Say for example your characters goal was to slay the demon who killed their family, easy enough. you finish that, what now? do you stay with the party out of honor?
What if the BBEG was your goal, you kill him what now?
Alternatively if you're a GM, you're running a game and the players kill your BBEG, what do you do with the remaining soldier in their army? do they discard their uniforms and live normal lives? what have you done?
>>46088727
What makes the most sense. If a character grew close to the other party members, they stay. Otherwise, they retire, but i only had that happen once or twice.
>>46088727
>players kill your BBEG, what do you do with the remaining soldier in their army?
Some discard their uniforms, but most of them shrug their shoulders and go back to the mercenary life they were leading beforehand. Then they inevitably end up being hired by a nearby BBEG, who may very well have lent tacit support to the party, as the death of Kazzy'k the Terrible floods the labour market with cheaper henchmen/sword fodder/mercenaries.
Eventually the players will realise that the guards they knock out, or leave for dead, on the way to the BBEG's throne room have been the same people each and every time. They'll develop a friendly sort of working relationship.
"Yeah, mate, this Dark Apostle of Zthugga? This one's a bit of a dick, just bop me and Dave here on the head and you be on your way. See you at the entrance to the Warrior King's Guard Tower next week, alright?"
>>46088727
I'm both running and playing at the moment, so I guess it's bonus round time.
>What if the BBEG was your goal, you kill him what now?
We're kind of PC-driven at the moment, but there are three ways for it to end for my current character. Dead, ruling a realm, or retired as a village healer somewhere out of the way. He'd vastly prefer the third option, but it's growing less and less likely, and then there's that elf gal...
>Alternatively if you're a GM, you're running a game and the players kill your BBEG, what do you do with the remaining soldier in their army?
A Legion of Doom is an organization like any other. It may turn to less batshit insane leadership and continue on, trying to rebuild. It may disband. It may be subsumed into a larger organization with similar outlooks or structure. It may become divorced from its origins and move away to pursue the same distant agenda in an alien land. Much the same for individuals.
In the particular game I'm running most big-time antagonists are warlords, crime bosses, and mercenary captains so it tends to default to option A. Chief is dead, hail to the chief. The organizations are weakened or reformed in the process, but as long as the war of everyone vs everyone else continues, the state of the world won't change much. Two of the PCs want it to change and build something better, so there might be a giant fuckoff battle against the forces of old chaos at the end.
Depends on what other responsibilities my character picked up during the adventure.
One example is a wastelander from a fallout homebrew. They got knocked up part way through the adventure, and managed to finish it before the party all settled down together in a nice little cabin next to a clean flowing river. Went from gunslinging chemhead to a herbalist and healer, peddling their wares and trying their best to raise a pair of hellions.
Another started off as a vagabond at the edges of a subterrain city. Long story short, he eventually got the job as the leader of the External Affairs office, which pretty much made him the general of the cities armies, since before they didn't even bother to poke their nose out into the surface. I like to imagine Granite still adventures between piles of paper work, public apperances, and his brutal training regiments for any hopefuls.
