>>46249519

Tell them to roleplay accordingly. They ARE thinking about how their character might react to killing enemies, right?

>>46249519
make your monsters into heartless killing machines who the players couldn't like if they tried

Maybe stop including wives, children and dreams of pointing them through college in every cave full of bandits, goblins and bears?

Make the players doubt if they are working for the good guys.

>>46249519
>What to do if players complain that the opponents are too sympathetic?
Continue. You're doing everything right.

Make some grimdark edgelord half-vampire that rapes little girls and sucks blood through his dick. Wears cloths so black players attack him as if they had blindness. Wields a poisoned doublescythe that has a stupid Roman name. Make his name begin with with either X, Z or V.

>>46249721
Strangely enough this is already pretty much the case.

Opponents are Kingdoms, which sacrifice people to appease bloodthirsty demon gods. No sacrifice = The next target of demons. For this they wage war against the "free" realms.

>>46249978
Don't forget the excessive apostrophes in the name!

>>46249519
>What to do if players complain that the opponents are too sympathetic?
Force them to play their characters the way you play the villains.

>>46249519
Depends on what kind of game your playing. If the players are in for a pulpy, S&S adventure then it's just a matter of mismatched expectations.
Are you making your villains actual villains? If there isn't a good reason to fight them then I could see a problem. While I would agree that people are a lot more nuanced then how fiction portrays them, a lot of the time individuals are antagonists for a reason.

A criminal may be the victim of tragic life circumstances but that doesn't mean he can articulate or understand that fact. Just because he suffers doesn't mean he would be sympathetic when robbing or killing. Chances are he's a dick, a sad dick who could have been better but a dick none the less.

Not every villain is going to have a good reason for being a villain. I'd say most who fall into doing terrible things don't think long or hard enough to really justify what they do. They are victims of their own lack of empathy as much as they are of circumstance. I think the introspective, philosophical monsters tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
But this might not be the problem. You haven't given enough info OP.

>>46250044
The dreaded Edglelord, Zxzx"zzxzz""Zy'"x"zy'yZxyvz"zxz'x'vz'vzx'zZz'y""'"
The most evil of dudes.

>>46250266
>If there isn't a good reason to fight them then I could see a problem.
Meh. MCs aren't really the goody-two-shoes they're pretending to be. Have them attack a not-quite-villainous antagonist for once. That'll teach them a lesson or two.

>>46250283
I like to click my tongue against the roof my mouth like in some African languages for each apostrophe while trying to pronounce names like that