A View of Villainy
Ya know, my daddy used to say, every man's got a devil, and you can't rest until you find him. Whatever happened back there with you and your girlfriend, I cleared that building. Hell, nothing happens in this town without my say-so. So I'm sorry if I spoiled your wedding plans, there, friend. But if it's any consolation to you, you have put a smile on my face.
Top Dollar, "The Crow"
Some people might say there's something wrong with me.
If a game has a villain role, I am generally drawn to it. If I can wreak havoc, destroy cities, maim the goody-two-shoes, then I'm all in.
I'm probably not alone in this fascination; note how often writers of novels and comic books will make their villains by far the most interesting characters in the piece. There's probably a bit of catharsis there in that for all of us.
In many Ameritrash games (and some, though very few Eurogames) there are often opportunities to play "the bad guy". Generally this arises from the heavily themed nature of Ameritrash games. After all, a favorite trait of AT tiles would have to be narrative, and by extension, theme; and what interesting narrative doesn't have conflict with diametrically opposed entities, one side we would often deem "evil"?
Euros on occasion do have "villains", but it is rare (playing as Sauron in Knizia's selfsame-titled expansion for Lord of the Rings is the most obvious example). In your typical Euro, we are all architechts or corn-growers or nobles with nothing better to do than curry favor from the provost...all of us a quite bland avatar that is far removed from villainous overtures. Imagine a film where the "villain" brought the Builder to town too early for the other nobles to capitalize...ooooh, intrigue!
So, in celebration of villainy, I thought I'd list some games with villainous roles for the players to enjoy. Please add more, and *especially* if you know of Euro-style games that feature such roles.
Rage CCG: Rage's second expansion was entitled The Wyrm and was dedicated to playing the vile forces of darkness, including deranged werewolves with names like "Longtooth Soulkiller". You could also play "Victim" cards such as Busfull of School Children or Red-Headed Stepchild and go to town on them. I spent the majority of my time after this set's released playing Wyrm packs with evil vampire lords and dominatrix Black Spiral Dancers in them.
War of the Ring: Though I can sympathize with the plight of the Free Peoples, I must admit to a satisfying feeling crushing the spires of man and turning their Fool's Hope into dust. As the Witch King leads an assault on Minas Tirith, you are likely to catch a "big ol' smile on my face".
Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit: Playing as the Trade Federation has one very real benefit--the opportunity to turn hordes of Gungans into orange goo. Though the game itself does not label a particular Gungan as Jar Jar, believe me....everyone chooses one. Everyone. And tries to kill it as soon as possible.
Star Trek CCG: I didn't really play this one for long, but my very first deck I built had nothing to do with completing missions but was instead a Klingon deck that satisfied itself building huge fleets and destroying every Outpost in sight. Believe me, after that I could finish my missions whenever I felt like it.
Fury of Dracula: I've heard it said that people are either "Dracula" players or "Hunter" players. Based on my visceral thrills eluding the hunters, laying traps for them at every turn, and trying to sink my fangs into the luscious Mina by the light of the moon, I'd have to say I figured out pretty quickly which one I was.
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition: Though the Yssaril race are not *explicity* designated as villains, it's pretty telling that most people refer to them as "The Gollums". Plus, their racial benefit involves them holding fistfuls of cards which are generally used to blow up your ships or assasinate your leaders when you least expect it. Oh yes, precious.
Netrunner: That Runner guy always has annoyed me. I mean...the guy is STEALING stuff. This makes him a hero...how? Rectify the situation by putting his brain on ice...literally.
Axis & Allies: The Axis were the world conquerers...and while it may be fun to recreate your favorite scenes from "Pearl Harbor" (that's fun, right? RIGHT?) it is also quite a bit of fun sending tanks into the heart of Russia and island hopping with the Japanese fleet. In fact, Japan plays completely differently from all the other countries, allowing you to maximize the use of many of those cool bits you oohed and ahhed over when you first opened the game.
Fortress: America: Why do you hate America? Find out as you send your forces (apparently led by Saddam himself if the box cover is to be believed) into the heartland of America, where you hope to destroy Democracy, Freedom, and Britney Spears, though not necessarily in that order. Bonus points for mocking cries of "Wolverines!"
Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel: Though you might be helping your "good guy" corp troops when you're doing it, chewing through the opposing Corporations as the Legion player feels oh so right. Your Ezoghul draws a bead on them. They whimper softly..."Mommy?" You cackle with glee.
Star Wars CCG: The entire game was built upon having a Light and a Dark deck. It's pretty telling that I'd have maybe three builds for Light but boundless ideas for Dark. In one game I got to chop up a bunch of Ewoks with Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith....freakin' awesome. Other highlights include blowing up planets, delivering a soft-serve frozen Han to Jabba, feeding whiny Skywalker to the Rancor, and too many more to list.
Doom: The Boardgame: The Cyberdemon is a killing machine capable of dealing with both Karl Urban AND Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in mere seconds. Give the big guy mad props, yo
Hammer of the Scots: While there's something romantic about leading Wallace into battle with cries of "FREEEEEEDDOMMMM!", there's also something satisfying about laying some King Edward smackdown on the rebellious Scots. "It's good to be rid of shit," indeed.
MLB Sportsclix: ...what? Hey, you *can* play a team made up of mostly Yankees, you know.
51 comments:
Descent - You get to play the bad guy, the Dungeon Controller, the monsters (nicely molded, too), and use your threat to steal the players conquest tokens. Get the last few tokens, and you win. Yes, you, the DM, can actually "win" the game by killing your friends characters. Evil, indeed!
Yep. Part of Kevin Wilson's "Doom" family (I don't know what else to call it, Kevin needs to name his system so we can refer to them collectively.)
While other TI races could be called evil with some justification (the Jol-Nar, the Sardok Norr, the Barony), I've never seen a race quite as hated as the Yssaril Tribes, although this stems as much from their "skip" ability as their hoard of action cards.
A player in my gaming group, when playing the Yssaril, has been known to declare that that he is skipping every other turn even after everyone else has passed. Does it have an actual game effect? No. Does it still tick off the other players? Oh, yes.
One could argue that Game of Thrones has villains with Houses Lannister and Greyjoy, but since all houses--if they are run by skilled players--will be treacherous backstabbers, this doesn't come out well in the game.
The bad guys are often more stylish than the good guys. Like in The Lord of the Rings, you've got the Fellowship in their drab, dusty traveling clothes, up against the Nazgul with their wonderfully accessorized black outfits. And in WWII, those SS guys had such snappy gray uniforms with those lightning bolt "SS" symbols.
Ken, you are definitely not alone. White Wolf made an enormous amount of money in the 90's by making it easy for jaded role-players to finally play the monsters. I too enjoyed the Wyrm expansion to Rage, and you reminded me that I must have really loved those victim cards, because I borrowed the idea in my first attempt at designing Prince of the City.
Some other games with great bad guys to play:
The Hills Rise Wild Everybody gets to play a faction of degenerate hillbilly cultists, stealing stuff from shacks and inflicting brutal and lethal damage on each other.
Jyhad (Vampire) CCG Everybody is playing vampires, but starting with the second base set, you could now play with the brash, violent and destructive Sabbat vampires. A few years later, the even more diabolical Baali vampires entered the game.
Shadowfist CCG The original game had five factions, of which at least two were openly evil. The Eaters of Lotus are demon-summoning eunuch sorcerors from ancient China. The Architects of the Flesh of the year 2056 did vile things with bio-engineering, and also liked to kidnap demons from the Lotus and enhance them with cybernetics. GW's Ezoghoul looks like something the Architects would have created. And there were The Ascended, an Illuminati-style conspiracy of animal shapeshifters who secretly controlled the cops, the media, the Catholic church, and more.
Divine Right The Black Hand may have been a nice guy. But he was a master of necromancy, his castle was protected by a guardian demon, and all of his troops were undead.
Asteroid one player gets to run the bad guy side... an insane computer and his robotic servants. If the bad guys win, Earth gets hit by a very large asteroid, one containing the dead bodies of the fallen heroes.
Viking Gods If you play the bad guys, you get to control Loki and the Midgaard Serpent.
Kung Fu 2100 I always thought that the Clonemaster had a certain Fu Manchu-style, with his flowing robes and his loyal martial artist bodyguards.
