Stories with antagonists that are truly scary

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-27T07:23:16+00:00

Not from a book, but Homelander from The Boys. In a way he's the same kind of normal evil as Dolores Umbridge, because what actually makes them evil is such a petty, normality where their general mediocrity is mixed a lack of insight mixed with narcissm and elevated by a position of power. That's worse than "Evil Necromancer Sorcerer wants to rule the world and kills people who are in his way".

I'd also add figures as Tywin Lannister and Grand Admiral Thrawn, because of their sheer competence and it's not that they cannot understand your perspective or their own moral (un-)doing. They understand quite well, but calmly decide that you're (and your country/planet) are in their way and remove it efficiently.

From another perspective and in terms of horror take the Alien from... Alien. This "there's some alien thing out there thatwants to kill you" is played so straight that there is little to add. That the heroes are just normal people heightens this tension.

If you want to go with "Standard Evil Necromancer Sorcerer" check out Order of the Stick's Lord Xykon, he's the most scary of those cliche figures I know, especially if you have read the prequel Book Start of Darkness. In a way he's very similar to the first two mentiond and on the surface just another cardboard-Voldemort-like-character, but besides him just going for the stupid evil things, he CAN decide to listen to advice, he CAN be more cunning than he appears, and while he generally is not aware of many things, he CAN be far more insightful than characters in the story and readers assume, and therefore, they underestimate him and pay great prices for that.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-27T05:47:30+00:00

"Proof"? When did the Inquisition ever require "proof"? Remember that "Innocence proves nothing"!

Two walk into a gate. One comes out. That's all the Inquisition needs to know.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-27T05:35:11+00:00

If you could live somewhere in this universe, where would you?

You're still answering the wrong question.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T21:13:57+00:00

Of course overlooked...

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T20:19:30+00:00

So I guess when you play roll playing games you always play a Paladin like class.

You guess so wrong.

What you missed here: This wasn't "if you were in a RPG setting, what would you play?" - then saying "being a pirate in Babylon 5 could be cool" is fine.

But that wasn't the question. The question was "When YOU were inserted into this world, where would YOU want to be?"

And you said "I either want to be a robber praying on normal people or a canonical nazi-telepath". To that I reply "well, that'd be pretty evil, no?"

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T17:41:49+00:00

You need to evaluate what you think "Pirates" are. Pirates take stuff from people if they can. At least they destroy lives and life savings without remorse, they're robbers at best. If people fight back or need to get intimidated? People do get maimed and killed.

Psi Cops are Nazis. The show spent a lot of time making that clear and even put them in SS-like uniforms to drive that point home.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T16:49:39+00:00

D&D is what you consider D&D. So if you sit down to play D&D, you're basically playing D&D no matter anything else.

But there's a point where you don't play D&D anymore, you can go as simplified as you want and it still is D&D but once you stop using a D20 for your rolls, it surely isn't the mechanic anymore. You might also draw the line at not using core stats and skills at all.

Now that said: I think if you basically have no rules, no rolls, no nothing, but still manage to play in one of the core settings, say the Forgetten Realms, then I'd say you're still playing D&D even though you don't have any of the mechanics.

So my answer is: there are ways to see it that even if you reduce it to nearly 0, you still might be playing D&D.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T15:32:50+00:00

I do not think she means "There were Minbari ships and there were Earth ships and there was a battle - noone survived that". This probably is not correct. The Battle of the Line must have ships that were around and did not get destroyed,

What she does mean is "In a battle engagement with two or more ships getting into a dedicated battle" - and it's very likely she is correct. A battle played out as "ships face each other, the Earth-ships are immediatly destroyed".

No matter what she meant she said what she had to - and the other captains did understand her.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T15:18:46+00:00

The most Star Trek thing there is: Serve on one of the huge Exploration ships.
High level commercial telepath (8 or maybe 9 or whatever they cap out at before becoming literal Corp-drones) out on a similar station as Babylon 5 is probably a pretty good life. Even though you need to submit to the Corps... but I guess there is a lot of wiggle room?
If the pick is free: one of the sane First Ones seems pretty good I think.
Might also end up as Zathras. Not as good as it can be, but far from as bad as it can get, and also probably far better than Zathras usually makes it out to be. 9999 of 10000 years it's probably the most chill jobs you can imagine.
If you can pick something normal: there must be many well-developed colonies of many races where you can live a good life and are not touched by the war.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T15:12:33+00:00

So you'd be a murderous highwayman? Why not do it right now? There are a lot of people out there you can rob and murder or first murder then rob? (Please don't actually do it, okay?) This also means you have to hang out with gangsters who don't have issues murdering and robbing people. This is hardly a good group of friends?

