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Game Story:
Non-Player Characters and Villians
by
SeiferTim : 11 March 2004
It's time for the 5th installment of my tutorial, and
hopefully everyone is learning from it... a little
bit... right? Okay.
Here, we're going to talk about Non-Player Characters
(NPCs), and Villians. as you may have guessed, NPCs are
characters that the player does not control, but
interact with the PCs somehow. Most game genres will
benefit from this section, but, again, due to the
in-depth story developments of the RPG type, I'm going
to end up focusing on them once again. An RPG will
usually have hundreds of NPCs, and at least one major
Villain, with lots of henchmen. When I refer to
Villians, I'm only talking about the characters that
play a large role in the game, and seem to have vicious
hatred for the PCs, not just every boss the player
faces. The Dragon at the end of the cave who pops out of
no where, and is killed by the PCs after a long, and
grueling battle, while considered a Boss, is not a
Villain.
For the most part, most NPCs the PCs will encounter
are going to be your average townspeople, walking around
town, and giving out semi-helpful one-liners of
information. They don't need a lot of details. The NPCs
you'll want to focus on, are the ones that will play
some kind of important role in the story. A good place
to start with your NPCs is by thinking a little bit
about your story in general.
For the most part, you'll want to build up your NPCs
in a similar manner to the way you made your PCs, but
you won't necessarily have to go into too much detail...
Some good examples of NPCs would be:
- Cid from FFV
- Regis the Mayor from Star Ocean 2
- O'aka from FFX-2
- Red XIII's Grandfather from FFVII
Those are just a couple of good NPCs, there are a
bunch others out there.
When building your NPCs, try to give everyone a little
bit of history, even if it's pretty basic. Sometimes an
NPC's history can be turned into a plot line of some
kind....
NPCs help to fill your world with life, and add a touch
of believability to your story, but Villians add a touch
of chaos, and evil to balance out the world. Plus,
Villians can be lots of fun to create!!
Creating a Villain can be done in only a few easy steps:
- Name - I tend to start with the
name, and build from there... sometimes, though, I
change it a couple times before finding something that
sticks. Good villian names are very ominous. Lets make
our example's name something freaky, like: Valouse
- Basic Description - Describe your
villain - sketch them out... make them look sinister,
and decide what their personality is like on a basic
level. I want Valouse to be female, and wear lots of
dark red/black armor with spikes, and things.
- Obsession - All villains are
obsessed with something , whether it's a
person, an item, or a location, or whatever - the best
villains will stop at nothing to obtain what
they are obsessed with. Some good examples: Sephiroth
(FFVII), was obsessed with becoming an omnipotent
being. Kefka (FFVI), was obsessed with obliterating
all life, and the classing Bowser (About every Mario
Game) was obsessed with the Princess, for some
inter-species breeding... or something.... Sometimes,
it's a good idea to gradually reveal the Villians
obsession over time, let the player try to figure it
out on their own. For our example, lets make Valouse
obsessed with a certain magical item... um.. lets
see.... she's looking for an ancient relic that will
allow her to rule the world. Sounds a little
cliche-esque, but, no matter.... good enough for me.
- Resources - A villain can't be
really nasty if they've only got the clothes on there
back, and $2.40 in change, most every villain seems to
have nigh-infinite resources, and loads of henchmen.
For instance, our ol' pal Sephiroth Had a bunch of
Followers, and his Mam to help him slow down the
heroes'
progress... not to mention some backing from Shinra.
He wasn't going to be found easily. For some reason,
most villains seem to have a lot of extra cash laying
around, it seems to make them more viscious. You'll
want to decide just how powerful your villain's going
to be... and how much they have to spend. Lets make
our baddie be in charge of a large group of warriors
from a northern countries. She's sort of like Ghengis
Khan, in a sense, only more sophisticated. She is able
to call on her troops for support, and she has a large
amount of funds (from their hording) to use as needed.
- Mania - While this can (and
usually is) tied in to their Obsession, most Villians
have a level of insanity to go with it. It's hard to
find out where the line is, between obsession and
insanity, but it can be fun to play with the line a
little... kefka (FFVI) was absolutely insane, and that
freaking laugh of his was bone-chilling... even in the
days of the ol' Super NES. Let's say that our Villain
hates wildlife, and wants to raze the forests, and
build massive cities of iron and steel to cover the
world.
- Power - Here you want to have
fun. Most every major villain has some sort of ungodly
power, which gives them the edge, and the terrifyingly
strong attacks... Sephiroth sort of had Meteor's power
to call upon, among other powers at his disposal. you
never see a villain who is clearly weak, and powerless
(at least not unless their faking). Our villain will
have the power of (once she locates it) the Ancient
Relic, but in the meantime, her arsenal consists of
the ability to build terrifying robotic, and sentient
creations of destruction to do her bidding.
And that's about the jist of it! Try making your
Villians someone that wll scare the crap out of you, or
try another method, and make them someone you would
perhaps idolize, until they show you their 'other
side'... and you'll be on your way to making worthwhile
villains in no time!!
Next Section -
Part 6: The Plot
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