Slasher Flick You can play the evil Slasher, and use a variety of weapons in your killing spree against such stereotypes as the Whiz Kid and the Cheerleader.
Undead This old Steve Jackson game has been rendered obsolete by Fury of Dracula, but it was the first game that I played where one player got to be Dracula.
Middle Earth CCG After two disappointing expansions, Iron Crown released a new base set that allowed players to play the Nazgul. Later expansions allowed players to play corrupted wizards (even a corrupt Gandalf) or the Balrog.
I'd like to add to the list:
Shadowfist CCG Architects of the Flesh: Arcanoscientists making demons captured from ancient China to turn into cybernetic Abominations. Arcanowave gear to maim the good guys.
Purists: Protestant version of the Acanoscientists. A faction that deals with pure magic principles rather than the melding of technology and magic. Wielders of Paradox magic. Eh, if they screw up, they'll rewind it until they get it right.
Ascended: Transformed animals who secretly control the earth through subterfuge, power, and military strength. Terribly afraid of magic returning to the world, which would cause them to revert back to their animal ancestry.
Eaters of the Lotus: Where else can you get your Big Trouble in Little China on? Where else can you titter like a schoolgirl whilst throwing Shattering Fires? Demons are cool!
Dune: As with TI's Yassril. The Harkonnens are the masters of treachery and deceit. Let's not forget the Bene Gesserit, The Guild, and the Emperor. They're far from being "good" guys, while having varying shades of "evil" attached to them.
While not exactly 'evil' the genestealers in Space Hulk seem to inspire levels of evilness in a player that I have never seen matched. Maybe it's the 'run up and eviscerate you' style of play you have to adopt, maybe the ease at which the stealers hack through the terminators. Later on Deathwing and Genestealer upped the stakes with weapons and psychic abilities plus the fantastic Genestealer Patriarch.
Oh yeah, this list is FAR from comprehensive. I wanted everyone to get a chance to talk about their favorite villainy. Also, endless blocks of text tend to burn the eyes and I didn't have any photos to go with this blog post.
Dune, definitely...Harkonnen is a vile mofo.
While not exactly 'evil' the genestealers in Space Hulk seem to inspire levels of evilness in a player that I have never seen matched. Maybe it's the 'run up and eviscerate you' style of play you have to adopt, maybe the ease at which the stealers hack through the terminators. Later on Deathwing and Genestealer upped the stakes with weapons and psychic abilities plus the fantastic Genestealer Patriarch.
*smacks forehead*
Warhammer 40k: DARK ELDAR! CHAOS SPACE MARINES! TYRANIDS, MAN, TYRANIDS!
Actually, the Tyrannids are exactly "evil", just freakin' terrifying in the Alien onslaught kind of way. They're just following instinct, but them following instinct usually means death for you.
Let's not forget that games either attached to pop culture (novels, movies etc..) - the bad guys almost always lose in the end. This in my opinion also makes them the underdogs to start a game, so not only do you get to have your chance at being the bad guy but also the underdog that is scripted to lose to the "good guys".
In history also the losers are almost always deemed the "bad guys" creating this "bad guy/under dog" element (without getting into the actual bad things some people have done in history OK anonymous - please no links to Nazi death camps you tool).
It is very appealing to me to play the forces of evil and right the wrongs of the commanders from the stories. Who doesn't say " Now that I'm Sauron I'll get those little bastards, this is the way things should have went down!".
After playing War of the Ring, you kind of wonder how Sauron screwed it up in the first place.
Oh I don't know. Sauron is certainly not the underdog in WotR. Likewise the marines in Space Hulk have a much tougher time. I just played 'Victori Cross' and the underdog Zulu's didn't do too badly. I think you're right; the germans will forever be seen as 'the baddies' in any game that features them. I read a thread on the geek that talked about why people play them; as if playing them implied you supported them. Weird. Yeah the Warhammer background sets up all kinds of good guy/bad guy things. Space Wolves/Dark Angels anyone? besides the more straight forward chaos/imperium thing
One of my favorite villain roles is actually in a Euro -- playing the Traitor in Shadows Over Camelot. And I always seem to draw that card.
