REVIEW – PART #3
This is the third article about the old school AD&D book known as The Complete Book of Villains
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Chapter three of the book introduce us to the structure of villanous organizations.
We already explained in previous articles that a villain, at least a wise one, never show herself in the frontline and prefers to remain hidden in shadow until the pieces on the chessboard are at the established position.
I mean, not even Sauron, who has to be considered a powerful villain, showed his presence off!
The same we can say for Voldemort. He patiently waits and then strikes with perfect timing.
A villain usually play the game in disadvantage, that’s why she has to be careful.
She has to be careful and organized!
Hierarchy vs Network
The book presents this dichotomy and explains villanous organizations using this contrast.
It doesn’t specify any list of traits to explain the differences between a hierarchy vs network organization.
It’d rather speculate about three traits that, according to the book, define these two kind of organizations
Power & Authority
Power in a hierarchy is contralized and distributed along rigid chain of command. In a network power is scattered.
Communication
Always according to the book, flow of informations in a hierarchy is slower than that of a network.
Commitment & Satisfaction
Again the book assume that commitment and satisfaction are better in a network than in a hierarchy.
The idea of creating two extreme points to describe a villanous organization, in our example hierachy vs network, is indeed a good point.
However the three traits presented above (power & authority; communication; commitment & satisfaction) are not so great if we want to describe in deep the difference between an organization or another.
We could think on our own about traits that fit better in our game style or campaign.
I’d probably keep the trait of Power & Authority, which technically speaking, is a true a statement.
It’s a fact that in hierarchy power is concentrated and is exponentially weaker climbing down the hierarchy.
While a network is quite clear that has not the same concetration of powerm otherwise it wouldn’t be a network.
What I’d change?
Beside the fact that hierarchy vs network is a hot debate in the realm of enterprise and organization, in order to adapt to an everchanging world, we need to dig a little bit into this topic in the realm of roleplaying games also.
In place of Communication I’d say flexibility is a better trait that can define and distinguish hierarchy and network.
In place of Commitment & Satisfaction, which is a trait that in roleplay term is not very useful to design a villanous organization, I’d say Resilience is more appropriate.
Keep in mind that I could add more traits, or create a random table with traits to pick, but this is not the purpose of this article. May be I’ll write a future article about how to implement a villanous organization.
To conclude
We can’t state that a hierarchy is better than a network, or viceversa, because it depends on what goal the villain (or the villains) want to accomplish.
I can eventually mix both organization, for example a network of hierarchy can exist. Every hierarchy works on its own agenda, but the villains in charge of each hierarchy meet from time to time thus forming a network of villanous hierarchy.
If the villain wants to mantain a strong control over a territory he probably needs a well structured hierarchy.
However, if another villain wants to destabilize a kingdom he probably needs a network of independent cells acting as infiltrator.
As usual, the limit is our imagination, but we have to be clear on what are the goals of our villains.
So, here we concluide the review of chapter 3 of The Complete Book of Villains.
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