Hoe do you make a good rival?
>>46573354
>Hoe do you make a good rival?
Only when my pimp lets me.
>>46573354
Be on friendly enough terms that you'd never kill one another, because otherwise your rival won't last long. Or you won't. My point, you get it. You should have some clashing personality points that make it easy to hate them when they beat you, but something that makes it easy to lend them a hand when important or to team up against a larger common enemy.
Make them be on equal footing as you, but in a different area. You're strong and clever? They're quick and knowledgeable. You have a lot of money? They know how to get things without using a single coin. Avoid making one a mage and the other not unless it's a system where the two are fairly balanced in terms of where your characters' rivalry matters.
Finally, a common trusted ally always helps. This means even if Douchebag crosses the line and does something unforgivable, you can always fall back on your trusty childhood friend for moral aid or to try and find a solution that isn't homicide.
Of course, if killing your rival is the most satisfactory way to end things in the story of the character, go for it. Just make it worth the loss of a dynamic.
Be The Entire Horse. Don't just have fights to the death. Do smaller competitions and team-ups too.
>>46573596
A noble and theif, a fencer and a axeman, a Dredd and V, a barbarian and monk
>>46573354
Aw, hell no, bitch, I ain't no hoe. But you can daaaamn well be yo rival.
>>46575346
Then cylinder doesn't even begin to line up with the barrel...
>>46575893
It's not a gun, it's a mental projection if his fighting spirit.
>>46575933
Well his mental projection is going to be pretty ineffectual when he tries to do anything with it.
>>46573354
Make them as good as you maybe even in the same way. In pokemon Red you are afraid of your rival and constantly see him ahead of you leaving places you are going into. Also you were probably a child and shit at the game so you lost as much as you won to him. This made him intimidating since he could pop out anywhere and give you a challenge. Above all make it seem like the rival could just as easy be the hero of the story.
Archie Games General?
>>46573354
There's always the old cliche "it's them but evil." So for example, let's look at a CG thief. He dislikes killing and prefers to knock out his foes. He goes in, gets his target item, and slips out before anyone knows what happened, leaving no trace. Why is he doing this? Because he's good at it, and he needs the money for an orphanage, or some good shit like that.
Now, his rival: a CE assassin. He likes killing, and is incredibly efficient at it, slicing arteries with surgical precision. He goes in, kills his target and slips out, leaving a trail of bodies behind but more importantly, leaving no witnesses. Why is he doing this? Because he's good at it, and needs the money for drugs and hookers, some selfish shit like that.
See, in that example, what he have are two similar, but wildly different characters. However, their main skillsets (stealth and infiltration) are similar enough that you could easily see the good thief becoming an evil assassin or vice versa, if their lives were swapped. That's an interesting take, because a rival can be a good "what if" take on a character.
However, there can be other takes on what constitutes a rival, which I will address in my next post.
>>46576923
There's what >>46573596 said, which is always interesting. They showcase the character's weaknesses, which they have as strengths. So our little good thief would probably have a big, burly paladin as his rival in this case. The thief is quick and nimble, but weak and lightly armored. Whereas the paladin is strong and tough and very heavily armored, but he's quite a bit slower. That's going to provide for some interesting battles.
Now, to make it more interesting, there's the idealogical rival. The thief and the paladin are both trying to do good for the world in their own way, but they're on two different sides of the law and thus they will inevitably have to fight. This can be an extremely interesting dynamic; two people who would probably be friends in another life forced to fight each other because of idealogical differences. It's probably my favorite type of rival; it provides some really deep insight into the mind of both characters.
>>46573354
surround rival with bizarro rivals for the rest of the party and occasionally run into them attempting to pull the same hijinks as you with a slightly more distasteful and cheap approach.
>>46576129
All of this, except that Blue loses in the end (and theoretically every other time) BECAUSE he's arrogant and wants to show you up. He's the version of you that wants glory more than the actual enjoyment of adventure.
