Comments on: Mining Tropes for RPG Goodness: You, Bastard!

By: Making Challenges That Players Love To Beat - Gnome Stew, the Game Mastering Blog

Wed, 28 May 2008 12:10:13 +0000

[...] BBEG someone big in the world setting can make players salivate to take it out. Making the BBEG a magnificent bastard (think Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica) can have a huge impact. If the villain is full of [...]

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:28:18 +0000

I’ve been looking your stuff up while you dig your way through my trope archive and I must say I’m impressed at the amount of work you put in your world.

Do sign up on my minion’s page to put a link to your site!

By: Jürgen Hubert

Jürgen Hubert — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:25:33 +0000

Gankorou, from the Exalted campaign I mentioned earlier, definitely filled the role of “Magnificent Bastard”. Even if their characters loathed him, the players loved him. After their initial confrontation - which was a non-lethal duel made for a bet than a lethal fight - he always appeared friendly and useful and always gave the PCs what they said they wanted, while also making sure that in the process denied them what they truly wanted. Even when they thought they had him under control (and they did, after a fashion), he managed to unnerve them - like causing the Zenith caste to be worshiped as a god, which benefited him mechanically, but disturbed him emotionally as he used to be a Christian missionary…

NPCs who thrive on strong emotions are a lot of fun, and I can only recommend using them.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:18:21 +0000

Cool story StingRay.

I agree that the Illusionist is a great character class for the MB.

By: StingRay

StingRay — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:57:50 +0000

I had a character turn into a magnificent bastard at one point. He was a good-aligned illusionist who discovered the power of shadow magic and attracted the attention of the goddess of shadow. He pretty much knew she was evil, but, if a goddess takes a liking to you, what are you going to do?

He spent more and more time in her realm, saw his values twisted more and more, and eventually worked over the entire party in various ruthless ways. It actually happened such that no one knew the root of their problems was him until the end of the campaign. It was actually pretty entertaining.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:49:32 +0000

I think you hit a good point Yax in that A well played MB PC needs to have a secret agenda, shared with the DM…

That way the player makes the DM an accomplice to his plans and prevents the ‘I decide, on the spot, to be a Jerk syndrome’

By: Yax

Yax — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:23:15 +0000

I think the key to the magnificent bastard is to figure out what his motivation is. Somehow he needs to have drastically different - and secret - motives that will lead him to sharing most of the PCs goals.

This should provide a DM with the skewed, twisted vision of the world the bastard has. And yet he should be helpful to, or tolerated by the PCs.

By: Graham|ve4grm

Graham|ve4grm — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:02:07 +0000

If turning it off fixed it, then there’s your problem.

Good to know, though.

By: Phased Weasel

Phased Weasel — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:44:48 +0000

I figured it out. I run NoScript to squash ads, annoying flash and possibly exploits. It must killing the script which displays the fields in correct order.

By: Graham|ve4grm

Graham|ve4grm — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:22:18 +0000

Well, it’s your home computer that’s messed up. It should appear above the comment box to everyone at all times.

It’s above for me. Always has been.

Could you check a couple things for me?

1) Exact version of Firefox (latest is 2.0.0.11)
2) Extensions installed
3) If using Greasemonkey, does it look the same with Greasemonkey off?
4) Javascript enabled