Who's your BBEG and what's their plot? I'm looking for some ideas to get my creative juices flowingMinor baddies and henchmen are welcome too
>red dragon raised by a white dragon with daddy issues which has palpatine'd his way into the human noble court
>an ineffective lich looking for a way to become human again
>capitalism
>>46221556
>Evil NPC adventuring party who bailed out of an AP half-way through in exchange for money, power and knowledge. PCs got caught up in their schemes and offed one of them, and the NPC party is out for blood. One of their plans is to squash them along with some other enemies beneath a giant flying pyramid.
>>46221556
I just finished a campaign where the dean of the Arcane College was an eco-terrorist, trying to make the land unsuitable for life. He prepared a procedure to transfer his soul into the body of a construct so that he could survive when everything was dead. At first, he was just ruining ecosystems: cursing a forest with blights, adding dangerous invasive species to environments, forming an alliance with a Mummy Lord (wanted to spread deserts) that the players let go after summoning with magic beans, etc. His big, grand plan, though, was to unleash an evil power that was sealed away in a holy site for Paladins. The evil power was a wave of death (a thick black sludge that drains away life) that would spread to cover the entire planet. He ended up achieving this plan, but the party beat him and re-activated the seal, causing the death sludge to surge back into the Paladin tower it came from. The dean's minions were all constructs he built. However, he appeared as an upstanding individual that kept the Arcane College running, so no one really thought him evil, except the party that had been informed of his evil ways be a druid. Since he seemed like a good guy, his minions didn't really show up until the end when the party decided to face off against him.
>>46221708
Sounds like an interesting BBEG, what's his motivation for this?
>>46221556
The existential dread of inevitable death.
PC's are on a quest to be the world's first immortals.
>>46221754
Well, as far as the players could tell, he was just disgusted with organic life and was greedy for power. Once they defeated him, though, they noticed a rift in the sky and found his notebook detailing the predicted arrival of a world-ending monstrosity that devours positive energy to become more powerful. He was trying to get rid of all life so that it would have no life to devour and could be defeated. The portion of death sludge that had a chance to spread created a sufficient battleground for the players to fight that when it arrived. In a nutshell, his motivation was his own survival, even if it means killing off everyone else so he can save the dead, lifeless world he lives in. He was technically had good intentions in saving the world, but the way he went about it was starkly evil.
>>46221841
That is painfully close the story of Magica Madoka, and I'm not even kidding.
>>46221844
What about flatly murdering everything in the world for the sake of his own life implies anything of a hint of a good intention?
>>46221556
>BBEG is a God trying to cheat at one of the treaties that the seven of them have agreed upon for a cosmos that more or less runs straight.
>PCs won't ever really have a chance to go toe to toe with him, and would get squashed in seconds if they did, but they can break his plans apart if they're good at investigating and bring this to the attention of the right people (the dragons).
>>46221844
You'd think an arch mage and leader of the Arcane College could figure out a better option.
>>46221891
This
>>46221851
Man, I don't wana push evil campaigns, but I'm having a ton of fun in my current game and our entire party are basically thieves pulling off crazy "Lupin the Third" style heists in a swords-and-magic world and working our way up GTA-style. I guess that means the "BBEG" of the campaign is law enforcement... or maybe other criminals.
Actually, our biggest antagonist so far has been a really old Dwarf Paladin who used to be a crime boss himself and thus knows how us and the criminal underworld works better than most.
We've also got a pair of bounty-hunter mage-sisters that keep managing to show up at the worst times, but I'm pretty sure they're the GM's waifu-bait because they're either really unlucky or comic-relief levels of incompetent. They seem to think we kidnapped their mentor or something even though we generally try to avoid kidnapping, murder, rape, ect. We're classy thieves.
A minor nuisance and my campaign (who is later going to get caught up in a grander evil scheme) is a master of disguise to a ludicrous degree. He'll be a little girl who's puppy ran into a dangerous dungeon, trying to trick the party into going into harms way. Or he pretended to be a mayor and gave the party really demeaning tasks which the real mayor never paid them for. Or one time he was a horse that carried off a party member two days in the wrong direction. Now the party is half-paranoid, half-joking that everyone they talk to is him in another disguise.
He's not especially malicious, but he's an example of incredible talent and skill being wasted on stupid aims. He just gets satisfaction out of fooling people.
>>46221844
I like this
>>46221891
"Good intention" was probably a bit too strong a wording. Though, I left out that he did a Noah's Ark sort of deal by storing a whole lot of animals and humanoids and things in his shelter for after the monster was dealt with. There was no need to do that since he could survive on a dead planet. I mean sure, he was 99% evil, but he had a spec of good. Also, by killing all life on the planet, the life-devouring monster would lose all reason for coming here. He didn't have to fight it; he chose to because he didn't want the world to be forever dead.
