As Roger Ebert said, “Only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph.” That’s as true for tabletop roleplaying games as it is for movies, so it’s important that your campaign has a compelling, dangerous antagonist for the players to struggle against. Coming up with the perfect villain time after time can be tricky, though, so why not turn to the pages of history for ideas?
These rulers, conquerors, and plunderers from the real world make great inspiration for a villain inDungeons & Dragonsor any other TTRPG. How will your players fare against them?
8Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)
The ruthless unifier of Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku period,Oda Nobunagaleft a complicated legacy. On the one hand, hisreforms and innovationslaid the groundwork for the comparatively peaceful Edo Period that would be founded by his successors; on the other, heachieved his goals through brute force, destroying anyone and anything that stood in his way.
Oda As A D&D Villain
A campaign based on Nobunaga’s conquests doesn’t have to be samurai-themed. Imagine a similar tale in the holds of the dwarves or elvish citadels, where an upstart noble’s rise to power threatens centuries of tradition… but not everyone thinks that’s a bad thing.
Unlike many of the other personalities on this list, a villain inspired by Oda Nobunaga can fall into a morally grey area, forcing the players to decide which is most important to their characters; stopping the antagonist’s reign of terror, or giving them a chance and seeing what could come after?
7Ivan The Terrible (1530-1584)
Another blood-soaked unifier, thefirst Tsar of All Russiaearned a reputation as a cruel, dreaded despot. Not only did he violently subjugate the lands around Moscow to form the foundations of the Russian Empire, but he alsoestablished a secret police - theoprichniki.Given land and favors in exchange for absolute loyalty, the oprichniki carried outblackmail, assassinations, and even outright massacresagainst anyone Ivan perceived as a threat… and given his increasing paranoia as his power grew, that list grew long indeed.
Ivan As A D&D Villain
An antagonist like Ivanmakes for a good espionage-heavy game, where the forces of evil are firmly entrenched. Anyone the players encounter could be willing to sell them out to your campaign’s equivalent of the oprichniki. It’s important to remember that while some members of the secret police do keep their identities hidden,many of the top officers are very well-known (and feared), making them dangerous secondary antagonists that your players will need to evade and deal with in due time.
6Akhenaten (d. ~1334 BCE)
Born Amenhotep and taking the throne of Egypt under that name,Akhenatenchanged his name and attempted tocast down the ancient religion of the realm, building a new capital at Amarna andswearing allegiance to a single god, Aten. While his word was absolute and unquestionable while he was Pharaoh, after his death his new religion was quickly abandoned, along with Amarna.
Akhenaten As A D&D Villain
Replacing one pantheon with another can lead to civil strife and unrest in our world, as it did for Akhenaten and his descendants; in the world of D&D, it canupend the very fabric of the universe. A priest-king destroying the temples of the old gods practically overnight, and propping up a single deity whoseclerics and paladins are solely loyal to himhas dangerous implications both for the ordinary people living under his tyrannical reign, and for the adventurers relying on the favor of the fallen gods to resist the new order.
5Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614)
A noblewoman from a prominent house in the Kingdom of Hungary,Elizabeth Bathorywas famously tried and convicted forkilling hundreds of women and girls over a twenty-year period. Four of her servants were put to death as accomplices, and Bathory herself was placed under house arrest for the remainder of her life.
Of course, her story has become so sensationalized in the intervening centuries, and seventeenth-century Europe isn’t exactly famous for its just treatment of women, so it’s been suggested that the trial was a sham to weaken Elizabeth and her family. If she was truly guilty, though, Elizabeth Bathory’s terrifying murder spree would make herone of history’s most prolific serial killers.
Bathory As A D&D Villain
Elizabeth Bathory is heavily steeped in vampire lore nowadays, so she easily translates to one of D&D’s most iconic monsters without having to trot old Strahd out for another campaign. Suppose your villain has been tried and imprisoned, just like the historical Bathory, and years later, the murders start again. Was she innocent the whole time, or, as the townsfolk suspect, has the vampiress found a way to escape her sealed castle? Could both be true, and there’s a copycat on the loose? Be sure to keep your players guessing until the very end!
4Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (1680-1718)
Arguably the most famous pirate ever to sail the seas,Blackbeardterrorized the coast of Britain’s colonies in North America for a year aboard his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. In that time, he built up a dreaded reputation, relying on fear to get what he wanted.
Blackbeard is said to have stuck burning fuses under his hat to give himself a demonic, smoky appearance, and he gained almost a supernatural mystique. When he was finally cornered and killed by the British Navy, he wasshot five times and received twenty sword woundsbefore succumbing, and after his head was hung from the mast, sailors spread tales that his body continued to swim around the ship.
