Building Villains

The villain needs to bring one thing to the story: Conflict. While it's fine for the hero to have an interior conflict, you need some sort of external conflict, the conflict that provides the punishment should the hero fail to resolve the interior issue. A villain who doesn't provide conflict is a weak villain and needs to be better well-defined.

One of the biggest problems is defining the villain, or the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG to his friends). This is usually due to one of three problems:

• The villain was just added to the story to make sure there was a bad guy. He may be a great concept, but he's just not part of the story.
•  The villain is part of the universe, but just isn't linked to the hero. It just feels like the two are fighting just to be fighting more than anything else.
•  The villain is just plain weak and needs some serious strengthening to work as a villain.

The first unlinked villain is also the "generic villain"; he's the Evil Rich Guy threatening to demolish the local youth center, the World Conqueror having to deal with teenagers, or the bank-robbing nephew of the hero who keeps finding those powerful artifacts or letting the monster-of-the-week out; he keeps things going, sure, but he just feels like more part of the furniture of the setting than the real villain: You could replace him with a futon and no one would really notice.

It should be noted that while these villains could work in comedic stories (they're usually over-the-top villains who can be stopped relatively easily), they don't work in more serious stories because they're usually just not at the same power level as the hero; just like a good romance, equals or near-equals make for more compelling stories: If I can stop the villain just by getting him a job or he can kill the hero any time he wants, is there really a conflict? This is why you need to make sure the villain fits the story.

The unlinked villain can add conflict, but there needs to be some sort of personal link between the two. While this is sometimes obvious (they were college rivals, siblings who fought over everything, even people with competing theories), it can also be that the villain represents something that the hero hates; the crime boss who specializes in human trafficking while the hero is a former prostitute, or the science with no safeguards against the eco-hero, for example. That link provides a necessary conflict between the two.

Of course, you'll always create the villain who may have sounded like a good idea on paper but just fell flat in execution. They may be well-linked but just aren't as powerful as the hero, may be too focused, or may just not be right for the story; they just don't provide the necessary conflict. The obvious way of dealing with these guys is to make them a henchman or a one-off, so don't scrap them; they can be recycled. Just be aware that anyone can create a weak villain and keep an eye out for them.

[Like other instructions, don't feel as if you need to follow these instructions in the order presented or once you finish one step you can never go back; if you decide his costume has to have a huge feather, then you may need to mess with origin a little, for example. Use this as you see fit.]

The Concept

You need to start with some sort of high concept. Consider the Big Block from which you will carve the villain: Is he the conqueror type, or the supremacist? Is he about personal power or even trying to empower others? Does he demand perfection from everyone around him or does he just want to do what he does but has to deal with people slowing him down? For our purposes, you need to be able to define the villain in just a few words, like 5–10 words. Don't worry about details; trust me, we'll be filling those in soon enough. Just come up with the concept of the villain and keep that concept as simple as possible; it's going to get complicated soon enough.

The Niche

This is sort of the important one: In the ecology of the world, where does the villain fit? Is he the guy on top, the apex predator of the world? Does just want to rule one corner of the world? Is he inventing things for the benefit of others, to make himself more perfect, or just because he likes inventing? Does he just want to be more successful and has defined it in financial terms? Or does he just want a better future for his kids? He can just be about survival, and he can define it just by making sure he has enough resources, a secure location, or even getting rid of everyone else to eliminate the competition. Heck, he can just be a scam artist either in over his head or trying to pull off the biggest scam ever.

You are defining his role in the world here and we're starting to work with motivation. We're also starting to look at what kind of crimes he's into, even if he doesn't see them as such; is it really theft if he's just taking what's rightfully his or giving it to the poor? The question here is where he fits in the world and how he sees himself.

The Origin

This is a twofer: Not only do you need to decide on the villain's motivation but how he gained his power. These are twinned for a good reason: Each defines and is defined by the other; they are joined at the molecular level, so to speak. The motivation can be simple (avenging himself against the world) to relatively complex (stealing money to build homeless shelters as the first stage to take over the world), or even silly (imprisoning the world's squirrels as an energy source). Deciding on the motivation is the easy part; it's like setting a goal, and those are easy to do.