>>46221920
Well, the monstrosity had already destroyed the entire Plane of Positive Energy, so he didn't want to take any chances letting it get any more powerful. Needless to say, the party would have had no chance at defeating the monster if the dean hadn't created a massive area of death where they could fight it.
He's a Monk who spent many years philosophizing and adventuring and eventually came to the conclusion that human (or sapient, rather) emotion is the only true thing that matters. It's the only thing that can matter, by definition. An event without its impact on someone capable of thinking or feeling about it is literally meaningless.
In my own campaign he was fairly tame, players were navigating a war between factions (they ended up choosing a side) and he was the puppetmaster pulling the strings inciting the two factions to fight. But the main intention was to leave him as a stay over character for the DM who took over when I left. He fills a niche that lets you come up with any weird plot and have it make justifiable sense. Consider the fairly stereotypical story of a young orphan who is taught how to fight so he can take vengeance on the evil duke who killed his parents, only to discover his teacher was the true mastermind behind the murders. This kind of thing pops up in books, movies and games and usually has a weak reason behind it. Monk BBEG can justifiably enact this plot since he's there only to see the events unfold and force people to experience vivid emotion (both the duke and the orphan)
He was also my attempt at making an interesting, seemingly CE type of character who still had a motivation beyond "likes to kill people lol"
It lets you use him as an unpredictable set piece who can easily get involved with the big movers and shakers of the world (adventurers) and a character who might help the party out in one instance and then throw a spanner in their works the next, just to see them overcome a challenge.
He's effectively an in-game DM; setting up challenges and trying to evoke emotional responses.
My current BBEG is a somewhat respected member of the government that helps communities and small cities expand. Every city he helps gets an orphanage that he secretly constructs labs in underground. In these labs he conducts experiments on children no one will miss. These are to further the plans of a dark entity that has existed since the world was new. Using the blood of this ancient beast, he is able to mutate the children in interesting ways. While the dark creature's motivations are unclear, the BBEG has become a blood wizard to better understand what he is doing. He felt slighted by something the creature insinuated to him once and has since made killing it his only goal. While conducting the sick experiments on children, he is also studying how to actively use the creature's blood against it. At the end of the day, it would be a good thing if the BBEG were to continue his plans and rid the world of this evil but he is going about it in a terrible way while sacrificing plenty of innocents.
Currently the pcs are having to deal with the fact that there seems to be a corrupt government official that has influenced many towns they go to. He put a bounty on their heads but not through the official government since he still wants to keep it under wraps. The pcs need to search for clues to figure out who he really works for while also looking for evidence strong enough to tie him to his misdeeds.
>>46221591
>capitalism
> I'll use the word I don't understand because my college moronic friends told me communism is cool.
You're trash.
>>46221851
I believe that's the standard background of Magical Burst, which is designed to be Madoka with serial numbers filed off: the RPG.
>>46221556
I think I've already posted about this recently, but whatever.
>Donald Trump gets superpowers
>realizes he has one major weakness
>MEXICANS
>decides the only way of dealing with this is to build a giant wall across the Mexican border
>realizes he doesn't have enough funds to build the wall
>decides to become US president so he can make Mexico pay for the wall
>starts clandestinely assassinating any candidate more sensible than him
>i.e. Everyone other than Hillary
>party needs to stop Trump before he can kill the last candidate who could possibly oppose him, Bernie Sanders
>>46222019
>He'll be a little girl
>Or he pretended to be a mayor
>Or one time he was a horse
That's really, really, really stupid.
>>46222564
Who doesn't want to be a little girl? And I don't see how posing as a person in a position of power is stupid.
The horse one was pretty dumb, but to be fair, he had an accomplice that time. Pic related.
A faction is trying to kill all the god-given divine magic users that are appearing in the world after years of silence from the gods. Half genuinely believe they are protecting the world from the rest of the planar threats out there given that "the silence" was caused by sealing away the world from a breach, the other half are trying to keep arcane magic, specifically the documented and scientific arcane magic used by wizards, in the position of power it's secured for itself.
Another group of folks are using dangerous mass transmutation magic after a genocide to alter racial populations. The chumps are mostly motivated by spite and vengeance, but the guy in charge legitimately is trying to create a shared identity and culture in order to create a new power.
>>46221556
Needs a bit of backstory.
1/?
In the campaign I ran, it is possible for dragons (and only dragons) to ascent to godhood if they get their claws an all seven Shards of Ouros, Ouros being the Big God of the setting. Once used the shards disappear for a century before reappearing in almost totally random locations. Basically they're the Dragon Balls, but you only get the one wish (godhood), and only if you're a dragon. The shards by themselves, though, are still pretty powerful magic-boosting artifacts that anyone can use.
