How to get a noncombatant nemesis to oppose a whole party?

[magnusmalkus]

I've got a relatively new campaign. I want to give my players a nemesis. An opponent they've got to oppose/compete with/struggle with but can't outright kill. Maybe they should and could kill her/him but they can't or won't for fear of the reprocussions of that action.

What reason does this nemesis have for not liking or struggling against the party as a whole? The party has not done anything to him/her yet. How do I introduce this kind of enemy?

It's important that the nemesis oppose the party as a whole. I know I could have him be the enemy of the family of ONE of the PC's (having some relative deliver some slight against her/him real or imagined) but I want everyone in the group to be involved directly, not involved by proximity. It's a new group so the PC's really haven't stuck their heads into anyone's business much. The one adventure they've been on, they failed at. (The Sunless Citadel. They gave up even before they met the bbeg and moved on to another adventure in another area.)

The nemesis is probably some important official (so they cant kill him, unless they try to hire an assassin) and secretly some very powerful individual. He/she tries to make the PC's life hell... but why? S/He shouldn't want to kill them because I can't think of any reason why s/he couldn't do it if s/he wanted to.

The party consists of a paladin who gets sent by his order to places to "do the right thing" (he did help stop the goblin raids, or at least brought down the goblin numbers), a wandering mage attracted by the prospect of power (nothing beyond simple leveling yet, no powerful items have been acquired), and a fighter who's just looking for something to do (he's killed a clan of kobolds and slaughtered a few dozen goblins and rats).

They enjoy their characters but they're not role-players much. They haven't tried to make any contacts, they've only been on one adventure that they failed at, and they've yet to put down roots anywhere (but that's about to change as I'm introducing a hometown soon).

Suggestions?

 

[Blue Sky]

In general I like to tie motivations into whatever the players have done before, so it strings all the adventures together.

My first thought would be that this person profitted from the attacks from the goblins in some way, and is now upset that the characters interrupted his fun/money/etc. Maybe he provided weapons to Oakhurst (the town in The Sunless Citadel), and now demand is dropping off? Another idea is that there's something down in the Citadel that implicates him, and he doesn't know the characters never found it. Or he wants something in the Citadel, and he thinks the characters have it.

As far as why the guy doesn't just kill the players, maybe he's under the same political/legal/social pressure that would just stop the characters from attacking him? For example, he's the priest in charge of the local temple, but the regional head of church would be upset if he randomly killed someone. So this priest acts through intermediaries, thugs, and so forth.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Wait.

I think you are trying too hard. It doesn't make sense to have a nemesis for the party if they haven't yet done anything to warrant it. Trying to create something like you are doing is going to feel artificial and the players may not buy into it. Your players have already once been willing to abandon a failing effort. If they can't buy into this nemesis, they will walk away from that as well.

Wait until they give you something to work with. Once they do, try it out and observe their reaction. You may find they have little interest in a recurring enemy they cannot directly defeat. If so, don't try and force it on them.

 

[jdrakeh]

It doesn't make sense to have a nemesis for the party if they haven't yet done anything to warrant it.

Note that being alive was enough to warranty such enemity at certain times in Europe's history.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The heroes could have inadvertently opposed this nemesis while on an adventure. For instance, they could have shut down a smuggling ring, broke up bandit gangs, prevented a couple of assassinations, etc, all masterminded by the same organization.

Or, more specifically, one up-and-coming member of that organization, who "hides in plain sight" as someone who is politically connected.

Nemeses don't have to focus on backstory.

Now, why hasn't he killed the PCs yet? Maybe he can't! His organization might be mainly low level (or something like that) and he isn't personally powerful enough to take them on. Instead, he could be forever coming up with schemes to make up for this lack of power (some of which might focus on making him or his minions more powerful).

 

[rossik]

the nemesis could be a local hero, full of stories of good deed. but the pcs could have see some evil act, like pact with enemies/demons, evil thing.

or like the black knight adventure, maybe the actual hero is dead, and this one is his son trying to earn his father reputation.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

As someone pointed out above, don't be surprised if the party just walks away from this guy. As to why he's annoyed with them, perhaps he's the one who was buying the apples and now the Evil Druid doesn't have any intermediaries to contact the outside world with. One other warning: never assume that the PCs won't try to kill someone they loath the first chance they get, even if they know for sure that it'll mean their deaths. Death before dishonor and all that. (I would in a heartbeat, and the Fighter's player sounds like he might too.)

 

[moritheil]

IMC the ranger, psywar, and cleric all hated tyranny, so I made a cleric BBEG that was in charge of a tyrannical cult. He was primarily a political threat, though he was competent in melee as well. He had them hunted by bounty hunters and eventually jailed.

Really you should look at your characters' backstories and personality.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

One possibility: make the PCs officials.

In my Paridon campaign (see my sig) the PCs are policemen. They have the right to arrest people, have the backing of an organized group, are generally treated with respect and fear by the civilians, and can even requisition special equipment from time to time. However, they find that they have to balance their powers with responsibility. So, they have one of their biggest nemeses esssentially under arrest, in the bowels of the police HQ, and yet they don't dare touch him. And, in turn, he hasn't done a single thing directly against the PCs, either, which has served to protect him as well.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

Just watch the last Harry Potter movie that came out. Your nemesis can be like the Br. of Magic people who don't want to believe something so badly that they are seeing nonexistent conspiracies involving the PCs.

Or for that matter, review the internal American political environment of the Vietnam war. America was winning the war. America was always winning the war. Even when the Viet Cong did something stunning, the stunt only caused them to be loosing faster because even if they increased the American casualty rate they made the proportional casualty rate more beneficial to the Americans (Yay! We killed an extra 500 Americans this month...to bad it cost us an extra 50,000.) Your nemesis can be the leaders of the anti-war isolations/relatives of the 50 dead members of the Royal army who want to stop supporting the gnomes because they a)don't see why humans are involved in things "across the valley", b) don't see why their Human (white/black) sons should be dieing for gnomes (Asians), c) think that it is unfair that the commoners' sons are fighting and not the nobles', and d) mistakenly believe that pulling out will allow the conflict to be settled archiving peace, failing to realize that the Lich warlord taking over their kingdom is not what most of the gnomes consider a peaceful situation even if the Lich is a gnome, never mind the consequences for the neighboring halfling kingdom (1.87 million, or for a better perspective 21% of the Cambodian population, dead). Like the American military, the pcs can be undefeated on the battlefield, and yet still be in danger of loosing the war due to "public relations", and inspite of their good works and hard efforts find themselves demonized on the streets when returning to Port Royal to resupply.

Or, you could just go for opposing political factions. Faction A doesn't want Faction B to succeed at anything, regardless of public benefit, because Faction A wants power. And Vice Versa. Put the PCs in the middle.