similar in my last high fantasy game, except she wasn't trapped (or the BBEG). She was an agent from a futuristic pseudo-religious cult sent to extricate the power of magic from a simulation-/prison-world meant to keep it calm and happy. She had gone rogue a long time previous--she had, quite simply, fallen in love with someone in the game world.
She ended up an ally, as the party needed her "Sword of the Administrator"--less a sword and more a blessing--to kill her cult's virus, which was turning the (limited AI) gods against the (true AI) denizens of the world.
First thing I thought of when I heard "fat pervasive monster" was Harkonnen.
My tiefling warlocks nemesis is a lawful good aasimar paladin.
The desire to save people from demon spawn sounds good and lawful doesnt it?
I love it when you voice the characters, it really brings them to life. B#
I just need to say, I love you videos!!! thanks for making them!! I am DM too making my own homebrew with my players, this kind of videos help a lot.
I personally think that Lord Jakkar is more disgusting than Lady Jakkar.
Who says Lord Jakkar can't try to seduce both male and female PCs?
.......Shit. I just imagined too much. I almost puked.
Btw, great video, helped me a lot in improving my nemesis.
Hello Guy, I enjoy your videos, and personality. I have been following the videos with a campaign that has been a long time in the making. This is the sentence and theme that best describes my story. Thanks, Joseph
Sentence
Galafyle is bent on the destruction of civilization by gaining control of a demon army, but is having difficulty accomplishing this because Macklyn holds the final artifact needed to complete the demonic summoning. The summoning must occur on a blood moon.
Theme
Perseverance to survive against pure evil.
Love your content! You're the best! This is my obligatory comment to enhance your TH-cam algorithm performance.
Loving this series so far. My villain went from a no name edgy guy who wants world domination for his patron, to a widowed madwoman halfling who is trying to summon a demon to sire a child that will act as a conduit for cosmic energy to strike the realm and tear it asunder as recompense for the world stripping away her family and friends. It's making me feel so big brain
I feel like a bloated all consuming woman nemesis is a very freudian figure...
And that's before he comes up with the oedipus complex inspired line of "come show mama some love"
I think this video also works very well as a stand-alone guide to creating an archvillain. Gave me some inspiration for the archnemesis in _my_ current campaign, too.
A few thoughts I had while watching:
15:16 I like this idea with the slaad slug symbiont. Or maybe we could call it a tadpole :D
In line with this, yes, I think Jackar might have a rather bloated toad-like appearance, since the slaad are generally frog-like themselves.
15:34 Oh, that is interesting! oo *That* is an unique twist. Hey, how about the title "Jackar the Dragon-Eater"? :)
18:28 Oh yes - he might be in a kind of "race" against this slug. Either he consumes it, or it consumes him. What do you think about that?
21:10 Hah! Toad-like! :)
33:00 I don't know :D I'd be afraid that this would open the way for too much sillyness. I think a villain of this kind should be way past any questions of gender-specification. Especially if you consider the slaads' way of procreation...
To continue developing along, I'll pick up my own exercise then:
Keximus is a Vader-type blunt force nemesis, but not the biggest villain in the world. He's a General of his home nation of half-orcs, risen to prominence and power over decades of service, and is one of its major figures.
The half-orcs of my exercise setting are mostly bound together in a powerful military-focused nation led by legendary Twin Queens; they are extremely species-centric (though not genocidal to others), and most of these half-orcs are proudly, violently loyal to the Queens, Keximus being no exception, professing a personal love towards them.
His entertaining quirk is that he loves to talk and monologue even as he sics troops on the PCs, and seems to NEVER shut up about himself, the half-orc pride, the Queens and his immediate goal. However, he's no clown in action - he's a very capable swordmage and has the power to back up his talk; he wields a single sabre-style blade, wears enchanted plate armor and is large, buff and imposing despite his venerable age. On top of that, he has the loyalty of his numerous half-orc troops, to whom he maintains an almost paternal attitude.
He stands out thanks to his love of wearing a peculiar ancient artifact on his person at all times - a relic of the vanished high elves, ancient progenitors of half-orcs in this world, a large glimmering piece of metal that is supposed to be key to opening the Sanctuary of the Void where his desired prize, the Exalted Blade, lies, thus symbolizing his personal knowledge and interest in the high elves and his quest. It endows him with his magical powers, such as brief invulnerability, ability to blink and project force and energy from his sabre and free hand.
