Need some ideas for creating some good dialogue for my D&D villains?

[NewJeffCT]

Darth Vader: “I find your lack of faith disturbing” or “If you only knew the power of the Dark Side.”

Hannibal Lecter: “I ate his liver with some fava beans and chianti.”

The Wicked Witch of the West: “I’ll get you my pretty.”

Bond: “Do you expect me to talk?”
Goldfinger: “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”

One thing that makes a villain memorable is some great dialogue and some great lines. Back when I used to DM regularly in the 1980s, that was not a big problem for me. I could come up with some decent lines to make some reasonably memorable D&D villains.

However, when I have been just a substitute DM in the late 90s/early 00s, I noticed I was not nearly as good at creating & improvising things on the fly and coming up with a good sneering put-down or a menacingly ominous threat.

Now that I am back to DMing regularly, how would I get that feeling back where I can create a good villain with some good “villainesque” lines on the fly? I think I have a couple of good villains for my players, but to make them memorable, they have to utter some decent dialogue.

If I was playing by email, I could think for several minutes and come up with something good and appropriate - but, you cannot really stop things at the gaming table to come up with a good line. It kind of ruins the atmosphere.

I think I have a decent story so far and some long-term ideas and potentiallly good villains, but want to make them memorable and somebody that the players will actually hate.

Any suggestions?

[ThomCat]

1. I find that the more thoroughly I have fleshed out a villian,

know his long term goals and motivations, and can internalize his personality the more fun and witty he/she/it is. :)

Be your villian and you'll be awesome.

[NewJeffCT]

3. I think I've got them fleshed out

but, I still have trouble coming up with those good one-liners.

I mean, 3-4 sessions back, I had a scene set-up where a priest of a deity who believes in racial purity had gotten some thugs together in almost lynch-mob fashion and was determined to pound some sense into the players because one of the players was an elf and the other three were associating with an elf.

You'd think when he went out to confront them, I could have tossed off a good Nazi-esque or racist type of taunt at the elf, but it just didn't come out. (I had even prepared by going to an RPG forum and asking for good putdowns of elves...)

It's almost like a mental block.

[Iggo]

2. I've always liked...

"You will stand knee-deep in the blood of your children. Then, and only then, will I let you die."

[NewJeffCT]

6. good line

but, my problem is improvising something appropriate for an "on the fly" situation.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. You shall suffer like the Vanderbilts, when I hid their '63 Latours and forced them to drink the '65

Bwuhahahahaha!!!

[Orrex]

5. For God's sake, man! Have you no decency?!?

I had considered some acts to vile to contemplate, but apparently you suffer no such qualms, you fiend.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I have seen the enemy, and he is me

I have plumbed the deepest, most loathsome and deplorable depths of pure evil, and found that I like it there.

Bwuhahahahahaha!

I shall replace your buttons with plastic ones, and your dress shirts with short-sleeved versions with clip on ties!

Mwuhahahahahahahaha!!!

[NewJeffCT]

7. I'm trying not to laugh too loud here at work

it's not working, though.

:rofl:

[SteppingRazor]

8. Well, depends on what your villains are like.

Are they smooth-talking, jaded noblemen?

Swirly-eyed fundie priests of an evil deity?

Drooling goblin kings?

Or what?

[NewJeffCT]

9. I've got 3 potential long-term villains

One is a male priest whose tyrannical (Lawful-evil) deity runs a theocracy that is responsible for much of the world's slave trade.

Another is a female drow elf duskblade (basically a sorcerer/fighter if you don't know what a duskblade is...) that I created to give our party's elf a rival.

The other is a male human bounty hunter type (ranger/fighter type) that tracks escaped slaves and brings them back to the evil theocracy. One of the players escaped from slavery.

[SteppingRazor]

10. OK. I find it helps to give the villains voices.

Your priest sounds like a sort of Anthony Hopkins/Hannibal Lector type, at least in speech and mannerism (not in, you know, the cannibalistic way). You know, maintain cool under all conditions and whatnot. So when the party thinks they've got him dead to rights, but he really has a couple dozen hidden archers up on the balcony, he'll do something like barely smile and say, "Well done. How good for you. You must be terribly pleased with your handiwork."

Then after the archers pop out, and he's got the upperhand, he continues in the exact same nonchalant tone of voice, "Have you ever seen a man at the bad end of a volley from a company of archers? He looks rather like a porcupine, I think."

Fun extra point: Make the archers slaves that have been bent entirely to his will, so that the PCs are in danger from the very people they're trying to save! That's always fun.




As for the drow, that's all in how you play them. Back when I ran games, they never really talked to PCs a whole lot, because they considered all the surface dwellers to be totally beneath them -- why try to talk to a slug?

[NewJeffCT]

11. good ideas

thanks for the suggestion.

[LSK]

12. try following along here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=132

[NewJeffCT]

13. nice post Hitler

and, your candidate sucks, too.

[LSK]

14. it should spice up your D&D

:D

[LynneSin]

16. "Have you seen My Big Breasts and Me on BBC"

:hide:

[NewJeffCT]

18. You forgot the quotes!

:evilgrin:

[krispos42]

17. "May your first day in Hell last 10,000 years, and may it be your shortest"

(from a Stephen King book)...





I could spare you, but why?

Your screams invigorate my blood.

[Lethe]

19. Villainy!

My favorite villians are the ones that don't talk much. The PC's will know from the villian's absolutely heinous actions that he/she means serious business and is a deadly adversary.

[NewJeffCT]

20. that's true

but, a good sneering putdown is always welcome.

[Lethe]

24. indeed!

You can always take what the PC's hold dear to their heart, and have the villian say what he/she is going to do to it/them after he slaughters the PC.

[The Straight Story]

21. Just read some posts in GD

:)

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. .

"We must fight them over there so that we don't need to fight them over here."

"Bring 'em on."

"Weapons of Mass Destruction."

"I'm the Deciderer."

"Nukulear."

[Solon]

23. "Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!"

Oh sorry, channeling Minsc here. :)

Here's some others:

"Nice stab, Hitler"

"Its only a flesh wound!"

"I will DESTROY you!"

"I kill you!"

"By the time I'm done with you, you won't even remember your own parents' names!"

In the middle of throddling his opponents, your villain could break into a song with disturbing lyrics, like:

"I'm just singing in your blood, I'm just singing in your blood..." This example is sung to the tune of "Singing in the rain".

some Ideas.

[Orsino]

25. The favorite line I imagined:

"Now this won't hurt a bit more than I can possibly manage."