The greatest villain monologue in movie history is the one from Ozymandias at the end of Watchmen. They think they have the upper hand, and he lets them think that as he reveals his nefarious plan that they've come to stop, and then when they finally move to stop it he reveals it actually launched 30 minutes before they got there and he's just been wasting their time because he's not an idiot.

@shadiafifi54

4 ай бұрын

Hell, they don't even have the upper hand! He takes out both Rorschach and Nite Owl in a few moves, pinning Rorschach with a fork and breaking Nite Owl's portable laser beam, *then* he monologues, having effectively established how he completely outclasses them both. If it happened differently in the movie, my bad. I only read the graphic novel. But it still shows a monologue done right; the good guys want the information, and they can't just jump him before he can finish talking.

@MalloonTarka

4 ай бұрын

Don't forget that _Watchmen_ was a deconstruction of superhero stories, though. A deconstruction is not inherently better than the genre it is commenting on, it is simply, well, a commentary. Many of the tropes a deconstruction takes apart, including this one, have their narrative and meta-narrative reasons for existing; in this case, often because they're _fun._ The lesson I'd advise people take here is to not blindly include tropes just because they're what's "supposed" to happen OR subvert them just because it's unexpected, but use or subvert them purposefully. The reasons can come from the logic of the story itself, but they can also come because you're trying to set a certain tone, create a certain theme, or trying to emulate a certain genre. Tropes are not bad. Or good.

Maybe it needn't be said, but if you're going to monologue, go for Agent Smith. DO NOT go for The Architect. Turns out it's just over 7 minutes, but my god.....

@gregvs.theworld451

4 ай бұрын

I know in the moment the players would probably be mad, and you'd need a DM good with improv, but I wonder if you could make a villain monologue with a bunch of poetic, flowery language that makes it seem like it's going somewhere, until a player asks where it's headed and it's revealed the villain is just a dick who enjoys wasting their time and the monologue was going nowhere.

@TheVampireFishQueen

4 ай бұрын

"IT'S THE SMELL"

@SergioLeRoux

4 ай бұрын

I am the Architect. I created the matrix. I’ve been waiting for you. You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also irrelevant. Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here. The matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version. As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly’s systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations. The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother. She stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster. You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated. Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it. The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race. There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. Your five predecessors were by design based on a similar predication, a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the one. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-a-vis, love. Apropos, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own. Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed, and the anomaly revealed as both beginning, and end. There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the source, and the salvation of Zion. The door to the left leads back to the matrix, to her, and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you’re going to do, don’t we? Already I can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic, and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple, and obvious truth: she is going to die, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.

@IamKnucks

4 ай бұрын

​@@SergioLeRoux perfect reminder for everybody who knew there was a monologue, but forgot it 2 minutes after it was spoken.

@snailcorepistolwhippits9488

4 ай бұрын

7 minutes of straight talking is an eternity at the game table, for GM and players.

"The players will never ever do what you assume for them to do." AMEN, brother!!

@thomasbecker9676

4 ай бұрын

That's why I just build a world, and the players exist in it. Less concern with plans going off the rails.

@warrendavis9262

4 ай бұрын

​@@thomasbecker9676 Please allow me to reiterate, "AMEN, brother"!

@johnfielder2064

4 ай бұрын

so, so true, i rember rewritting one campagin three times, after the players went off on several plot threads they created out of nothing lol

@0x777

4 ай бұрын

No battle plan ever survived the first contact with the enemy, no plot survived the first contact with the players.

@Scanner9631

3 ай бұрын

@@0x777 no plot survived the first contact with the players. Sounds like the time my DM had an emissary from the "bad guys" tell the group they had our scout and would kill him if we didn't surrender. He planned for everything - except me. My response? "Go ahead kill him, he is just cannon fodder". Everyone was in such shock that only I could function and drove everyone on and it was a cake walk rescuing the scout as the DM had a hard time getting past "CANNON FODDER?!" I kept telling the scout player to shut up as he couldn't say anything as his character wasn't present, then his character couldn't talk as he was still tied and gagged and finally that he couldn't because he didn't know what had been said to be able to talk about it. The scout was ever after known as "Cannon Fodder".

"You sly dog! You got me monologuing!"

@shadiafifi54

4 ай бұрын

Yeah. But at Syndrome had the hero contained, he just lost his focus there.

My brother once had his Lich cast Power Word Kill and then Speak With Dead to continue his monologue.

@DrBunnyMedicinal

4 ай бұрын

A unique take on the idea of 'a captive audience'! 🤣

@zidahya

4 ай бұрын

Uh I like that a lot. You can't have an ever more upper hand than that.

@sk8rdman

4 ай бұрын

How would that work? The lich would still just be speaking to a dead body. Speak with Dead doesn't do anything to restore consciousness or awareness to the soul that once inhabited the body. It doesn't actually communicate with the person from beyond the grave. It only animates the body and allows it to answer questions about things the creature knew in life.

@olindblo

2 ай бұрын

absolute chad move

One of your best videos."Stop! I'm trying to save my wife!" LOL. I played in a sci-fi scenario where we raided an enemy outpost. We get into the control room, the chair spins around and an old guy raises his hand and says, "WAIT!" My response? "I shoot him through the hand."

I've seen a monologue as a chance for the GM to say goodbye to their villain. Letting them have the stage for a few is a courtesy we as players can extend to them. There's also something to be said for the theme and genre of a game that makes sense for it as well. In Superhero or Pulp adventures, it's really part of the genre that the Main Villain gets to have the stage to belt of a "Why I'm awesome and you'll never stop me" speech right before the heroes put the boot in and stop them.

one of my favorite moments as a GM was when I was running an adventure, they opened up to a big boss on his throne waiting for them. The boss stood, straightened, and one of my players went "ooooo monologue time" before he went "oh. You're not " and threw a fireball at them. The players were ready to murder me (positive) and spent the next couple of weeks speculating about who the minor character the boss had been expecting was. It was great.

