feotakahari

Sometimes the very framework of the setting seems to run against the ideas the characters are proposing.

I’m thinking of this right now because of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The spider lady wants to become so powerful nothing can hurt her. You started the game by watching an ancient dragon get decapitated by something even more powerful. This setting has hilariously large power differences, and even if you ascend to legendary status, there are still plenty of things out there that will beat you power vs. power. For survivability, you pretty much have to go for technique, cunning, or camouflage rather than raw force.

Or take Torment: Tides of Numenera. One of the philosophies you can align yourself with is that you want to become famous and be remembered. In this setting, so many societies have fallen and been forgotten that the literal ground you walk on is made of crumbled remnants of unidentified artifacts. If every person in every one of those societies failed to be remembered, do you really think you have a better chance than they did?

(I’m leaving out how much Pillars of Eternity undermines the pro-religion characters, because I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to take it as an anti-religion tract.)

I’m not sure of everything it takes for me to hate a villain, but it seems to require a personal touch. I recently played a game where the villain ruined people’s lives on a grand scale out of boredom, and she felt like a child kicking an anthill. In this game, a minor villain talks about torturing a child for information she wasn’t even sure the kid had, and that managed to ignite my rage.