Would it be cliche to make the BBEG a bunch of clones?

>BBEG forms an anarcho-syndicalist commune with just his clones

That's just playing Paranoia.

>Several BBEGs warring against eachother for various reasons being clones unknown by them programmed by original to do so to create smokescreen for his big plan

So... what is it?

>have no protection group cause "violence is inherent to the capitalist system"
>gets conquered by anarcho-capitalist clone megacorp
>player characters are PDA troopers
It would work in some kind dystopian of sc-fi

>Bleh
Yuck

>good luck I'm behind 7 proxies.jpg

> Would it be cliche to make the BBEG a bunch of clones?
Yes.
>How do I make it not cliche?
Make them all actual separate beings who may or may not despise each other and proudly claim/covertly think they are the actual Real One.
Take the aspects of the Nameless One from Planescape: Torment, add some existential dread from SOMA, apply directly to their consciousnesses.
Make them have internal conflicts, alliances, and backstabbing plots and hidden agenda concerning each other.
Some of them should cooperate with the PCs to get an advantage over the other clones, only to backstab them later. And then one of the other clones saves the PCs, only to manipulate them into getting an advantage over the other clones. Rinse, repeat.

Search your heart.

Also, you should definitely use the Horatio aesthetic.
One of the clones is a lowly technician, while the other is pretty much royalty. Another clone is an uploaded AI conciousness, while yet another clone is merely a slave in a robotic body.
Make an entire race built upon the conciousness of one poor little cloned motherfucker, and make them all compete for the title of the Real One, where they can't survive and/or achieve their goals and/or stand against the PCs without each other, yet everyone desperately tries to assert their own superiority over each other with whatever methods avaialble.

Also, what sort of fucked up personality does someone need to have to come up with the whole cloning myself evil plan?

>what sort of fucked up personality does someone need to have to come up with the whole cloning myself evil plan

>gotta reach an unreachable thing
>"oh wait, i know, i'll just clone myself in a stronger body!"
>the guy in a stronger body is pretty much your copy
>he doesn't want to die once the task is complete
>you have to acknowledge him as a person and bring him into your plans
>whoops
>oh well, at least you can trust yourself
>or can you?

It doesn't take an evil man to make mistakes.

...

>Taking the chance away from the players to tell the BBEG(ugh) to go fuck himself.
It's like you're not even trying.

(AHEM)

A leader. One who is very aware that they fulfil a figurehead role and that their death would result in a collapse of the power structure they have established.
Clones are, in this sense, ultimately little more than disposable body-doubles who can reliably, in a pinch, actually exert the authority of the original and carry on his leadership.

Villain from a game I'm running is actually an army of clones with a hive-mind.

Party stumbled across him getting back alley plastic surgery to look like multiple different people.

Gary?

Extreme narcissism.

in all likelyhood a scientific notation pack of BBEG's that are all the same dude would likely not be a direct threat in combat depending on their equipment but it would be a great fucking way to confuse the everloving shit out of your players, your npc's, and even the clones themselves, weave such an incomprehensibly dense web of plans planning around plans to plan around other plans with a healthy dosage of narcissism, inevitable betrayels, mustache twirling, and dangerous competence. The OG clone could be a level 0 commoner for all the care in the world, but just by virtue of the utter fucking chaos he created by having a billion hims running around all pursuing slightly different variations of the same agendas and ambitions he could collapse fucking kingdoms in a maelstron of confusion and copy pasted bodies

>party's fw theve killed the same machiavellan overlord and his identical servants like 3 times already

When will this one guy accept that BBEG is an acceptable shorthand for main villain?

I can only truly understand myself. Everyone else I will ever meet will never have that much insight. I might get lucky and meet someone with similar experience, but even my siblings have ultimately different experiences than me.

At least if there were more of me, I would never be lonely.

it will be less cliche if there was a bunch of BBEG acting through many cloned lolis?

>Would it be cliche to make the BBEG a bunch of clones?
I've never seen it done before, so I'm going with no.

>tfw there are far too few Harry Potter fanfiction stories in which Voldemort's Horcruxes resurrect separately and plot against him

Invincible plays a lot with this kinda cliche (Mauler Twins, Angstrom Levy and Robot) but makes them work alright imho.

I could see this being a good, simple reason. Keeping the project going because he feels he was the only person capable of the task. A bunker filled with clones working towards doomsday with the belief that they are the only one's with the necessary drive and will to follow through with the task at hand.

>BBEG

Ugh.

Not a bunch but...

It's a meme, ya dip.

And then drop the one clone on them that is actually good and tragically kill them if the Players decide to trust them.

Forced memes don't qualify.

you would have to have a good group to make it work otherwise your players would hem and haw you to pieces.

The meme is getting super pissed off about people making fun of a phrase coined intentionally to sound stupid.