Now, 1,500 years ago or so, two dragons in particular were trying to get all the shards: Gilgamesh the Red, and Ishtar the Silver, each of whom were already around 1,000 years old. Both in their quest had actually founded competing city-state which had gone on to create large empires that basically existed to hunt down the shards for them: Gilgamesh a place called Uruk, and Ishtar, a place called Nineveh.
1,500 years ago, Gilgamesh had two of the shards, and Ishtar three. Nineveh went to war with Uruk for the two shards at Ishtar's command. The war was nigh-apocalyptic. In the end, Nineveh triumphed over Uruk - but Gilgamesh seemed to triumph over Ishtar, as the latter stole all the Shards that Ishtar had. The two dragons fought a titanic battle that destroyed Uruk utterly and scattered its people, but no one knows who won the battle as both dragons disappeared.
Cut to the modern day. The Ninevite Empire is still a mighty empire in the southeastern lands, currently ruled by a queen Ereshkigal, who claims descent from Ishtar. The northern and western lands, meanwhile, are basically a collection of petty city-states and fiefdoms.
The player characters low-level adventurers are from the city-states and fiefdoms. They go on an adventure to rescue some princess from some goblins, as you do.
>>46221556
>ghost of an evil wizard possesses random tribal shaman
>becomes advisor to barbarian conqueror (basically Conan)
>gets him to conquer capital city of the biggest kingdom so he can plunder the ancient secrets in the catacomb
>end goal is to form a pact with the ancient god of the extinct people who built the citywho turns out to be the Lady of Pain
The players don't know about him yet, they just know that they need to kill the barbarian and put the deposed king's bastard on the throne.
I basically just adapt characters to a different setting.
BBEG is a mix of The Tall Man and some other elements.
>>46222741
2/?
Just as the PCs manage to slay the goblin king's prized warriors and shamans and rescue the princess, Gilgamesh the Red shows up. Turns out he hasn't been dead, like everyone assumed. He's an Elder Red Wyrm. The player characters are level 3. They can't help but fall victim to his draconic fear aura and are all reduced to cowering fools.
Just as the players themselves are about to start yelling at me for being a dick DM, Gilgamesh thanks the princess for her time and sends her on her way home via a magic portal, then eats the goblin king, noting that goblins taste terrible. Then he turns his attentions to the players and says:
"Oh, right. Dragonfear. Bother..."
He transforms into a humanoid appearance and waits for the PCs to calm down, then casually explain that he's in the market for some mercenaries and/or heroes to do a few simple item retrieval jobs for him, for which they'll be handsomely rewarded. As he does this he actually takes the PCs on a tour of his lair and explains the whole Ouros Shards things to them.
Basically it turns out that Gilgamesh has used the past 1,500 years to magically scry out the location of the remaining two Ouros Shards. His time alone also gave him a lot of time to think and realize that he actually misses Uruk and the various humanoids he knew there, and he regrets having used them as nothing more than pawns - basically he's now Chaotic Neutral rather than Chaotic Evil.
As for Ishtar, he's pretty sure she's dead, so shit should be easy, right? The players get adventure, riches and the chance to see a dragon ascend to godhood, they can even become his first prophets or messiahs or whatever if they want (or not, he doesn't really care). And Gilgamesh gets godhood. Win-win!
>>46222741
I hate how you can come up with an intriguing setting and ruin it with horrible naming conventions.
Don't just rip names off from other sources.
>>46222869
3/?
The player characters head off at Gilgamesh's direction to the two Shards he's found, one in the care of a necromancer who's using its power to raise an undead army, and another in the possession of a drow who's trying to take control of the whole of the Underdark. So they're even saving the world by gathering the shards! Awesome!
Only when the player characters get back (having levelled quite a bit), they find Gilgamesh's lair under attack by fire giants and other assorted fire-type monsters, resistant to his spells and abilities due to Gilgamesh really going in for fire magic. So they have to fight their way past them and down into Gilgamesh's lair to help him, as sheer numbers of fire giants are winning out against Gilgamesh's raw power. Nevertheless, they do help him, and give him the last two Shards.
Gilgamesh finds this to be *awesome* and puts all the Shards together, ready to ascend to godhood -
- and them promptly finds himself dying as the last two shards release a curse that was stored inside of them by Ishtar, who, it turned out, had found them but left them where they were, cursing them to kill Gilgamesh at the moment of his attempted ascension. Worse, the forces of the Ninevite Empire are now on the approach. Queen Ereshkigal has sent forth her legions to retrieve the Shards, it is believed, to resurrect Ishtar with their power, and then present her with the Shards in order to allow her to ascend to Godhood.