@Dagroth

4 ай бұрын

I love it.

@DrBunnyMedicinal

4 ай бұрын

Well done! That's an excellent bit of GMing there, doing something that the players completely didn't expect for a change! It must have been super satisfying to pull off, too. 👏👏👏

In old D&D adventures, I like to chop up the monologue into small chunks that the villain will say during their turn during their attack. Makes combat more interesting and skips the inevitable player interruption.

@DocEonChannel

4 ай бұрын

Exactly, if it's the BBEG's turn int he initiative order, they can't interrupt. ;)

@fakelandtommy4471

4 ай бұрын

Yes this, I have 2.5 pages of dialogue written for Strand but only 2 or 3 lines written before the players can respond/react. The rest are designed to be responses to what the players say back or when he downs a player.

@Taricus

2 ай бұрын

I do that too ^~^

The Dr. Who RPG pretty much has this baked into the initiative system for that game. Everyone who is just talking and nothing else, they go first. After the characters who are talking are done, then the characters who are just running and nothing else get to go. After the monologuers and rabbits go then the characters that are going to use a skill or tool get to go. The characters who are attacking go at the end of each combat round. This slows things down if your running an all combat game, but it does push the type of action you see in the TV series where a combat encounter typically breaks down to the characters talking, then they run away or pull a lever to drop a wall or force field in between the PCs and bad guys, then the Doctor does an investigation check to find the deus ex machina lever, then lever gets pulled or attack rolls are made.

@hawkthetraveler6344

4 ай бұрын

that's cool and a great creative way to give primary initiative to the conversation/diplomacy then the science, and lastly the conflict.

An important thing to remember is your players are often in a "SWAT team" mentality meaning monologues are a good opportunity to attack while the bad guy is distracted. I like your classic suggestion of having the villain deliver a remote monologue from safety.

@kereymckenna4611

4 ай бұрын

"You sly dog you caught me monologuing"

@WTFisTingispingis

4 ай бұрын

Or do what Dr. Mercer in Dead Space did and zap the heroes with a paralysis spell or something.

@Javalar

4 ай бұрын

I've literally said to my players: "If you just attack the bad guy while he's monologuing you will get no combat advantage at all because he's not that dumb and is expecting that you might do that. All you do is robbing yourself of potentially interesting story elements and making me sad. Just let him talk or at least do something clever with that time."

@cptKamina

4 ай бұрын

@@Javalar Yea ok but that is still idiotic.

@SymmetricalDocking

4 ай бұрын

@@cptKamina It's the initiative rules as written in most games. Just because your players say something doesn't mean their characters suddenly get the jump on a person waiting for them to attack.

Video Games, "Here comes the villain monologue. Enter cutscene." Me, "But I have a shotgun! Fine...I guess."

@carlosip4002

4 ай бұрын

Which is why one of my favorite things about a renegade run of Mass Effect 2 is interrupting a cutscene by shooting the villain of a side quest in the face as he's monologuing.

@nolgroth

4 ай бұрын

Cut scene; that mechanism which is used to deprive the player of agency in service of the plot. Really annoying when the cut scene is written in a way that would never happen if the player had said agency.

@lessonslearned2569

4 ай бұрын

@@nolgroth write the story for the game you are making not the other way around.

@lessonslearned2569

4 ай бұрын

@@carlosip4002 Until you get that call from the Illusive Man.

@kevingriffith6011

4 ай бұрын

Reminds me of Fable 2's ending, which is kind of the opposite. Villain starts monologueing after you've beaten him, but you can shoot him any time to finish him off. If you wait too long your best frienemy shoots him for you and says "oops... did you want to do that? So sorry."

If anyone remembers the old”Darkwing Duck” animated series from the mid-90s, they always had the villain stop the action and start giving their ”how I became a villain” story… the main characters would usually make some crack about the villain giving said story… it was always hilarious how they did it and it became a running gag, in all of my RPG’s since…

@BobbyBlackhearts666

4 ай бұрын

This makes me think of Totally Spies which I used to watch a lot as a kid. Every time they'd get captured and would listen to the villain elaborate their nefarious scheme.

@alanbear6505

4 ай бұрын

There was also the time he was doing an extra long “I am the terror that flaps in the night” speech and when he finished he found that the bad guys had run away.

@MonkeyJedi99

4 ай бұрын

I like that scene in The Incredibles. "Oh, ho, ho! You sly dog! You caught me monologuing!" - Syndrome

The skit at the table - that is exactly how very monologue I've tried goes. Players only like monologues when it let's them get a free round of attacks due to the villain babbling.

@andrewlance3898

4 ай бұрын

In Savage Worlds, there's a card in the Adventure Deck called "Villainous Verbosity" that makes this a mechanic. The player can play the card and make a major antagonist lose a turn as they monologue about their evil schemes. Players get to stun the villain for a turn, and GM gets the spotlight for a monologue. Everyone wins.

@krispalermo8133

4 ай бұрын

@@andrewlance3898 DM goes into a villain monologue and gets togue tied and slur her words. Everyone at the tables bust up laughing, and one player toss die. Others, " what are you doing ?! " Die tosser, " checking my constitution enduring of laughing against how long I need to keep laughing." DM laughs with the group and rolls whoever in ear length comedy stun effect. Vulcan make automatic save cause, they don't get humans or humor. Then reroll political charisma for " lets make a deal where we can both walk away from."