See? Look how pissed off this little bitch is. He's definitely got the butthurt business down to an art.

>BBEG not only unleashes a clone on you but forces you to accept your darkest secret

Forgotten Realms is full of crap, but Manshoon was amazing.

hi Bob

What if the vilain was a series of clones of famous historical figures with genetic and mechanical augmentations related to their real life feats and experiences? Then they decided to kill everyone on the planet?

You've got a lot of Baals there, I only need one to remove all of them.

Is it an excuse to directly confront and defeat an antagonist over and over except not because it isn't really him? Because even Doctor Doom got tired of that and starting pulling back.

goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/01/terophidians.html

so like this but with cyborgs and genocide

>Eclipse Phase campaign
>first mission of the campaign is, as usual, a suicide mission
>Players start getting harrassed by some unknown entities afterwards
>turns out the bodies left behind didn't quite die, and are very upset about the party running around wearing their faces
This would make for a great twist.

>darkest secret
I never got that.
I don't have any super dark evil secrets.
I have made every embarrassing and awful thing that happened to me in my life into material for jokes.

Am I just immune to this kind of shit? Like someone who is truly negative is immune to the depression ghost beam?

I would totally play or GM an akumetsu game.

>laughingeveryD&DvillainandwizardPCofalltime.png

It wouldn't be your shadow if it were made of things you were capable of acknowledging in yourself. It can still get you.

I am too boring to have those, user.
And I don't think they can do much to the sad clown routine I have going.

That's typically how it works, yeah.

Then probably your shadow manifests as a fitter, better-dressed you with good posture who you instinctively know does every thing you could but don't to manage himself responsibly.

well, okay? I'm not sure how that effects me.
Can he like, go to family gatherings for me instead?

I'm pretty sure the only outs for you are he kills you and takes over your life, or he becomes your stand.

so, wait.
I get, as a stand, a guy who is me but stronger and smarter?
What do I have to do to get this? I don't know anything about persona. Do I shoot myself with that anime gun I saw they shoot themselves with?

No kill and replace in Persona. You deny that it's representative of you and it kills you, missing person no changeling, or you own it.

If these are Persona 4 Shadows they only manifest in an alternate world and will only try and kill you, they are not a friendly sort of existence if you haven't converted them into some form of costumed person.

If this were Persona 2 they would be an extradimensional creature just fucking with you.

Depends how you do it. Don't have any of the standard "Oh woe is me, I'm not the original". I'd honestly kill of the original hell maybe make the original kill themselves to make the clones, then give them a reason to all work together or maybe why some don't.

that seems like it is different than the shadows that were just described to me.
Maybe this isn't persona?

It isn't persona then because in any game the goal of the shadow isn't to replace the original.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyteen

Was pretty guud.

> the villain of the arc is raising your clone
> treated all the love and care that the villain can muster
> he/she also filled the clone's head with story about how you're a perfect hero who can do no wrong
> to setup a massive heartbreak and turn to villainy by your clone when you eventually kill your antagonist.

I bet your shadow will just call out your closet faggotry like Kanji's shadow

Well, personally, I would trust myself.
I'm also the kind of person who'd stand by the clone machine smacking the activation button like there was no tomorrow.

>I'm also the kind of person who'd stand by the clone machine smacking the activation button like there was no tomorrow.
Horatio pls.

I've noticed that there are a LOT of horatios on Veeky Forums.
I run into one at least twice a day.

Basically. To borrow examples from the anime I'm referencing (Read or Die, the OVA's are well worth the watch)

>Gennai Hiraga
Real life figure was a japanese man who created an electolastic generator. His Clone wields a vastly augmented version of this generator, can conduct electricity, and is able to create a lightning sword in addition to other electric based powers.

>Jean-Henri Fabre
Real life french entomologist. Anime clone is a bug-human hybrid that pilots giant mechanical bugs as well as having the ability to control normal insects themselves. He also is unique in that killing him causes him to "molt" his skin and revive again in a different looking body.

>Otto Lilienthal
German Aviator known as the Glider King. His clone is an extremely adept pilot on his souped up, steam powered glider.

So stuff like that. Actually Read or Die would make for a fun setting, the premise is that the British library is also an intelligence and counter-terrorist group staffed by all sorts of spies and super powered folk. The main character herself is one of their agents; Yomiko Readman, codename "The Paper" who is a bibliophile with the ability to control and manipulate paper in a variety of ways.

Twice should just run a brothel.

bbeg uses a spell called scatterclone to escape custody. 6 versions of him appear and sprint at the nearest exit at max speed screaming

>yfw your darkest secret in that you don't have 100% job satisfaction

Depends on the setting

...

It can work.

>BBEG

Ugh.

If done right it can be fucking terrifying.