The origin needs to answer not only how he adapted that motivation, but how his history has made him the best choice to accomplish that goal: Did he decide on squirrels because the math just lined up or because he was attacked by one? How is getting the money together to get all of those wheels together? How is he trapping squirrels? You also need to decide on how this puts him into conflict with the hero: Is the hero an animal lover who thinks all living things should be free or is the villain's thefts to raise funds for his traps and wheels putting him on the hero's radar?

Think of the motivation as "the goal" and the origin as "the why and how he's accomplishing the goal" and you should be fine.

The Personality

In all honesty, this may be the step you end up doing first or even second, but this is as far into the process as you can do things without addressing the personality of the villain. This usually breaks down into three variants:

•  The villain is the dark reflection of the hero. In this case, the hero's main traits are just made more intense, given a darker reason, or show how close the hero is to the line of villainy. Collecting cards is a great hobby, but a villain is willing to steal cards to make his collection bigger and/or more powerful, destroy an opponent's cards to weaken the opponent, or even use the cards to trap the soul of his opponent in a card to eliminate them or get revenge for even the smallest slight.
•  The villain is a focused personality trait. While the villain can be three-dimensional otherwise, he is the living personification of a particular trait, be it something as general as greed or anger or something as specific as hating a specific creature or fear of a particular color. Inventors or would-be rulers sometimes fall under this section. It is then just a matter of building from there, either making the trait one that rules every action of the villain or just comes up; either way, the motivation should reflect this. 
•  The villain just does things that others perceive as "evil." This can be a businessman who does great things for the community but cuts corners. It can be a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, usually. It can be the bureaucrat who doesn't like dealing with a particular type of person. It can even be a hero more interested in defeating those who break the law than actually following it. In essence, they would be great people but for their particular brand of evil.

Regardless of how you define the personality, you nonetheless need to define it somehow. The villain defines how serious the conflict is, and it can be argued that the conflict between hero and villain adds to the power of the story; a villain with a weak personality or that can be overwhelmed by the hero's personality makes for a weak story. So have fun here, but remember that he needs to be able to not only stand up to the hero, but make the hero doubt his conviction, and he can't do that unless he believes in himself.

The Outfit

This is about so much more than just having fun, you need to have some of that here. The outfit needs to express the personality of the villain; if he sees himself as a ruler, he's going to be dressed in the best possible clothes. Warriors will be loose but still look good. Thieves will dress in black to hide better and in tight clothes to avoid snags; an athlete will also dress in tight clothes, but to show off their body and is more likely to dress in bright clothes. The foil is going to dress darker for brightly dressed heroes or in bright colors if the hero likes dark colors, presumably just to annoy him.

In short, the outfit needs to represent how the villain thinks of themselves while serving a practical side as well.

But you definitely should have fun dressing up your villains.

The Weapon

This is how the villain attacks, and is well-loved by their therapists. In general, more passionate villains, especially those who like to get their hands dirty, are going to use melee weapons. More intellectual characters will tend toward staves and complicated martial arts weapons while more brutish types will go for axes and clubs. Honorable fighters prefer more medieval weapons while those without choose from the spectrum of weapons, but prefer added spikes, edges, or rust. Spears are preferred by those with a historical bent or that prefer agility over strength.

I'm not going to get into the psychology of swords (certain mindsets just seem to be drawn to particular swords), but keep in mind there is one when deciding which sword is best.

Villains more interested in getting the job done or keeping their hands clean will use missiles, preferably guns or crossbows, but even slingshots have their fans. We're ignoring more exotic options, of course; portal generators are pretty obvious, but how often do you see people using boy/girl guns (guns that change gender), instant dehydrators (that convert people to twelve-sided polyhedrons), or cutefurrydeath grenades?

