What is the "The Scale of Villian Effectiveness"?

This does not cover any degree of sympathy, rather, it covers how probable their success is. To expand on this scale's orthogonality to the other two: it is entirely possible for a Complete Monster to fall at 'credible' or even 'low' on this scale and it is possible to have a villain who bats at the level of Superman, but is so dumb that most of his threat comes from the fact that his plans will inevitably fail in a spectacular way.

None

The villain succeeded in his evil scheme, but it wasn't destroying the world at all, it was... to step on a flower?!? Or alternatively, there's no villain at all.

Low

The villain can be safely allowed to foil their own scheme.

Credible

Rarely succeeds, but only because heroes take action.

Inadvertent

May succeed without realizing it, so heroes must be especially cautious.

High

Almost always succeeds when not thwarted by a hero and have a decent number of victories under their belt, expect them to get a secondary goal completed even when they lose.

Infinite

The villain will always win, and the heroes will always lose, even if the heroes should by all rights win. This may be due to the villain being truly all powerful, or the heroes being utterly incapable of confronting them in the first place, let alone stopping them. At best, the heroes could delay or annoy the villain, but the villain will triumph in the end regardless and the heroes must evade or escape the villain now that its goals are met.

Great article, two thumbs up.-Steve

I liked this so much I had steven read it. This summer your articles could be put together and made into a HOW To For Dummies Book you too can write your own super stories

LOVE THE NEW ICONS