Aspects of a villains life

1. Skills and abilities - Give the character a twist. Take an existing attribute and exaggerate it.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Appearance : choose one or two unique physical characteristics. Be careful of avoiding stereotypes!

Aspects of a villains life

1. Network - Who does your villain know? The villain's network is his circle of friends, family, and professional associates or acquaintances in positions of power. A villain's network of associations affects both the heroes' ability to defeat their enemy, and to the resources a vil- lain uses to accomplish his goals.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Personal history - secrets, lies and dark deeds can paint a picture of the past and be used as foreshadowing. In Gothic horror, the process of uncovering the back-story of a place or character is often the protagonists' motivation. Many ghost stories require the heroes to discover a tragedy of the ghost.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Surroundings - a villains lair is a good piece of worldbuilding.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Tastes and preferences - a villains tastes can contribute to his villainy

Aspects of a villains life

1. Attitudes and behaviours - both their attitude toward others and their behaviour toward others. A person's attitude is not always congruent with their behaviour.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Personality Traits - negative but one positive.to act as a contradiction,- an ironic one would be ideal.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Motive -a bad motive is a need or desire pushed to excess and pursued at the expense of other people. Example: Greed is a desire for security pushed beyond reason.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Objective - the villains objective must be in direct opposition to that of the heroes. He may want to kill one of their friends or relations.

Aspects of a villains life

1. Occupation - what does the villain do to support himself? Example: Bakshra is a petty warlord who oversees his castle and is supported by the serfs who work the surrounding farmland.

What is a villain?

1. Villains are an opposing force.
2. Villains are powerful adversaries
3. Villains are unsympathetic (maybe not?)
4. Villains have bad motives
5. Villains engage emotions