With his last breath, Gilgamesh uses his magic to turn the player characters invisible, allowing them to run away, since they were in no condition to fight Nineveh. They take the Shards with them.
Forces of Nineveh - dragons and half-dragons and dragonborn and so on - hound the player characters across the land. The players eventually decide that the only thing to do is to take the fight directly to Ereshkigal - just as planned.
>>46222904
My players know essentially no history, and certainly nothing Sumerian/Babylonian. So they didn't notice or care, and so I can't care.
Anyway.
>>46223040
4/?
The players journey to Nineveh and find the empire base and corrupt, basically the exact opposite of what I was describing it like being once upon a time back when Ishtar the Silver ruled it, with humans as decidedly second-class citizens, with dragon-touched (humans with traces of dragon blood) a little better off, dragonborn above them, half-dragons above that, and true dragons the highest of all. Notably the exception seems to be Ereshkigal herself - she's only slightly dragon-blooded. Direct descent from Ishtar, probably.
The players are pretty sure that if Ishtar was still around she'd hate Ereshkigal and what had happened to Nineveh, and so come up with a plan to actually *let* Ereshkigal raise Ishtar from the dead. The plan actually goes pretty well as they manage to connive their way into the Court and "let" Ereshkigal's troops capture them and bring them before the Queen.
At which point Ereshkigal manages to explain to them what their plan was - she figured it out herself - and then laughed a little as she transformed into an Elder Silver Wyrm.
"You pathetic, wretched mortals. I *am* Ishtar."
Turns out that Ishtar went into hiding as her own successors, waiting for her curse to strike down Gilgamesh when he finally did the hard work of finding and retrieving the remaining Shards of Ouros. Over the centuries she'd become cruel, ruthless, held mere mortals in contempt, and utterly fixated on her goal of getting the Shards and, just as importantly, killing Gilgamesh - basically instead of Neutral Good, she had fallen all the way down to Neutral Evil.
>>46223231
5/5
So all hope seemed lost. Ishtar summons up the power of the Shards, or tries to, as the players can only watch. But then, Ishtar learns three things.
1) Turns out the shards *don't* scatter on their own after use. The new god jut hides them somewhere of his own choosing. Otherwise they just go inactive for a century.
2) The condition to getting godhood is simply bringing the shards together, which Gilgamesh had already done.
3) By the way, Gilgamesh was alive and a god now.
Gilgamesh appears to explain all this, and aplogizes to the PCs that he couldn't get involved - because Ouros, who's now his boss, said he couldn't, and also because this moment of Ishtar failing after all this time was just a little too good to pass up.
Ishtar attacks Gilgamesh in rage, but he literally doesn't even feel the attempts. He also says that he's not allowed to directly interfere in the affairs of *mortals* anymore (looking directly at Ishtar as he says that), except this one time, where he heals the PCs back to full, restores all their spent spells and everything, banishes Ishtar's army to some location a hundred miles away, and then says that they can try and kill Ishtar now if they like. Or run. Whatever. Then he gathers the Shards and goes off to hide them.
Big ol' Last Boss fight then, the heroes verses an extraordinarily pissed off Ishtar. Four-heroes on one dragon, though, the heroes at full health, and Ishtar loses. Heck of a fight.
In the epilogue, the Empire of Nineveh collapsed without Ereshkigal/Ishtar. The heroes went their separate ways, one of them actually going on to found a kingdom of his own from its ashes - and he made Uruk its capital, rebuilding it.
Anyway, so, yeah, that was my BBEG: A silver dragon who lost all sense of perspective and focused utterly on godhood to the expense of anything else, and manipulated an entire empire for the better part of 1,500 years for that sole purpose.
>>46221556
I'm tempted to ask 'which one?', given that they work together to screw over the setting, so I'll let /tg/ decide.
>Human half-dragon dragonaboo sorcerer/warlock, master of making magical items, dishonored former prince, has a sentient sword he treats like his waifu.
>Dragonborn 'we wuz as gods' warlock, guy who trained the above. He's older than most elves by eating the lifespan of unfortunate victims.
>Wood elf spider-associated druid, she likes her men like she likes her meals,with fava beans and a nice fey wine, thinks paladins are adorableand delicious.
>Dwarven lich, queen of the long game, secretly traumatized one of the PCs and kicked off their backstory because she thought it would be funny.
>Changeling pirate, murders people to instill fear into an already suspicious area because the goddess he worships feeds on chaos and promises him power.
>Said goddess of changeling pirate (and most of the other villains), is the 'true' BBEG, has a gameplan that required and successfully achieved pokemon-level breeding of important NPCs.
