Does Your Campaign Have a BBEG? Does it Need One?

The Big bad Evil Guy is a staple of the adventure genre: the powerful force of evil at the apex of the pyramid of troubles the [protagonists have been facing. Sauron. Voldemort. Al Capone. Dracula. Etc...

It is common, I think, for TTRPG campaigns (which owe much to action adventure media) to also have BBEGs at the "end" of the story. But ongoing TTRPG campaigns are also different than a lot of inspirational media: there is not A story, just stories, and a BBEG might not be appropriate for a campaign.

So I am curious: does the campaign you are currently running or playing in have a BBEG? If so, is that a known fact in play? Is it a known fact in the world? Does the end of the BBEG mean the end of the campaign?

A related discussion is: does a TTRPG campaign need a BBEG? Does the presence of a pinnacle threat add something special to a campaign that you can't get elsewhere? Without a BBEG, what drives the threat(s) in the campaign?

Finally, what is your favorite BBEG you have either fought as a player or used as GM?

In adventure path play they often have a BBEG whose defeat (or victory) signals end of the campaign. Though, its usually a build up through the entire campaign to one amazing fight as the BBEG was out of sight or working in the shadows. This can be pretty exciting as players unravel the conspiracy and face its executors. My favorite was a slight edit of my own to have the BBEG befriend and mentor the PCs for the first half of the campaign before they realized, "uh oh...". I didnt think I could pull it off but it worked as a surprise and within the game rules. I know many dont introduce BBEG early becasue magic can be a shortcut to facing a campaign capstone early.

While I have a great time running adventure paths, I also run open world sandboxes which operate just fine without a single BBEG. I have developed a metagoal requirement of my sandboxes as I find meandering new episode every week play to be aimless and less enjoyable. The metagoal might be something like empire building in whcih the players have a myriad of options before them, but every choice leads towards the metagoal over the campaign. Its like having a north star that the players can always look for if lost. My favorite was the players forming an alliance to beat back encroaching empires from conquering a neutral space. The BBEG in that campaign was actually a series of factions instead of a single character.

I am currently a player in a Pathfinder 1E campaign and we just started so the honest answer is I don't know, but since it's a pre-published adventure the odds are good there is a BBEG. The last campaign I ran, a Savage Worlds Plot Point adventure, had one. When I create my own adventures sometimes I have a BBEG and sometimes not.

No.

Reynard said:

So I am curious: does the campaign you are currently running or playing in have a BBEG? If so, is that a known fact in play? Is it a known fact in the world? Does the end of the BBEG mean the end of the campaign?

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My campaign has (or will have; we started it just this week) a couple of Lesser Bad Evil Guys and Big Bad Purple-And-Orange-Mentality Guys, but no BBEG. There's a strong possibility of awakening a Great Old One-type entity (one that can potentially be killed), but it's not really a BBEG; just really destructive.

Reynard said:

A related discussion is: does a TTRPG campaign need a BBEG? Does the presence of a pinnacle threat add something special to a campaign that you can't get elsewhere? Without a BBEG, what drives the threat(s) in the campaign?

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I think a campaign needs a goal--otherwise it's connected one-shots or a sandbox or something--but the goal doesn't have to be a BBEG.

Neither of the campaigns I'm running have a BBEG in the conventional sense. Nor do they need them.

Reynard said:

So I am curious: does the campaign you are currently running or playing in have a BBEG?

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No. Neither the games I am running nor the games I am playing in have a BBEG, with one possible exception (out of 5 total- two that I am currently running and three that I am currently playing in).

Reynard said:

A related discussion is: does a TTRPG campaign need a BBEG?

Click to expand...

No.

Reynard said:

Does the presence of a pinnacle threat add something special to a campaign that you can't get elsewhere? Without a BBEG, what drives the threat(s) in the campaign?

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Having a BBEG lends itself to some playstyles better than others. Without a BBEG, there are different threats at different times, driven by the logical consequences of what the pcs do and don't do (i.e., if they don't bite at a plot hook, it develops without their interference). Sometimes there are BBEGs for the moment or in an area or concerning an individual adventure, and one may develop into a long term nemesisover time if they clash with the party and escape. But there is no overarching "THE" BBEG who stands as foe through the whole campaign.

Reynard said:

Finally, what is your favorite BBEG you have either fought as a player or used as GM?

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As a player, probably the Man on the Silver Mountain, a bad guy in a campaign I played in in 2e.

As a DM, probably the King of Bile and Queen of Guts, epic level foes in my 3.5e game.

I understand the satisfaction of a well executed one, pun unfortunately intended, but it makes me so sad to see countless requests for advice on the lines of "I'm starting a campaign next week, how do I create/introduce/make my party scared of the BBEG?" It is not a thing every campaign needs, and if you do want to craft a narrative around the presence of one (which is a fine desire!), it absolutely does not need to be the defining lodestone of your table from session one.

Let your party cook for a spell, give them some small discrete local problems and time to develop as people and a group, and you'll have so much more context for thinking about what will be an interesting problem for that world.

Xamnam said:

I understand the satisfaction of a well executed one, pun unfortunately intended, but it makes me so sad to see countless requests for advice on the lines of "I'm starting a campaign next week, how do I create/introduce/make my party scared of the BBEG?" It is not a thing every campaign needs, and if you do want to craft a narrative around the presence of one (which is a fine desire!), it absolutely does not need to be the defining lodestone of your table from session one.

Let your party cook for a spell, give them some small discrete local problems and time to develop as people and a group, and you'll have so much more context for thinking about what will be an interesting problem for that world.

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I like it when the party accidentally creates their own BBEG. Like, I as GM had no intention that this guy was the BBEG, and the party did not mean to make him so mad, but choices, circumstances and luck dovetailed and now Baron Blaque will direct his every resource against the PCs because of what happened to his son, even if it means he has to make pacts with evil powers to counter the PCs as they gain power and prestige...

"Does it have a BBEG?"

At what point of the campaign?

At the start? Very likely not. And if I have ideas, they have 99 44/100th been replaced by the actual end of the campaign several years later.

At the end? Quite possibly. A campaign should end on a dramatic conclusion of some sort, and that's quite an effective way. Were they the cause of most of the trouble during the whole campaign? Never. But as levels increase so does the scope of problems the characters are dealing with, and they are the biggest and baddest that the party currently is facing.

As you may be able to tell, a lot of the story of the campaign unfolds from the character's actions, as well as where the players are showing interest.