His goal is to breach the Sanctuary of the Void and claim its relics, particularly the Exalted Blade, through the power of which he seeks to conquer the world in the name of the Queens and half-orcs, and to find a way to cure many debilitating diseases that ravage their race in this setting, which only they seem to suffer from - he is confident the answer to this problem lies within the Sanctuary and with the Blade. He has a personal motivation in this, too - in unlocking these mysteries, he seeks to understand the planar origins of the high elves' former power and to claim them for himself, becoming the Queens' mate, and even potentially transcending the material plane into some greater form, perhaps as a racial deity of the half-orcs.
Though General Keximus has a mighty build and imposing figure, he is also clearly old, his body showing signs of his great age: his posture is weakened and his flesh withering; his face is gaunt and a mess of wrinkles, his eyes are pale and his hair is almost gone. He tends to speak in short bursts of heavily emphasised phrases and sound quite dramatic and bombastic, loving to taunt his enemies or extol his troops and faction pride; however, he doesn't ever shout at the top of his lungs, instead relying on how his voice carries and maintaining a tone of controlled, cold power and certainty.
He's very driven and focused on his quest, and since the PCs have to be key to it, he claims them as his tools that have to submit to him or be taken by force. He leads from the near-front, sending his troops to claim ground (and try to take PCs) first, but ready to bring his fearsome power to bear if his forces fail, being a remarkably powerful warrior. With his tendency to talk a lot, it's his voice you'll hear first, before you even see him, though the clanking of his and his forces' armor is also quite telltale. He's actually quite neat and clean as far as half-orcs go, but still smells of sweat; however, his high elven artifact makes the air about him have a tinge of ozone, a strong one if he uses his powers.
When he's happy, he monologues bombastically about whatever victory has been achieved. When he's sad, instead of moping, he makes loud yet cold threats and promises certain doom and destruction to whoever wronged him (unless that's another half-orc power figure, in which case his rage is more concealed). When he's angry, he makes yet more of such threats and promises. But regardless of mood, it's rare to find him not carrying on about something.
I was thinking that when he/she consumes, instead of just gaining power they gain the powers of what they consumed. Just a thought, but wherever it goes.... a truly memorable villain.
Kirby?
OK, I finally gave in and started a free account at World Anvil :-) So far, it's proven to be remarkably useful! I would love for it to support my system stats as well (Burning Wheel), but even without this, it's awesome. As for this week's challenge, my Nemesis is growing, and the world is growing with her and around her. It's really exciting to see my mind adding more and more details to the structure that I started with the sentence from last week. So far so good, that you for the video!
Wait, G'Kar, ambassador for the Narn Regime? Londo Molari's Nemesis, maybe. He does have a great arc though.
I feel like a Dragon Omelette would be pretty delicious...
Imagine if people laid eggs. Would eating one be okay?
With me? Sure. With society? Probably not.
@@DieBlah Dragon Egg omelettes would probably taste pretty spicey, no chilli required =)
Towards the beginning of the video you talked of the thing that kind of announces the presence of the baddie, like Darth Vader’s breathing. After your descriptions around the 28:00 mark, I think his tell should be flies or nasty insects increasing in numbers the closer you get to him. Tension could build (at least once) in an adventure as the players encounter flies not yet realizing it is announcing the nearness of their nemesis.
And maggots
Another interesting way to look at this character is to make him emaciated, and in a constant state of agony. He wants the dragon eggs, because he can use them to make an elixir of repelling to get the slug off his back before it kills him.
Visually, I'm getting the image of "The Butcher" from Diablo as you describe Jackar lol
Yeah dude.. especially from the MOBA.
New subscriber. You're awesome bud. Keep up the good work
Baron Brightwalker, God's Greatest Failure, started as a BFT Nemesis but as i designed him (an unholy light that follows him, golden armour that's massive and reflects attacks, a calm collected personality) and with the theme of consequences, I decided he fit better as a plotter, mentor. He leads this steampunk army hit with a disease and he's so cool, that the players want to help, until it's revealed he was using them to forward his attempt on the throne he feels he deserves, and proves the technology he built is more powerful than the gods he failed.
Actually got several 'BBEG' in mine, all big threats, all with different goals, and while the players are doing their stuff so too will they. The reason It put BBEG in quotes is not of them are necessarily evil, they only are from a certain point of view, so the players could: do away with them, even join all of them, rather than fight them, but of course that just makes other people your enemies.