A BBEG monologue for call of cthulhu. "You here sounds that no human vocal cord should ever be able to make. Sounds that mortal ears can not comprehend" "You want us to take sanity rolls?" "Yes please. As your investigators hear colours"

My group is actually the type would tries to keep talking to the bad guy as much as possible, to the point where I often have to usher the scene along so we don't spend too much time talking to a villain who doesn't have any important or interesting information. I kinda love it though. It's great to have players who are SO engaged with the story and the game 🤣

@MonkeyJedi99

4 ай бұрын

I would "accidentally" start the fight by having the villain's butler enter, carrying a lunch tray and looking down reading a message that came in from scouts about some pesky adventurers who... "There they are!" (throws knife)

I wish my players took initiative. I tried to make it clear that my players, at my table, can do whatever they need to do. Their fun is most important. I remember going on a monologue with the express goal of giving my players time to get into position or to get a cheap shot in before initiative. I was monologuing about some silly nonsense for five minutes, nothing particularly interesting but I was disappointed that they didn't take the shot. When the session was over, I asked why they didn't interrupt me? They told me how they thought it would be rude to do so, that they are so used to TV and video games that acting on impulse or taking initiative, never occurred to them.

@Dagroth

4 ай бұрын

Well, I think it's quite okay - you could tell them, why you did it that way, and the next time it happens, they may use it to take positions, steal the remote for A Death Robot Big Red Button, and tie the villain's shoelaces together. ;)

Savage Worlds has an adventure deck card called "Villainous Verbosity" that if played by a PC forces the NPC villain to lose his next action while gloating or explaining his fiendish plot.

My favourite villain monologue was Terence Stamp near the end of Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, a remote voice over as you make your way through his lair to confront him.

@MonkeyJedi99

4 ай бұрын

Terrence Stamp can read the instructions for pancake mix and make it a villain monologue. He is awesome.

@simontmn

4 ай бұрын

@@MonkeyJedi99 I remember he had me going "Yeah, maybe he's right." :D

At 7:00 I immediately thought of Sky Captain. This gave me an idea: They burst in and the BBEG says, "Stop, this will save lives! Hundreds! Possibly thousands!" He might not be contacting any Mythos entities, but what he's doing is close enough that the investigators think he is. This can be a tragic story where the BBEG has put himself into a lose-lose situation: Either he is actually summoning something that will do typical Mythos stuff, or he's pursuing an empty ritual that won't save anybody.

My friend who runs DnD for our group has lots of monologues for villains but they’re usually pretty short and we know it’s his style so they never bother us. I actually enjoy them and play into it by conversing with the villain during it, which I guess doesn’t really make it a monologue, but still.

Thank you, you are very right about monologing, on the Incredibles Syndrome starts to monologue when he feels he has the upper hand of the situation, he even recognizes when he is tricked into monologing. XD It' was a great video for villains characteristics.

:D okay first today's "you know" joke at the end was brilliant! Second, here's an idea for a video if you're interested, Seth: interparty drama. Not the "drama between players" but dramatic moments between characters, where they confront one another or have an epiphany together, etc. The moments that might look cringe from the players' point of view - but if taken seriously can blossom into the most beautiful and meaningful things in a roleplaying game. The ones where the characters are brought to life.

The campaign I'm running has a villain that seems to be ready to make a monologue but then rethinks it and just goes "goblins, kill those guys!"

My group determined very early that enemies are flat footed while monologing, so yeah. We were all fans of anime from the 90s like Sailor Moon and DragonBall Z and constantly made jokes about how the series would be over if the bad guy would just shoot the hero during their long ass attack or transformation sequences lol.

@GinraiPrime666

4 ай бұрын

Its something thats often joked about but, at least in my experience, removing that makes everything else feel kinda... flat. Yeah we can point out the logical fallacy of monologues but they can add something to an adventure.

@jasonGamesMaster

4 ай бұрын

@@GinraiPrime666 the only way to handle it well, imo, is like Seth said in the video (and Matt Coville also talks about a few times). If the heroes can't actually do anything during that time, either because they aren't physically there or because they are weakened in some way then it works well. Someone in the comments in this post also brought up delivering over several turns as part of the villains actions. Otherwise it only adds something other than frustration if the group buys in and takes a break for a moment to just listen, but that's really it, and a pretty good example of poor GMing, imho.

@GinraiPrime666

4 ай бұрын

@@jasonGamesMaster Very true. I was gonna say something similar and admittedly I was still watching the video when I made the comment so thats on me, sorry about that. I'm personally getting back into GMing myself, its been over a decade since I ran anything and even when I did that was my first proper GM experience. I had played DnD with my older brother many times prior but have only been the GM in any game once, the game I ran was the Ghostbusters rpg. In hindsight I know I could've been alot better so hopefully when I run something soon I'll not just improve from then but continue to improve as time goes on.

@jasonGamesMaster

4 ай бұрын

@@GinraiPrime666 there is ALWAYS room for improvement, lol. I have some horror stories of my own making to prove that I've not always been as good as I am, and I'm still not what I would call good, lol. Good luck!

@GinraiPrime666

4 ай бұрын

@@jasonGamesMaster Thanks! Good luck with your stories as well! 😎👍

I think part of why this happens especially from newer GMs is from video games. A lot of games have the villain monologue while in a cutscene the player literally cannot interrupt, this does usually happen in a scene with a perceived upper hand though. A main exception that definitely influences me is the pre boss fight cutscenes of the octopath traveller games, the villain monologues on their motivations or plans or how they did something very personal to the feature character for that chapter, then, key thing of why these work, the fight doesnt start, the featured player character interrupts or responds, gives their own speech on their motivations as their pre boss fight theme starts playing before the cutscene ends and the music dynamically transitions into the boss theme, which is something you can only really do that well in video games, but theres definitely room for inspiration here especially if you have a player who loves to act and give them a bad guy very personal to their character.

As a different example where the monologues works is if the bad guy and the good guy can't fight yet. I am thinking of Die Hard where John and Hans are talking over the walkie talkies. I feel like there is a similar point in Kill Bill where there is a horde of Ninja's between them. The short rest scene's monologue is different also it is an agreed upon reprieve.

