Villain motivations: Corruption
What makes a good villain? Motivation! A cool look and unholy power is great but an antagonist who does what they do for no reason might feel a little thin. Put some meat on those bones, and some bones to grind under their heels.
Let’s consider a corrupted villain. This kind of antagonist might have been rotten or evil from the start, but then things get worse. Take a small-scope game in which the villain is a crime lord. We’re already dealing with someone who peddles drugs and commits murder, but what if they start using their own product? What if they become a meth-fueled murder-monkey?
What might a villain like that do? Almost anything! If you want to create a villain who makes unexpected moves and acts erratically, a villain under the influence of drugs or demonic corruption makes a lot of sense. How many times can you get a villain who acts almost randomly and the players actually buy it? This is an incredibly rare treat and gift!
Now let’s scale up that corruption. I once ran a campaign in which a powerful lord had been infected by a conscious virus. It physically altered the man, sure, but more importantly, it twisted his mind. He led his people down a dark path, made deals with demons as he plotted conquest and destruction.
There are a lot of options presented by that kind of corruption, and the player characters can easily buy into the ensuing evil actions. Even better, when my players found out why the villain had gone from noble lord to cruel overlord, they realized that he was a victim in his own right. Hatred turned into horror and pity, and the whole tone of the game shifted drastically. How’s that for motivation?
The reason for corruption doesn’t have to be complex. It can be someone seeking strength but driven mad by their new powers. (Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin in the 2002 Spider-Man is this one dialed up to 11. And then his return in No Way Home. So good!) Maybe it’s somebody who opens themselves to hellish corruption out of grief, or even who comes into a corrupting influence by random happenstance. They can all motivate a villain that players will understand, accept, and hate or pity.
