DnD/Fantasy Bond Villain plan

[Cikomyr]

So while designing my current campaign, I kind of came with the Great Villain's master plan: to basically envelop the material world in a dimensional shell that would prevent any extraplanar intervention, from Demonic to Angelic, Faeric and Shadowfell. Even godly powers couldn't cross.

And I got thinking about the degree of goofiness of this plan, and yet the somewhat "well intentioned" motivation behind such plan, even if it turns out destructive, reminded me of a classic Bond Villain master plan.

And I wanted to ask you guys what you'd come up for a DnD Bond Villain master plan? Remember to try to have the villain somehow think he is making the world a favor.

[Lapak]

So while designing my current campaign, I kind of came with the Great Villain's master plan: to basically envelop the material world in a dimensional shell that would prevent any extraplanar intervention, from Demonic to Angelic, Faeric and Shadowfell. Even godly powers couldn't cross.

And I got thinking about the degree of goofiness of this plan, and yet the somewhat "well intentioned" motivation behind such plan, even if it turns out destructive, reminded me of a classic Bond Villain master plan.

And I wanted to ask you guys what you'd come up for a DnD Bond Villain master plan? Remember to try to have the villain somehow think he is making the world a favor.

I am going to start by saying that I can't think of a single Bond Villain that had theoretical good intentions as part of their motivational mix. All of them I can think of are somewhere the scale between heartless greed and cackling supervillainy-for-evil's-sake.

But it's a fun mental exercise anyway!


Let's try this one for a villain somewhere in the Lawful spectrum: she's uncovered the existence of an ancient Epic artifact that can rapidly churn out powerful golems loyal only to the artifact's holder, and intends to use them as an unstoppable army of conquest/global police force to enforce her own brand of order on the world. Once activated and underway, you can't subvert their loyalty (even by killing the villain, they will still carry out her standing orders of conquer-and-police) and the golems cannot be permanently destroyed themselves while the artifact exists, so the artifact must be eliminated to save the world.

[Cikomyr]

I am going to start by saying that I can't think of a single Bond Villain that had theoretical good intentions as part of their motivational mix. All of them I can think of are somewhere the scale between heartless greed and cackling supervillainy-for-evil's-sake.

But it's a fun mental exercise anyway!


Let's try this one for a villain somewhere in the Lawful spectrum: she's uncovered the existence of an ancient Epic artifact that can rapidly churn out powerful golems loyal only to the artifact's holder, and intends to use them as an unstoppable army of conquest/global police force to enforce her own brand of order on the world. Once activated and underway, you can't subvert their loyalty (even by killing the villain, they will still carry out her standing orders of conquer-and-police) and the golems cannot be permanently destroyed themselves while the artifact exists, so the artifact must be eliminated to save the world.

Oh that makes for a fun story...

[Segev]

In a Mutants and Masterminds (3e) game, one of the villains in our evil party was insanely obsessed with ducks, and had powers that uplifted ducks to human intelligence near him. He would use them as minions and try to invent stupid ways for them to use weapons.

He actually came up with the best supervillain plan of any of us, though: he took his giant demonic duck to infiltrate billionaires' homes, feed them to said duck, and then impersonate them through various means so he could funnel their fortunes to his offshore accounts. He then used these to buy rockets, satelites, and space on rockets going to satelites to subvert the entire world-wide satelite system and use it as a distribution network to cause his duck-uplift-aura to envelop the planet. AT the same time, he'd finally developed guns that ducks could wield, and was using other parts of his stolen fortune to mass-produce them. I think he had plans to take over Amazon's distribution network to ship the guns all over the world, too.

[Particle_Man]

In reverse this is what happened in the Midnight setting - the good gods trapped an evil god on a mortal world this way. Needless to say things did not go well for the mortals on this world.

[Honest Tiefling]

I am going to start by saying that I can't think of a single Bond Villain that had theoretical good intentions as part of their motivational mix. All of them I can think of are somewhere the scale between heartless greed and cackling supervillainy-for-evil's-sake.

