h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm starting to make this game called Villains, Inc. The premise is, you play the role of a bad guy, and it ends, hopefully, with you taking over the world. Along the way, you do all kinds of stuff, like stealing Sacred Artifacts, duping Heroes, that kind of thing. Ambitious? Yes, but I'll probably end up making it more linear than that.

At the start, you pick the character's gender and what /kind/ of villain you are. So far I have:

Supervillain
Psycho
Professional Villain/Scientist
Double Agent
Evil Overlord/Empress
Evil Genius

The problem is, I can't think of any more villain archetypes. In other words, I'm asking you to help me come up with some. So ... could ya?

The difficulty here is that we may be setting definitions fairly broadly. Supervillain covers most of the other types already, for instance. Lemme set some definitions before I really start thinking about it.

Supervillain-An evil person who has some form of supernatural power or ability (here I'm just going to assume that super power does not include death rays, space ships, and profficiency with swords (although super speed with a sword is neat)).

Psycho-Insane loony, just looking for a person to kill.

Professional Villain/Scientist-Hmmm....not sure I get it. Professional Villain makes me think of minor mob bosses such as Two Face while Scientist makes me ponder the wide variety of Mad Scientists (don't even get me *started* on those archetypes).

Double Agent-The fun one! Spying and espionage abound!

Evil Overlord/Empress-Has already amassed a considerable army and is recognized as such.

Evil Genius-Master planners who concoct plans with no less than fifteen stages each, including back-up plans in the event of the unforseen occurring.

To those archetypes I'd add a few others like these:

Businessman-Motivated by greed alone, normally builds up massive businesses and organizations that often hide more diabolical background schemes.

Ninja/Assassin-A fighter trained mentally and physically in the arts of fighting and killing for fun or profit. Their primary goal seems to be the aquisition of improvements to their existing powers (such as better weaponry to make them deadly even at great distances, or magical artifacts that enhance fighting and defending techniques to astounding levels).

Alien-Not necessarily from outer space, but definitely from society. Generally coming in smaller numbers, aliens wish to conquer the planet with the few weapons they have (though the few weapons are normally powerful enough to take out a good deal of civilization).

Cursed-A cursed villain is one who would not necessarily be evil all of the time, such as a werewolf or, occasionally, a vampire (most of the classic movie monsters would fall into this title, actually. If it looks like Lugosi, Karloff, or Price could do it, it's most likely a fit), but would also include other beings such as djinni who have incredible supernatural abilities but are highly restricted in their use. When the evil side comes out, it is almost always trying to totally destroy its good side before moving on to its other ambitions.

Spellcaster-A villain who has a wide variety of knowledge pertaining to the use of magic, and uses it to advance his or her whims.

Like you said, it's hard to really nail down the archetypes. I think the bigger problem, however, is that most villains are actually mixtures of these. Dr. Jekkyl, for instance, is a Psycho who emerges from a Cursed Scientist. Lex Luthor is a Businessman who acts as an Evil Genius while acting as a Spellcaster and Scientist. Most Aliens are lead by an Evil Overlord. Most Ninjas are either Spellcasters or Super Villains in this type of story.

It's really a tough one to call, though.

Yes, there will definitely be opportunities to combine any two types in the game, or depending on what you do, to hire an Evil Genius or a Ninja.

I'm defining "Supervillain" as someone who is extremely overpowered in the first place, like Vegeta or Palpatine (who is also an Evil Overlord). Also, if you choose Evil Overlord/Empress, the majority of the game will be taken up with the process of /becoming/ one (with gratuitious jumps in time and a few RTS elements). And, uh, scratch Professional Villain off the list, I'd gotten it mixed up with something else.

Also, it's going to be more focused on taking-over-the-world, so Assasin as such and Cursed are out. And Spellcaster seems to fall into the category of my definition of Supervillain (maybe I should call that something else, like Overkill maybe).

You know, it'd be more complex, but one possible way to set this up would be for the player's villain to be capable of gaining "style points" in the various schemes of things. If he or she concocts a multi-stage plan that involves the use of magic on his or her part, they could gain twenty Evil Genius points and ten Supervillain points, or something.

It'd be difficult to set the game up like that, though. Might wanna wait for the sequel....

But anyway, I think I get what you're going for now. You've covered the majority of villain types, I believe. The difficult part is going to be setting down the rules and laws that each individual character has to live with.