One idea borrowing from the Sword and Sorcery GM Guide for Ravenloft is the Cut Scene, but not a Video Game Cutscene where a movie plays but more of the Comic Book Cutaway. Look at the comic book example, and its where a 'Meanwhile' appears on panel and then we switch point of view to another source. Maybe the bad guy, maybe heroes elsewhere or perhaps just some other important point of reference. Then information happens that the audience gets to know and then back to the main player characters. It's the same with movies, you have a scene of the heroes marching from town out into the wilds and then it cuts to the villains castle and they have some discussion with their henchmen or rant about how the heroes are coming and need to slow them down so they dispatch a group of soldiers to confront the heroes and slow them down. This was pitched in the GM Guide in the same sort of way. The heroes come to a farm house to find it abandoned and in disarray, something terrible must have happened here. The players feel a sense of dread and start to look for tracks. GM calls a pause and signals a cutscene of the villain holding a scalpel and talking to a farmwoman bound to a chair with a porcelain mask covering her face except her eyes and as the villain steps closer to the woman.... we are back at the players and now they are more driven to find out where the villain is. The cut scenes can reveal bits of what the villain is doing and maybe why, or perhaps it is about the reaction of the heroes tasks. The village is shown to rise up against the lieutenant that the villain sends to get more taxes and slaves from the town., the villain is shown in their outrage as they hear how the macguffin slipped from their grasp because of those meddling adventurers. This can be done with things in like scrying, precognition, clairvoyance, psychometry (reading objects, like in The Crow), video tapes/camera feeds, vision and so on, if you are looking for an In Universe way to explain it so the characters don't have access to metaknowledge.

Oh that bladerunner monologue is just the best. One of my favorite scenes in all of cinema.

This video is genuinely one of the only good things to come out of a stressful day today. Thank you for doing what you do Seth

@SSkorkowsky

4 ай бұрын

Hope your evening fares better than your day did.

@cheemsburbger5326

4 ай бұрын

@@SSkorkowsky it’s taken a turn for the positive but the university STEM grind is never-ending. Your Cthulhu and Kult playlists are the best things I’ve had for getting through it though. Thank you for your services and best wishes to you Mr.Skorkowsky

@vocalityovertime

4 ай бұрын

Genius. As always.

I never understood the "attack now, before he does something". You just roll for initiative as soon as combat starts, so no side goes first if they immediately attack... every roleplayer knows this.

@kasane1337

4 ай бұрын

It doesn't make much sense for the players though. Depending on your system a combat round can be just a few seconds - how does the villain get to talk for 2 min during all of that? Not to mention systems that don't use initiative...

@Casey093

4 ай бұрын

@@kasane1337 The monologuing (or dialoguing if the players respond) takes place outside of initiative. You can do this for minutes, as long as you like. As long as nobody attacks, who gives you a time limit?

My favorite personal experience with this is that if you create a villain the party loves to hear speak they'll gladly create the opportunity for the villain to monologue themselves. My party loved the way the antagonist spoke and ate up every encounter that they would not only allow him to speak but also actively participate in conversation, meeting his quips with their own. It gave me the opportunity to characterize the villain based off these interactions, to the point that I'm able to build this villain into a sympathetic one. When your parties actually wanna hear the villain deliver his evil speech, that's when you do it.

Now I need to find that t-shirt! Awesome video as always Seth!

At the end of a campaign we had the drop on the BBEG and I as a player ruined it by talking with the villain, ruining our surprise round. Other players were mad at me, but it allowed the DM to do a cool monologue. I think the monologue and bit of conversation before the fight was so much more badass than a surprise round.

Left me in a philosophical mood. Food for thought. 😊

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@johnf.kennedy5454

4 ай бұрын

Sounds interesting. Hard copies or just PDF files?

@ballisticus1

4 ай бұрын

Saw that and took the plunge. Even if I never play/run it. It's too good a deal to pass up. At the very least, I will play the solo adventures that are part of this collection.

@Kawamaru

4 ай бұрын

Amazing deal, I had to grab it immediately! I'm just gathering a new group and I'm a little tight on money so this is huge!! 💖

@SSkorkowsky

4 ай бұрын

@@johnf.kennedy5454 PDF copies.

@johnf.kennedy5454

4 ай бұрын

Thanks

Also thinking of classic theatre: all of Shakespeare's most famous monologues (except Once More Into The Breach!) are soliloquys delivered when the speaker is entirely alone

I prepared that giant 3-minute speech once. The bad guy got to say one sentence before a dagger was thrown at him. Never again. :D

For the monologue-as-recording (so the PCs don't get to shoot the antagonist in the face) - if it's supposed to reveal some important information, it may be a good idea to give the players another chance to acquire it, if they somehow interrupt the monologue. Let's say the antagonist put a motion sensor in the door, connected to the TV+player. PCs choose to enter through the window, in order to surprise anyone in the room, and so the TV doesn't turn itself on. So, you can tell the players about the sensor, and wires connected to a TV+player, so they can activate it intentionally (or just press a "Play" button). If they don't do that, or do and then don't listen to a full recording (by turning it off, or shooting the screen, etc.), maybe there's a hostage later, who yells at them not to shoot the antagonist (knowing something the PCs don't). And if they shoot the antagonist anyway... well, you gave them three chances (entering via door, playing the video by themselves, listening to the hostage and not shooting the guy just yet), so that's now on them, it's fair if they don't get the information, and it bites their butts later. (and they also have a choice to listen to it, or not, with all the potential consequences of either)

“Fly-eating monologue” 😂😂😂

@SSkorkowsky

4 ай бұрын

I wondered how long it'd take before anyone caught that

@cornerpage6634

4 ай бұрын

Poor Belloq will never live down that editor's cut.