There are more, less important people, but these are the main set of villains.
>>46222497
/POL/ACO, FUERA! OUT! DETETTE!
>>46221556
Strahd Von Zarovich
He wants his waifu and he is a huge dick
>like a gorillion years ago there were dragons
>among those dragons was niddhogr
>the dragons were assholes to humans, and the humans are the favorite race of the gods
>"stop that" say the gods
>"lmao no" say the dragons eating another handful of fresh virgins
>the gods go full third reich and kill all the dragons in excruciating hellfire
>only things left behind are the useless turtle creatures that are the dragons larval forms and niddhogr, who hid like a coward
>niddhogr is super pissed about his family being dead
>flies into the darkness of space to plot and scheme
>skip to modern day earth
>world war 3
>gods are physically involved
>it really is the war to end all wars
>a superweapon is dropped and the earth is blown into continent sized chunks
>"oh shit" says the dying odin, "we fucked up niggas"
>with their remaining power the wounded and dying gods become the world tree and stitch earth back together the best they can
>except there's a big hole at the bottom of the world that goes straight to the hollow center
>kind of a problem
>remaining gods cast a powerful magical seal over the huge sinkhole
>niddhogr shows up and decides to brute force the seal
>it actually works
>kind of
>niddhogr is 99% crippled
>he drags himself to the exposed heart of the world tree and bites in
Now Niddhogr is slowly poisoning the world and sucking it back into himself like a tick until he's strong enough to undergo a second metamorphosis and destroy the world and kill the gods with the power he stole.
Some minor goons and gouls are
>The Dwarves
When Niddhogr stuck his fangs into the roots of the World Tree, he gained some influence over the world. He used it to create what the Dwarves would call Wyrmsteel, since it's found in certain types of cooling lava or magma. It was bountiful, durable, strong, and allowed the Dwarves to perform feats of great engineering. However, it radiated Niddhogr's essence, slowly tainting their blood. One day, at the height of Dwarven power, (cont.)
>>46224659
Nidhoggr decided to exert his new power over them. In one day, anything with pure Dwarven blood mutated into vile demons that still rampage through the lands, murdering and raping anything they can get their hands on.
>The Giants
They were the first race to become prosperous on Earth after Ragnarok, and their empire was grand. They were lead by their hero-king, known for his mystic sword and enchanted golden shawl that protected him from harm. When it seemed the sun would never set upon them, the nature of the king's shawl was revealed-- it was a parasite and an abomination that had been working its influence into the king until it was ready to seize full control. The empire soon collapsed as the loyal subjects of the king were brutally murdered by his golden blade. The sheer vileness of the act cursed those murdered by the king to an existance of undeath. The gods were like "Oh shit!!!!!" and katamari'd the undying giants into the world's biggest mountain. Inside, the king of giants' half-living corpse is dragged along by the shawl, endlessly killing his own subjects over and over against his will in the ruins of his old kingdom.
>The Behemoths
Dragons have an evolutionary cycle similar to a caterpillar, but more reliant on the parent dragon. They are born as Behemoths-- ugly, tortise-like creatures with faces that are somewhere between old man, dog, and snapping turtle. They're very pathetic, given any race clever enough to think "I am" can kill them. Behemoths become Dragons when the parent gathers various metals and bonds them together in a cocoon with an adhesive substance that comes from the fire breathing gland. The more rare and expensive the metal, the better-- Dragons' biology are affected not only by geneology, but also by the cocoon's composition and how they transform within it. This is why, back in their heyday, almost no two dragons were alike.
>>46224677
(cont.)
Since the gods killed all the matured dragons, the Behemoths have been shambling around and pandering to everyone else since before Ragnarok. However, a cult of Behemoths and Dragon worshippers has been machinating to artificially recreate the metamorphosis cycle and start the Age of Dragons anew.
>>46222019
How do they know that he existed at all?
>>46224927
After every time he pulls his stunt, he reveals himself, sings his own praises, then escapes usually shouting something over his shoulder like "Japed again by the Great Papapalo!"
An Eldest of the Faerie that has found a way to wreak vengeance upon the gods that it created the Faerie world with; brute being slighted by the deities abandoning it like any other project.
It his then where it hurts most, of course, considering the gods weak for having turned to staying their power from worship rather than divine right and force of will like the Faerie Eldest. It ticks a mortal wizard of no small power into initiating the apocalypse on the material plane. Not on what's IN the plane. The plane itself is being killed.
Meanwhile it's issuing salvation to mortals from the plane within the Fey realm, but only if they leave their souls behind so that they are cut off from their gods.
Meanwhile everyone is hunting the wizard that caused it.
