@@ZipperonDisney I haven't found any just yet unfortunately! I got the premise for my campaign from SlyFlourish's Eberron campaign prep videos, but that really just got me started in the right direction. I've been really enjoying the Manifest Zone podcast where Keith Baker talks all about the setting and how to use different aspects in game for both GMs and Players
Great video. I especially like the bit about "often a villain's motivation is a corrupted contrast between what they want and what they actually need." It adapts well to the villains of every game I'm a part of, and it's helpful to think about. EDIT: in fact, it reveals a weakness in the BBEG of the campaign I'm DMing. A demigod-level barghest that's stranded amongst mortals, leading an entire civilization of bloodshed and conquest, should really want something more specific than "gain more followers, expand the borders, become a real god and create demigod followers." Those are great goals for such a BBEG, especially when more concrete objectives are in play that the PCs can interfere with. But such a BBEG needs a conflict in themselves to be interesting.
Great video and I love the tips for getting the villain in front of the characters without getting taken out half way through the campaign. Having all the sub-villains and many regular folk talking about the main villain works great. Story Time: I did this in my last campaign, where the BBEG was essentially a cult leader who's minions and those affected by him knew his name and deeds. As things progressed, the cult leader would speak through his minions (via mind control). He would try to reason with the players, threaten them, and then taunt them. And his threats weren't idle. The players ignored his threat (feeling he was just ranting and showing off), and the BBEG sent his minions after NPCs they cared about. Some of them died. After that moment, the BBEG became the villain they loved to hate. They were nervous about his mental powers so they spent the rest of the campaign getting what they needed to face him. In the end, he was the guy in the last room of a dungeon, but the build up was so good they were itching to get in there and kick his ass. Taking him out once and for all was a great moment in the campaign. So all the work was worth it.
That sounds super creepy too! Way better than just a Palpatine style projection. Like I said in the vid, more than one way to skin a cat. In my last home campaign, my players were face to face w the main antagonist 4 times before the finale - using none of the techniques in this vid!
i can't see Graysson like a person who's doing something bad, i think she just lives accord to the actual reallity and do the best in her hand to keep undercontrol the undercity without harming or being unfair with them.
Ok. I haven't watched Arcane, and didn't have much interest, until I started watching this video. Your descriptions and narrations of people totally drew me in. The problem is, if you haven't seen the show, but now you want to, this video is spoilers feom head to toe. So, I had to stop watching it halfway in cause I realized I wanted to watch it and so I don't want know anymore. Maybe I will finish this video at some point. But I can't finish watching it, because you were too good. Congratulations. 😊
This is such a good video! Absolutely loved Arcane i thought the storytelling was FLAWLESS. As a Curse of Strahd DM, I get super excited dangling Strahd in front of PCs multiple times throughout the campaign. They are his shiny new toys, so why wouldn't he be playing with them the entire time? My PCs are (so far) completely oblivious that he is with them and it's a joy. His multiple disguises, his ability to scry, his total command over all the creatures and land of Barovia makes him the ultimate God with an ant farm and I love it.
Can't wait to see Jinx evolve to her next stage of villainy in season 2, and look forward to your thoughts of Vander/Warwick's character act. Also the provided Patreon link is broken, seems it tagging on a few extra characters.