That voice... *shiver*
Reminds me of Ungoliant from the Silmarillion with her themes. Very cool
you are the ultimate love your videos so inspiring and a leader in the world building RPG community keep the videos coming you are my Game of Thrones :)
These videos are so helpful and I love them but I wish that the schedule wasn't so long. I'm making a campaign for my friends to play over the summer (Starting June in my hemisphere) and I wish it wouldn't take a year for the planning to run its course.
You must go onto the other parts, such as mental state, etc...! (Idk if you did it yet, I'm still watching the series)
29:30 Perhaps? When angry, he gets much more hungry and consumes his minions nearby or, hopefully, the PCs or their allies if possible.
I would have made the slug monster some kind of psychic hive mind symbiote that allows the villain to control his minions and force them to obey him (like hypno toad or something).
Otherwise, I can't imagine why they would.
But in exchange for this power it gets to feed on him.
Haven't finished the video yet, but the way you described touch reminded me of a water balloon and I imagined this disgusting vile thing popping and spewing nasties everywhere. Don't worry, I'm OK... I only thew up a little bit!!
Wow! Jackar the World Eater is basically the same as Lynn C. Thompson, the CEO of Cold Steel Knives!
so glad i'm a year late so i can do this in a few months instead of over a entire year
Notes for myself:
Full Name: Archmagus Maximillian Vikram
Title: Archmagus
Quirk: Emits blue sparks occasionally.
Equipment: A staff that siphons arcane energy (counterspell AND dispel magic. It’s a 2-for-1!) or maybe helmets that he puts on spell-casting minions to control them or steal their magic.
Desire: To channel the power of the Manawell so that he can power a ritual to replace Mystra as the god of magic.
Minor note. A module needs a BBEG. A campaign setting needs conflicting villains and factions.
Nemesis list:
Robyn the Lich
Zorr'in the ally who has the phylactery.
Various undead lieutenants
Leadership of freed slaves who support the Robyn and Zorr'in because they're freeing the slaves.
Five monatchs ruling the slavery based nations the lich seeks to rule.
Abyssal Lord Zorr'in wants to kill and steal it's power.
Variety of factions within each nation including tebels seeking to free slaves. Allow PC to create factions in backstory or during the adventure.
Lich has legendary magic item that allows animation of vast numbers of undead.
Zorr'in and Robyn are usually encountered as depleted Simulacrum depending upon magic items, scrolls and potions for combat. Less likely to instantly kill PCs during lower level encounters.
All the villians will try to recruit heroes by portraying themselves as the only thing preventing a worse evil from occuring.
Can you pls do the while thing on character pls. That would be very helpful.
Very creepy indeed makes me think of a Nurgle & Tzeentch demon combo..
@ 16:45 Jakarr the Necromonger. He'll lead the way to the underverse. World Eating, it all fits.
Your nemesis reminds me of the Asorbaloff from S2E10 (Love & Monsters) Doctor Who.
I have crooks and bad folks, a few questionable villains that are generally more good than they are bad (although that's always arguable) but no nemesis. I got nothing going on while watching this but it got me thinking, I need a nemesis.
My setting is Eritrea / Ethiopia set in a fantasy world. It's writing itself - both nations trying to overcome a recent 30 yr civil war while on the border in the Afar Depression of the Denakil Desert are sulfur beds and a huge real world volcano - Erta Ale. I've just looked up the local name for the Straits at the Gulf of Aden - the Bab al Mandeb, which means gateway of tears. How cool is that.
Erta Ale is a gateway to the plane of fire. Dwarfs are from Yemen and are a dying people, cursed by a previous Fire incursion a thousand years before. They are searching deep for redemption, and found something best left alone. Erta Ale stirs.
Orcs live among the sulphur pits of the Depression 300ft below sea level in one of the hottest places on earth, guardians against the flame. Living by evaporating salt from the lake in the depression, trading it to the outside world for food. Subsistence only, but they have their secret rituals to keep the barrier between world strong.
Elves. Well elves are the Colonial Italians. Come from far away lands to inflict civilization upon the local humans. They have left their mark in cities architecture and elements of the language but due to a century of colonial atrocity they are not well liked.