But Sauron loses in the story - this makes them the underdog in my opinion.
I never understood the idea that wanting to play the Germans makes you a closet Nazi. Who doesn't want to try and break the kessel at Stalingrad or any other challenge? Do the same people argue that Stalin and the his cronies were "Good Guys". Who cares as we are talking about games.
Chaos (Nurgle) has a special spot for me as they are also dirty bastards.
I also agree you can't really count Tyranids as villains.
How about a game I recently played with my pals where everyone got to be the villains - Blood Feud New York. No one had to argue over who got stuck being the "Good Guys" and we all roughed up and shook down our respective neighborhoods - any cops involved were appropriately bribed.
One common criticism of EuroGames is that the themes tend to be lightly pasted on, instead of deeply imbedded in the chrome and mechanics. If evil is a theme, it seems that it is more truly expressed in some AmeriTrash games than others. Put it this way, are there things that the bad guys can do that the good guys can't? And are those things especially evil?
For example, in Rage, the bad guys attack victims instead of monsters in the Hunting Grounds. In terms of mechanics, there is little difference between the victims and the monsters. Sure, it may feel more evil to attack that nice doggy or the playground full of kids, but the play of it is the same, except for special abilities on some of those victim/monster cards that express the theme.
But in Divine Right, the Black Hand is only able to use some of his necromantic abilities at recent battlefields, meaning ones created since the start of the game. That feels deliciously evil, exploiting the deaths of other armies, possibly even those of your own allies. In Fury of Dracula (and Undead), the Dracula player tries to turn innocent young women into undead monsters like himself. In Betrayal at House on the Hill, the traitor player generally gains special advantages at moving around in the House, and gets his own personal victory condition that usually involves something evil.
Warhammer 40k: DARK ELDAR! CHAOS SPACE MARINES! TYRANIDS, MAN, TYRANIDS!
Games Workshop does a fine job ok making all the races inthe a little bit evil, at best neutral.
IG = Racist humans bent on exterminating everything.
Space Marines = all of the above but even more racist and without giving a crap about anything other than the "Chapter"
Sisters = Brainwashed fanatics interested in the above human domination
Eldar = Lets see at one time were so hedonistic that the cause a new chaos god to appear and a giant rip in space/time. Now they are so self righteous and self centered that the only thing they really care about is fighting chaos and anyone else who get in their way.
Necrons = Machines out to destroy all living things.
Orks = Out to fight and blow up as much as possible (Ameritrash Fans)
Nids = The hivemind must eat (You can argue these guys are not evil but just acting on instinct)
Nothing in 40k is benevolent, its part of what make the world so damn interesting.
-M
Bang!: You can be an outlaw or the renegade. I like being the renegade the best though, playing both sides against each other, trying to come out on top.
Twilight Struggle: You can play as the commies.
Wings of War: You can play as German and Italian pilots, but there's really no difference in gameplay.
Star Wars: Epic Duels: Playing any Dark Side character is better than the Light Side.
Villains and Monsters are fun.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Board Game and Buffy the Vampire Slayer CCG Lots of different villains to choose from, plus their minions. My favorite villains are Spike and Dru. They get to drive around in an Desoto Sportsman listening to the Sex Pistols and eating annoying teenagers.
Awful Green Things from Outer Space You can be the Awful Green Things. They are kind of cute villains.
Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers Someone has to be the bugs. They are definitely not sexy or stylish. Actually, this game is all little cardboard chits, so there is nothing really stylish about the humans either.
LOTR the Duel Gandalf vs. the Balrog. This game is Euroish. I won't say more, because I am writing something about it for next week.
Villains in children's game's are fun too.
Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo Attacks Townville Yes it's a kid's game, but it is still fun to be Mojo Jojo and whip dice at the Powerpuff girls to try to knock them down.
The Perilous Parlor Game A twisted kid's game. The Count tries to kill the orphan children's guardian before the executor of their estate gets back from the bank. One of the evil things that the Count can do is to lock the children in their room.
Having a weakness for villainy must be the reason for you to be such a sucker for collectible games. Those are inventions of the devil.
("invention of the devil" actually gives you 18.000 hits on google. What a genius!)
