Here are some ideas

The Grim Barrower-
In an RPG where adventurers have the habit of dying at the hands of monsters, this is the guy whose job it is to haul them back to a priest to be revived. He is often scene pulling a cart and carrying other aventurers around. He does his job with the knowledge that there really is no prospect of promotion in this line of work. He sometimes complains about not getting enough tips and asks the adventures to lose weight after hauling them from remote locations. He also dislikes homeless bums because he can rarely tell if they are dead or not, the same goes for undead monsters and goths.


The Farm lad-
After a disaster destroyed his families home and farm, he has had to get money to help them get by in the meantime. He bright, helpful and works hard but is not a social person and people tend to think poorly of him because of that. He can join the group on their quest and does a great deal of work (cooking, cleaning, a bit of enemy fighting etc.) and first seems to be just a servant or something, but as he warms up to the group they learn more about him and consider him more of a member of their group.

Mr. Wanna-be-Smarts-
A wanna-be Dark Wizard who spent most of his time studying ancient texts on Dark Magic, reading of the exploits of other villains, and other things. Because of this, he has great book smarts but little street smarts. So he "knows" how to cast all the powerful spells but hasn't practiced them enough to actually cast them. He joins the heros because they need his knowledge of magic and the ancient events they are dealing with. He's very egotistical and thinks everyone else is stupid because they don't know all this obscure knowledge.
Annoying traits are that he critisises others abilities when everyone knows he can't do any better, goes into lengthy rembling explainations on obscure theories on magic that nobody cares about and he barely understands himself, and always thinks that he knows best (kind of like Brainy Smurf). After a while, he finally realises that he isn't as important as he thought he was and helps the team. He also learns that to get things done he actually has to turn his knowledge into useful skills.

The Monkey Mage-
A minor villain who controls a small forest. He's a mage who controls a tribe of monkeys to steal from travelers he just likes getting free stuff and making others miserable, he also says the word "monkey" a lot for some reason.

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Okay, I'm not sure if these things can work but here they are

The Brunasaur-
A peaceful plant eater that looks a lot like a horse-sized brontosaurus with fur. Herds of them roam the countryside. They are not fast movers, can be easily used as beasts of burden because of their small brains, and taste delicious, which is why many animals prey on them and humans like to raise them.

The Zarcrophogas-
A bizarre and dangerous carnivore that looks almost exactly like a Brunasaur, although it is more elephantine. Its powerful trunk can thrash unsuspecting creatures and its sports a huge mouth of razor sharp teeth. More importantly, when it closes it's eyes and folds it ears back, it looks almost exactly like a peaceful Brunasaur. In fact, it's suspected that Zarcrophogases can't even tell the difference between Brunasaurs and eachother. For this reason, they are often a few of them mixed undetectably among herds of Brunasaurs and eat unsuspecting creatures.
Its name is actually derived from the string of obscenities that anciant tribesmen would scream when they find out that the animal they were hunting would turn around and attack them.

[Edited by - The Shadow Nose on August 12, 2005 12:46:46 PM]

Quote: Original post by wildhalcyon
Unlike the previous poster, I think I do better with villains as opposed to heros, so here's my two sense:

The best villains to go up against a comedic troupe of intrepid adventurers is one who is REALLY BAD at being a villain. Its not that they need to fail at causing trouble for the adventurers, just that they should be bad at being bad. Im working on some plot ideas for my own RPG, and one of the side-plots is ANOTHER intrepid group of adventurers who have similar roles but fairly opposing character traits (anyone ever seen the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine meets the alternative Jerry, George, and Kramer?). The other group keeps trying to help out, but every time they do, something horrible happens.

A group of people who, in general, I dislike, is self-help authors who talk about personal growth and emotional maturity, etc. Maybe it would be worth exploring the creation of a recurring villain who gave really obnoxious (positive) advice after each encounter:

"That was REALLY great you guys. MUCH better than last time, but honestly.. where was the spirit? Its not all hack & slash!"

"I'll be destroying this village now, but don't look at this as a failure. Think of it as an opportunity to grow closer as a team!"

"Oh, this is also an opportunity to flee for your lives! Exercise is good for the soul!"

That second villian idea is genius. If it appears in a game I make down the line, well, that's what you get for posting gems in a public forum :P

The most important fact is that the game is in 2D. Otherwise, the story would have to be quite different. ;)