Female is just perfect! It's the ideal antithesis to the typical "Gaia / mother godess / origin of life / Venus of Willendorf"-type. I'd go with the slug-derived super power to shift planes or even better dimensions of existence. That would create fine synergies with the Slaad/different dimension thing as well as the "Devourer of Worlds" function. And it would also symbolise the circularity and infinity of greed: the BBEG needs to eat Worlds in order to maintain the power to go to other worlds and consume them! That would also give it the overwhelming type of 'Galactus'-like "I've ate so many worlds, what could you unworthy worms do to stop me?!"-arrogance and generate the "if we don't stop it NOW, no one can EVER stop it!"-feeling the players need to really drive it home.
Greed is a famine at the feast. An Oni at once bolted and starved being devoured by the far realm slug. A slug that plans on soon abandoning the Oni host and bonding to a hatchling dragon.
My nemesis is a god who is comprised of four lesser deities, who will act as temporary villains that the PCs will have to defeat before finding out a great secret!
Haha oh my so repulsive!!! Absolutly brilliant lmao
Love this series!
I feel as though there should also be examples on how to detail the other types of BBEGs. What, if I wanted a never-present one?
I think making the nemesis female is a nice homage to the arthurian tales because camelot was brought down by Guinivere's lust (greediness ) for Lancelot and Uther Pendragon, of course was Arthur's father. If you want to add a little enigmatic prophecy Geoffrey Monmouth's Kings of Britain has an extensive scene where Merlin is foreseeing and describing a battle between a red dragon and a white one.
I'm in awe at the absolute size of this lad.
33:05
*audible shivers down spine*
another awesome vid, thankyou
“For you, *boy*….I’ll make an exception.” (shudder) 😂😂😂
I just realized, my nemesis is almost the opposite of Jakaar. A pale, frail, skeletal body chained up as the king of the shadowfell. It's kinda hilarious XD
Nemesis never present
- works in shadow of Asa's fear and trauma
Name: (Banania)
Overall description:
A very manipulative and evil spirt brimming with desperate want to extract revenge on her two younger sisters that escaped a similar fate that she didn't. Mostly shows her angelic self in Asa's memories, subtle manipulating. Uses her dead state to scare or guilt trip Asa. Only uses demon self in Asa's nightmares, and covers up her presence with her chaos self so that Asa won't remember it was her.
Appearance descriptions:
- Angelic self: long silk and silver hair, Opel skin, bright green eyes. Speech: warm, light and strong. Body: lean. Beautiful young woman with grace and confident, feels comforting.
- Dead state: twisting and tearing hair, white skin with purple rash, empty stare. Rotten and limp, her appearance only echoing what she once looked like, feels revolting.
- Demon self: dirty and tearing white hair (see: corrupted lady in lotr), bluish glow, purple/white skin, contrasting red mix green eyes. Speech: high pitched, angry and guilting. Body: skin and bones. Starved and desperate, bloodied green eyes, chunks of dirty white hair falling or clinging to her boney body, feels dangerous.
- Chaos state: chains or black, silver chaos with blinding green light. Strong and thick chains wrapped around Asa's throat, or a consuming black, silver mass and blinding green light, feels restricting.
Quirk: influence can be broken by Asa's hope to find her sister, making her motivated instead of miserable.
Tactics/tools: fear of disobedience, insecurities like feeling stupid or weak, guilt of not following her parents and doubts of making the choice to live instead of dying.
Desire: Dranging her sisters down with her
Lady Jakkar, is now nightmare fuel.. *bleghargle-shiver-gag* oh my gawd Ugh!!! xD LMAO (the Mcdonald's burger bit made my day though ROFL)
I think hhe should be gowned in gems and coins. Not fully but like think she had started this crusade he had that shirt and she just never took it off.
What video were you unpacking the villain types? Is there anyway to link to the videos you refer to?
here: th-cam.com/video/9sgI9f77KnA/w-d-xo.html
I had to go back and look it up myself
I think what would be good is if you mention a video with more info about something that you have done you should link that
I think my characters would be great at shaking her resolve just cause of the way I tend to play them. And maybe I'd have to make another character after but it's worth to convey the message of him/her...not necessarily having the wrong idea but doing it in the worst way they could
I was thinking that the Slug could give the Nemisis dominion over the Slaad, and that conquering the world would allow him to expand her control over the Slaad further.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who types "attacked" when they mean "attached"