Karma Houdini

Basic Information

The Karma Houdini is a villainous character who gets away with his evil deeds without ever suffering any repercussions. Maybe he actually retires from being a villain at some point, or maybe he continues to commit acts of villainy, but either way he evades all the negative consequences and is never taken to justice for his crimes.

See Also

• Easily Forgiven
• Karma
• Laser-Guided Karma
• Morality Tropes
• Sequel Hook
• The Bad Guy Wins
• What Happened to the Mouse?

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• This may be difficult to pull off in a game, since player characters tend to be vengeful sorts who want to put their enemies down. The best way of keeping a Karma Houdini around is to make his acts of villainy target someone other than the player characters and those they care about, and generally make him useful enough to keep around and ignore his ignoble activities. Maybe he frequently gives the PCs useful hints, maybe they share a common interest on which they can work together… anything that will help the PCs say: "Yes, he's a slimeball, but he is our slimeball."