Principles of Antagonist Design

WHEN SHOULD I USE A FLAIR?

Many Flairs are fairly self-explanatory — if it would create a tactical advantage for the Antagonist to use it, use it. Fight the age-old power-hoarding syndrome that tells you to save your cool powers for the bigger fight, because from the Antagonists’ perspective, this is the bigger fight! Besides, if you’re not going to use Flairs when given the opportunity, why did you give them to the Antagonists in the first place?

HOW MANY QUALITIES/FLAIRS SHOULD I ASSIGN?

As many as you need, no more and no less — especially when it comes to Flairs. Obviously there’s a bit of an art to anticipating how effective your players will be in any given combat, and the dice will have their own say, but the bottom line is that if you’re having to juggle six or seven different options for each of the six or seven Antagonists you’ve got arrayed against your players’ characters, you’re going to have a bad time. Two or three total is probably your sweet spot for most Antagonists. Bigger (in a story sense) characters may have two or three more, but that’s probably the most you should force yourself to keep track of.

HOW SHOULD I ASSIGN SCALE?

Only assign Scale to Monsters and supernatural Villains, such as a troll or a fellow Scion. At the Origin and Hero level, Scale above 2 can be incredibly dangerous to player characters, so be cautious.

WHAT’S STOPPING ME FROM ASSIGNING A DOZEN QUALITIES OR FLAIRS TO CREATE SUPERMOOK?

Aside from the headache you’re going to give yourself, nothing, but we’d recommend against it. Having a mountain of successes from Enhancements contingent on a very small dice pool is going to generate extremely swingy results, and having a laundry list of Flairs isn’t going to help — when they go off, they’re either going to fizzle or utterly annihilate the player characters, which just isn’t fun. Besides, Mooks are meant to threaten with numbers; five ordinary Mooks, each with a single Quality, will provide more challenge and a much more interesting fight.

WHAT IF I DO THE SAME THING WITH A VILLAIN OR MONSTER? I mean, sure, even Cthulhu lost a fight to a steamboat, but unless you’re actively trying for a raid wipe, don’t do this. As above: It’s just not fun. If you really want that level of depth and complexity in your ultimate battle, build them like a player character.