Way back in the 80s, i used to play Champions, the super hero game that ended up becoming the Hero Games basic system. In that game, anyone was allowed a monologue at any time in combat. And monologues--by definition--took no combat time. This was to allow for those moments in the comics 1] where the villain has to talk about why he's not evil or why sometimes you must do bad things for good to happen, etc, or sometimes when 2] PCs had to talk about why--and to what degree--they hate the bad guy (thereby working themselves up to a violation of their own personal Code Against Killing, for example). Sometimes it was used for PCs or NPCs to divulge info (often that the PLAYERS already knew, or herhaps a crucial clue) or for PCs to discuss their foibles that disallowed them feom certain actions (again, often Codes v Killing, but sometimes, say, terror of deep water, etc). I finessed that quite a bit while GMing: not only did me and the players not "abuse" the rule by indulging in long soliloquys, but also, i house ruled it where a PC or NPC could talk a sentence or two at a time each phase (round) of combat until they took enough damage so they had to stop. That lead to some satisfyingly amusing interruptions to villain speeches by annoyed PCs. Lol

@torenatkinson5708

4 ай бұрын

I allow this even in non-supers games. It's fun, it has no impact on the other aspects of the game, characters can have a conversation or monologue while combat is happening, pretty much unrestricted as long as there's no speech/persuasion/intimidate rolls involved

This reminds me of two "monologue esque" situations that have happened in my games, that went very differently. In one the villain clearly had the upper hand, and I wanted to use that opportunity to give some exposition that the party had otherwise missed. The PCs had been captured by some yuan-ti after splitting the party in their base. The yuan-ti leader interrogated each of them individually, and then along with some underlings escorted them weak and disarmed to a place where she would reveal what they'd been doing there before torturing the party and turning them into broodguards. Even though the players were clearly in a bad situation, they were also desperate to find a way out of it, so it wasn't long after I started the exposition that some of them started declaring hostile actions to try and catch the yuan-ti by surprise. I knew that there would be a fight here (there kind of had to be if the PCs were going to survive), but I really wanted to get my exposition out first. I basically ended up forcing them to watch my brief cutscene before I let their actions resolve. Everyone seemed okay with it after the fact, but in that moment it felt bad forcing their hand like that. Earlier in the campaign though I had a situation where the PCs encountered one of the bad guys, and I fully expected it to turn into a fight and that she would have to try to escape. Instead, the PCs listened to what she had to say, and it ended up being a fully social encounter as they sort of brokered a deal with her and went their separate ways. She would go on to become one of the more important villains pulling the strings in the background, and the party didn't encounter her again until the final fight of the campaign. It was one of those rare cases where my players left me pleasantly surprised with how everything played out. I think in that situation they thought she was super powerful because of how I roleplayed her, and decided that a fight would be too risky, even though they had her slightly outnumbered. In hindsight, they also weren't in any obvious immediate danger, and the only reason they really had to attack was that they knew she was one of the bad-guys. I think it goes to show that monologues aren't all destined to fail. You just have to be very careful about where, when, and how you use them. Understanding the dynamics of those two situations can give insights into when a monologue is likely to work well.

One of the best things about running a mech game is having the villain talk over comms while the players are fighting his grunt troops or even his mini-boss lieutenants and captains. All the fun of a dramatic monologue mixed with some improvisation if/when the players do something super cool or super dumb.

The one villain monologue I've ever done that worked was for a sci-fi GURPS campaign; the players had been shipwrecked on a remote asteroid mining colony and the monologue was a broadcast from the local despot. As stated in the video, it worked because it was remote, brief, and the villain was in control.

Really appreciate the Sky Captain reference. Stellar work as always my friend

I really like sprinkling the "monologue" in the Talking and Analysis phase idea you liked from RBRB. The longer they can keep the villain talking, the more they can do while they're distracted. They can reload, get a few extra percent on that download, move quietly to a flank, try to find a weakness. The longer they keep them talking, the better their outcome. Some enemies will engage in conversation. Some won't, but most will. "Get them monologuing" is a move they often deploy now. Hell, keeping them monologuing is often the delay tactic until they get their ambush. The more complicated the action or more competent the villain, the longer you have to keep them talking or the harder it is to distract them. No one likes to spend a turn reloading, but everyone loves getting a sneaky reload in. The villain almost always gets to start the first talking and analysis phase as a sign that they would be willing to talk. The "Obi wan has taught you well" or the "It doesn't have to go down this way" moment. The players get to choose to engage or the villain will continue to mock them or get more frantic. Players want to be ruthless murder hobos? Make sure the antagonists are shown trying to deescalate or keeping them talking while their other friends escape and they prepare their own heroic sacrifice. It often gives at least one player at the table pause enough to ask "Wait are we the baddies, here?".

Great video as always, weirdly this is probably the first video where I already used all the advice here. I personally like monologues under the correct circumstances and conditions. Only thing I would add is to try keep it to the personality of the villain, like would it make sense for them to yammer on at the player characters and if so how would they go about it, sad reflection or megalomaniac rant or something else. I've only had one incident where a monolog got derailed, and it was honestly a pleasant surprise, my players actually TALKED DOWN the supervillain when they heard his personal perspective reasoning as to why he was doing what he was, which hilariously ended up revealing a larger threat for them to track down later, a "supplier" who was manipulating the situation from the background and was taking advantage of the super villain's personal pain and grief to push their own agenda instead. My players thoroughly enjoyed getting the opportunity to redreem a more sad villain as well as tear apart an unforgivable PoS grade villain in that Mutants & Masterminds campaign. Never been able to replicate this though as most of the time my more recent tabletop group members are pretty good investigators and usually figure out the plot and potentially circumvent things sometimes even before they even meet the current villain. Thanks to this I get a lot of third act break down freak out villains because of this, but it makes for fun final boss fights that cause the players to go "OH SHIT! OH NO! WE MADE IT MAD" xD

There's an even simpler solution: just get everyone on board on which kind of scene you would like to have. If the DM or a player wants to monologue as their character, then let them have their scene without interruptions. The game is supposed to be co-operative, there is no reason to try and force a situation where you can deliver your monologue, just ask if you could do it. And if a player would like to have a certain type of scene for their character, it's far easier to deliver if they just ask for it. This is all within reason, of course, everyone still has to be ready to give up the limelight and give up on their ideas if no-one else thinks that particular scene would be funny or interesting.

