Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DeWayne 12-02-04, 11:54 PM	I'd like to toss this out and get some other DM's opinions on it. Basically I'm looking for a sanity check. I'm working on a new campaign which I hope to start running early next year. It involves several parallel storyarcs which will eventually come to a head sometime around level 10 or 11. My concern is at what point should I give the players enough information to identify the BBEG? By the some token, at what point should I allow the BBEG to identify the characters as a specific threat to his plans? If either of these happen too soon the most likely result will be TPK, but I don't want to 'dumb down' the villian (after all, if the same group of people keep trashing his operations, he's going to notice!), and I don't want to bend the rules to keep the party in the dark about things they would likely notice. My first cut at this is to start leaving information that links to previous adventures sometime around party level 6 or 7. This should clue them in that these apparently unconnected adventures area part of a larger storyarc and that there is likely someone behind it. Around the same time the BBEG might suspect that something is going on as well. Around party level 8 or 9 the principles will have a good idea who they are up against, but circumstances will likely be such that they can't move directly against each other. Then at about party level 10 or 11 the party will be confronting the BBEG - if they don't come to him, he'll go after them before they become any more powerful. Does this seem like a sane progression?
Dreaming_in_the_void 12-03-04, 12:04 AM	DeWayne - I think you have an interesting premise here. I would enjoy playing in that sort of game. I have two basic suggestion. First, if you want an example for wheels within wheels, and interconnected political arcs, read the Dune series. I know its sci-fi, but the stories are crafted so well as to be universal in scope. Second, minions. Give your BBEG the credit he deserves, and some underlings to boot. Each story arc could involve a "mastermind" minion requiring months of gaming time and a few levels of character development to defeat. Make sure the motives and methods of each minion becomes clear by the time they're through with the story/defeated the minion. After the third or fourth of these minions, the characters could find information linking the previous baddies and perhaps a letter from thier shadowy overlord... only now, after all these quests and missions can they discover that someone has been behind all these seemingly unconnected evil-doers. Now, at 9th or 10th level there is a threat concealed in a shadow; they know the minions had some direction by a greater mind, but who? They'll need to discover who this guy is, where he is, what he's up to, and how to stop him. After trashing his network of lackeys, the BBEG is likely to be sending DROVES of assassins and neutralizing factors at your players. Can they survive to make it to him? I've used the second in games before and it has worked out quite well. It also lets you create a big baddie with vast goals and delay meeting him for a while. The delay lets you play out all his machinations with his lackeys and let the characters develop to the point they might be able to take on the BBEG of your dreams. Best of luck!
Cantankerous 12-03-04, 03:43 AM	DitV upstaged me. The very first word that sprang to mind was "minions". The perfect multi-purpose manner to keep everybody ignorant of what is really going on, the middle man. You don't want your boss to know that you're getting stonkered by a small group of somebodies who shouldn't be "that much of a problem", at least from his POV, so you embellish. HE never recognizes the PC's when he first encounters them because his minions have inflated them so drasticly. Likewise three levels up from the party average and with minions of his own that might be about party average, you've got someone that the PC's can easily confuse for the BBEG. All of this is inextricably linked to the wheels within wheels Dunesque sceanrio. Keeping in mind that, beyond a good bit of CYA, each of the minions is also a person with THEIR own individual goals and drives and dreams is what provides those wheels within wheels. The BBEG doesn't exist in a vacuum. His minions may very well want his job, even if they're terrified of him. Think of the Baron and his own scheming to make a member of his own line Emporer. The man was terrified of what could occur if he failed to walk that tight rope carefully, but between his own arrogance and avarice he was a driving factor himself. He wasn't a seperate wheel, he was a smaller cog in the Emporers plan. Isshia