I have a game I'm planning and I think I need some advice. There is an NPC that I plan on grooming to become the BBEG (unless the players kill him early or similarly do something entirely unexpected)
He is a mage in a position close to the to the royalty in charge. In the battle that launches the adventure, he does his job by whisking off with the vips, protecting them, and saving himself.
So my question is this: How do you have a Treacherous Advisor type character and not have it be obvious? Even to genre savvy players?
>Who's this guy? >He's an official advisor to the king. >Like a vizier? >Kinda. He- >He's evil. We kill him.
Obviously, no goatee or creepiness. And he has the benefit of already having set his plans in motion so he just needs to wait in order to benefit from them. Unless the PCs act to screw them up.
I'd like to actually surprise the players with a reveal.
Connor Edwards
Have him help the party out. Make them get attached.
Then have him show up somewhere and kill one of the party. After they've done what he wants.
Oh also blow the city to the ground, or the king's castle.
Adrian Reed
Put him in a situation where he seems to actually be in danger, and have him berate the PCs for not saving him quickly enough. Make it clear he's not doing anything to ingratiate himself to the PCs. If they press for more, have him launch into a diatribe about how his duty is to protect the royal family, and the presence of the chaotic PCs puts him on edge.
Then do this Alternatively, get better players who don't metagame murderhobo their way through every encounter.
Adam Reyes
Make the King a pain is the neck to deal with (take your pick of personality flaws) so the players go through the adviser for quests and rewards and whatnot, since he's relatively normal and seems pretty annoyed with the King's shit himself
Daniel Ward
Have him being evil come as an actual surprise. The king can be a distant figure - possibly even unlikable and arrogant, self-important, but the vizier should be generous, actively helpful and seemingly open, perhaps even a mentor like figure. Think Obi Wan Kenobi suddenly revealing that it was him who killed Luke's father. When he finally reveals his true colors, it shouldn't be like > Ahahaha, finally, the time for my revenge has come! Now I will combine twelve stones of Evil and rule the kingdom instead of this soft-hearted idiot! But something along the lines of > I'm sorry you've learned about it this way. You have to understand, I'm just trying to survive in those desperate, treacherous times. Perhaps, we could still work together? I remember my friends.
Brayden Morris
Don't make him evil, or at least pointlessly evil. His motivation should be a bit more complicated than fuck the royal family, I should rule'. Give him a reason other than greed/ambition for wanting to overthrow the king.
Have him be friendly toward the player characters and be very generous and helpful towards them when they approach him. Play him as a kindly uncle figure and the main point of contact for the pc's in the royal court.
If the players grow to like him, you could even have him attempt to recruit them into his coup.
Andrew Morales
>Have him help the party out. Decent idea
>Make them get attached. Which begs the question of how to make the PCs get attached. This was my first idea, but if you try to herd the cats too hard, it just ends badly.
>Then have him show up somewhere and kill one of the party. After they've done what he wants. Good villain behavior, but I can't just "kill" a pc. Maybe an npc.
>Oh also blow the city to the ground, or the king's castle. Quality reveal moment.
This is good. Don't try to make the guy immediately likeable, just important and useful.
>get better players who don't metagame murderhobo their way through every encounter. They're not that bad. My example was pure fiction born of my fears. They do tend to announce it to the table when they suspect my plot, prompting a short discussion where they outline where it's going and I have to choose between trying to surprise them or staying the course.
Henry Stewart
as a DM who has succesfully pulled this off before, this works.
Sebastian Anderson
Making the king kind of a dick, but a good ruler seems like a good plan.
> I'm sorry you've learned about it this way. You have to understand, I'm just trying to survive in those desperate, treacherous times. Perhaps, we could still work together? I remember my friends. This is pretty close to how I was imagining him. I had originally planned on the climactic event being an all or nothing deal, but this gave me an idea about him offering the PCs a way to survive without getting directly involved. Neat
Ethan Ward
>I understand raising taxes again will be unpopular >I understand that it will cause the poorest to starve >I understand it will cause the people to hate me >But I need to draw the rebels out, and this will bring them out to face in in months, not years. >Once I have crushed the dissidents, and restored peace to the land the taxes can be lowered again, and I can use the extra money to build a windmill in longfield, and we all know how poor and hungry they are there.
>I need you to kill the kind noble Graham >His constant gifts to the peasants are swaying their loyalties away from their king >I feel he does this to curry favour with the lowfolk, not for love nor his soul but for his lust for power >I fear his Provence is bordered by my foe, and he could cause problems for me, even if he does stay loyal >His son will be much easier to control
I can give more examples if you want
Luis Jones
>His motivation should be a bit more complicated than fuck the royal family His motivation is pretty good. It's more about deciding to gain benefit from and control a coming disaster rather than trying to delay it another generation. Pragmatically, his actions could be considered good, from a certain point of view.
Zachary Cook
This gives me hope.
>I can give more examples if you want Please do, that was great. Plus: >He can't be evil! He has a cute doggie!
Benjamin Kelly
>the king is losing his mind. >He is feeble, and his enemies gather >He cannot recall his family by name >His son is in his prime.
>it is clear what I need to do.
Jeremiah Ramirez
It might help to have multiple advisors. I mean, plenty of players would probably still expect one (if not all) to be treacherous either independently or in concert, but they'd probably be less likely to jump the gun.
Asher Howard
>Pragmatically, his actions could be considered good, from a certain point of view. See All this
Villain Inspiration thread?