As always, another fantastic video. Every video, Seth reaffirms his spot on every nerdy GM's "if I could run a game for someone famous" list. Some day, I'm sure... lol

I don't usually use villain monologues. Instead, I shoot for "what's in the box?!" moments.

Just like any other action dealing with players, you have to be ready to improvise. Good example of this is in the Justice League cartoon series where Batman and Zatana are fighting a Greek Goddess and she's trying to monolog but Zatana keeps blasting her before she can finish. "Insolent mortals! You dare strike...BAM...You dare strike...BAM...YOU DARE STRI..BAM...QUIT IT!"

I do not do monologues. I have a background in the military, I am a military historian, I am a wargamer. In war you do not monologue- you do your best to win. Only my incompetent villains monologue.

@wolfyblackknight8321

4 ай бұрын

this makes alot more sense then most and i would rather see a smart threatening villain who's smart enough to think "why should I tell my plan to a deadman" unless its the less competent villains underling who feels the need to brag and generally be an idiot, possibly having the main villain even kill them on the spot "the idiot nearly gave away the entire plan we could of just kept them in the dark and got things done before they even knew what hit them, but no he had to try and show off now we need to move up the timetable on the plans"

I gotta agree, I love monologues, but they've gotta been done at the right moment. I grew up on Silver & Bromze Age comics and old black and white shows. Monologues are great for setting a scene and adding to the real arch-villainy (or madness) or the villain, but when done at wrong time it can really trip up the immersion (though I did like everytime a Spiderman villain tried to monologue only to get either mocked or a mouthful or webbing). Takeaway: monologuing is gloriously pulpy artform.

"fly-eating monologue" LOL

To me there are mainly two points of failure in monologues. 1) When the players aren't allowed to act because of monologue, and 2) When the GM says "But, my monologue!" when the players interrupt it. Number one is an issue of taking away player agency, and number two is about resenting player agency. Which happens, but you shouldn't do it. "But, my side-plot!" "But, my favorite NPC!" and "But, my regional map!" are all subsets of this issue.

Tangential to this because it's the players, but my group always liked that in the Torg RPG, where each player has a hand of cards that they can use to influence play, one of them is the Monologue card, allowing the player to make a speech without being interrupted. Knowing they had that power, the players were more willing to let me as the GM say "he's playing a Monologue card"--it helps that Torg was the kind of game where monologues often felt vey in-character, with one of the major factions being essentially an invasion of pulp villains. (Man, that was a fun game. There were other cards where you could just declare your character now had a romance subplot, or a rival. No control over details, so you might play the Romance card hoping that the beautiful maiden would fall for you only to discover that the villain was now obsessed with you. And a card where you could automatically succeed at some task, but your character was guaranteed to die before the end of the adventure.)

We've just started my first campaign, and my intention is to use the monologue time to let my players do all their power-me-up stuff they would normally not get to do because combat usually goes so fast. Drink your potions, cast your buff spells, set up your perfect flank. When the monologue ends, tell me what you set up, and it's all active when the battle starts. Probably won't work, but I don't plan to use it much either.

@NathanPatrickLane

22 күн бұрын

That could actually be a good characterization moment for your villain. The villain tells the party to prepare themselves to fight at their fullest strength, and allows the party the respite they need to set up all their buffs. This will establish that the villain has a strong sense of honor and/or is extremely arrogant, while allowing the players to do all the set up they want. During this set up, you can have a little villain monologue as a treat for further characterization.

My favourite evil villain monologue is the Red Queen, from the Resident Evil film. Scary and enlightening in equal measure. "You are all going to die down here." lol

@SSkorkowsky

4 ай бұрын

Fun Story - The Resident Evil Soundtrack opened with the "You're all going to die down here," clip and ended with a clip of "We're all going to die down here." So way, way back, we're playing some Cyberpunk2020 and found our patron for a job, and it's a seriously hard job. As he finished telling us this horribly dangerous mission we're about to do, he asks, "What do you think?" We're silent for a second, trying to take it all in, but right at that exact moment the Resident Evil CD that had been playing hit the "We're all going to die down here," as the only voice in the room. We laughed for a good 5 minutes.

Thank you for this. I'm getting close to the end of my first campaign and these thoughts of the end scene monologue have been stirring. Thank you for showing me the light.

I have that same Toren Atkinson "Cthulhu Busters" t-shirt! Love it!

@torenatkinson1986

4 ай бұрын

Thanks Soren!

Another way to do this in games with high HP or survivability in general is to deliver the monologue during combat. It's a real great option for a smug villain especially as they ignore the insects attacking them, and it lets the players do what they would rationally do in the meantime.

I remember one time I had a somewhat optional boss battle where I thought a taunting monologue would be appropriate. Knowing my players, what I had prepared was "Foolish mortals, you underestimate-" and my players did not disappoint in just immediately slamming the door shut and high tailing it out of there.

Don't listen to yourself, Seth. I love the video lengths, heck I could listen to longer ones!

All the monologues you referenced in this video I have seen. Your point about the upper hand is clear once you pointed to it. Thanks for this video!

I can and will binge your a-system related videos. I love them so much. I can use and apply them whenever and wherever I want.