I see what you mean. Of course, there could be certain situations that are universal, but with different dialogues. Example:

[The Villain has the Hero's True Love hostage and orders the Hero to give him the Item of Awesome Powers. At a crucial moment, the True Love kicks the Villain in the stomach. As quickly as he can, the Villain gets back up.]

[Supervillain] ... ugh ... [eyes blazing, and powering up a spell/chi blast/whatever] You did NOT just do that!

[Psycho] Ack! [raising his weapon] I will KILL YOU FOR THAT!!!

[Evil Genius] Curses! [aiming his weapon] That was your first mistake!

[Double Agent] ... ugh ... That was very foolish of you. [has a concealed weapon]

[The Evil Overlord's henchmen burst in and ALL point their weapons at the party.]

Or different styles in how you handle certain situations; for instance, if you have to get to the top room of some kind of corporation, the Double Agent wouldn't be stopped by the guards because he/she looks like s/he's SUPPOSED to be there, unless you majorly screw up; whereas the second guard to confront the Supervillain would know better than to try. And the evil genius would have a plan involving the roof and the basement (in that order). The Evil Overlord/Empress would send one of the above in his/her payroll. And the Psycho, depending on his/her secondary class, could be forced to forego this quest due to incompetence in terms of stealth.

Speaking of secondary classes, I'm thinking of coming up a list of things which are mutually exclusive -- a Psycho who tried to be a Double Agent wouldn't last very long, for example. (And I'm not counting a Double Agent masquerading any of these.)

Most of the mutually exclusive ones I can think of would actually involve the Psycho, really. Driven by emotion, being an Evil Genius might be a bit of a stretch.

Hmm, yes, I see your point.

Another thing is that a Supervillain generally wouldn't bother with being a Double Agent (though a Double Agent might find Supervillain powers handy).

... nor, it just occured to me, would an Evil Overlord. And vice versa.

Double Agents would also not climb to the Billionaire Level as that might make them fairly recognizeable.

Figuratively, of course not, but I've decided that Businessman would require doing ... well, entirely separate stuff from more than half of the other things. It just doesn't seem like the same style. So, uh, that leaves us:

Supervillain
Psycho
Evil Genius
Double Agent
Overlord/Empress

You also get to choose what kind of home base you have. I'm thinking of stuff like Flying Fortress, Underground Lair, Skull Citadel, Skyscraper, amd Laundromat. I'm thinking you can customize the interior in various ways, too ...

Now are you pondering having the lair choices shift depending on the villain type, or letting all types have access to it.

The Overlord/Empress naturally wouldn't feel natural in a Laundromat, but it certainly would add to the humor level (especially if lair customization shifts depending on villain style. An Elevator of Doom would be installed by an Evil Genius in a single story Laundromat, for instance).

Well, you're right, certain bases would be unavailable to certain classes, but other than that can have whichever one you choose, along with a default one. Lemme think here ...

Supervillain - Skull Citadel
Psycho - Laundromat
Evil Genius - Underground Lair
Double Agent - Skyscraper
Overlord - Flying Fortress

Also, you might also have the option of foregoing a home base in favor of using a mode of transportation (i.e., a giant robot or spaceship or something; the Flying Fortress is one already and Supervillains don't NEED a stinkin' "vehicle", which they can already outperform).

Mode of transportation would probably be affected in other ways as well. Overlords and Supervillains could probably jump halfway around the world without much of a problem, but you'd need a Double Agent or Psycho to know the proper way to get into military bases that were built from brand new indestructible alloys.

Hmm, true, that.

And an Evil Genius would come up with a means of doing stuff that all but screams, "I don't like doing things the 'proper' way."

Another idea I've got would be a pet Giant Monster. You know, that you can terrorize the Heroes en masse with.

You might want to consider something along the lines of a "henchmen" and/or "pet" selection for the villains. Ranging from gigantic Godzilla-like monsters to tiny cats suitable for petting while sitting in a revolving business chair.

Ooh, great inspiration. I'll make a note about that in the advertisement. "Pets ranging from Mr. Bigglesworth from Austin Powers to Sin from FFX!"

Henchmen ranging from incompetant clods to highly trained djinni warriors!

Know all the plot twists that get sprung on the Heroes in advance!

(... I'm thinking specifically of the "Way to go, Serge!" RPG cliche, in which the Heroes discover that, for a certain amount of the game, what they've been doing is /supportive/ of the Villain's plans.)

Somehow I don't see the Psycho planning that far ahead.

Hmm, point. Anything THAT good that happens to the Psycho will be mainly through dumb luck, a la Kefka.