Well, you can't really say that Drax wasn't evil, but he did have a goal outside of greed, sorta. Moon seemed at least partially motivated by what he thought his nation wanted, even if his idea was a tad explodey.

Expanding on Lapak's idea, perhaps this woman really thinks that her golems crushing all of the other kingdoms is really the best idea. Maybe a few royal bloodlines around the place claim descent from a actual Aasimar. Of course, to keep this divine bloodline pure, a bit of cousin marriage had to happen. And then a little too much happened, and well, the products that resulted weren't the best, but got power and position within the kingdoms due to their bloodline, ignoring past examples of the bloodline falling or overlooking more common or less divinely blooded people in favor of yet another member of this bloodline. Clearly, this interference from the gods in having an angel create a divine bloodline really, really, really did not work out for multiple reasons.

It could be further compounded by the presence of tieflings and orcs. Tieflings CAN be created not just by fiends (through fiends are also blocked) but by evil gods. And even if they aren't created by evil gods, evil gods probably like to recruit them since they have a much harder time defecting to more goodly aligned faiths. Orcs are often created by an evil god (or his blood) so they too, carry the influence of the divine, and not in a good way for anyone, not even other orcs.

Now, if this villian could get her hands on some 'divine' powers without a god, (such as ur-priest powers from 3.X or false priest from pathfinder), why have these gods mucking stuff up with their constant battles? Why not let mortals decide their own fate as opposed to being moved around a cosmic chessboard by distant powers whose conflict have killed millions?

[Cikomyr]

In reverse this is what happened in the Midnight setting - the good gods trapped an evil god on a mortal world this way. Needless to say things did not go well for the mortals on this world.

I wish they would release an update to that setting. The whole "you live in a Post-Evil Triumph world" is such a fun setup.

[Tvtyrant]

So while designing my current campaign, I kind of came with the Great Villain's master plan: to basically envelop the material world in a dimensional shell that would prevent any extraplanar intervention, from Demonic to Angelic, Faeric and Shadowfell. Even godly powers couldn't cross.

And I got thinking about the degree of goofiness of this plan, and yet the somewhat "well intentioned" motivation behind such plan, even if it turns out destructive, reminded me of a classic Bond Villain master plan.

And I wanted to ask you guys what you'd come up for a DnD Bond Villain master plan? Remember to try to have the villain somehow think he is making the world a favor.

Merfolk Artificer who makes an artifact that makes a hundred decanters of endless water a day to raise the sea level. He bought land on the land to sell to other Merfolk when it becomes surface front property.

Spelljammer captain who gets Ragnorra or Atropus to chase him back to his sphere. Both make everyone immortal in a certain regard; either as unkillable mutants or undead that eternally rise from the grave.

Wizard who is going to block off the world from the afterlife so everyone's ghosts remain forever. This is so they can carry messages between people and make the aethernet.

The same wizard is working on a spell which will cause all bodies to rise as biddable zombies so labor and energy is free for all.

Lizardman founds the rumornaughty, an organization which seeks to undermine corrupt governments by using doppelgangers as infiltrators and manipulating the world into a better, less war stricken future.

Anthropomorphic Mouse Sorcerer who believes the moon is actually made of cheese, and so seeks to make a permanent portal to the moon to mine it. This would sadly cause all of the planets' air to fly into space from pressure changes, but he is uneducated.

[Cikomyr]

Merfolk Artificer who makes an artifact that makes a hundred decanters of endless water a day to raise the sea level. He bought land on the land to sell to other Merfolk when it becomes surface front property.

Spelljammer captain who gets Ragnorra or Atropus to chase him back to his sphere. Both make everyone immortal in a certain regard; either as unkillable mutants or undead that eternally rise from the grave.

Wizard who is going to block off the world from the afterlife so everyone's ghosts remain forever. This is so they can carry messages between people and make the aethernet.

The same wizard is working on a spell which will cause all bodies to rise as biddable zombies so labor and energy is free for all.

