Farewell Servalan
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 8:16 pm
RIP Jacqueline Pearce - gorgeous!
The best RPG villain I ever wrote was based on her - a manipulative femme fatale who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, including joining the team of adventurers and "helping" them. Several years later I wrote an article about designing RPG characters that suggested a simple test; describe the character in 100 words, is it a cliche or does it sound interesting? The test for this character came out as 100 words of blank verse:
A Femme Fatale (inspired by Federation President Servalan)
An aristocratic damsel in distress, pale foreign beauty held in durance vile. Beware this stranger, those who aid her are soon in danger.
Strange plots and stratagems abound, mysterious voyages and cargoes are found, and desperate traps.
How lucky to find such protectors, to clothe her, expensively, as befits her rank, to follow this tangled trail wherever it leads, and earn her thanks.
No surprise if romance is in the air, and rivals for her hand take less than perfect care.
The instigator of it all, she is content to wait. She plans a cunning trap, and is its bait...