One-Shot Original Villains

[Deleted]

Villains. Antagonists. Bad Guys. The characters we love to hate and hate to love.

I believe it goes without saying that we don't have enough of them. This, in part, may be due to the fact that many villain characters are rather canon specific, as they are written to be foils, and playing them against characters other than who they were generally made to antagonize loses them some of their oomph-factor. There also tends to be limited use for a majority of these baddies beyond a simple temp job, as they must lose by the end and either die or go to jail to come back later.

Original villains may too fall victim to this issue of specified antagonism. I know a few of us have come up with antagonists for specific canon and OC heroes (personally, I have one in mind for Moon Knight), but they may only be truly effective for one or two threads before they're ultimately put back on the shelf to collect dust. Either that, or they just end up a generic evil bad guy of genericness. For myself, the thought of taking up a canon slot for an original villain seems like a waste of the space, especially if I only need to use that OC for a single storyline.

I propose the option to allow one-shot original villains to be created (with limitations, of course), with the caveat that they are being written and apped as a temporary character. Essentially, free slot, but not an official slot. They should still be written up, described, and approved of like any other character, since other players should still have a reference to what they are working with, and we don't want any overly OP baddies running around causing havoc without permission. If character specific, the hero's player should be spoken to directly to see if they're interested in running a story with this new character before going through the creation process.

If the character proves more useful or effective than initially thought when created (and they survive until the end of the story - most Moon Knight or Deadpool villains don't), there's always the option to fill one of your available slots with the character, should you decide to run them full time for more stories.

[Super Chick]

I love the idea. My questions are this:

How do we keep track of who is "One Shotting" a villain or when they are through? And, if they are being played by someone as a temporary character, what if someone else needs that villain at the same time? Is the person temping them then obligated to post in the person needing that villain's thread? Or should the other person needing them be permitted to temp them also in a totally separate story/thread happening concurrently?

It could get confusing if two or three people are playing Doc Oc, for example, especially if someone decides they want to add them to their cast and there were many things that the character did on site that *should* be site canon, but don't necessarily make sense together, or are not IC for the canon. Currently if the canon is "temped" it is for a single thread, "One shot" if you will, that should bear no impact on the canon's history itself. My fear is the impact of letting someone "claim" a villain without having them actually invested in that canon's story. Do you have any ideas for how to make this less dangerous (for lack of a better word)?

[Deleted]

This concept was more in line with original villains, not canons. You know, for creating a new threat against an existing hero, but they might not be effective as a long term character. Like a serial killer than needs to be stopped, that sort of thing. For example, I have a Moon Knight villain in mind that would likely end up killed or institutionalized by the end of the arch. I want to have her info written up for the sake of Moon Knight's player, plus any other players who may end up involved, but I don't necessarily want to give up one of my limited character slots for a character who may not end up played as often or even at all after that.

I was under the impression that canon villains were being monitored under the temping system already in place. I've seen many many canon baddies being used by several players in multiple active threads to tell their stories effectively. I don't mean that the same canon is being temped by multiple players; just that there are a lot of villains currently being temped. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to tell you how their continuity is being recorded (short of that one recent thread put in the Character Trackers board), just that they are being used.

[Super Chick]

LOL! I wasn't asking you to tell me how we were keeping track of the canons already being temp'd, but was asking how you would suggest we keep track of canons being temp'd should we have the app process without commitment to keeping them (cuz, well, normal temp'ing of canons doesn't last long and generally doesn't require a ton of oversight with regard to how many one person is temp'ing, etc.). XD But it's a moot point since you meant Original Villain characters, so I'll address that!

I am enjoying letting the idea roll around in my head for this, but I need some time to talk to the other mods and get their opinions. Some oversight would be required lest people take advantage of the opportunity, meaning more moderator attention will be required. Exploitation always happens at some point cuz ... people. But! If the other mods are game and like the idea, then we'll brainstorm on the process and some safeguards to try to keep things from happening that might adversely affect fair play on the forum.

[Deleted]

Awesome! Take all the time and discussion that you need. I understand that most people are not like me and would try to game the system to make super, all-powerful bad guys just for the sake of their weirdo power trips, and that fail safes would absolutely be necessary to prevent a million and two "free" characters. My own personal use for a system like this in place would be just to have a greater diversity of villains that aren't exactly meant to be these long term, arch nemesis types. Villain of the week sort of thing.

Of course, if the character survives to the end of the story and proves to be more useful in later stories (ie: other players decide, "Hey! I liked that serial killer you made in such-and-such thread! Let's have them make a reappearance and team up with blank against blank!"), the option to permanently app the character can be available, if slots are free in a player's roster.