O is for The Other Team
Those PCs ain’t the only show.
From the Play Fearless Dictionary…
In the world of tabletop roleplaying games, every hero needs a worthy adversary. Enter The Other Team — a group of antagonists specifically designed to challenge and push your player characters to their limits. Just as iconic heroes have faced off against their mirror counterparts in literature, movies, and comics, your players deserve foes that will test their mettle and make their victories all the sweeter. Don’t believe me. Start with Killmonger, Scorpius…think about the Legion of Doom, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and I present you The Gatherers! I rest my case.
Creating a rival team adds tension and excitement to your RPG adventures. These adversaries serve as mirrors to the player characters, reflecting their strengths, weaknesses, and values. Just as the heroes strive for victory, the rival team is driven by its own ambitions, goals, and motivations. And it allows you, my GM friend, to play!
So, how do you go about crafting a rival team that will truly test your players’ characters? Here’s what I’d do:
1. Establish Conflicting Motivations: Every great rival team has a compelling reason for opposing the player characters. Whether it’s a desire for power, revenge, or ideological differences, make sure their motivations are clear and believable. They don’t even have to BE about the PCs -just conflict with the PCs. Causing an inevitable clash. I like to take what the player characters have and add that hard twist at the end. In my Edge of the Empire game, I have a player who is motivated to rescue his sister from the underworld. I could make a rival NPC motivated to find his own sister who is hiding from him, she would for sure be buddied up with the PC’s sister!
2. Create Diverse Characters: Just like the player characters, the members of the rival team should be distinct individuals with their own personalities, backgrounds, and abilities. I like to make dark versions of the PCs, using the same rules as the players for creating characters -game rules permitting. In Jolt, a Champions Now campaign, the PC was an ex-corporate spokesmodel speedster. His rival was his replacement, younger, faster, and mean. She is not a true speedster, but her teleport abilities could “fake it.”
3. Design Solid Agendas. Nail down a Team agenda. One that fits in the allotted sessions of play. It doesn’t have to be opposite anything the PCs are about, but it should compete, collide, and stomp on those things. I’m working up my Other Team for my Edge of the Empire game. I’ve got some options. The Other Team could be transporting the refugees my PCs are tracking down. They could be Bounty Hunters sent to bring in our Outlaw tech who worked on A Bad Thing (a real in-game fact). We’re five sessions in, and I have plenty of hooks to introduce The Other Team like flies in the ointment. Notice, no backstory! I’m dropping these folks in HOT. I’ll hook into existing player character flags, but I’ll let the game’s mechanics and players’ actions decide backstory possibilities as we play.
4. Let the dice fall. Play The Other Guys hard but fair, for keeps and by the rules. Be prepared to be surprised. Rivalries can be powerful catalysts for character growth and development. Use interactions with the rival team to push the players’ characters out of their comfort zones, forcing them to confront their flaws, overcome obstacles, and evolve as heroes.
By crafting a dynamic, multifaceted, and compelling rival team, you can enhance the depth and intensity of your RPG adventures. So, embrace the challenge, unleash your creativity, and watch as your players’ characters rise to meet their rivals head-on in epic battles of wit, strength, and courage.
Play Fearless!
Originally published at https://playfearless.substack.com.
