Dark Heroes and Darker Villains

[Roland_Deschain]

Sorry for the topic kick, but I wanted to finish the tutorial, unless I get requests to post more....
Anyway, the final(for now) installment of this tutorial is:
 

Balancing Conflicted Personalities

Let's start with the villain, we'll call him Darius. Darius was wronged by his once-best friend, the hero Lucien. Darius is out for revenge. However, during his plot for revenge, Darius fell for Grace, Lucien's friend. He wants to kill Lucien but his love for Grace has created a dilemma: kill Lucien and watch Grace suffer, or don't kill Lucien and have wasted all these years of plotting for revenge? Lucien makes this choice easy for him, by calling him a wretched dog and a greedy bastard. Despite his better judgment, Darius pursues Grace's affection in secret and still plots against Lucien.
Now, the hero, Lucien, is motivated by revenge, same as Darius, but for different reasons. After betraying Darius, the crazed mage took control of Lucien and forced him to kill his own family. Lucien wants revenge. Along the way, he is joined by Grace, a lovely fighter with innocent blue eyes. He already has a girlfriend, so he's not interested in her romantically, but he does like her as a friend. He learns that Darius, who he thinks is a selfish, greedy wretch, is trying to earn Grace's affection. Lucien, the more selfish of the two, hunts down and fights Darius, partly to erase his own troubled past, partly to keep him away from Grace, and partly for revenge. In the end, Lucien learns that Darius was not the one who possessed him.
Now, would that make for a good game, better than the average story. In it, we can see how the hero and villain truly conflict, better than "You killed my daddy. I'll kill you!" or what have you. I use storylines like this often, and in fact used it for Bittersweet, a game I made long, long ago for RM2k. I may post it eventually, but it was buggy and kinda sappy, so.... Maybe a remake for 2k3 would be better.
Anyway, for making good hero/villain interactions, think about some of the following ideas:
*Do the hero and villain know each other well?
*What's their motivation for fighting each other?
*How does the villain react when the hero messes up his schemes?
*Is the villain really evil, or is he just confused or misunderstood?
*Is the hero really good, or do his motivations really point toward the evil half?

Well, that's it for now. PM me or post a reply here if you want me to continue this thread.

[ZeroKirbyX]

Okay, I want you to go back and look at the statement "heir past should remain a mystery, at least for part of the game. Why is this? It adds depth to the character." Now, that makes no sense at all. Of course, no ones going to tell every detail about the protagonist right out the gate, but to "keep it a mystery" often gives the idea that you were to lazy to come up with anything substantial. Give them a past, a history, don't make them afraid to speak of it. It doesn't HAVE to be anything terrible or even bad. In fact, I think I'd enjoy having a character with a mediocre past. Look at Vyse from Skies of Arcadia. His past? He was born to a Blue Rogue and basically raided enemy ships. Not dark or really out of the ordinary (For that game) but I liked him plenty more than Cloud. He was FAR more relatable, just a guy who followed in his fathers footsteps. A NOT DEAD father at that.

[Roland_Deschain]

Originally posted by ZeroKirbyX
Okay, I want you to go back and look at the statement "heir past should remain a mystery, at least for part of the game. Why is this? It adds depth to the character." Now, that makes no sense at all. Of course, no ones going to tell every detail about the protagonist right out the gate, but to "keep it a mystery" often gives the idea that you were to lazy to come up with anything substantial. Give them a past, a history, don't make them afraid to speak of it. It doesn't HAVE to be anything terrible or even bad. In fact, I think I'd enjoy having a character with a mediocre past. Look at Vyse from Skies of Arcadia. His past? He was born to a Blue Rogue and basically raided enemy ships. Not dark or really out of the ordinary (For that game) but I liked him plenty more than Cloud. He was FAR more relatable, just a guy who followed in his fathers footsteps. A NOT DEAD father at that.

I was on sleep meds when I wrote that. I'll go back and fix everything up and make it better. Also, mainly what I posted were ways around or to change some cliches about the dark heroes, not different ideas such as that.
But yeah, you're right. Sleep meds don't help when writing tutorials, gotta remember that.

[Seil Dolgany]

I tolerate more the "dark hero" stereotype than the "superman the good guy that helps everyone and has a good personal hygiene" stereotype.

At least one can relate more.

What i would like to see more in rpg heroes is the "Jack sparrow" stereotype: cunning, funny and pragmatic.