Online course for Dungeon Masters
Villains & Paragons
worth remembering.
Create deadly adversaries and glorious champions for any roleplaying game. 41 video lessons on villain traits, lairs, minions, voices and backstories, plus the paragons your players can turn to in their most desperate hours.
01
Villains
Traits, lairs, minions and the building blocks of evil.
02
Paragons
Seven roles for heroes who aid, or oppose, the party.
03
The gray zone
Anti-heroes and characters who refuse to pick a side.
04
Bonus
Archetypes for improvisation, and villains for kids.
What is it?
A deep dive into
darkness and evil.
A course packed with tips and suggestions for Dungeon Masters and Game Masters. We explore what makes a great villain for any roleplaying game, and contrast those villains with shining champions of good that the player characters can turn to in their most desperate hours.
Learn about villain and paragon traits, powers, voice acting patterns, behaviour, lairs and environments, background stories and much more.
What’s included
Evil, heroes
and everything between.
Lifetime access to the course and all future updates. No recurring membership fee.
- Evil. What makes a villain evil? Will you go for death and destruction, or intrigue and subtle manipulation?
- Villain traits. Pick from a large selection of traits to make each villain unique and find the right flavour for your players.
- Iconic villains. What we can learn from the great villains of film and fiction, and how to create our own.
- Paragons. A mighty hero to guide the party, or a worthy opponent for an evil group.
- The gray zone. Characters with ambiguous alignment, and anti-heroes that make a game more interesting.
- Villains for kids. Bad guys that are suitable for younger players.
What you get out of it
“Create villains your players will love to hate.”
- Give your villains a history, values and motivation.
- Go beyond the “evil sorcerer in a dungeon” trope with 200 traits for villains and paragons.
- The 8 building blocks of evil, the stuff that makes a villain truly horrifying.
- The 4 types of minions and how to use them in the game.
- Villain speech patterns and looks.
- The 8 types of villain lairs, plus a random generator for hundreds more.
- 32 unique villains for your fantasy game, with 5th Edition stats.
- The 7 types of NPC paragons that work well in roleplaying games.
- Lessons from iconic villains like Sauron, Thanos and Darth Vader, and paragons like Gandalf.
From students
What Dungeon Masters told us
Course inventory
Five sections, 41 lessons
Plus trait lists, villain ideas and a guide to 5th Edition stats to download.
Villains and Paragons 1 lesson
→ Introduction
Villains 21 lessons
→ What’s a villain?
→ Hierarchy of villains
→ Types of villains
→ What makes a villain epic
→ Villain traits
→ Dungeons, lairs and hideouts
→ Minions
→ Villains and psychopathy
→ Goals, mannerisms and looks
→ About evil things
→ Building blocks of evil: Death
→ Building blocks of evil: Disease
→ Building blocks of evil: Mutilation
→ Building blocks of evil: Insanity
→ Building blocks of evil: Possession
→ Building blocks of evil: Control
→ Building blocks of evil: Corruption
→ Building blocks of evil: Pain
→ Evil player characters
→ Iconic villains
→ Translating villains into 5th Edition rules
Paragons 10 lessons
→ Introduction
→ Roles: Deus ex machina
→ Roles: Quest giver
→ Roles: Companion
→ Roles: Love interest
→ Roles: Guide and teacher
→ Roles: Comic relief
→ Roles: Enemy
→ Paragon traits
→ Iconic paragons
The gray zone 4 lessons
→ Introduction
→ Anti-hero traits
→ Roles of anti-heroes
→ Iconic anti-heroes
Bonus section 5 lessons
→ Figuring out basic needs for NPCs
→ Creating archetypes, part I
→ Creating archetypes, part II
→ Creating villains appropriate for kids
→ Additional resources and links
Join us
Summon your first villain.
Lifetime access and all future updates. One payment, no subscription.
$39 one-time
30-day money-back guarantee, as long as you haven’t started more than half the lessons.
Meet your instructor
Hey, I’m Mark.
I am a scientist who also happens to be a long-time roleplayer with 30 years of experience. I have DMed many different systems, from fantasy to sci-fi, and thanks to my day job of handling bacteria in a lab you’ll likely get a unique perspective :)
I spent years putting the information in this course together and learned a lot along the way, which I would love to share with you.
We share the most amazing hobby on the planet, you and I, and I am passionate about getting the most out of our gaming and preparation time to bring the fun front and center. Let’s create some villains worth remembering.
Questions
Frequently
asked.
Which system was this course written for?
The course is mostly system agnostic, with a focus on fantasy roleplaying games. Where stats are provided, they are for 5th Edition D&D.
Which age group is this course for?
Adults. We cover themes like mental health, death, disease and horror that may not be suitable for younger audiences. There is a bonus lesson on creating villains that are appropriate for kids.
How long do I have access?
For life, including all future updates. It is a one-time payment, with no subscription.
What if I don’t like the course?
It is very important to me that you like what we create. There is a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee. The only condition, to prevent abuse, is that you haven’t started more than half of the lessons.
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