Good villains make good stories. Well perhaps it takes more than that, but a good villain can really help a story along. Just as your characters are not static so too your villains have lives in motion. I am in the camp of nothing is real till it happens in game, but that doesn't have to mean that nothing is going on behind the scenes. So, I suggest that you consider giving the bad guy a turn every now and again. I am not saying focus the lens on the antagonist like you would a PC, that would take the fun out of the discovery later on. Instead I suggest a broad view procedure that gives a sense of the type of action your nemesis is taking over a certain period of time.
Let's say, your PC is a sword swinging, good natured, friend to the common man. Now, early in his career he encounters a manipulative lord who uses his aristocratic powers to oppress and exploit the very people your PC focuses on caring for. Sounds like you have a good foil to your actions, and a nice focus for your campaign. If your villain is doing so much for you, perhaps you, the Solo Player, should do him a nice turn as well.
In this system (partially inspired by Mr. Kevin Crawford's very well detailed faction system in Stars Without Number) you can break the action of a powerful person into five categories: Power, Resources, Influence, Knowledge, and Personal. Each Villain Turn you will roll for the category, and roll if the action is focused on acquisition or exercise, then a second roll on for success or failure. Lastly make a check on your Oracle of choice on whether the action as an outward facing effect. In other words does it generate a rumor or news event. Even if it does, that outward facing effect probably won't exactly reflect what happened, it is just what was seen and talked about. It is important that the action only loosely be defined, because it remains an unknown to the PC, until either the PC investigates and uncovers the truth behind the rumor or the villain takes an action which reveals what is behind the scenes.
Lets meander through the list and discuss what each label constitutes, and show some examples that could come up in play.
Power is any action taken to enhance the personal power of the villain or its organization. This could be getting a new magic item it covets, increasing its magic or weapon prowess, or any other action that makes the villain itself greater in magnitude.
Resources is similar to power excepting it is outside of the villain's personal being. This could mean making an ally of a powerful creature, strengthening a lieutenant, gaining control of business, or laying hands on a large pile of money.
Influence is social or political in nature. This could involve seducing a local lord to their side, gaining a political appointment, insinuating a spy in an organization, or gaining blackmail material over an important individual.
Knowledge is information that is useful to the goals of the villain. This maybe gained through books, sages, reports from spies, or personal investigation. The knowledge is rarely abstract, save for more esoteric villains, and will probably be used as an asset in the future to gain more of the advantages listed above.
Lastly, whether your villain be an ambitious business man or a demigod, all of them are people (with rare exceptions). Things of a private nature will effect the Personal Life of the villain as they do with the protagonist. Maybe they fall in love, find a long lost child, have a religious revelation, or fall off a horse and break there leg. This may sound like a skipped round, but personal experiences can change a villain (though rarely into a hero) in such a way that there goals may change, or there approach needs to be altered. Or maybe they just need to be personally benched while that leg heals. In any account a Personal Life experience will impact a villain as much as it does a PC and should be taken into account as goals grown and bloom.
Ok, that is enough philosophy.
Lets talk mechanics.
After encountering a Villain, a trusted lieutenant, or a demonstration of his power base, note them down on their own card (or word doc, etc.). Here you will add all the details that you think you know about them. These details will only solidify if they come up in game, but details you think you know will inform your decisions. (If you use a character list, such is found in Mythic GMU make sure note them down there as well, if there is a noteworthy outward display).
Next, continue playing your normal solo campaign and at the conclusion of an adventure (or after one game month has passed, which every is shorter), whether or not it involved the villain, roll for the type of action that the villain engages in during that time period. Just use a 10 sided die with 1-2 being Power, 3-4 being Resources, 5-6 being Influence, 7-8 being Power, and 9-0 being Personal Life. Note the result. After that roll on your random word generator of choice roll the first word (preferably from some Action table) and put it with the result. This is meta knowledge, but it will work in the back of your mind until such a time when a revelation in reasonable.
The next step is to find out if the action had any public facing consequences. This is as simple as asking your Oracle "Did the Villain turn have public facing fall out?" Judge the likelihood based on what you know of the Villain's public persona, what type of action it was, and what the first of your word pair turned out to be. If the answer is no, you just go on with your next phase of your adventure. If the answer is yes, take the first word and add a second or more words until you have an idea what shape that fall out took. From there build a rumor or plot hook from it, and then pick move on to your next adventure. (Though this is written for protagonist it could also be done for any non static element of your game, but I don't want to make this article 17 pages long)
Revelation
Remember all Revelations should work within the context of the game. Merge both the context and the results to give the picture presented to the characters.
Rumor: Revelation can come in the way of an outward expression of the the action of the villain turn, in which case you build a rumor from the first word, adding as many as you need to solidify it. After you have the rumor throw away all the words save for the first rolled, as that clings to he character to be used in the second phase.
Investigation: Assuming the PC wants to take the time to dig deeper, and has the resources to do so, investigating what a rival is doing, could reveal some of the secret information, if they have the skills to do so and aren't to clumsy implementing them. If they are successful, they learn one aspect of the rival's endeavors. In that case take the cumulated words from one category and develop them into a plot device. Which very well may lead to ...
Confrontation: There will come a time when you will clash with a antagonist or some aspect of there organization. At that time take a moment and figure out which category or categories (Power, Resources, Influence, Knowledge, or Personal Life) will be on display. It will probably be obvious from the context of the confrontation, but if now just roll to see what aspect is displayed.
At this point use the cumulated words in each category used to produce a picture of what comes to bear in the encounter. Lets toss out a few examples using the oppressive lord mentioned in the introduction.
Power: Truce: While the lord was always a smooth talker now his voice produces a calming lassitude that seeps the will to fight from you and your allies. You notice he wears a strange platinum pendent that, is that the source of his new ability?
Resources: Distrust: A well know champion of right and law is on the side of the lord. This cast doubt in the minds of your henchmen on whether they are on the right side of the fight.
Influence: A couple of the kings own knights are flanking the Duke acting as his body guards. To strike at them is the break Royal decree, is it worth it?
Knowledge: Free: Before the fight can commence the he calls for a parlay. He offers the location of your characters missing family member if you just stand aside this one time and let him have his way. He promises that if you don't that information will be lost to you forever.
Personal Life: Trust: The lord's own son, carefully kept away from fights in the past is armed and armored and standing next to his father. They look like a formidable team.
In actual play there will be several words to weave together to give you an idea of what is manifesting, but the point is to show, in a very gameable way, that your rival is in motion as much as your characters.
