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Which RPG has the best “bad guys”?

Started by weirdguy564, February 14, 2023, 10:25:54 AM

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ForgottenF

#45
Generally, I find D&D's "Blood War" (as with most implementations of the ninefold alignment system) to be kind of dumb. But within that context, I have a bit of a soft spot for the forces of Lawful Evil. I can totally see how someone might decide that siding with Devils is the lesser evil, if it means keeping the multiverse out of the hands of the Demons.

EDIT: I suppose that in general, I find the concept of lawful-evil interesting. It depends on how you choose to interpret the concept of Law, but the paradox of Evil which recognizes the importance of things like honor, justice and truthfulness is one that I think has some interesting potential.

Bedrockbrendan

Quote from: jhkim on February 15, 2023, 04:47:54 PM
Quote from: tenbones on February 15, 2023, 03:19:00 PM
Quote from: David Johansen on February 14, 2023, 09:47:49 PM
Any Marvel game has a decent crop with guys like Doctor Doom, Thanos, and The Absorbing Man.

LOL well that's just cheating.

Adapted settings should at least be a separate category. For adapted settings, my node would be to Call of Cthulhu for most interesting opposition, with Alien as an honorable mention.

For original-to-RPG settings, one of my favorites is Torg. The reality-bending invaders were a lot of fun as they came in such varied flavors. I also think the Zhodani from Traveller are an inspired bad guys, with literal thought police in a believable way.

Cthulhu I think definitely would be at the top, but I agree stuff based on existing works should be excluded (Doctor Who has some fun bad guys too, Star Wars has Darth Vader, etc)

Also remember the bad guys in TORG being very cool (the Gaunt Man was  pretty terrifying actually).

My vote goes to Ravenloft but that is also kind of cheating because it has villains based on classic horror bad guys (a lot of universal and hammer in there as well). It has more hammy villains to be sure but I like my villains hammy and played by people like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Lon Chaney, Gary Oldman etc.