Jayden Morales
This is a good idea too. Technically, I could work a Quantum Advisor thing, but that feels cheap when it's something this big. It's easy enough to make him the most likeable advisor out of a miserable pile of secretive jerks. The guy who tells you he doesn't like you is better than the guy who gives you praise and gratitude instead of promised reward.
Dylan Walker
>You must kill the local champion. >it was at first convenient to have him helping the people, saving the common folk from monsters and so on >But he has been a vocal advocate against taxes >people are questioning the kings rule. >Asking why they should pay taxes when the champion is the one who saves them >they know nothing of the foreign powers that our kingdom holds at bay >they know nothing of our plans for implementing crop rotation >He cannot be allowed to draw support away from the local lords
>I need for you to kill the young handsome noble the princess is courting >At first I supported marrying the son of my loyal lord >But the situation has changed, I will need her to marry a distant lord for political stability for the region >neither the princess nor the nobles father can know this. >I need him dead, and I need it to look like and accident
Samuel Turner
More awesomness. The first one reminded me of the "Bad Guy" in that goofy movie "A Knight's Tale". He was a total jerk, but missed a lot of tournaments because he was off winning a war while the "hero" was just a good guy and a likeable jock good at playing with a stick. The guy you want to invite into your home for a beer is not necessarily the best guy to run things.
I can almost remember the historical example of the second one. What's better than marrying your only daughter off for peace and wealth? Doing it three times!
Landon Brooks
>>More awesomness.
I'm super flattered, but I'm high on cough medicine due to an infected throat and it's 2AM where I live.
I'll post more if I can after a shower, but someone else should have a crack at writing some short >I am doing evil, but not because lulz I actually have reasons stories
Oliver Thomas
The trick is making the advisor unassuming and unimportant.
The players should know he's there, but they must not think he's important or anything, just a random dude doing his job. He needs to be competent, sure, but they should be too wary of him, they should think he's just an advisor, someone without much power himself. Of course you should leave hints here and there if you want the players to have a chance at unraveling his plans, but otherwise you should make his #1 priority to remain hidden and as unassuming as possible, moving his pieces in the background.
You can play out his reveal in the way you see most fitting, but I guarantee jaws will drop if you make "that useless guy" the one who successfully manipulated the scene.
Isaiah Roberts
I once played a character like this, a neutral evil wizard who I had called a vizier role-wise to the party. I was obviously evil, had a half disfigured face and one eye, and was always offering advice that could be seen as evil but necessary. Even when my party disagreed with me and my plans, they eventually went along with them because they were "right", even though morally it was wrong. Was really fun to play.
I'd say screw having a twist, have your vizier a good guy dressed up as a bad guy and have someone ELSE be a bad guy dressed up as a good guy.
William Russell
that dog's lack of chin bothers me
Wyatt Price
he has a beardscruff
Austin Harris
Have him be a total Bro. Cushy contacts, good pay, smooth over diplomatic incidents, etc. Ideally, so awesome that it takes them a while to realize he's asking them to do this directly contrary to the state.
Kayden Adams
This is really, really great user. I would appreciate if you could come with more, because I honestly don't think I have the ability of making something of such quality.
Kayden Roberts
Petty, suicidal revenge might be a reason too. He might not HAVE a plan beyond 'pay the bastard back and laugh in his face as he witnesses the noe-inevitable Chaos before finally killing him.'
Austin Bailey
>I'd say screw having a twist, have your vizier a good guy dressed up as a bad guy and have someone ELSE be a bad guy dressed up as a good guy. This is quality, but not right for the scenario. There was a good Carol Burnett skit with Howie Mandel involving a nun in a casino that used this idea well.
On a completely unrelated note, I just realized that Howie Mandel's name is an anagram for "How I deal men."
Total bro advisor in a sea of sucks is tempting, but you's probably need a light touch to keep from looking like bait.
Landon Ramirez
>sucks *dicks Actually, I've heard it both ways.
Adrian Butler
Hard to hide that attitude behind a nask, though.
Carter Lee
>nask *mask, veneer, shroud of deceit fml
Parker Cruz
>multiple advisors Would be cool too if they kinda ostensibly played against each other in front of the players Like one is just a fucking dick but another always tries to placate the group and keep peace etc
Brandon Parker
I would present him as a rather shady guy from the start, although in the good guys side. The make it so it becomes obvious in the first or second adventure that there's a traitor. In the third or fourth, the players discover and defeat this traitor... but he's not the treacherous advisor, it's X.
This establishes this NPC as the guy the PCs judged badly. If they're mature and can deal with the fact that they made a mistake, they will feel somewhat sorry for judging him badly or at least will assume you were just after an easy "what a twist" situation that is now over.
Let the players now face new threats that may or may not be related, directly or indirectly, with those they believed to be defeated. But if they're related don't make it obvious. Make the Treacherous Advisor a recurring character, but a somewhat unimportant one, and do this with at least a couple more NPCs. It's the way to make them remember he exists without giving him much importance. At some point, reveal how everything (or at least most) they've been fighting for and against was part of this guy's plan.
Dylan Gray
>the whole council was actually the traitor >the king is in fact part of the conspiracy
Samuel Rivera
>Think Obi Wan Kenobi suddenly revealing that it was him who killed Luke's father. Literality what was originally planned, re-watch ANH and pay close attention to how Guinness is acting while taking about Anakin.
Eli Barnes
Hot hate can become cold. This was a beloved of Shakespeare.