well...I kinda think that absolutely every character in theshow is a villain escept Ekko and Caitlyn maybe and I am sorry but council is just as bad as Jinx :D council is respocible that Jinx even exists :D only thing that I didnt like about the show was how poor,oppressed,abused and mentally ill characters were framed as villains while dirty politicians were framed as heroes eventhough they are responible for wven more deaths in this world , in the end of theday league of legends isthe game where everybody kills for money....so there are no heroes :D
I ran a homebrew campaign that took a lot of inspiration from Arcane, it was super fun for me and my players. It really fit since it was a sequel to a previous campaign that also had a similar punk aesthetic, and gangs. The new setting was post apocalyptic as well due to the last campaign ending with the world nearly ending. I took inspiration from silco and jinx for my villains. The main villain of the first act was named Fargo and he was a corrupt politician who turned to illegal necromancy and soul magic after the death of his daughter. He used his riches from being a politician to bribe a gang into doing his bidding. His whole evil plan in act 1 was to take the soul of the princess of the kingdom the players were in, by killing her with this nifty machine he made, and turn it into the soul of his daughter. The whole time the players kept having to fight this evil gang that talked about their evil boss and they had to piece together what was going on. Meanwhile a beloved little girl NPC named Socks kept mysteriously disappearing at random times. It turned out in the finale of act 1 that Socks was being manipulated by Fargo to trust him so that he could use her body to house the soul of his daughter after the princess died. After that Socks became possessed and became the main villain of the second act. And the players didn't kill her because they were desperate to get back the girl that she once was, which they did find in the finale of the campaign. After my friend is done DMing my group wants me to do another sequel to it and I'm very excited because Fargo may or may not be returning as a lich.
@@ZipperonDisney Technology plus magic. Kinda steam punk I guess, higher ranking police officers had firearms and the campaign started on a train cart.
@@ZipperonDisney I had an idea based on another video I watched about the Ethereal Plane, and how spells have the possibility of becoming not only real but sentient, and the question was asked "what if a spell like the phantasmal killer became real?" And lived to hunt and kill. That thought process gave me all sorts of ideas for a potential "big bad" and even maybe the original caster as a "redeemable villain" or something along those lines.
Currently playing a game where my players are working for the BBEG. They made an arrangement with a drow house captain to assassinate her sister, in exchange for her leading them out of the underdark. What they don't know is that this drows sister is the only thing in the way from stopping this lady becoming a queen, and the way out of the underdark is through an old abandoned haunted drow fortress where lolth was locked away in a magical Vault. She plans on tricking the party into freeing lolth which will only put this "queen" in her favor, and give her incredible powers.
@@ZipperonDisney Oh I'd love to watch a series analizing Jon Favreau's movies and series. He says he's very inspired by his TTRPGs games! I think this is specially noticable at The Mandalorian!
@@ZipperonDisney would love a video about dm foreshadowing, motivations, or consequences of choices and relate it to game of thrones. Or how to home brew a campaign based off a popular book or game. Like what the rings of powers did right or wrong.
I love Arcane, but I think you are in multiple regards wrong here in your assessments. First, Jinx is not a villain, she would be a playable character and her tragic story is of course nothing that works in D&D, since D&D cannot properly tell tragedies. Thus you statement that it doesn't has to be a tragedy is true, even though only because D&D cannot handle that in the first place. Having friction within the group of players can be something that hugely improves the game, and that is why rivalry between protagonists is also very common in other media. A true antagonist is interesting when their worldview clashes with that of the protagonists. Like Silco's views clashed with Vander (and vice versa), like Ekko's views clash with Powder/Jinx, like Sevika's view clash with Vi, and so on. And yes, Sevika is the antagonist for Vi, not Silco. Silco serves first as foil for Vander and later for Jayce. Also, I would suggest using a different system than D&D for interesting villains, since D&D is in the end just too combat focused and thus violence is always the go to option and that means that characters like Mel will never work using that system.
@@ZipperonDisney Because D&D is intrinsically focused on overcoming challenges, everything is built upon that premise, and everyone around the table would hate you if you decide to deliberately botch the success of the character just to drive the tragedy character arc you would like to get. You would play against the game system. But sure, if everyone is fine with playing against the system then you can have tragedy even in D&D, but at that point it would not really be D&D anymore.
@@HimitsuHunter I know of Ravenloft, but have no idea what Shattered Sun is supposed to be, did you mean Dark Sun or is that indeed something different from that. And my point still stands, both settings have a higher focus on survival sure, but both handle tragedy in the player character still poorly.
Arcane did SO MANY things right. Creating relatable villains is one of the show's highlights, I'm trying to think of good villains from other shows I've watched in the last decade and they pale in comparison.
