Antagonist Guidelines

[Professor Wednesday Haptasnytrir]

General Criteria for Antagonists

Antagonists are those classified as forces opposing the general status quo of Remnant, either in the small or large scale scheme of the setting. This can mean that your Antagonist character can be a thug mugging people on the streets, or the leader of a terrorist cell aiming to overthrow the government.

Regardless of the goals or methods that an Antagonist uses, their overall place in the setting is as opposition, working against someone or something. Roleplaying as one of these characters comes with the creative license to be "bad", but not necessarily "villainous". However, this does not mean they have a pass to do whatever they please. Roleplayers are responsible for communicating with others the type of content they will collaborate on. Being freely able to opt out of a scenario is well within the rights of everyone involved. The normal etiquette of roleplay and character creation will still apply.

1. Age will play a factor in determining the kind of placement your character can have in the setting. Extreme youth will mean a character has less overall experience with life and development in general, so a child heading a feared mercenary company will not be as plausible as an adult being in charge of that same company. Unique circumstances can, of course, be used to justify your character's situation. It is still recommended that how old they are fit with how established they are at the start of roleplay. Bear in mind that "unique circumstances" are to be treated as such: factors outside of the norm. Each will be judged on a case by case basis, but the more outlandish a character's situation is, the more scrutiny they will be subjected to during approvals.

2. The abilities of an Antagonist must be fully detailed in their profile, ranging from what material and immaterial resources they have access to, their strengths and weaknesses, level of influence, and placement in wider society in both public and private settings. Depending on conditions like age, an Antagonist can still develop new skills and abilities, but for adults, the limits become more clear-cut, making it so that their abilities must be fully fleshed out and leave no further room for improvements.
- Antagonists that are part of an organization are encouraged to write an entry in the Encyclopedia detailing the organization. This is to provide the community with a common source of information for the organization as well as keeping up with its influence and activities. Additionally, this will establish the "canon" of the organization and help others who want to involve themselves with it better collaborate* in threads

*Please note that in choosing to involve themselves with the organization or any of an author's entries in the Encyclopedia, people must treat the established canon with respect. This means being subject to the in-character consequences related to what is detailed in the Encyclopedia entry.

3. Antagonist application can include a general archetype that the roleplayer wishes to pursue; what their character specializes in. Will your character be a master thief stealing Lien from banks, a shadow player in an intricate web of powerplays between kingdoms, or an arsonist just wanting to see the world burn? Including a descriptor archetype will help set the tone for the character and its inclusion will make it so that others understand the kind of character your Antagonist is.

4. Descriptions must be provided on their motivation(s) in the character's Backstory. Lack of a detailed one will not count against your character, but some form of explanation behind their actions must still be provided, no matter how simple. This section can include the character's views on society, personal philosophy, and opinions.

5. Antagonists do not need to be in either extreme of the sanity spectrum, but mental illness must be treated with respect and care, and not as an accessory for the character. This ruling is much the same as found in the Mental Illness & "High Risk" Characters section of our Character Creation Guide.

Antagonist status does NOT require:

Aura/Semblances. Antagonists can start off without Semblances or even an Aura. Please note that if you want your character to unlock their Aura or discover their Semblance later on, a full description of their fully developed Semblance must be included in their profile upon submission and then approved.

Antagonist status can still be applied for if an already existing character was not originally created to be one. This will be done via Approvals through a vote. The process will be much the same as Character Approval for a fresh character, but with the added requirement that the roleplayer provide a summary detailing the character's journey in becoming antagonistic. This summary will be added to/replace the optional questions of the Approval format.

Remember to abide by all the usual character creation guidelines; namely: painting within Remnant, Backstory recommendations, Semblance Do’s and Don’ts, Remnant vs. Reality, and as mentioned before, Mental Illness and “High Risk”.
(Additionally, we have plans to create a "news" section to the Encyclopedia where notable events can be posted. This is to connect Antagonists, Teams, and other Persons of Interest to the setting by making their deeds part of the world. By doing this, we hope that an Antagonist can make ripples in the setting and allow others to make threads expanding on their canon bubbles. Like their notoriety increasing enough that they get huntsmen teams sent after them. Grimm Hunt will also make use of this addition for Grimm Bounties and such in the future.)

Antagonist Approval

Approval for Antagonists are a little stricter than if you were submitting a Student character with their level of influence being equivalent to that of a Professor. Due to the guidelines provided and the kind of stories they make possible, the minimum amount of 'Yes' votes for an Antagonist to be approved are three votes in favor.