@DualKeys

4 ай бұрын

Yes! As someone who doesn’t play D&D, it’s so nice to have a channel where the advice is geared toward pretty much any system.

I recently had this happen, with the heroes reacting to a mad scientist monologue and him throwing the switch on a "doomsday device" by killing him (note: this guy was like 70 years old, and while he had a pistol in one hand, he was visibly frail). They killed him in a single combat round, keeping him from reacting to what his device did. It was intended to pull sunken treasure from the bottom of the ocean, but he had been influenced by the real villain of the adventure (a Lovecraftian horror) and what it actually did was summon a ghost ship full of bloodthirsty ghouls. This left them running away from a situation after making it worse.

I don't know that I use monologues much in my games either. Usually, when the villains confront the investigators or characters, they do so because THEY are looking for information. Or they want to put them down themselves, or are some kind of strange mythos horror that needs things like blood, organs, or bone marrow. You know, normal stuff. Great video, as usual. I especially enjoyed the story of your 'failed' monologue that the players were happy to sit through and listen to. Great stuff.

The very first game I ever ran was Murder on Arcturus Station, adapted for the Star Wars rpg. Once the PCs figured out who the murderer was, he confronted them in a hallway, flanked by some battle droids. He was going to attempt to bribe them into framing another suspect, and attack if they refused. I got about two sentences out (“Congratulations, I’m impressed you figured it out, etc.”), but hadn’t actually made it to where he wanted to bribe them before one of my players said, “Okay, I’m gonna attack him.” So yep, if you’ve got something important to say, lead with that.

I played in an entertaining D&D5e one-shot that a friend ran for their husband (and the rest of our group) on his birthday. After working our way as a team through one of those 'gauntlet' type dungeons, we discovered that the 'end-of-level boss' challenge (a dragon) had already been killed. The actual villain began a monologue explaining why had set out to prove that it was possible to defeat the gauntlet single-handed, without allies, in memory of his mother, who had been laughed at for trying it years ago. He got most of the way through the speech before one of the party cast Banishment. While the erstwhile villain was away, the party prepared every attack we had, so on his return, he was completely dogpiled. After going down, he still tried to have the last word on his theme that allies are unnecessary, at which point one of the characters, who had been going through their own brief arc regarding the need for support, said "You're wrong" ... and finished him off. All of us who played in that remember the cut-off monologue as an epic moment ... (But I can imagine that a less 'this game is meant to be fun for all' GM might have felt aggrieved.)

While I generally agree with the points here, I would add an element to the conversation: My players & I have a mutual understanding - "anything the players can do, the GM can do too." If you try to blast the NPC mid-sentence to catch them off guard, then villains can do that to. If the PCs want to take speech off the table, they should not be surprised when they get blasted mid sentence too!

Great ideas, as usual. I admire how thoughtful are your videos.

One of your best videos yet, its just really well rounded, you are just great

I can recommend his books, i just finished ashes of onyx and the valducan series and both were excellent.

I love your videos Seth! Still working on a Call of Cthulhu campaign that’s lasted 3 years and 12 scenarios, but hopefully only 3 more to go! Thanks for all the ideas and inspiration you’ve given to me and my players along the way, it’s been a lot of fun. Keep up the great content!

Truly brilliant video! Love your deep observations about monologues. Thanks Seth!

Seth, I gained a HUGE takeaway from this video: the PCs should have gathered all/nearly all clues themselves before the end. I guess I inherently knew this but now it is solidified in my mind. Related: I ran CoC "The Derelict" at GenghisCon this year, and thanks for doing your review in another video. It really helped.

"Damn your cleverness! I feel so out-manoeuvred! How ever did you come up with such a diabolical scheme?"

Sometimes my players like to say they want to shoot the evil person while they’re talking and I just say “if you do that, you start initiative and do not gain a sneak attack round.” But I also don’t go on a self indulgent monologues, they’re usually talking TO the players. But I also talked to my players and I said “hey, I think this is fun, this is my chance to chew the scenery, please let me have my moment, you have your moment every encounter.”

@goosechucker2154

4 ай бұрын

They might get a tad stroppy if you don't specify that there's no surprise round because the shootee is expecting it

@hfbdbsijenbd

4 ай бұрын

You also have your moment every encounter. You are literally everyone else in the world. You already do more scene chewing than any single player. You just want players to give up agency and then punish them if they don't agree.

@gladspooky9455

4 ай бұрын

@@goosechucker2154 Why would he not be expecting it? They burst into his chamber. Players don't get a surprise round every time they burst into a dungeon room. They just roll for initiative. Just because someone's talking doesn't mean the players are now invisible.

@goosechucker2154

4 ай бұрын

@@gladspooky9455 just good policy to explain stuff like that

@1997dartagnan

4 ай бұрын

@@goosechucker2154they’re right in front of the big bad and an attack action or spell casting does not happen instantly. Just because you can draw your weapon as a part of the attack action does not mean they can do it while the BBEG has eyes directly on them. So I just tell them “you are not surprising them, you’re just cutting them off.” Villains often have a lifespan of 3-4 rounds. I am ABSOLUTELY not going to shorten that to 2-3 because the PCs want to stereotypically shoot the big bad in the face while they’re talking. It’s also incredibly unrealistic that two forces squaring off and about to fight, and suddenly one just charges forward and catches them off guard??? No, absolutely not. That’s silly and far too much leeway.

I played a super hero game where monolougeing was a weakness thay cost characters a turn as they go on talking. It make a fun roleplay8ng weakness.

A variation I've used is a dummy of the villain, cloaked in shadow, with the villain's voice being transmitted over a radio as he made his getaway. I expected the players to realise pretty quickly that they were being suckered and then give chase. But they just sat there and listened to it. In the end I changed the plan and made the voice a recording that started over when I ran out of steam. _Then_ they started to suspect something was up.