Simon, I think you're on to something.
I'm not sure if you'd consider Werewolf an AT game, but it has a villain (the werewolves) and it's one of my favorites to play. Trying to play the game exactly the same way when you are a werewolf as you would when you're a villager is really hard and makes the game a lot of fun.
The real evil here is that we've just had F:AT's first (and hopefully only) reference to THE CROW, Ronald McDonald's evil goth-clown stepchild.
Everyone's a critic.
I'll have you know I watched the interview with James O'Barr and he is QUITE convinced that "The Crow" is one of the greatest masterpieces of our time. "Humble" the man is not.
Yes, I met him once in an elevator at Dragon Con (the same place I once bumped into Timothy Leary, strangely enough). Some people are just completely satisfied with their genius. Only Neil Gaiman is more infested with comic book author hubris...Todd McFarlane comes in at #3.
Probably THE CROW's worst sin was O'Barr appropriating and miscontextualizing all those Joy Division songs...
Probably THE CROW's worst sin was O'Barr appropriating and miscontextualizing all those Joy Division songs...
Do you feel that way before or after O'Barr swore up and down that he'd never do another Crow movie after Brandon Lee died. Lying rat bastard.
Never saw the other versions of the franchise other than the first one, while doesn't completely follow the comic, is far better than the crap that came after it.
"City of Angels" wasn't so bad if you take out the out-of-place S&M stuff and the ridiculous ending sequence. Iggy Pop was freaking BONZO GONZO in his performance.
But yeah, we left the theater for that one disappointed.
I rented the third one on video...wow, that was BAD.
I didn't bother with the newest one with David "Vampires get Fatter When the Livin' Is Good" Boreanaz.
Timothy Leary and Iggy Pop - now your talking.
Do you feel that way before or after O'Barr swore up and down that he'd never do another Crow movie after Brandon Lee died. Lying rat bastard.
I'd expect the "Krusty Defense"- "...they had a dumptruck full of money! I'm not made of stone!"
Since we're now derailed at this point...it's a voice role only, but I liked Iggy in the little-seen HARDWARE. Holy shit, that gives me an idea...more later.
The new Stooges record completely fucking sucks, BTW...I wept softly into the booklet of "Funhouse" after hearing it.
Hardware was a surprisingly good movie. My roommate of that time was into deliberately renting bad movies so he could laugh helplessly while toking up. We were both caught off guard when Hardware actually had a good plot and special effects, some pretty good action and a decent ending. And who could forget the shower scene?
Cool soundtrack too- PiL, Ministry, Motorhead...I actually saw in that 10 minute stretch when it was in theaters, the head-in-door scene I'll never forget.
It's a very interesting movie...definitely a 2000AD thing, some really good production design (on an absolute shoestring) in there. The MARK-13 is just bad ass...good thing I have a "questionable" DVD...
I think the iconic evil bastard game is S.P.I.V.S.
You play a hapless space trader wandering to planets to kidnap intelligent aliens off of planets to sell them to zoos.
They are understandably pissed and generally try to rip their way out of your ships, or slam asteroids into you.
Space is also quite dangerous with things like Giant Space Amoebas, and a solar flare that kills you INSTANTLY.
It isn't quite Ameritrash, as it is an older UK game. By the same guy who gave us the nifty Elixir by TSR, and the less than nifty Web of Gold.
Another addition:
Dark Cults A two player horror storytelling card game where one person is Life and the other is Death. Life player tries to keep the main protagonist alive and Death does its best to make the character shuffle off his mortal coil with things like alien possession or other Lovecraftian horrors.
I love being Death, and I don't speak like a Jamaican, either.
I have disagreed with you a fair bit lately Barnes, but we are in lockstep here - I admit to gaging a little in my mouth when I read the opening crow quote (especially since it's such a shit quote anyway! Hang your head in shame Franklincobb!
Apart from that nice article. Only one I'm surprised about is the Yssaril Tribes, from a fluff perspective (ie the bit of text at the back) I never thought they were presented as the villains. The Mindnet would be the villains I would have thought.
Malloc's post made me nostalgic for the GW universes - man their 2 settings were great!