Blackbeard As A D&D Villain
A seemingly-indestructible pirate rampaging up and down the coast, fueled by the power of the Lower Planes is just the sort of thing that a party of adventurers needs to handle. Blackbeard was a dangerous foe in real life, soimagine how much longer his career would have lasted if all the rumors about him were actually true.
A Blackbeard-inspired villain should be scary and dangerous, yes, but also mysterious. We actually know very little about Blackbeard’s early life, when he was just Edward Teach, so there’s plenty of room for you to flex your creative muscles andfeed the players bits and pieceseach time they encounter their implacable foe.
3Dong Zhuo (140-192 CE)
Already famous as a central villain in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (and, by extension,Dynasty Warriors),Dong Zhuocould have been a hero. A provincial general popular with his men, Dong Zhuo took part in a noble coalition to protect the young Emperor of the Han Dynasty from the Ten Attendants, powerful eunuch councilors who had seized control of the government. By chance, Dong Zhuo found himself with an opportunity to rescue the Emperor, which he did… and promptly took power for himself.
Dong Zhuo’s tyranny and cruelty quickly became so great that his former allies banded together to overthrow him, plunging China into another bloody civil war. While he was eventually defeated, he’s still held up as one of the greatest villains in the history of China to this day.
Dong Zhuo As A D&D Villain
The trick to a villain inspired by Dong Zhuo is that theyneed to start out as an ally to the players.Just as Dong Zhuo fought on the same side as Cao Cao and Yuan Shao before taking custody of the Emperor, your villain should work with the players toward an initial goal. That way, they can see the seeds planted for the villain’s rise to power; indeed, they probably even help without realizing it.
2Enrico Dandolo (1107-1205)
As Doge of Venice,Enrico Dandolobrought the city to new heights of prominence. Through hisshrewdness, cunning, and guile, though, he also hijacked an army of crusaders and used them tofulfill a decades-long thirst for revenge.
Before becoming Doge, Dandolo served as a diplomate to the Byzantine Empire during a time of unrest. It’s not clear how - some say he was attacked by a mob, others that it was ordered by the Byzantine Emperor - but while in Constantinople he waspermanently blinded,sometime in the 1170s.
When the Fourth Crusade was called to conquer Cairo in 1202, Venice was to be used as a staging point - with ample fees being paid to the city’s leadership by the crusaders for the inconvenience, of course. Half the army never showed up, and those who did couldn’t pay, so Dandolo had them pay their debt byseizing the city of Zara. Despite this enraging the Pope, Dandolo manipulated the crusade’s leaders intocontinuing on to Constantinople, sacking the city where he’d lost his sight and permanently reducing the Byzantine Empire to a shadow of its former glory.
Dandolo As A D&D Villain
Enrico Dandolo was nearly a hundred years old and completely blind when he made his play for revenge. In the world of D&D, there are ways for characters to get around both of those obstacles, but it might be more fun to try a villain who actually wouldn’t be able to defend themselves in a fight.
An antagonist like Dandolo would be a master manipulator, with plenty of money, soldiers, and influence to make themselves untouchable. There are plenty of villains that get taken down in a big, climactic confrontation, but a Dandolo would never let themselves get into that position in the first place because they know that would be the end of them. Instead, players would have to find ways to remove the villain’s influence, bit by bit, to foil their plans.
1Hernán Cortés (1485-1547)
Greedy, power-hungry, and egomaniacal,the most infamous of the Spanish conquistadorsengineered the downfall of the Aztec civilization for land and gold. To do so, he ignored orders from his superiors, burned his own ships to prevent his soldiers from retreating, and played on existing tensions between indigenous factions.
Not only did Cortésbesiege and destroy Tenochtitlan, but he also gladly left his men to die to cover his own escape, and hanged any officers who called him out or tried to report his misdeeds to the nearest Spanish authorities in Cuba. After his conquest, he was appointed Governor of New Spain… and complained that the Spanish Crown hadn’t appropriately recognized his greatness.
Cortés As A D&D Villain
D&D offers lots of opportunities to introduce a small, technologically (or magically) superior army capable of destabilizing and destroying an entire kingdom. Putting a megalomaniac like Cortés in charge of that force, and giving him the kind of power you’d expect from a major campaign antagonist, is a dangerous but compelling combination.
Whether your fantasy conquistadors come from a far-off continent or another plane of existence entirely, be sure thatany early victories by the players only slow them down.Think of it this way; the heroes have a party of adventurers, while the villain has an army of them. Finding ways to turn his own tricks against him, like finding dissatisfied officers and encouraging them to switch sides, might be an important part of the story.