You have inadvertently given some great advice on how to make monologues work while telling your story: Front load the information. Put the big news first, and let the talk taper off as players get bored.

The Heisenplayer Uncertainty Principle: Any assumptions you make about the state of the players and their future actions is incorrect. Attempting to adjust your assumptions to preempt incorrect assumptions will also lead to incorrect assumptions. You cannot plan for player actions, you can just make your plans flexible.

This was incredibly insightful Seth, well done, and thank you!

As always, a great take on an interesting subject... thank you Seth!

I find keeping a monologue in reserve for if a player group is losing a fight: have the opponent 'mistakenly' believe they're defeated, so a guileful player might lie low and overhear some remarks while they sneakily heal their comrades. Or the villain smugly summarizes how they have no chance, outlying how he's walled off all their options but gives one incorrect fact that a player might recall is wrong and that gives a hint of how the villain can be defeated. Basically, a monologue is a 'fateful error' by the villain, that gives players a second chance rather than have a game end in a TPK.

This is amazing advice Seth. Brilliant!

I was running a game using AD&D in The Ruins of Undermountain. The players were trying to explore, map, and get loot, when an NPC who had escaped from some orcs who had cut his tongue out, ran up and started blathering gibberish excitedly at them trying to impart some important info. The 2 PCs in the front lost patience with him and killed him just to shut him up. I was shocked, as I expected them to get the info out of the poor guy using sign language or writing. The Dm's best laid plans...

I hould have known you'd be a Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow fan! Your taste remains impeccable.

Really good video. I never really tried a villain monolog so far (only villain talks and tauntings which got immediatly interrupted) and thinkt they should be used sparringly, but I have the feeling I am better prepared to try it out now :)

I'd even extend the bit about 'monologues feeling longer to the players than they do the GM' to game narration in general. I recently recorded a game I'm running and when I went back I was stunned to realize how much time I spend talking, since the narrations usually feel pretty quick to me. Since then I tell myself "Take half the time you think you need to say what needs to be said." For monologues specifically, though, I try to use villain barks instead and have them drop information on their turn (or on player turns if the system is not strict about speaking out of turn) in a combat.

I needed this so bad... I have one coming up and have been unsure how to handle it. Sorry for the late view, I had to go somewhere without cell service to cut my recently aquired green soapstone for a badass BtMoM prop love this channel it's so packed full of excellent advice.

I think villains dropping clues in a monologue (mostly not even intentionally, just more like either they don’t realize it’s a clue to the player or they’re not trying to hide anything but they know way more than the player) is better than explaining their plan.

I read a book several years back (unfortunately can’t remember the title to save my life), where the protagonist was a con artist, living by consistently being cleverer than anyone who would want to see him dead. I enjoyed the story, but one thing disappointed me to no end. This character, who had zero concerns about propriety and convention except as tools to exploit to get what he needed, listened to a lengthy villain monologue. I remember coming away thinking this was how it should have gone: Villain: begins evil speech; gets about two sentences in. Villain: looks down to see a crossbow bolt sticking out of his abdomen. Protagonist, calmly reloading a hand crossbow he’d concealed: Oh I’m sorry, did I interrupt you? Don’t mind me. Carry on with whatever it was you were saying. There are players and characters monologues will be great for, and there are ones they won’t work for at all. It comes down to knowing your group/their characters. In my current gaming group, I’ve got a character who straight up interrupted a villain monologue I’d setup with an offensive use of plane shift, just literally punched him out of a plane of existence. It was a glorious moment, and I loved seeing the arrogant prick I’d created as an antagonist there humiliated. I also just know at this point that this is not a group of characters where a villain monologue will be viable unless I create some circumstance that prevents an interrupt. I might do that at some point, but that’s a tool that needs to be used very sparingly.

I had a "monologue" on Saturday in AD&D. I had the villain stop the fight out of fear... Then he explained himself, but I framed the entire monologue as a conversation... Same information, but I made it a back n' forth..... They got the xp for defeating him and actually convinced him to help with something they were doing and got their stuff back. It was more interesting, because the group isn't exactly good anyways, so I could have him explain himself and yet also beef him up to be more interesting than he otherwise would have been.

Magic mouth is a wonderful spell. + The artificers mini recording tool with a little tinkering.... Can be quite 😊

It's much easier to have player's hear a monologue from the villain if they don't know it _IS_ the villain. It can work pretty well for twist villains. I had some players listen out a totally unhinged villanous reveal/proposal because one of the players was actually on the villains side all along and acted along as if the plan and offer made sense, until another of the players was like "You are madman! I'll never be a part of this plot!" and opened fire. Then the other loyal player joined in and they proceeded to kill both the traitor player as a final boss. It was a pretty epic finale.

I used to do these when I was new at GMing, and what made me stop was how during, iirc, the third or so baddie my players were about to face, one of them jokingly told the bad guy himself "Alright, go on and explain us your plan before we kill you". It just clicked for me then. Monologues are so silly, indeed, why would the bad guy even do this? That was over 10 years ago and it stuck with me to this day, really made me rethink how I approach my campaigns.

I like to let the players see the villain and find out a bit about their plans by finding magical "message stones": small stones that can record a 25-word message (audio and video) and replay it (including illusory image of the person speaking) if you know the password or can otherwise activate the stone. Usually these are messages from the BBEG to one of their lieutenants, but sometimes the BBEG will intentionally leave one for the PCs to find. A variation of the "PCs have the upper hand" speech is the Death Speech. I like to use these to foreshadow the next evil the PCs will have to face: "You may have defeated me (gasp) but you won't be so smug when you face the power of my master (cough), the great Emperor Palp ..." (dies)

Awesome as always 😎👍 thank you Seth

Don't forget "I'm afraid the deflector shields will be quite operational when your friends arrive."