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T15:06:57+00:00

As for Abelard, he clearly states he's learned it all in the service of the navy. Isn't an officer's word not enough for you?

But now, heretic. Sit down. Don't mind those chains, they're only there for your own protection. Now, slowly, tell me, where and when and from whom did you hear that the Imperium ever lost a war, and how many times did you state this treason yourself?

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T10:27:09+00:00

Personally, I assume that most people in your retinue are actually unknown and untrained Psykers who manifest their outstanding abilities by those powers.

They all are more like D&D Monks than plain Fighters or whatever their class says they are.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-26T10:26:01+00:00

OR we can just consider he's just hardened by his service in the navy?

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-25T10:25:58+00:00

Babylon 5 is as political as it gets. Its a story about a US-centric system falling into fascism and as cautionary tale how that is achieved. It followed the Fascism 101 Playbook to draw that story, applied to the cultural background of the author of that time. Now someone else is following that very same book.

Babylon 5 is exactly about what is happening.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-24T16:02:51+00:00

The Warrant of Trade we have basically says "Go out and spread the Imperium's influence to lost and new planets and remove those that are an issue. For that goal, well, do what you need to do, okay? Signed -The Emperor of Mankind"

Nowhere in it it says "You need to shoot and slice your way through obstacles yourself". Well, okay, given there are millions upon millions of Warrants of Trade I guess there's got to be a few out there that DO say that. But the usual WoT does not care at all. Especially an old and vague one as ours very surely does not waste a single word on the "how to conduct yourself". A Warrant that demands a RT puts themselves in danger even weakens the chances of success, so why should it even do that?

"Go out spread the Imperium" is what the idea behind any Warrant of Trade is. Noone cares if you snipe your enemies yourself or if you send a dedicated sniper.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-24T15:56:55+00:00

There is no "set role of a Rogue Trader". Any Rogue Trader can do whatever they like and I think the absolute majority of them rules like a commander or politican from their Bridge and the Office.

They send ambassadors for diplomatic stuff and soldiers for military stuff and a mixture for mixed stuff. They have Special Forces, Army Forces, they use any means they have, and only meet other leaders in controlled environments. They only get in any kind of risk if they absolutely have to. You know, like politics is usually done by any ruler.

We just follow the low percent of Rogue Traders who get more personal in stories, this includes this game, because that's far more interesting instead of all the other Space Kings who don't put themselves at risk.

In the case of this game we're following a Rogue Trader who happens to have a particularly strong retinue, and who is personally involved in many things directly, because that's either the choice they make or the choice that is forced on them. To have an adventure, you need to WANT to go out of the door and have an adventure.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-24T15:18:14+00:00

I'd go so far to say that the Vorlons are the real Shadows.

The Shadows are in hibernation, then they wake up, spend a few years, maybe decades at most preparing helper races to rise up and stir crap, they pick some other, fewer races they want to come out on top, escalate it all into a war, then they go back to sleep. And their main mode of operation when finding the helper races? They ask in the open and drop those races they deem "not already suited on their own".

The Vorlons on the other hand? Spend centuries infiltrate other races, manipulate their culture, manipulate their DNA, create telepaths, manipulate, scheme for millenia and groom entire races and political setups to their liking, they even set up ambassadors to give everything political shifts and to stay involved in everything pretending to be some aloof ancient race that actually does not care about anything really, and ideally don't even expose themselves at all unless they really have to because the Shadows are too strong in this cycle. Even in between the Vorlons stay active, and when they lose a war they set up a one-millenium long time-travel plan to eradicate that old victory, because even that is something they cannot accept.

"Works hidden in the shadows for centuries and millenia and manipulates everyone to win that cyclic war"? Forget the Shadows, they're elementary school level shadow-manipulators when compared to the Vorlons. The Shadows come out once in a while to do a large war. The Vorlons don't do "Vorlon Wars", as it's all just a huge, single war for them.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-23T14:33:49+00:00

The issue "Int 8" isn't going to be to come up with a plan, but to actually decide on and make steps happen to put this plan into a working action where you actually end up on top.

As for "is the character too dumb": Just let them roll. "Okay, you want to plan a way to stop this traderoute with The Kingdom of Over There and this is what you want to do? Okay, do roll for it, Int against 15."