>>46221556
BBEG is human sorceror named Balvor, PCs originally band together to hunt him down for the bounty on his head as a slave trader. Later find out he is using slaves as sacrifices to increase his own demonic power in order to allow him to travel to different planes of existence. PCs interrupt a ritual and instead of harnessing the demon, it posseses Balvor and escapes.
PCs discover an old time among the ritual remains that leads them to a crypt guarded by elvish and dwarvish traps, puzzles and skeleton guards. A dwarf book outlines the construction of a "star forge" that uses focused sunlight to forge a weapon of pure energy. The only problem is the locations designated in the book are either destroyed, in elvish territory or the holds were overrun by greenskins. PCs have to broker treaties and agreements between dwarves and elves that once stood millenia ago, but were broken and forgotten as the ages passed. Various pieces have to be found or crafted, 10 Pure diamonds the size of a Kings shield, the humility of an ancient red wyrm, the heart of a fallen star, assemble 12 mirrors twice the height and width of a man to focus on the first of the diamond, an anvil carved from the root of a mountain.
All sorts of fun stuff
PC's benefactor wizard turns on them halfway through the campaign. Plans on using a magic sword to steal the soul of the tarrasque and then merge it with his own to add its abilities to his.
>He fucks up. The tarrasque ends up eating his soul, now it can cast spells
>>46221556
>Human fighter, King in the making, set out to prove himself, ended up fighting an enemy of his family and kingdom out of duty
>Is captured, nearly killed, moved to another plane, nearly killed again
>Had to cut a 'deal' with a demon while said demon held all the cards, including the status of his pregnant wife
>The goal is to break up the civil war of a nearby kingdom and and either directly conquer it or make it an allied or vassal state
>Now he's a champion of a dark god, his body is literally a closed portal to Hell
>Ineveraskedforthis.jpg
>Turns out 90% of his nation's council members work for an even worse deity, who happens to be an enemy of the demon he champions
>He kills every traitorous council member and declares martial law
>Points his most bloodthirsty troops
So now he, to everyone outside his inner circle, looks like a puppy-killing evil warlord (and to his shame he still somewhat is) whose only saving grace is that he's backing a righteous revolution- with ulterior motives.
His goals are:
>King of enemy kingdom (the king the PCs work for) must die, he doesn't care how
>New kingdom must be stabilized and convinced to work for or besides the apparent warlord
>Make sure the whole continent either doesn't fall into war or move everything back into place if it does
>Take care that his wife and kids don't get offed while he's at war
>Try not to slip too far down the Evil slope
>>46226022
>*Points his most bloodthirsty troops in the direction of the enemy loyalists and winds up the war machine
>>46222497
Shut the fuck up.
The setting is filled with companies that use slave labor to root out small tradesmen.
>>46221556
>Mind Flayer "moon" appears in the sky orbiting the prime world
>the moon is their home world that has been changed to act as an interstellar / planar transportation vehicle
>BBEG is the massive God Brain that exists in the center of the moon
>>46221708
That's the exact opposite of what an eco-terrorist does, though.
A man from very very early human history, found the fountain of youth.
Lived several hundred thousand years and now wants to commit suicide. His lifeforce is tied to the planet and the only way he can do it is by killing The World Tree.
Campaign started mid-apocalypse where he's already poisoned it via roots around the world. Now he's tracking them back to the source to finish the job.
The ended up cutting him into several pieces and scattering him around the world Castlevania Dracula style.
>>46226205
That sounds hella cool.
>>46226205
Couldn't they just 'imprison' him in a state of dreamless sleep?
Pretty sure there are spells for that.
>>46221556
Master Thief who plans to "steal" an entire kingdom, in order to have the biggest score of his career. Wouldn't be so bad... except what do you do with stolen goods? You fence them. And with these particular goods, only the lords of the pit are buying.
>>46226280
They didn't have a wizard.
Party was a Vampire Blackgaurd, Minotaur Fighter, Hamadryad Ranger, and a Kobold Alchemist/Rogue.
Originally the party also had a Gnome Artificer/Wizard, but he had to duck out about a quarter way through the campaign.
So, basically, the did the best with what they had.
>>46221556
>BBEG is a horrible amalgamation of all the restless souls that died before an afterlife was created for them to settle into.
>Plot is to basically become a divine parasite and usurp the position of an ancient sun god that people have just taken up worshiping again(as the new state religion) in order to gain a massive force of mortal devotees and to soak up all of the delicious prayer and devotion it can get.
>Endgame is to engulf and corrupt the world in madness in order to become the dominant(And soon after only) force in creation.
>>46221556
He's one of those types of people who was just born naughty. He's an unapologetic asshole that thoroughly enjoys being an unapologetic asshole.
