Villain motivations: Revenge
Why does a villain do what they do? Why do any of us, really, but let’s tighten the focus of our existential pondering. In order to be a good villain, a baddie needs a good motivation. What’s a good motivate for an antagonist?
Killing everyone who ever hurt their feelings!
I’m exaggerating only by a little bit. A villain seeking revenge has been hurt by someone or something. If they’re going to be the main antagonist of a story, that pain should be caused by something big enough to fuel all of their epic conflicts. If it’s revenge against one jerk they seek, the villain goes after them, kills them, and then they’re done. Not that you can’t make that awesome! All of Fury Road is the story of a villain chasing down a handful of people — but that’s a movie and something on that scale is probably best used as a one-shot, something non-stop and action-packed.
But if the force that caused the initial injury is something large — like the leader of a nation or an institution — then you have something much bigger for the villain to try to destroy. When they’re tearing down an entire kingdom or mean to shatter a galactic government, that’s full-sized campaign fodder. Maybe the villain is an escaped political prisoner or terrorist who means to bring the whole system crashing down. Maybe they were hurt and abandoned by a god, and now they look to have that deity dead at their feet, no matter what it takes.
Revenge has a lot of potential for a villain that the players can be sympathetic toward. Perhaps the government did imprison a political opponent unfairly. Maybe they had some good points about corruption in the system. What might begin as defending the institution as noble defenders might call for soul-searching and moral questions when they find out the motivation behind the villain’s reign of terror. Do they stop the villain? Help the villain? What about the innocent people caught in the crossfire or dependent upon the system to support them.
Another potential twist on revenge might be a villain who wants revenge on the player characters themselves! Perhaps the lover or family member of a villain that the party has defeated returns to make the heroes pay. You can create a John Wick-style rampage through everything that the party holds dear — blow up their homes or their stronghold, murder their NPC allies, and then come for the players themselves.
Revenge is another nice, simple motivation that anyone who’s been mad at a coffee table for stubbing their toe can wrap their heads around. As long as the players come to understand who the villain wants revenge on and why they have to get it, it’ll be believable.
