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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1425 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Jan 2007 : 13:58:39
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I was curious if anyone would like to share how they ran the personalities of bad guys like Fzoul, Manshoon, Halastar, Semmenon, the Pereghost, Ssass Tam, Bane, Xvim, Lady Darkhope, and other characters that make the evil go round in the Realms.
Share your personal stories and suggestions.
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My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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WalkerNinja
Senior Scribe
USA
575 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jan 2007 : 15:58:21
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In my game:
The Manshoon: has never been seen by any of my PC's. He is felt as a presence. They can feel his machinations tightening around them like a noose
Fzoul: I give him a deep gravelly voice, VERY reminiscent of Saruman from Peter Jackson's movies. IMHO, he is a great leader, and leads by his voice, his posture, his physical presence. One Saruman quote that I like to use with him (very slowly, tinged with amusement) "We have only to remove those that oppose us."
Lady Darkhope: a confident, soft spoken, but intense warrior. No hesitation. Ever. She knows exactly what to do, and will see it done, blood and bone. She obeys they will of Bane, and all must obey her as they would the Dark Lord himself.
Szass Tamm: Ponderous, mysterious, oriental wizard. None of my players have ever uncovered that he is a lich. He appears rather like the Mandarin from Marvel comics. Bald with a full on Fu Manchu. His voice is light, but echoes with the might of the ages. His dark eyes stare forth, the famed thousand yard stare. The reason for this is that illusion is not his forte', and he can't quite get his illusionary eyes to match the movement of his red pinpoints of light. This has lead to the belief that he may be blind. |
*** A Forgotten Realms Addict since 1990 ***
Treasures of the Past, a Second Edition Play-by-Post game for and by Candlekeep Sages--http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=52011 |
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1425 Posts |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jan 2007 : 14:48:50
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| I keep major famous villains operating in the periphery of the adventure... The players notice the massive power and sees the villains, but to keep the mystique about them i refrain from entering them in the main story of the game. Works for my group since most of the players know the Realms to detail and if i try t roleplay any major villains it will most likely come short of their expectations. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Delzounblood
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
578 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jan 2007 : 15:12:09
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I take my inspiration from modern & classic films & TV.
I always think of Elminster as the main guy from the classic The Raven.
as for bad guy's.....
Bane for example I see as Bram Stokers Dracula & Emporer Ming mixed! but you have to think "out-side" the box with me I have a very warped sense of humor
 
Delz
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1425 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2007 : 00:30:12
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Here's my (much delayed) handling of the characters.
Bane: Remember the opening to the Fellowship of the Ring? Remember when Sauron waded out in that HUGE ass armor? Here's a picture if you need a visual reminder....
http://www.sharpedge.fr/united_cutlery/uc_helm/UC1412_sauron_helmet/pics/UC1412%20Sauron.jpg
That's Bane. I actually illustrate that Bane has a human appearance underneath it. A tall, shaven headed, muscular black man with eyes of pure obsidian. I always felt that when Bane removes his helmet, you were in the WORST trouble imaginable. It also made him even more scary for the fact that he was fundamentally human despite all of his inhuman acts.
And what IS Bane's personality? Conquest, power, being the master of all he surveys, stroking of his ego. He's a warlord and nothing more matters to him. He set his sights on conquering all of Faerun and the Pantheon and that's exactly what he's going to do. I find that he's actually fairly reasonable about this and think its scarier that he's not ranting insane but simply uses terror as a tool.
He's also become much more dangerous now that he's removed Strife from his porfolio.
Myrkul: I always enjoyed the idea that Myrkul was morbid, evil, and corrupt but he wasn't actually "I will destroy the world" insane. I always felt that Myrkul ENJOYED being the Lord of the Dead and the power that it gave over lives but he was actually motivated by greed more than anything else. The power and leveridge that it gave against all the other gods that he could deny their faithful to them simply by judging their followers Faithless or False.
At heart, I always felt that Myrkul was a bit smarter than Bane too and the driving force behind most of his campaigns. Bane took all the risks in Myrkul's mind while the Lord of the Dead swept up afterwards and reaped the profits. I also used Skeletor soundbytes from Frank Langella I admit. Unlike Bane, he doesn't have his own twisted sense of honor and is Neutral Evil in my games. A being of pure selfishness.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Skeletor3.jpg
;-)
Bhaal: I've always felt that Bhaal worked better as the Crazy One of the Dark Triad and shifted his alignment to Chaotic Evil than Lawful Evil. Bhaal's existence was built around the fact he was a psychopath. He was worshipped in my games by monstrous humanoids (and his religion was gradually replacing most of the traditional monster deities) along with assassins, serial killers, and generally anyone who wanted to do harm to someone else. Even some barbarians approved of him over Tempus. His focus on unnatural forms of death and murder always bugged Myrkul who felt Bhaal was wasting his power when the real strength came from old age, disease, and natural decay.
To stick with the similiarites of name, I made the Golden Bull his name and often had him appear as huge monsters as often as a normal person. Human sacrifice featured very prominently in his religion.