Whenever I play Twilight Imperium, I act the evil race bent on galactic conquest. Barony of Letnev? More like... the Barony of Evil!
Being the bad guy is usually just fun. I enjoy crushing the heroes in Betrayal at House on the Hill and War of the Ring. I enjoy being the GM in RPGs, designing maze-like dungeons or forts with minions and traps setup for the unsuspecting players. I like playing Tyranid in 40k and eating all the humans. Good times.
(especially since it's such a shit quote anyway! Hang your head in shame Franklincobb!
Do you people see what I have to deal with here? This is tantamount to workplace harassment here.
I think the iconic evil bastard game is S.P.I.V.S.
Hey, I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world who'd played that!
It isn't quite Ameritrash, as it is an older UK game. By the same guy who gave us the nifty Elixir by TSR, and the less than nifty Web of Gold.
It's AT through and through. Just because it's UK based is meaningless - so were all those great old GW games. Oh, and Elixir isn't nifty - it sucks badly and comes off very poorly compared to SPIVS!
(especially since it's such a shit quote anyway! Hang your head in shame Franklincobb!
Do you people see what I have to deal with here? This is tantamount to workplace harassment here.
HELP! HELP! I'M BEING OPPRESSED!
Matt:
In some ways Elixir is actually a bit better.
1. There aren't as many dead turns where you just move.
2. The deduction aspect works quite well. Especially if you track what other people have picked up and which potions they reveal.
3. It ends. Elixir doesn't stray beyond an hour. S.P.I.V.S...can go on for 3 or so if the dice and the black holes hate the players.
If you really want to go for bad Nik Sewell, try out Sufferin' Spirits. The name says it all.
Ken--
Oh yes, the Yankees are if not evil, pretty darn close to it. I've heard it said that rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house at a casino.
--Mike L.
Have to include the Imperial player in Freedom In The Galaxy where you have such an evil doomsday device that will stop the revolution of a planet at its core dead while the crust continues to spin, killing everyone & everything on the surface. As the Rebel player, all you get is the leader who invented the device & now feels bad about it.
Plus one of the leaders of the Empire is Thysa Kimbo, might have just called her Princess Aura & been done with it :D
Oh yes, the Yankees are if not evil, pretty darn close to it. I've heard it said that rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house at a casino.
Every time my little 1-inch high bronze-based A-Rod hits a homerun, a tiny part of my soul dies.
Stray Rod...
Malloc--
Actually, you could easily add the Tau to 40K and argue that they are actually the "good" race--an inclusive space empire of many races fighting for "the greater good."
Of course, they are just a race that GW seems to have made to cash in on the anime craze.
Actually, you could easily add the Tau to 40K and argue that they are actually the "good" race--an inclusive space empire of many races fighting for "the greater good."
Of course, they are just a race that GW seems to have made to cash in on the anime craze.
I just call them "Imp. Guard: The Next Generation."
They suck in hand to hand, have average toughness and ballistics skill, and their weapons have a slightly better range.
As with the examples thrown out by Malloc, the Tau aren't a purely good race. They have an authoritarian mien to them, like an overbearing parent to a child.
But guys, 40K is a big rip off, they just want your money!
Who's up for some BATTLELORE?
The pricing for the Battlelore expansions so far does appear to be veering into 40K territory, though they still have some catching up to do.
$15 for a second board...that features a scenario book that requires 2 copies of the game...BATTLELORE is like Scientology or something...
Tom Cruise has an army of Dwarves waving the banner of Xenu and bearing down on your current location RIGHT NOW.
"Why would you do that? Why would you do that?"
But guys, 40K is a big rip off, they just want your money!
That's why I shop on Ebay, like the vulture that I am, and get people's armies for pennies on the dollar.
Usually.
I just checked the GW website to see how much their 4th Ed rulebook sells for. $50?!?!?!
What kind of BAD crack are they smoking??? Thanks, but no. I'll play by 3rd Edition rules and Void rules. Screw that.
How about playing the Whateleys in the Deadlands: Doomtown CCG?Cavorting with abominations and plotting with Knicknevin and all?
Oh yeah, those guys were evil. Sweetrock was also a team of nogudniks.
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