Roleplaying is sort of like acting, but done completely without a script. A situation is announced or arrived upon, everyone chooses a character to assume, and then they all act out their parts, trying to tell the best story that they possibly can with one another. Somewhere in there, a tale is woven, which is made up of the imaginations, and acting abilities, of each of the people involved.

However in this world, nothing would happen, unless something bad happened. You need evil, danger, or mischief to spur on the story and create a reason for the rest of the characters to engage in interesting actions. In essence, you need a bad guy.

In many cases the bad guy is played by an omnipotent force, a master of the field who can send hordes of monsters, villains, traps, and entanglements flying after the heroes. This super power allows a single person to effectively contend with any number of enemies in a given situation.

However in more complex story lines, the villains are less obvious. In fact in the most realistic story lines you will often find that the difference between heroes and villains is a bit blurry, with all of the characters merely chasing after their own agenda, heedless of the detriment that they may cause to others.

However often having a dark figure that haunts the entire action of a story can create dynamic tension within the piece, keeping everyone on guard against the danger that exists just beyond the shadows. Playing this type of character can be difficult, because you want to play someone interesting and unique. In essence you want the players to like you, even as their characters absolutely hate you.

This can be a fine line to walk, and leads many people off the path towards being benign, or insane. However if you manage to find a balanced medium, you can create a character which will actually be the center of the entire story, with all of the actions of the other characters revolving around your every move.