Fzoul: My take on Fzoul is that I try to make Fzoul the anti-thesis of a typical cleric. The image in the 3rd edition campaign book completely changed my take on him and I instead made him more like Thulsa Doom's warriors. Basically, Fzoul wants to be there in the middle of the action. He's what I like to term as the guy who was originally a party cleric just like the PC's cleric was. He earned the favor of Bane by bashing in the heads of Bane's enemies, accumulating treasure, and gradually rising to the head of large armies on his own. The traditional clergy HATED him for it too right up until the time he became the Master of All he Surveyed.
To that end, he doesn't get along with Mansoon and tends to react badly to people thinking too deeply about matters. He's not dumb by any stretch of the means but he's very much a Point A to Point B sort of fellow. Whereas Manshoon would try to spend 13 months trying to slowly corrupt the leadership of Daggerdale, Fzoul pretty much argues they send 2000 guys to take it over. Oddly, this keeps the Zhents balanced as an organization.
Remember Destro and Cobra Commander? That's their relationship with Fzoul as Destro.
Manshoon: I always try to drill home that Manshoon is the most powerful Archwizard the player characters are probably ever going to encounter. I also try to drill home that Manshoon is probably a candidate for Chosen of Mystra as much as anybody despite his evil alignment. For Manshoon, the Realms are a completely dessicated and deserted place that needs to be filled up with lands like Haruula to the South and Thay. Of course, Manshoon thinks that his Mage Empire in the Heartlands would surpass the glories of both of them if the other wizards would just band together under his reign.
He's a civilized fellow who deplores violence, barely tolerates Bane despite being nominally his servant too, and is continually frustrated by the infighting amongst the Zhents wizards. He'd very much like a motivated and competent group of wizards as dedicated as him to his dream of magic domination of the world.....which is why he has to kill so many. |
My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31774 Posts |
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1425 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2007 : 01:44:24
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I heartily agree.
Talos I have a lot of fun with. I portray him as a Heavy Metal video game to life. Why would Talos ride on the back of a Dracolich breathing down Hellfire while a horde of Gargoyles rides behind him grabbing up the young women of the town as storm clouds shatter the thunderscape? Because it looks cool.
It's difficult to hate my version of Talos because he's frothing mad. He'll rip out the heart of your enemies if you ask or probably invite you to a tavern to drink twenty kegs of ale before passing out in a pool of his own stag headed drool. |
My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Edited by - Charles Phipps on 13 Jan 2007 01:47:06 |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2007 : 02:25:26
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Keep in mind, a lot of my archetypical mindset goes back to comic books. While I've had few PCs even get close to him, Manshoon, in my mind, has always been a cross between Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom. Cool and calm for the most part, with a million contingency plans, likes the finer things, and of course, is never where he appears to be (of course, my "background" theory on Manshoon is that he has never died, the clone of himself that he set up to be his "faceman" has died, and that that "faceman" thinks that it is the real Manshoon, and all of the other Manshoons that occured during the Manshoon Wars were copies of copies, and the real Manshoon has been sitting back and watching Fzoul's rise to power . . . just . . . waiting). The reason I see his as a cross between Doom and Luthor is that Manshoon does like gold. He is just as likely to use financial power to manipulate a situation as magic.
The PCs have run into Castellan Darkhope, when they were (unwillingly) traveling with a diplomatic contingent from Thultanthar (Shade). She held audience in full armor, in full Banite rainment, and was very matter of fact, and a bit short with the Shadovar diplomat, who was much more flowery and euphimistic in his language and in what he wanted out of the Zhents.
Which brings me to the Shadovar. While the PCs never ran into any "named" Shadovar, the diplomat that they kept running into was very smooth, and never lost his temper. He was arrogant, but always pointed brought out how the Shadovar could benefit the "good" people of the Realms, and always brushed aside comments about Shadovar attrocities without directly addressing them. He never blatantly threatened the PCs, but they all knew, by how calmly he dealt with them, that he was extremely powerful. He enjoyed fine wine, and even gave the PCs a bottle of wine from the vineyards in the Plane of Shadows as a gift.
They also ran into Ashemi and Semmemon. Ashemi wasn't against using her looks to disarm the PCs, especially being an elf, since they didn't know who she was at first, and Semmemon I played with a very sarcastic manner and a sharp wit. The two would also banter back and forth ridiculing the PCs with insults when they were being too "thick" and not picking up on what Ashemi and Semmemon were talking about. I also played them as a couple that were very used to each other, and worked very well in tandem.
Halaster I just enjoy having speaking as a sagely old wizard, pleased that someone is interested in knowledge about magic or the obscure in the world, chatting happily, then taking something said in conversation just completely the wrong way, and going off on a tanget. I also had him throw in a few completely non-sequiter comments from time to time, that the PCs would puzzle over trying to figure out if it was important. Of course, I haven't used him since his newfound "sanity" after Elminster in Hell.
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1425 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2007 : 02:28:40
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Cool beans, I like the way you RPG Manshoon and A&S.
Halastar I roleplayed as Stephen from Braveheart. I just loved the idea that he was a likeable stark raving mad dirty old wizard ;-)
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My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Roleplaying Main NPC Bad guys