The weapon does not need to be physical. Some tongues need to be registered, and paperwork can be deadly just being served. This also includes superpowers and magical abilities; while there is a psychology like there is for swords that should be respected, just use whatever works best for the villain.

Some villains will prefer to use assassins, henchmen, and bodyguards; they just don't want to get their hands dirty and they don't need to. However, you need to then decide on their choice of weapon.

The Defense

Defenses are much more straightforward. If the thought the choice of attack was a personal choice, how one defends oneself can get even stranger. Thick skin, armor, force fields, and even dodging in their infinity diversity are the basics; force fields alone have scientific, magical, telekinetic, and heat-based variants, just to begin with. Suits of armor can be downright medieval to futuristic power armors, while thick skin just gets weird when you look at the option, especially when coupled with attack options (like thick skin with acid pustules). Dodges can come in straight physical dodges, teleportation, and even "you were just aiming at the wrong location" options.

Portal guns come up again, as does stretching out of the way. Non-physical options really apply here: No one attacks the king, for example, and there are other cultural limits; how many heroes would hit a woman? Sure, the lion with the huge fangs is dangerous, but are you really going to hurt the kid's favorite pet? The same applies to the witch's familiar, who is a woman, by the way. The three-foot-tall dwarf may be weak, but his ability to intimidate can make him virtually immune to attack. Throw in hypnotic commands and mystical enchantments, and hitting the villain gets harder.

Heck, even money can act as a defense when the hero needs it from the villain. Like attacks, defenses can get weird.

The Weirdness 

This is the catch-all for any unlisted special abilities that aren't attacks or defenses, like teleportation, the ability to summon demons, or even alchemy. This can also include free drinks at any local bar, ridiculous wealth, or a really cool car. Or a beater car that never seems to fall apart even though it could at any moment. How would you count lycanthropy? Have a large organization where you can get training, advice, heavy weapons, and warm bodies for the invasion?

Bet you didn't think you could include "army soldier" as a special power, did you?

What about your evil lair? Sure, it can be a cave, a skyscraper, or the parents' basement, but they call count.

This also includes limitations, like being affected by particular shiny rocks, having to do anything a gorgeous woman says, or not being alive during the day. If he's trapped in a specific area, needs possession of a human body, or must count grains of rice, these need to be noted. Sure more mundane weaknesses could apply, like having an eye patch, being an alcoholic, or the ankle bracelet, but who wants that, right?

Have fun with the concept; the sky isn't even the limit considering some people have their own private universes.

The Plan 

No villain is a complete anarchist; they have some sort of plan to attain their goal(s), even if it is, in fact, spreading anarchy. It can be simple (throw a pie at every hero) or convoluted ("I have this simple 50-step plan for ruling the world, and I'm currently on Step 14") as it feels right for the person in question. Keep in mind that having a plan and following it are not the same things, and those stupid heroes are always trying to ruin his plans.

You should also not feel like you need to actually detail these plans out, even if you plan on making it a fully animated presentation. Just knowing that such a plan exists is good enough.

The Enemies

This is probably the easiest section to deal with: Who is trying to capture, kill, or marry the villain? Obviously, various stripes of law enforcement will be involved, possibly even the military, but try to keep it to the ones with a special grudge against the bad guy. Sure, he could be on the wanted list of every hero group out there, but are there any specific heroes or even other villains that would love to see him beaten down or otherwise out of action? You could even include the ex-fiance he left on the altar as he was hauled away to prison during his origin as an enemy. Heck, some villains can't even have food delivered due to their special requests, like the delivery boy himself.

Basically, have some fun, get creative, but keep it simple.

* * * * *

Building a villain isn't that hard; it just takes deciding what your story needs and going from there. The villain needs to be designed with the needs of the story in mind, be it a symbol of the ongoing conflict, the hero's current problem, or even someone who helps build your world; the bottom line is that your villain needs to echo something else happening in the story. Keep that in mind, more than any other word of advice here, and your villain should be memorable.