That overview I wrote was basically so I had the structure to discuss the 'pieces' of a villain individually. Simply jumping into this would've been really confusing, so if you were bored to tears by my ad-hoc syllabus...sorry. In the spirit of full disclosure I do worry about how much of this is "useful" material for you people, but I have to discuss the stone blocks before we can build the pyramid. Or uh, I guess we're discussing the pyramid blueprints before laying the foundation? I'm not sure where we're getting stone blocks, either. I don't have a car.
So two aspects of the villain, Motivation and Background, control their essence: how the PCs will think of him. The other two aspects, Plan and Means, control how it's going to feel to go against them mechanically. A mournful bard being controlled by an evil artifact and a bloodthirsty cult-leader can feel the same if they both use the same basic means, but the PCs will treat them wildly differently. All four aspects are important to the way your game's going to go, because "mechanical" feel and "personal" feel are both going to have a big impact on your game.
First off, whether motivations are simple or complex, they're not necessarily evil. In fact, plenty of times they're not evil at all, and the way they go about accomplishing their goals is what makes them a villain. You can't fault someone for wanting to rid the world of pain, but you sure can get angry when you find out their plan for doing so is to commit genocide. This is the beginning of your major choice when it comes to your villain: Sympathetic, or Not.
Making a villain who isn't sympathetic is pretty easy, and most stock fantasy stories have one. Usually their motivation is very simple, like desiring more power or wealth. This is perfectly fine. Simple motivations or plans lend themselves to a "High Fantasy" feel in your game, if you want that. Keep in mind that even a cyberpunk game can have a High Fantasy feel and do very well: See most 80s action or sci-fi movies if you don't believe me. Simple motivations are easy to understand and best if you want to define very clearly what side the PCs ought to be on with no grey areas, second guessing or soul-searching.
A sympathetic villain usually has complex or goal-oriented motivations. They perceive something is wrong and wants to fix it. Sometimes this is revenge, or sometimes this is an otherwise altruistic goal. A lot of sympathetic motivations are emotional or personal, too. Basically, this results(most of the time) in a game with gray areas and more discussion or thought about the whys behind the villain in question. It can also feel richer and more relatable, but you have to keep two big things in mind. First, your villain should probably prove themself to be evil in some way, or at least antagonistic to the party. You don't want the PCs motivation to stop the villain to slip or your game's going to derail. Some GMs can simply run with that and alter the scope of the game...but a lot of GMs struggle with this, or simply don't want to alter their story. That's fine. Just make sure you're not shooting yourself in the foot. The second thing to keep in mind is that a sympathetic villain more than likely is going to cause discussion or even disagreement among the group. Plan around this 'coffee table' RP, because it's part of what you WANT when using a sympathetic villain.
So when should you reveal the villain's motivation? It depends. If it's really simple like "I should rule the world" or "I'm a bored noble looking for kicks" you want to make it clear right away, to avoid an anticlimax. The longer the PCs are left wondering about a really simple motivation, the more complex it will become in their heads, and you'll betray their expectations. Basically, while these motivations are perfectly acceptable, they aren't "cool" or "mysterious". Part of the reason to use simple motivation is to draw a line of where the PCs ought to be standing in relation to this guy, and you want that line down as soon as possible.
If you're using a villain with complex or sympathetic motivations, you want to trickle the story to the PCs. They'll have seen them doing some evil or unacceptable stuff and naturally start to wonder why the villain is the way they are. Giving them clues like journals forgotten in ancient dungeons, an abandoned childhood home, or even a former lover to talk to is a little flag saying "Yes. There is a mystery to this." This is what you want, it adds interest to your villain where they may be lacking since they may not be the swaggering, monologuing type.
A special shout-out goes to monstrous villains. They tend to wear their motivations on their sleeve, and this can be a useful tool. Your average player sees a monster and they immediately have an idea in their head of what that monster's motivation is. You can either use this as 'shorthand' to avoid having to characterize a 'little' villain too much, or you can play with their expectations. You can make them think they're a simple, stereotypical version of their race and then slowly slide them clues to the contrary. Obviously you can do this with a non-monstrous villain as well, but it's far easier when the players already have expectations just by looking at the villain.
One final note on 'little' villains, the ones only around for one subplot or lieutenants of your main villain. You have way, way less time to characterize these guys, so simple motivations might be best. A simple story isn't automatically a bad one, and something simple or black-and-white in a subplot diverts attention back to your big bad guy. Of course, if the PCs are feeling like the bad guy is showing up too often and they're starting to compare them to a monster on Scooby Doo, you can always do the opposite: Build a rich villain for a longish subplot to give them a break.
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