GM's Tip of the Week

A dozen other people have written far better guides on writing villains – and playing them – than I can. However, I’d like to think I can sum up the basics

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The short form is that ‘Villains are People Too’. They don’t just wake up one day and decide to take over the world, summon demon lords or become lich archmages. They work up to it. They have histories; break downs, challenges and failures. Bear that in mind as you run them, and do background stuff for them.
While there are groups that aren’t going to care, if your group is one of the kind that is interested in this kind of thing, writing a villain with some care for how and why they do what they do will probably be as big a hook as their existence and all their fancy treasure.