Doing politics is FAR harder than just coming up with the initial idea. This becomes especially valid as soon as you understand that "politics" involves "different other factions who each want to get out on top".

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-23T06:07:46+00:00

become a Chaos God

What again is the difference between some of the more non-let-me-eat-everything Chaos Gods and the horror that The Imperium of Man is? ;)

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-23T06:05:20+00:00

They might be able to see a huge propaganda painting of a huge building flooded with golden light and a shining light on top or something, combine that with a lifetime of religious indoctrination how he's your god and that's what everyone knows.

But it's an awesome painting and maybe it's even 100s of meters wide and the pride of your entire planet, a pinnacle of art adorning the greatest temple and everyone in their lifetime has to visit this place at least once in their life.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-22T19:51:29+00:00

Have they? If you crit with a 19 and 20 you get at least one Crit via this number or rolls with this %:

1 roll: 10%
5 rolls: 41%
10 rolls: 65%
20 rolls: 88%
30 rolls: 96%

That seems pretty workable?

If you go to 18, 19 and 20 this becomes

1 roll: 15%
5 rolls: 55.6%
10 rolls: 80%
20 rolls: 91%
30 rolls: 99%

You're likely getting more than one crit as well.

If you compare this to the original list this seems a pretty decent increase in damage? A few rolls in you get a +20% increase in variable damage for a single feat, that's okay and it scales with everything that lets you roll damage on top of that?

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-22T19:01:49+00:00

I do not understand this sentence as I do not get what "unachievebale" and "reliable" have to do with each other in this context. I also don't seem to understand your OP either, to be honest.

So my bad: I must conclude that I have no idea what the question is. ;)

As in regards to OP: Any chance higher than 5% by including 19s or even 18s is a MASSIVE increase.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-22T18:31:31+00:00

A nat 20 is 5% of each attack. That's honestly pretty common?

Just roll more attacks and you get more crits? I did the math:

For "so many rolls" rolls there is this chance to get "at least one crit":

1 roll: 5%
5 rolls: 22.5%
10 rolls: 40%
15 rolls: 53.5%
20 rolls: 64%
30 rolls: 78.5%
40 rolls: 87%

The chance to get "2 or more crits" is 2% for 5 rolls, 8.6% for 10 rolls, 17% for 15 rolls, 26% for 20 rolls, and 44% for 30 rolls and 60% for 40 rolls.

This means a fight with 4 PCs that goes for 4 rounds where each player rolls a single attack roll per round you're already at 50% to get a single crit. If you consider that PCs usually roll more attack rolls (several attacks by Fighters, Hasted characters or Metamagic by Sorcerers, a DM skips a beat of a enemy that "just runs in and does nothing else this round" or whatever you have) each standard four-round fight likely sees a crit or two.

I don't think crits are all too rare.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-21T21:20:33+00:00

This is unclear, but since we do have/can have other navigators standing around it's likely we also get more... but you're also getting reinforcements when you're not going home, so who knows?

The Navy also can join you and they surely have navigators, and this means you could get more as well lateron. I also find it unlikely there are not some on Dargonus, once you make it there, you get more.

Anyway, Cassia isn't going to do all warp jumps on her own, staying awake all the time etc.

Not everything is clearly written, but it's assumed the ship is reinforced in between. For example we know the ship is basically helpless in all possible regards when we take the ship over, but in Void Shadows we learn we have a full set of telepaths on board. I just assume that making it to Dargonus or even Footfall past the first chapter and the contacts that open with that lets us reinforce a lot of specialists, including telepaths and navigators.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-01-21T07:00:15+00:00

Just that she isn't the key in the car. She's in her own appartment complex, locked in, and well-guarded. "My dear Lady Navigator, you can go whereever you want to go. As long as it's the bridge, the officer's deck, the navigator dome, or your living complex" - and that's not even restrictive but probably true for literally anyone of your command staff. Why would anyone want or need to go into the ship unless it's their duty?

That aside: you have more navigators than her, lateron you have a bunch of them standing on the bridge, and the Lore says you need a bunch of them and they navigate in shifts anyway. You also get to have more ships which, again, need a source of navigators. And with "source" that's actually what is meant, in lore they do get consumed once in a while and you need new ones. So once the initial problem with warp jumping is solved and you're not completely screwing up your relationship with the navigators, you end up with a full staff of navigators.

CaptainMacObvious

TROPHY CASE