[Professor Wednesday Haptasnytrir]

Antagonist FAQ

[What is an Antagonist?]
An Antagonist is a character that is openly opposed to or hostile toward a person or group. They can be loosely defined as "adversarial", specifically toward Beacon and the heroes/Huntsman that players portray on the site. They are not required to be outright hostile in all cases, especially for the more manipulative sort of Antagonist, but their ultimate goals put them into direct conflict with the Staff and Students of Beacon as a whole.
E.G. A villain who wants to take over Vale, an arms dealer who is only interested in profit despite the deaths they cause, a Faunus witch who seeks to control the Grimm and annihilate humanity.

[What is the purpose of an Antagonist?]
Antagonists are meant to be direct foils to the heroic characters we create here on the site. They are meant to give a sense of conflict and opposition or struggle to those players who want the stakes to be higher for their characters; they are there to create a sense of tension, of drama, and to create scenarios with real consequences and the potential of total defeat.

[Does an Antagonist have to be a Villain?]
No, Villains are one archetype of Antagonist. Often times they are the ones with the most inherently evil ideas, who wish to kill, maim, or otherwise destroy people, generally cause suffering, or who's zealotry and belief conflicts greatly with the world's as a whole enough to cause discord and chaos wherever they may roam.

[What other kinds of Antagonists are there?]
Some examples would be the more neutrally inclined Conflict-Creator or Inanimate Force, and the Ally-Antagonist.

-A Conflict-Creator is somebody who is not necessarily evil, however stirs up trouble for the main heroes of our stories through indirect means. Jealously sabotaging a Student's project, causing them to get an F in Honeydew's class, bullying everyone they come into contact with at school, or embezzling large amounts of money from local banks for no other reason than personal profit, as opposed to furthering some villainous plan.

-An Inanimate Force is a non-person entity which causes egregious issues for a story's main protagonists. This could be a deadly disease, an entire race of monsters like the Grimm, or even a particularly bad string of weather events could be considered an Antagonist when sufficiently difficult for others to deal with. Typically, these forces cannot be reasoned with or apprehended, thus forcing people to deal with them directly through means other than diplomacy or violence.

-The Ally-Antagonist is a rather different sort of Antagonist who seems on the surface to be trustworthy or benevolent. Examples include the underhanded person who subtly manipulates things behind the scenes toward a generally "bad" goal while posing as a person to trust, or even somebody who is on your team but has such conflicting beliefs that they stand in the way and will not allow certain actions to be taken.

If your character is part of a Huntsman Team, and suddenly one of the members decides that it's not okay to beat up the bad guys and is willing to stand in the way of their comrades and fight them about it, then they are now an Ally-Antagonist. This form of Antagonism can be temporary!

[So I've made an Antagonist... Now what?]
When your Antagonist is approved, you are now ready to begin sowing chaos and drama. Bear in mind that Antagonists are people to, and may have pleasantly normal interactions with people and are not required to be Antagonistic all the time. However, they will be expected to create conflict and tension at least some of the time. It is highly recommended that anything related to your Antagonist that is not covered in a personal profile be submitted as an Encyclopedia entry. For example, if they are a mad scientist who creates weird monsters, make some Entries for such monsters. If they are the leader of a Gang, make an Entry detailing their gang and its members! You can even tell the story of how they became an Antagonist over time through a detailed Entry if you'd like - Remnant is your oyster!

[Can I run an Event?]
Perhaps the most notable feature of having an Antagonist character is your ability to create Threads relating to a Plot. Plotting is incredibly important for an Antagonist, as Plots allow you to tell the story of what the effects of their external conflicts turn out to be. You can tell the story through a large series of individual Threads with other characters, where they directly engage in combat or trickery with others, or you can create and host an Antagonist Event where they perpetrate a major crime like a big bank heist in Vale! If you intend to create Events for people to take part in them, bare in mind that you should absolutely discuss these things with the community and make sure that you are offering a Plot that other people want to be a part of. Any major Events will need to be cleared by Community Leadership, as well, so when you have a working idea that you'd like to execute, if it's intended to be a grand, world-shaking Event, please contact the Staff or Community Leadership with your idea for Approval.

As a collaborative experience, it is incredibly important that Events are lovingly crafted in such a way that they do not violate the rules or expectations or rights of other Roleplayers, and the easiest way to receive feedback is to directly approach others with your ideas.

[What about Grimm?]
Grimm can act as antagonists either as the monster of the week for huntsmen, a force of nature and bane of civilization, or a legend known only to those of the upper echelons of Remnant's elite. If you plan on submitting one, these Grimm will be inducted into the Encyclopedia for the whole community with the original article treated as the template from which others write and gain inspiration from. These submissions don't follow the regular character guidelines, but should follow the spirit of collaborative story telling. A challenge, a danger, but not something that will end a story. Respect should be paid to the participants' in-character abilities.