And another note on 'useless' scenes-- if a scene shows something important about a character (insight into personality or something) then it might not necessarily be useless after all.
And that made no sense! Too early in the morning. Bwaaah.
As for villains, sometimes the fun part is watching your Evil Character of Doom get his or her comeuppance in the end-- even if it means you technically 'lose'. In the Time of Trial RPG, for example, all of my characters could be considered villains. One of them is truly Evil with a capital E, whereas the other two happen to be on the wrong side. The specific trick about villains is giving them some kind of strength(s) that really make them a force to be reckoned with, some memorable qualities, and-- this is very important-- weaknesses. Also very important is the motives of the baddie.
Why are they a villain? It's not enough simply to say that they're a villain because one day they just woke up and said 'Yay me, I'm gonna be evil today!'... they need a good (bad?) reason to be doing what they're doing that makes them evil. Sure there's stuff like take over the world, loose demons on villages, wreak havoc, find the Evil Artifact(TM) before the good guys can destroy it, but it doesn't have to be anything world-shaking. Heck... a villain could be pursuing the exact same objective as the hero, except the villain's means of doing so are less than kosher. That works especially well in more politically-oriented RPGs. Time of Trial has two factions working to bring about peace, but one of them is enlisting the 'help' of false gods to do it. And that brings me to another important villain tidbit: how does the ole scumbag operate? (Modus operandi, man!)
For evil villain-ness, I'm going to be vain and use one of mine as an example--
Isliel. For strengths she's fiendishly intelligent (always has a way to cover her tracks), is generally quite persuasive, and is generally 'in the know' about a lot of things. Isliel also has magic ability backing her up. It's awfully hard to pin down someone who switches identities as a part of her line of work-- she's a traitor within a spy organization working for an evil cult.
Memorable qualities-- well, you're best off asking other people. She's a very small woman (they always underestimate the short ones!) and is actually the fiancee of one of the most locked on 'good guys'. (A soon-to-be clergyman, no less!) They've been seperated for 18 months and have only just met each other again. That's going to be interesting. Plus she has the 'evil healer' thing going-- excellent knowledge of the humanoid body and a will to harm instead of heal. Very nasty possibilities there.
Weaknesses-- well, she has about the physical strength of a seven-year-old... a backstabber like her wouldn't hold up well in a toe-to-toe melee combat. If she ran out of dirty 'evil healer' tricks, psychological manipulations (her forte) and deceptions, she would be toast. Arrogance is a classic for villains, plus a massive superiority complex.
Motives-- still working on that one. Isliel likes the feeling of controlling people, has absolutely no freaking conscience, and pretty much has the mentality of a serial killer. (Possible psychological disorder? Twisted sociopathic little woman...) Killing doesn't faze her in the least, and if she must kill to get what she wants, so be it. But what is it she wants? Hmmmmmm...
Modus Operandi-- Deception, misdirection, persuasion, coercion, dirty rumors, betrayal, the works. Oh... and kill all witnesses and make it look like an accident.
She wiggles her way into the good graces and confidence of those she is actually working against, sets them up for the deathblow and turns on them when it's too late. Much of the time, they don't even suspect it's her.
(Who, little ole me? The innocent healer?)
Her Comeuppance-- Most likely all her schemes will cave in under their own weight and a
lot of people are going to be
really torqued off at her... who knows? *evil grin*
And that was a minor dissertation on villainy from your friend VigilanteHamster!