Lizardman founds the rumornaughty, an organization which seeks to undermine corrupt governments by using doppelgangers as infiltrators and manipulating the world into a better, less war stricken future.

Anthropomorphic Mouse Sorcerer who believes the moon is actually made of cheese, and so seeks to make a permanent portal to the moon to mine it. This would sadly cause all of the planets' air to fly into space from pressure changes, but he is uneducated.

I'm gonna index this thread.

Seriously. Play DnD as Fantasy James Bond

[Honest Tiefling]

Seriously. Play DnD as Fantasy James Bond

Well, your average DnD Player is already prone to causal racism, trying to bang anything attractive in a 50 mile radius and raging alcoholism, so...What would be the difference for the player characters again?

[Tvtyrant]

Well, your average DnD Player is already prone to causal racism, trying to bang anything attractive in a 50 mile radius and raging alcoholism, so...What would be the difference for the player characters again?

Silly, self-aware villains I imagine. Characters like Megamind instead of a tragic vampire.

Instead of the inn being controlled by a Mind Flayer it is controlled by a local lord in solid gold armor who is trying to create a beer that turns the drinkers into succubi so he can have a demon harem.

[Honest Tiefling]

Silly, self-aware villains I imagine. Characters like Megamind instead of a tragic vampire.

Dungeon Masters...Don't do this already? I mean, if you tried running a tragic vampire, you're either going to run into Twilight Jokes or have the players scream "I know you're here, DRACULA, now where's my money you big nerd. Now where's my goddamn money!?".

[Tvtyrant]

Dungeon Masters...Don't do this already? I mean, if you tried running a tragic vampire, you're either going to run into Twilight Jokes or have the players scream "I know you're here, DRACULA, now where's my money you big nerd. Now where's my goddamn money!?".

My first multi-year campaign the BBEG was a "tragic" vampire. His motivation was that he hated the sound of hearts beating, and his hearing was so sharp there was no where in the world he could go to avoid it. So he decided to kill the world in a magic ritual so he could be at peace.

They took that character pretty seriously, his death was one of the best moments in the campaign.

[Honest Tiefling]

They took that character pretty seriously, his death was one of the best moments in the campaign.

Your groups are probably better than mine, because I feel like a lot of people I have gamed with would have just thrown him into the ocean. Somewhat like how Blofeld got chucked into a chimney unceremoniously in one of the films.

[TheYell]

most tables would be stuck at the scene where the BBEG kills his minions for failing to kill the hero

"HEY! Our XP!!"

[Honest Tiefling]

most tables would be stuck at the scene where the BBEG kills his minions for failing to kill the hero

"HEY! Our XP!!"

Meanwhile, the Warlock and the Rogue are shoving each other to be the first to get the loot from the fallen henchmen.

[Cikomyr]

Silly, self-aware villains I imagine. Characters like Megamind instead of a tragic vampire.

Instead of the inn being controlled by a Mind Flayer it is controlled by a local lord in solid gold armor who is trying to create a beer that turns the drinkers into succubi so he can have a demon harem.

Oh Jesus yes.

Make the material plane as glamorous as the Fey. The PCs are agents sent by various factions meant to cooperate in thwarting the current supervillain plot.

"Agents, welcomed to the White Council HQ. We need your help in neutralizing the Sorcerer King, an alleged immortal supergenius who has harassed the kingdom of the Giants for centuries.

Our informants tipped us about his newfound ability to circumvent the Giants's defenses by using an Atlant Artifact named the Vee-Peyeen. He is currently gathering a army of trolls and will strike at any moment. You have to neutralize him by any means necessary, or this might provoke the Giants to retaliate with catastrophic consequences.

Please visit our quartermaster, code name Kee-u, to receive the equipment the White Council has authorised to release for this mission.

Good luck, and Godsspeed. "

[Tvtyrant]

Your groups are probably better than mine, because I feel like a lot of people I have gamed with would have just thrown him into the ocean. Somewhat like how Blofeld got chucked into a chimney unceremoniously in one of the films.

