Hero/Villain Design

When designing your role-playing game something you may consider writing in to the game background is major Non-Player Characters (NPCs). These NPCs are generally the heroes and villains that have helped to shape the world before the players knew it. In Forgotten Realms and Dragon Lance this is a major part of the game.

More importantly the characteristics of these NPCs are generally illustrated as either good or evil. We know who is good and who is evil, the heroes and villains are pretty well defined. And this may be exactly what you want for a game. If you know your game is a clear-cut battle between good and evil then heroes and villains are a necessity, because surely in the history of the world there have been heroes and there have been villains.

Heroes are usually characters of strength and valor. Heroes can and usually do have their flaws much like the fabled Achilles tendon. When thinking of a hero think of some one who has done great deeds vanquished small time villains and thwarted the much larger ones. Villains on the other hand are despicable people that are out for themselves and get rid of anyone in their way. They all have a plan for taking over the world and their own set of flunky henchmen to accomplish the deed.

This is fine for a black and white world, but what if the game you are creating has more shades of gray in between and no black and white in sight. Let's take a game called Asegia for example. There is a character in the game called Lord Heartsblood. Lord Heartsblood creates roads for his people. He protects them from invaders and from evil where he can find it in his realm. However to people from outside his land he is considered a tyrant who rules his people with an iron fist. He has disallowed magic in his borders and Magic-Users are usually killed when found within his borders.

Lord Heartsblood is a shade of gray. He, in my opinion, becomes a much more believable character because he is neither good nor evil but rather trying to do the best he can for his people regardless of what this means for those who don't fit into his scheme of things.

Also in Asegia exists the presence of the Bards. The Counsel of Bards protects the bards. The Counsel of Bards rule over the bards in where they live and generally what news they are allowed to disseminate to the people. They try to act in the people's best interest but the bards come first. The Bards are of varying degrees of gray themselves ranging from self-centered political operatives to light-hearted tricksters. They are beloved by all the people of Asegia despite being above the law.

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