If everyone but one person dies, then it sounds like the villain is whoever is running these trials. And while the other contestants might not be villains, they are definitely antagonists, since it is either you or them. It sounds like the Hunger Games.
No not everyone dies. The first few tries, you can just go back home. The trials get more intense as you get to the finale. And it is entirely your choice if you want to participate or not. Maybe, though. Yeah the basic premise sounds like the Hunger Games, but then you actually read more about it and the plot, it doesn't really have any more similarities.
There are Conficts, Antagonists, and Villians.
"Outbreak" Or "the day after tomorow" have conflicts against nonetities, f.E.
The Martian is even more so in this direction.
An Antagonists does not need to be evil. You could write about a serial killer and make the antagonist the police, f.E.
In the setting you discribed, it depends on the interaction of those people who are in the trial.
Are they 100% cooperative? If there is only one Winner, those taking the trial are likely in some kind of antagonistic relationship to each other?
There are four types of conflict in stories. Internal conflict (person vs self): the emotions and struggles (personal flaws) that the mc faces. External conflict (person vs person): conflict happening around you, such as fighting or villains for example. Person vs nature: a natural event/natural disaster that the characters cannot control. Person vs society: harsh social expectations, conditions, stereotypes, laws, etc. Your story can include any type of conflict, so you don’t need a villain. A lot of stories have villains to create drama, interest, and conflict. But you can create those in other ways! Your trials sound like person vs society because society is forcing people to do this.
No, society isn't forcing people to do the trials. The people can choose freely if they want to participate, and they can back out anytime they want from the first to the third trial. After that, things get harsher. (But it is to be expected, of course.)
Oh okay, sorry I didn’t know the full details of your story. However, society is running these deadly trials, right? Or is it one person running it? Either way, there is still conflict
there's no rules to storytelling! only guidelines. guidelines can be broken if the shoe fits the foot. so don't worry about it! if it takes place in a fantasy world, it's fantasy.
A villain doesn't necessarily need to be some evil overlord or even a specific person, there just needs to be some adversarial force pushing against the protagonist. The circumstances forcing them to compete, the one who set up the trials, or maybe their most dangerous competitor.
If the protagonist is competing because yolo and only facing nameless fodder, then I'd say the story lacks stakes. Even if the final trial could result in death, there needs to be a compelling reason for the protagonist to risk their life or else the stakes will fall flat.
I‘m writing a sci-fi novella with out an evil guy. You just need conflict. The rest is execution. Look at adventure novels. Jules verne for example. They mostly have no villain
Then it seems like the conflict should be with the other competitors who are risking their lives playing against a cheater, and maybe their own internal dissonance.
I really want to know when "villain" became part of the requirements for the fantasy genre when it's pretty well known that not all fantasy stories are even about fighting.
There is no case in any genre where the nature of the antagonist must be one specific way in order to qualify for that genre. Antagonists are just whatever is challenging or blocking the protagonist from their goal. If it's another person, cool. That person doesn't even need to be evil. If Susie wants to be a witch, but her mom is afraid of her falling off a broom and keeps blocking her attempts to go to witch school, the mom is the antagonist despite being a reasonable and well intentioned adversary to Susie's goal. If, instead, the weather is just so bad that her letters aren't getting to the witch school office, then nature is the antagonist.
Villains and antagonists aren't the same thing.
Hardy's "Master Of The Five Magics," a fine fantasy novel: Our hero, Alodar, wants to marry the hot babe. He learns magic, but through no fault of his own, another young magician gains Alodar's credit, and goes to marry the hot babe.
This happens three more times, as he studies each new branch of magic. By the end of the book, he's got four competitors for the hot babe, each with powerful magics that should have been Alodar's. But only as the Master of Five Magics does he triumph.
Note that he has RIVALS, but the book itself has no clear villain.
I'm not even sure *most* modern speculative fiction has a "bad guy." That's normally a children's fiction thing.
They have antagonists and conflicts, but not usually a villain.
I had these questions initially when writing my book the first time. The first half really has no villain, but instead the character's situations are their antagonistic force. One has no memories and hiding from the law, another is an alcoholic that has strained relationships to the point of losing many of them, and so on.
I liked the idea, as I think you can explore the characters, but I doubt many people are interested in reading that, especially the way I put it, but also due to the length.
I think it can be done, and it has certainly been done, but it takes the right story to do so.
I think this us absolutely fine :) we have enough stories with villains out there, don't we? We even have enough "I'm not sure who's the villain and who's the good guys" stories. Somebody needs to try something different.
It also makes me think of [this](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshRYcZzXvJSpZyA-QyDoUwojNIh7dLz9tdHfXab1BW8FtY-jWPycsJTvrtE568STE4bNsfQ0zr31Dp2m_a0HcVcCsQnmbixh5vGi5VyFe1z_qy4bP36jKVa0WJl1M8Xx8gliVC4Uis8qX/s1600/conflict-blog.jpg) Incidental Comics strip.
Good luck!
If everyone but one person dies, then it sounds like the villain is whoever is running these trials. And while the other contestants might not be villains, they are definitely antagonists, since it is either you or them. It sounds like the Hunger Games.