>>46226966
0/10 needs more ambiguity
>>46222019
>>46225075
Sounds like pic related to be honest.
>>46227001
Gets boring when done too much. It's fun to just have a villain that revels in being a puppy kicking bastard.
>>46222267
This is interesting, I like it
The spirit of the witch hunt, possessing a spiteful host. You have magical powers? You burn. You look like you could have magical powers? You burn. You have strange books? You burn. You don't fit into society? You burn. No witch/wizard/coutry fair magician is around and you look slightly rugged and non-conform? You burn.Luckily, my players don't read discworld novels
>>46227221
Nononono, fuck that guy
>>46221556
The Norse Vanir who have Samuri Jack'd the party into the future. The party was tricked into stealing power from the AEsir and the Vanir wants to nurture and then steel it, but everything went boat shaped when the party figured it out in the past.
>>46221556
Emperor's Hand from EotE that masquerades as an Imperial captain so she can gain real power through followers.
>>46227221
Huh, the more I think about it, the more you're right. The players love him despite all his bullshit for some reason.
>>46226282
I wrote a story with a very similar premise to that once, a thief "stealing" a kingdom. Mine was more silly and funny than yours is probably meant to be though.
A newly-reawakened ancient Sumerian War-god who is spreading chaos across a modern-day Middle-East through its mere presence.
It can exist only in the mortal body of one who has committed murder and if ever its current host is killed, it leaps to the nearest murderer within a ten kilometer radius.
The players are a SpecOps team trying to track and halt its progress across the region.
Pic related.
>>46222019
The only way I can see this being any good is if you allowed the players to roll for a disguise check for every person/animal/thing they come across.
>>46222562
>Trump
>Bad guy
How much did Soros pay you to post this?
>>46221556>"You don't understand. I do this because I love you. I love you all more than anyone else in the world. The only thing I feel is love. For too long, the other gods have held me back. Forced me to watch as you suffered and died in vain. Launched their petty crusades and engaged in their pointless squabbles. But no more. My legions will claim your souls and bring you back to me, that you might know peace and love forever and ever. I do not know how, but the other gods are dead. They can't hurt you anymore. I promise it won't hurt. Please don't fight me. I'm the only one who truly loves you.">"Yes, that's right. You can't stop thinking about me. No mind can outrun my love. Give in. Let yourself heal. Let yourself be loved. Come with me and nothing will ever hurt you again.">"Why do you resist me? I love you more than anyone or anything else. I have only love for you all. Why do your struggle?">"You cannot kill a goddess. It is futile to resist me. Let me in. Dream of me. Embrace me. Only then can you truly know my love. It will be the most wonderful thing you have ever felt.">"I am the last of the gods. This is good. No longer need you fear belonging to someone who hates or fears or uses you. Now you belong to someone who loves you. Now you belong to me.">"Do not hate yourself. My love is stronger than any guilt you might feel. Feel my love, and you shall know that you are worth it."
It's an Evil campaign.
>one eyed insane former detective who thinks he's been given the ability to judge souls after he survives being shot.
it's a low tech setting without any magic
>>46222562
what system?
If the whole game is a comedy/lighearted game it sounds like a tabletop version of liberal crime squad
>>46221556
Big Custom setting.
Very powerful demon establishes an Anti-Dragon cult that becomes the "TOTALLY-NOT EVIL CATHOLIC CHURCH" since they effectively one their "TOTALLY JUSTIFIED HOLY WAR" and there are no dragons left. Thinks that if he draws enough power/worship, he can ascend and kill Tiamat/Bahamut.
>>46221556
Russian Super Spy trying to find his freedom.
>inb4 "edge"
He's a villain. It's acceptable if there's a certain level of edge to it in theory, as long as it's not done poorly in practice.
I have a sub-boss called Shade. Or, alternatively, he's another villain. He's not quite BBEG-tier, but any time that you see him, shit is going to be bad. If you were to end the story and he's not dead, he'll probably be the next BBEG.
I know a couple of you knuckleheads browse /tg/. If you're here, stop reading this post and send me a message.
He's power-hungry, he likes turning people against each other, andhe can manipulate his shadow. Sort of... It's more like a magical, symbiotic monster. You might be standing down a street from this guy, and his shadow might be creeping towards you as the sun goes down... and maybe it's moving a little too fast, or reaching a little too far. And then it morphs into a huge demonic thing and tries to devours you. And it helps him by whispering to people to help influence them, or by helping his awareness via supernatural senses.
>>46233753
They're certainly permitted to. But he only shows up every so often, the shortest time between encounters was three sessions apart. So checking everything would just be so time consuming and exhausting it wouldn't be worth it.
