Villains In RPG Worldbuilding
Why don't worlds include a list of villains for GMs to pit against their heroes? They tend to provide tons of factions, but there's a distinct lack of individual characters with ambitions and quirks.
To me, villains are one of the most essential indicators of tone in a game. If your first villain is an arrogant noble in golden armor, you’re running a different game than someone running a recurring mercenary who kills his apprentices by summoning demons into their bodies.
I don't want too many villains, just enough to have a couple sessions worth of play. One or two low level miscreants per meaningful region, some wandering mercenaries, maybe a couple higher level folks that control factions, and I’d be happy.
Example: Junior and Torvaldson
Up in the Icebrow Mountains, there lives a two-headed ogre known as Junior and Torvaldson. The two heads claim to be two separate creatures, and are enraged if their conjoined nature is ever brought up in conversation. They have a stranglehold on Torvald’s Pass, once the realm of their much kinder father, Torvald the Shepherd. While Torvald actively nurtured the shepherds of the region, his sons are brutes who raid travelling caravans.
“I’m famished, Torvaldson.”
“As am I, Junior. What do you say to moseying down to the shepherds and snacking on some lamb?
“Lamb would be delicious, but I have a hankering for manflesh tonight, Torvaldson.”