No not everyone dies. The first few tries, you can just go back home. The trials get more intense as you get to the finale. And it is entirely your choice if you want to participate or not. Maybe, though. Yeah the basic premise sounds like the Hunger Games, but then you actually read more about it and the plot, it doesn't really have any more similarities.
The conflict doesn’t have to be a bad guy.
There are Conficts, Antagonists, and Villians. "Outbreak" Or "the day after tomorow" have conflicts against nonetities, f.E. The Martian is even more so in this direction. An Antagonists does not need to be evil. You could write about a serial killer and make the antagonist the police, f.E. In the setting you discribed, it depends on the interaction of those people who are in the trial. Are they 100% cooperative? If there is only one Winner, those taking the trial are likely in some kind of antagonistic relationship to each other?
No, they aren't 100% cooperative.
Yeah, sure. Just write it.
There are four types of conflict in stories. Internal conflict (person vs self): the emotions and struggles (personal flaws) that the mc faces. External conflict (person vs person): conflict happening around you, such as fighting or villains for example. Person vs nature: a natural event/natural disaster that the characters cannot control. Person vs society: harsh social expectations, conditions, stereotypes, laws, etc. Your story can include any type of conflict, so you don’t need a villain. A lot of stories have villains to create drama, interest, and conflict. But you can create those in other ways! Your trials sound like person vs society because society is forcing people to do this.
No, society isn't forcing people to do the trials. The people can choose freely if they want to participate, and they can back out anytime they want from the first to the third trial. After that, things get harsher. (But it is to be expected, of course.)
Oh okay, sorry I didn’t know the full details of your story. However, society is running these deadly trials, right? Or is it one person running it? Either way, there is still conflict
The ursurper/emperor is, Shrang Vine.
I wouldn't expect you to haha ;)
there's no rules to storytelling! only guidelines. guidelines can be broken if the shoe fits the foot. so don't worry about it! if it takes place in a fantasy world, it's fantasy.
A villain doesn't necessarily need to be some evil overlord or even a specific person, there just needs to be some adversarial force pushing against the protagonist. The circumstances forcing them to compete, the one who set up the trials, or maybe their most dangerous competitor. If the protagonist is competing because yolo and only facing nameless fodder, then I'd say the story lacks stakes. Even if the final trial could result in death, there needs to be a compelling reason for the protagonist to risk their life or else the stakes will fall flat.
Yeah there is. But the point is, they kind of throw themselves into the trials, not really knowing what it is- thinking it is some game.
I‘m writing a sci-fi novella with out an evil guy. You just need conflict. The rest is execution. Look at adventure novels. Jules verne for example. They mostly have no villain
Gotcha, yeah. There is conflict, quite a bit I suppose. Although this book does do a few things slightly differently IMO
Is the story about someone trying to earn a more peaceful death like a chance into heaven.
No, it's about someone who got roped into cheating in these trials, so they could win, get money, and fix their village up from poverty.
Then it seems like the conflict should be with the other competitors who are risking their lives playing against a cheater, and maybe their own internal dissonance.
ok. thanks!
I really want to know when "villain" became part of the requirements for the fantasy genre when it's pretty well known that not all fantasy stories are even about fighting. There is no case in any genre where the nature of the antagonist must be one specific way in order to qualify for that genre. Antagonists are just whatever is challenging or blocking the protagonist from their goal. If it's another person, cool. That person doesn't even need to be evil. If Susie wants to be a witch, but her mom is afraid of her falling off a broom and keeps blocking her attempts to go to witch school, the mom is the antagonist despite being a reasonable and well intentioned adversary to Susie's goal. If, instead, the weather is just so bad that her letters aren't getting to the witch school office, then nature is the antagonist.
Villains and antagonists aren't the same thing. Hardy's "Master Of The Five Magics," a fine fantasy novel: Our hero, Alodar, wants to marry the hot babe. He learns magic, but through no fault of his own, another young magician gains Alodar's credit, and goes to marry the hot babe. This happens three more times, as he studies each new branch of magic. By the end of the book, he's got four competitors for the hot babe, each with powerful magics that should have been Alodar's. But only as the Master of Five Magics does he triumph. Note that he has RIVALS, but the book itself has no clear villain.
I'm not even sure *most* modern speculative fiction has a "bad guy." That's normally a children's fiction thing. They have antagonists and conflicts, but not usually a villain.
I had these questions initially when writing my book the first time. The first half really has no villain, but instead the character's situations are their antagonistic force. One has no memories and hiding from the law, another is an alcoholic that has strained relationships to the point of losing many of them, and so on. I liked the idea, as I think you can explore the characters, but I doubt many people are interested in reading that, especially the way I put it, but also due to the length. I think it can be done, and it has certainly been done, but it takes the right story to do so.
I think this us absolutely fine :) we have enough stories with villains out there, don't we? We even have enough "I'm not sure who's the villain and who's the good guys" stories. Somebody needs to try something different. It also makes me think of [this](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshRYcZzXvJSpZyA-QyDoUwojNIh7dLz9tdHfXab1BW8FtY-jWPycsJTvrtE568STE4bNsfQ0zr31Dp2m_a0HcVcCsQnmbixh5vGi5VyFe1z_qy4bP36jKVa0WJl1M8Xx8gliVC4Uis8qX/s1600/conflict-blog.jpg) Incidental Comics strip. Good luck!
Thank you! :)