When the time finally comes and his tricks run out and he's cornered by the party, I'm hoping that they'll spare him or try to make him an ally instead of killing him.
>>46234710
Explain please
He's currently manipulating the party's bloodlust and racism to incite a race war between the major kingdoms of the world, while he ascends to godhood. His endgame is a great flood of sorts.
>>46235405Nicodemus from Dresden Files?
>>46236655Is there actually a character like that? I've been having trouble finding anything quite like what I've done here.
Situation for the campaign I'm in is strange because our GM's endgame goal for us is to kill three gods, two of which are Lolth and Tiamat. So either the GMPC-turned-god to replace the Raven Queen is the BBEG, or it's the gods we're supposed to be killing. I ultimately don't know.
>>46235925
Like this maybe?
>>46238267
I was hopeful at first
Rogue god has been working behind the scenes to destroy all other pantheons so that mortals bow in fear to him and his allies.
>>46236860Nicodemus Archleone is the leader of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, and host of The Fallen angel Anduriel. Anduriel appears to manifest as Nicodemus' animated and corporeal shadow. This animated shadow is able to suppress the magic power of human practitioners, as well as directly assist Nicodemus in combat.
>>46238870I went ahead and looked it up. There are definitely some differences here.
>>46221655
Kung pow?
The White Raven.
A decomposing corpse of a mighty wizard that is still somehow alive and can talk to people telepathically. Most of his power eroded, but he still has mighty divination powers that let him run a secret society called Ravens with high efficiency and discretion.
Plot twist - he's not actually evil per se, he just really likes running a secret society and hopes one day to bring stability to the world through it. Through the history many adventurers embarked on a quest to destroy the society, but every time they slaghtered their way to his tomb, he was able to convince them to join him instead and rebuild a new iteration of Ravens.
>>46233911
i am aroused by wary of this. i feel death is not an escape from this danger
>>46235405>>46236860
So basically you're saying he's got friends on the other side?
>>46241358
that movie should not have been for kids, it was creepy as fuck
>>46241214
I mean, what better way for the players in an Evil campaign to prove their diabolical dastardliness than to destroy Love itself?
A Fallen Iriquois Storm God that became a destructive manifestation of Winter.
He plans to open a portal to the spirit realm in Niagara Falls and unleash an army of Iriquois Demons so as to take back his lands from The White/Green/Black Man.
And as well as draw his age old nemesis out, a snake demon drawn to bloodshed. This snake killed his wife/kid, then hid, so Old Man Winter wants to get revenge and a sufficient slaughter would draw the thing out.
>Kingpin, but in fantasyland
My players are simple folk
>>46221556
>a god
>wanted to have a zany time and revenge, so trapped the rest of the pantheon
>currently has a hand up the ass of most countries
>runs a cult of himself
>has fucked with the party several times
>wants them to win, for the lols, but not letting them do it easily
>wants them to lose, so he can continue to rule the world
>doesn't give a shit, because it's funny as hell
>>46246579
i should also mention:
>no one knows he's a god
>no one knows what the fuck is his deal
>everyone hates him for heresy (still uses his god name)
>everyone thinks he's been trapped along with the rest of the pantheon
>he's been chucklefucking around the world for 2 millennia without people catching on
>>46221556
He was a simple servant, living with his magistrate.
Couldn't have known that his magistrate was conducting meetings with those that were less than desirable.
What happened was honestly a mistake.
He went to the aid of his master just to see his last moments.
Those who were there wanted to complete this ritual with the cult leader.
That did not happen.
A servant received this dark gift.
They couldn't kill him.
A new identity created.
Now he frees those who are slaves.
In exchange for becoming part of his ever growing group.
They travel from kingdom to kingdom convincing people to give up slaves.
Seeing his ways as being a way to the light, a group of Paladins helped with just that.
They helped fund his kingdom.
That group of Paladins was never seen again.
He then used this to send adventurers out on quests to collect things he needs or remove problems.
The endgame of the Servant-King is to purge all slave owners or make them submit.
>>46241358
In a sense, but it's more like they share a body. The thing sustains on his life energy and makes him stronger in exchange. So the stronger he gets, the stronger it becomes and then strengthens him in turn.
Currently writing a Planescape campaign.
My BBEG is imprisioned on the plane of Pandemonium. Rather than sucummbing to insanity, he's learning how to harness it and is devising a sort of "chaos engine" to expand the borders of the plane and throw the entire planar ecosystem off-balance as a means of escape.
>>46222497
You need some pure ideology, newfriend.
>>46222497
>implying pure capitalism isn't as cancerous as pure communism
The latter starves everyone to death within the decade, the former starves everyone to death after a few centuries of increasingly hedonistic and shallow civilization until the oil runs out.