Well he was a vampire so he always turned to smoke and fled at the end of each encounter. I also made a pontificating rule that if they could attack while enemies talked enemies could attack when they did; they preferred the ability to strategize to getting to gank people mid soliloquy.

[Honest Tiefling]

Make the material plane as glamorous as the Fey.

Reading this makes me wonder if you could do DnD as if the world was still in the 1960's, with all of the glorious mid-century interior design and luxury of the time.

[Cikomyr]

Reading this makes me wonder if you could do DnD as if the world was still in the 1960's, with all of the glorious mid-century interior design and luxury of the time.

Do you know Not Another DnD Podcast? (NADDPOD), it's a Comedy DnD podcast by Brian Murphy, Jake Hurwitz, Emily Axford and Caldwell Tanner.

They have a bonus campaign named "Trinyvale" DMed by Caldwell. It's a wacky, high-magitech, glamorous, episodic story of Retrieval Team 22, who are sent on missions by the Benefactor to retrieve the Ghennerak Crystals that hold the power to destroy the world.

It's.. Light-hearted, but funny as hell. First episode of Trinyvale is weaker, but they really hit their stride in episode 3.

[Honest Tiefling]

Afraid not, DnD Podcasts aren't really my thing. But if it's different from the others I'll give it a whirl.

[Cikomyr]

Afraid not, DnD Podcasts aren't really my thing. But if it's different from the others I'll give it a whirl.

I haven't been able to pick up Critical Roll myself. But I love Dimension 20 and NADDPOD.

[Bohandas]

*A building an interplanar doomsday laser that he intends to use to destroy one of the three copies of the Pact Primeval, thus crippling Baator, but allowing the Abyss to overrun the planes

*He's engineering a plague to wipe out all halflings, who he sees as shifty weed smoking foot fetishists

*He's sealing all of Sigil's portals from the outside

*Scheme for wererat domination disguised as a cat neutering program

[jjordan]

Bond villain plan?

-A cabal of druids led by an archdruid who have built a henge that will allow them to control weather. They are going to blackmail neighboring kingdoms by threatening to destroy their crops.

-A demonic cult is plotting to release a virus that will kill the victims or possess them. They will rule over the world.

-A nobleman has secretly built up a private army and is trying to start a war between his two neighbors, using hired bandits and assassins to commit atrocities. He plans to step in to 'impose a peace' that will become permanent when the neighbors suffer 'accidents'.

-A wizard has built a magic circle that allows him to remotely open a planar gate to the heart of a volcano. He plans to blackmail major cities: he gets paid or they get a volcano in the center of town.

-A charismatic figure has created a brotherhood of assassins. He's using them to take control of trade routes. They believe they are laying the groundwork for a perfect society.

[Honest Tiefling]

Why do all of these villain plans sound like ideas player characters would come up with!?

[Pauly]

Inspired by Bond villains.

Magicfinger. Plans to set off a series of the equivalent of a Magic EMP bombs that will have the effect of completely eradicating any magic devices within their blast radius. Motivation - to increase the value of his own magic item stockpile.

On His Majesty’s not so secret service. The villain has a lair on a remote mountain top. He is promising to cure diseases, but is really working on a plague to spread throughout the world.

Diamonds are For until you’re dead. The villain is cornering the market of diamonds. If he’s successful he gets to choose if anyone ever gets resurrected.

[Jay R]

Why do all of these villain plans sound like ideas player characters would come up with!?

Because you're asking a bunch of players to come up with them, I would guess.

[Cikomyr]

Because you're asking a bunch of players to come up with them, I would guess.

I didn't pick the name Sorcerer King, an alleged immortal genius, outta hat.

[Particle_Man]

A necromancer wants to overrun the world with shadows to spite the sun god. His henchlings are all chaotic evil soul born (and thus immune to the str damage of shadows once they prove themselves enough to make level 2 and have their eyes turn solid black).

I mean why use warriors as goons when you have soul born?