The evil opposite has been a staple of fiction since ancient legend, where brutish womanizing heroes were always mirrored by their opposite number in the thin sickly and apparently sexless villains who fought their rival with trickery and deceit. While our notions of conflict and character development have evolved somewhat over the centuries the ideal of the villain being the opposite of the hero is the same. The villain is, ultimately, a dark reflection of the character. In some cases the villain is almost entirely a true opposite. Other times creators allow for similarities in just the right way to turn a villain into a rival, or an evil twin of the character. Today we will explore the concept of a villain as a reflection of the hero and the little variations in similarities that create differing flavors of antagonist.

The Perfectly Dark Reflection

For the most part the antagonist in a campaign is typically the complete opposite of a player character. Where the character is often an everyman who is drawn into adventure and conflict by circumstance the villain is an exceptional being that drives conflict and adventure wherever they go.

Just as a short but extreme example consider the characters Frodo Baggins and Sauron. Sauron is a demigod like being who is extremely powerful, very aggressive, and ambitious in the extreme. In the course of the story he suffers no personal hardship until the end and never gets involved in any direct confrontation. In fact for the entire book he is entirely immobile. For anyone familiar with the Lord of The Rings series you can pretty much guess that none of these things describe Frodo.

A perfect reflection is the easiest but also the blandest archetype of villain you can come up with for your games. They don’t really relate to the characters beyond being that thing which stands in the way of the characters goals. They are the purest form of antagonist, they drive the story by the force of their opposition to the character and their depth is ultimately decided by the characters they reflect. Shallow characters with little to no depth to them are going to produce equally shallow villains. Whereas well written characters are going to produce deep and satisfying antagonists for your characters to face. So make sure you get those character back stories!

The Black Sheep

While being a complete opposite is great for two dimensional villains I’ve always favored villains that are a little bit relatable to the character. They represent a dark reflection of the character; a living example of how different a person can be depending on the circumstances of their life. The black sheep is a character whose beginnings match those of the character. However a single event or series of events sent each of them spiraling down totally different paths. The common approach is to make the characters related, usually either brothers, or father and son, they can have other relationships like mentor and student or even former friends and allies.

This presents the character with the notion that the line between good and evil can be very fine indeed. It approaches the character with the idea that if the positions were switched it is quite possible they would be the ones trying to block out the sun, kill all the villagers or whatever. This relationship can provide a satisfying role playing experience to the players. It gives a villain that they have to think about, not merely oppose and destroy and opens the doors to different flavors of personal and emotional conflict between characters that would otherwise be closed. It’s effective and fun when pulled off right.

The Rival

The rival is a classic antagonist. He doesn’t necessarily have to be evil he simply has to view the character as someone to beat, an equal whose existence serves only to challenge him. They may not be similar in their personality but they should share similar methods and personal views if not morals and ethics. Rivals provide the kind of opposition that always poses a personal challenge to the character. What’s better is that a rival, or rival group, does not necessarily have to directly oppose the characters. Sometimes they can simply be trying to outperform or outwit the characters out of a personal desire to be better than the player’s character.

The best part about a rival is that you can add them after writing your main villain and after you get the characters back stories. That way any main plot you have planned is left untouched while providing a personal challenge that matches the characters and invests them into the plot. They can also grow and evolve with the characters so that they always provide an equal and interesting challenge to the players. Every defeat should force the rival to improve and alter his tactics to further find a way to humiliate and beat his opponent.

The important things about the rival however is that the rival almost never ends the characters lives within the story even when they win. For the rival it’s the knowledge of the defeat and satisfaction of seeing that defeat register on their opponent’s face that drives them, not the death of their foe. That isn’t to say that the rivalry won’t eventually turn lethal it’s just to say that such an event should be treated for the significant turn that it is. The rival is a recurring villain with style and he shouldn’t squander his victory when he has time to gloat.

The Evil Twin

Where the rival is a morally different character with similar methods and ideals the evil twin is the exact same character only with twisted morals and ideals. Certain personality traits and details regarding their histories may be different to reflect this obvious change in their moral codes but otherwise they should be nearly identical.

Evil twins are easy, and tend towards the clichéd. The true difficulty is not portraying the evil twin but portraying them in such a manner as to be interesting. More often than not an evil twin will come out as a cop out to your players. So try to introduce them in interesting and personal ways. I’ve always liked the Planescape: Torment approach (spoiler alert ahead) which was to make the evil twin an aspect of the character that was stolen from them. That is to say the evil twin is, in a way, all the bad things about the character ripped from them and given life. It can be an interesting and exciting character to use if you can work it in just the right way without feeling clichéd. All I can really suggest is do your homework and find out what works and what ends up having a massive entry in TVtropes.com.

Dr. Jekyll, meet Mr. Hyde.

Sometimes the best villains are the characters themselves. They can transform versions of themselves that take advantage of their mental weaknesses to come to the front of the mind and body to wreak havoc on everything around them. A character cursed like this should never suspect they’re the real villain of the game until near the end of the game. Instead the game master should endeavor to leave little clues about; tiny scraps of information like the villains intimate knowledge of the character in order to hint that the villain is not only close to the characters but one of the characters themselves. Reveal it slowly and then when the characters start to realize the true nature of the villain have the character transform in a climactic scene.

This will, more often than not, completely shock and transform the mindset of the player’s in-game. Now it’s no longer the struggle to defeat the enemy but a struggle to find a cure, a struggle to decide whether or not they can save their ally or destroy him to end his alter egos reign of terror. This is the kind of thing that when pulled off well can create a story that players will talk about for years.

A mirror shattered a thousand times.

Building a reflective mirror is an easy way to create a memorable and deep villain to go along with your campaign. In truth you don’t even have to have the characters back stories and sheets beforehand. All you really need is the willingness to make changes to your readymade villains to accommodate the characters into their stories and an understanding of how the player’s characters work. I’ve always been a proponent that the best villains aren’t ones made ready for the plot but made ready for the characters. Give it a shot, and you’ll see why.

Next Time: Good help isn’t all that hard to find.