70 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
70 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
<link rel="stylesheet" href="book-page.css" />
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<div class="document-container">
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<h1>Natural Fantasy Villains</h1>
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<p>
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When you create a natural fantasy antagonist, the information on page 254 of
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the Core Rulebook is an excellent starting point, but there are a few extra
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things to remember, just as there are for Player Characters.
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</p>
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<h2>Basic Principles</h2>
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<p>
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The natural fantasy genre presents a significant variety of archetypal
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Villains, but we can still infer some common key traits:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<strong>A link to the past.</strong> These antagonists have one or more
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elements that link them to the past of the setting: some are obsessed by
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ancient legends; others crave power and authority lent by millennia-old
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magics and technologies, or want to wipe out every last trace of them;
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finally, some are entities who survived an ancient calamity or were
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created in the distant past.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Familiar concepts.</strong> A natural fantasy antagonist’s
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motivations and origin are often linked to needs, feelings, doubts, or
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emergencies that you might have had a brush with at least once in your
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personal life. As much as this might unsettle you, a part of you should be
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able to understand, perhaps at an instinctual level, what these Villains
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represent.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Catastrophic results.</strong> When a natural fantasy Villain
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reaches their goals, the consequences are devastating: be it the awakening
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of a truly ancient danger, a permanent alteration to the ecosystem, or the
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extermination of entire communities, the Villain’s victory will tear open
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a wound in this world.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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The Game Master is given three main tools for introducing these Villains
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into the narrative and diving deep into their origins and objectives:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<strong>Stories, relics and traditions.</strong> If a Villain is the
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incarnation of an ancient danger, references to their existence should
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gradually appear during the campaign: these sources are often vague or
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partly contradictory – fertile ground for studies and speculations.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Game Master scenes.</strong> Above all else, these scenes are
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useful to add depth to the antagonists, revealing their doubts and
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hesitations. When dealing with Villains that are closer in nature to a
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cataclysm or a supernatural presence, these scenes can show omens of their
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arrival and a growing sense of foreboding.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Conflicts.</strong> During conflicts, natural fantasy Villains
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tend to fully embrace one of two extremes: some speak openly with the
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protagonists, explaining their reasons, while others march forward,
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undeterred and silent, toward their objective.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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