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

Blue said:

"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 And if I have ideas, they have 99 44/100th been replaced by the actual end of the campaign several years later.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.

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So... no.

Maybe I was vague, but if there is a campaign level BBEG that implies that much or most of the campaign conflict emerges due to the BBEG. Strahd. Zauriel. Tiamat. Vecna.

No, I'm not a fan of the short focused campaign. My long running games are Forever Games, the same players using the same characters forever adventuring. I'm just not a fan of "Bob" is all the evil in the world, so once you kill him it is game over.

The BBEG is popular in media as media must end. The book/show/movie only has so long to tell a story and that is it. And it is often done quite bad. Like at the end of the 'special' Return of the Jedi the Emperor is killed, the empire just vanishes and everyone dances under the fire works. And it only gets worse with more modern movies where evil has an "off" button that once hit saves the day.

Does the game need one? No.

It is the easy way to go for a lot of focused games. The BBEG is the father of the chosen one characters....so defeat your dad for your personal quest and save the universe all in one round! It is great for such cinematic focused drama.

No unless you count natural disaster.

My current campaign takes place after a volcanic eruption devastated the southern civilizations and caused mass migrations etc. The PCs are in a zone around 1500km from the eruption and they just found out it happened 18 months later. No one knew why there was a year without a summer.

So there is not BBEG although lots of things happened and other things awakened due to the eruption.

CsThe 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...

Reynard said:

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?

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Yep.

Reynard said:

If so, is that a known fact in play?

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Yep.

Reynard said:

Is it a known fact in the world?

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Yep.

Reynard said:

Does the end of the BBEG mean the end of the campaign?

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Nope. Now the players have to decide what to do with the world.

Reynard said:

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

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No, but there must be obstacles that challenge the PCs.

Reynard said:

Does the presence of a pinnacle threat add something special to a campaign that you can't get elsewhere?

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What's better entertainment: Batman vs. bank robbers or Batman vs. Bane?

Reynard said:

Without a BBEG, what drives the threat(s) in the campaign?

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Obstacles.

Reynard said:

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

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Running the Sentinels for the old Marvel Super Heroes rpg series "Nightmares of Future Past" was a treat.

You don't need to have a BBEG but it is a troupe that makes more sense than not. I don't think I have ever seen a campaign or adventure path where there wasn't a specific Big Bad at the culmination. The only way I can think of it, would be to disrupt/disband an organisation but even then, I'd expect there to be an ultimate villain to defeat.

Reynard said:

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.

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Not a trope I buy into as a GM. I use it only for certain settings - mostly Star Wars.

I tend to use SBEG... Small Bad Evil Guy. Evil of the month, if not of the week.

Not a fan of BBEGs as campaign closers, either. I prefer "promotion away from the party"...

Eh. Sorta. There are villains beyond the scope of the PCs. Like The Ten Who Were Taken. But they're beyond the scope of the PCs. In fact, if the PCs were to pull a Scully, they can disbelieve that they're even real. They're are other BEGs, who while maybe not campaign capper BBEGs are still serious threats who will loom over things for many sessions.

I guess my game currently has like Schrodinger's BBEG. When I started the campaign I envisioned one, and never fleshed him out because I figured I'd have some time to do so. We're several sessions in however, and he hasn't been introduced, and I don't really think the party is on track to meet him any time soon. They met the faction he controls, but they were presented as innocuous pilgrims at the time. So he exists on paper, but I could throw him away without any major wrinkles in my game.

The issue is that my players are really great.. I set them up to chase a Macguffin (Or collection of Macguffins) and they just said "Sure", and went for it, without really questioning it.. So I haven't found a way to inject the story in.. I was kind of hoping they'd go and try and seek out information or something. I was really expecting to have to sell them on the mission.. In hindsight when I played as a teen, I was probably just a jerk making the DM have to make the quest worth my character's while before I'd bite the hook, and I expected something similar.

With that said, they've run into a different faction, and they are now kind of at odds with them. I was expecting this faction to be the stepping stone bad guys, between the PCs and the BBEG, but now I've been thinking about instead having not one central BBEG, but rather several factions at play, all chasing after the same relics. The PCs will eventually find that they are in possession of some very powerful items and some very powerful people want these items. I hope to eventually make the real BBEG the tough choice they will have to make at the end of the campaign. Once they collect all the dragon balls PowerGems will they turn them over to an allied NPC who maybe they only kind of trust? Will they use them for themselves? Will they seek to destroy them? Who knows.

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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The campaign I am running does not have a BBEG. It’s not about thwarting someone else’s plans. It’s about what the PCs are doing. For anyone interested, I try to post recaps in the five words commentary thread.

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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The things that drives threats are their goals and motivations. Natalia (a vampire ally) wants to sire more vampires. The bandits are looking for high tech loot for their home country. The raiders want to exfiltrate the fallen kingdom’s treasure to protect it (but only their leader knows this the rank and file don’t know this). Firlax (a fire dragon) wants to keep the kingdom’s treasures where they are. The expeditionary forces are there to stabilize the area and claim/control territory. The fiends and celestials are an alien threat, but they are sequestered and on the defensive.

I systematize how threats pursue goals in my homebrew system. Factions will have mechanics, so I can’t just decide on a whim that the game is about what I want my (ab)using my GM role to rig things in the favor of a particular threat or faction.

Reynard said:

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

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I liked Nyrissa in Kingmaker because I killed or banished more than half the party and their cohorts in the final fight. Otherwise, I can’t think of any in the sense that’s being used here. It’s not something I particularly like myself.

1) currently one campaign has a BBEG and the other has a BBEB (big bad evil book) with various sub bosses in each.

2) campaigns don't need a BBEG but (for me at least) need a goal. Killing the BBEG is just typically a simple one to set up.