As a villain, you are going to have to deal with other players. It is
perfectly normal for a paladin to run around the countryside slaying dragons
and orcs by himself. However, a villain who only steals from ettins (besides
being impossible right now) is not truly a villain.
How you interact with your fellow players determines how memorable a villain
you will be. As I've said a couple times, a mass murderer who just runs
up and starts hacking away is more annoying than evil. However, a killer
who engages his mark in a discussion of politics before working his victim into
an argument and then killing him in a frenzy of passion will prolly leave a
mark in his victim's memory.
Step 1. Speech patterns
Does your character have an accent or lisp? Does he constantly try to
use sesquapadaliens for personal pretention in the hopes such behavior will
be discombobulating to his compatriarts (does he use big words to show off in
order to confuse people)? At the very least your character should use "thee"
and "thou" when speaking. Unless of course, he's an uneducated
thug what never learn-ed no good speakin'.
By creating a speech pattern that is not your own, you start breaking away
from thinking like yourself and start thinking like your character. In
real life, you might be a friendly, outgoing person who enjoys helping others.
In Ultima, you are a vile, filthy crettin who preys on his fellow man.
Step 2. Applied methodology
Okay, you came up with your characters behavior pattern, now do it. If
you lure young, would-be heros to their death at the hands of fellow killers,
engage the target in discussions of good places to build up skills quickly and
promise to help them with their character. Then take them to your hideout
and butcher away. If you're a serial killer who collects his victim's liver,
make sure you cut up the corpse after you kill them.
This is where you can have the most fun with your character. You would
be amazed at just how easy it is to fall into your pattern of criminal activity.
Plus, every time you run through your pattern, it gets that much easier to stay
in character.
Step 3. Evaluate the effect
As a villian, you want to make sure your crimes are getting you what you want.
If you are a rogue-type, this means gold. If you are a mass-murderer,
it's infamy. For the evil wizard, it's power. And for the serial
killer it's some kind of sick twisted satisfaction from collecting skulls, or
cutting up bodies, or beating people to death with a wooden spoon.
If you are getting what you want, great. Keep up the "bad"
work. If you are falling short of your goals, don't panic. Most
of the great villians in history had to build up to their greatest crimes.
They often preceded their ultimate success with a string of dismal failures.
Even Xavori spent a lot of time running for his life and resurrecting after
being outdone by some lucky victim.
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