Romance between Villains?

[Hell_Born]

Okay, this is similar to the "Romance with Monsters" thread, but it's still different. How do you feel about and/or handle romantic interactions between "villain" NPCs in your campaigns?

I ask because I had an idea for a short adventure to pit my PCs against. Without getting too specific, it's about a small town being besieged by (what is essentially) a Necromancer/Blackguard who's hiding somewhere in the nearby woods. The PCs are "directed" to enclaves of stockpiled troops and the like by a local barmaid who, in her own words, knows the woods. When they finally confront the villain, the barmaid shows up again, cuing three unpleasant revelations. In no particular order:
*She's the villain's lover, sent to spy on the town before hand
*She's been directing the PCs into traps, trying to exhaust them and to mislead them away from the real attack points
*She's a maladictive Werewolf

[CorvusCornix]

Difficult question... Mostly I find it very difficult to try to get the feeling of love between NPCs across to the players - tried it once, but failed miserably. My villain did everything to save his love from death - even kill others - but somehow my PCs didn't buy it. My players never thought along this line when trying to figure out who the villain was and what were his motivations. The final showdown, when he tried to explain everything he had done to his love (who didn't know of his actions) it became rather awkward. That made me decide to handle love only between players and NPCs - in any direction. On hindsight, maybe it might have helped had I been more "schmaltzy" before...

All in all, I'd say that love works best as an EXTRA incitement, but not as the ONLY reason for an NPC to do something. In real life love is more than enough reason for some people to do anything, however feelings tend to get watered down when you have to explain them to your players...

[wolfgang_fener]

I always have some difficulty to play two NPCs interacting/speaking to each others, even when not related to romance. It makes me feel like I'm speaking to myself .

It is easier to do when the two NPCs have very distinct voices or accent but still...

There's currently 3 NPCs in my game traveling with the 3 PCs. That's a pain. Imagine when the group meets other NPCs in a tavern or something, I often end up playing over 4 NPCs at the same time while trying not to forget one in the background. DM overload - I guess its time to kill one or two in the most horrible ways to set the tone

Romance between NPCs ? Currently they are all males so unless the elf turns gay ...

[CorvusCornix]

Now that I think about it, my NPCs seem to have a tendency to always turn their full attention towards the PCs once they enter the scene - they don't seem to like talking to each other when strangers are present

Wow, how did your party acquire so many NPCs? Half of the constant party members controlled by you sounds like a lot of extra-work, added to portraying the whole rest of the world...

I'm sorry Hell_Born, I seem to stray a bit too far from your initial question...

[wolfgang_fener]

Sorry, thread hijack ahead...

How I got so many NPCs... That's because my players, mostly the manipulative female scout and the friendly half-elf priest of mystra talk to everybody and try to make as many friends as possible all the time! All the PCs have above average charisma. Damn priest even had a conversation with this stupid retard half-orc stable boy. I think he was just making me talk because I was really acting the retard very well !

Actually this player probably never had the chance to play in such a detailled realistic world where every damn npc have his own little history, a different voice and personality. He keeps talking to everybody just to probe the dept of the DM's imagination. Of course it makes for an interesting priest character. Is goal is to attract more followers to the church of Mystra, not just wizards and the like so I can't blame him. Of course it slows the game and gets on my nerve but the other players also likes it and do not care if there's not a single combat in a 12 hours game session so why not !

One thing leading to another, some NPC eventually tags along.

One is a henchmen to the beautiful female PC Charline, a scout/spy kind of rogue (basically a thief without pick pocket hability but who still manage to fill her pockets full, using and fast talking everyone. He's there from the beginning and all my player just love this character. He comes from the same village as Charline, he was a dumb but strong carpenter/part time millitia men who speak like a farmer. He's really a good guy (the only LG character in the group) and he's secretely in love with the rogue PC, which is the reason why he followed her in adventure. Unfortunately for him, he's extremely shy and not very good looking. Everyone likes this awkward NPC. He is usually courageous, except he have a phobia against undeads...Poor guy.

The second one is a bladesigner elf the PC saved from a band of orcs while he was on a mission to recover a magical set of elven chain mail and long sword. He's too strong willed and independant to become an henchmen but since the pc saved him AND helped him to recover the elven artifacts, he feels in debt to the PCs so he accepted to stick around with those humans for a while to help them recover the sword of the Dales. The PC risked their lives to give him such a great treasure so it's kind of normal. This one could be an interesting character but somehow I have some difficulty to play him. I think he'll die soon. I just wait until the pc gets more attached to him.


My third one is the weird Necromancer/anatomist & psychiatrist Nicephor Scola I talked about in a few threads in this forum. He's definitely not a good guy but he is very wise and even managed to convince the pc to capture a *live* medusea so he could drain her life away with magic without taking the risk of bruising the precious specimen. In exchange he offered his help to kill some evil shaman (but he had to kill him anyway) He also offered to write the lightning bolt spell in teh spell book of the PC priest of mystra (who can cast evocation magic as part of his special powers but who still need to carry a spell book for those non-divine spells). His rock solid alibi is to pose as just a weird scientist. Actually, he serves darker powers with sinister purposes. This character is facinating to my players, they just don't want to let him go away! . Since the priest is the actual leader of the party and since he was too happy to get a chance to put his hand on such a nice spell even if he can't cast it yet, they fall for it. Right now Scola is only waiting for the best occasion to diseapear and leave the party.He got what he needed and he doesn't care at all for this adventuring party. In the next session he will have a chance to go away with the PC thinking he's dead, drowned by the sea, his body and possession lost forever thanks to a water breathing spell. He may even leave some precious possession and a piece of clothing behind to make his death more credible.

I also plan to accept a new player soon so it will help to rebalance the PC/NPC ratio.


Back to the romance subject, my poor Don the henchmen will probably never manage to get what he wants with Charline. Love is blind and he can't see she's a manipulative bitch. His below average intelligence and charisma of 8 coupled with his extreme shyness doesn't help him either... But he's such a good guy ! You know what they say ? Good guys never get any !

[doctor-evil]

I have quite a few NPCs amongst the players in my party too (four in a party of five at the moment), which can have benefits (extra aid for the party but not having the problems with too many other players), and problems (many voices for different NPCs).

Love/Lust (mostly unreciprocated) and guilt is what keeps the NPCs and PCs together, and most of the NPCs are mainly in the party as the result of one PC who keeps trying to odopt strays and orphans (especially when the NPCs are orphans as the result of the character's/party's actions).

Two interesting love triangles have resulted as the stray/orphan-adopting PC inevitably started to feel drawn to and develops feelings for two sucessive new wards, only to see said ward being attracted to another PC/NPC in the party. (A little like Mr Jondice in Dickens' Bleak House). He's now feeling really low and has decided to switch from a Bard to a Dirgist...! V. Ravenloftian.

I haven't had a PC fall for a villain yet, but I'm waiting for another orphan/stray to come along for the PC to do his typical father figure thing and start feeling towards the ward, then have the ward turn out the villain....