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Need help with a Doppelganger campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7446679" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It might work best as a shorter story... when there is a 'secret' focused campaign, it can come to a head faster when the secret gets out. To make it work over a longer period, you need to isolate the Doppelgangers to keep their nature suspected, but unproven.</p><p></p><p>I had a Doppelganger (technically half dragon doppelganger) as a major BBEG in my campaign world for about a decade. What allowed me to run that longer was:</p><p></p><p>1.) The PCs heard about the NPC for *years* before they met him (outside of a brief encounter with him when they were first level that set the stage for a long term storyline). </p><p>2.) When they met him, he made sure to control the situation. He wanted them to perform a task, but rather than go to him and ask, he set up a situation where they were looking to him for information. Despite a reputation as a crime lord, he gave them the information freely. When they next came to him he was chastising some of his underlings for failing to complete the mission he wanted the PCs to do... and they volunteered to do it for him without him ever asking. As a DM, I intentionally did the subsequent encounter on the fly to support the optics that this wasn't something the Doppelganger planned to have them do. From there forward, they met with his minions more often than him, and when they met him he made sure he had complete control ... often encountering them when they were depleted of magic. </p><p>3.) He had other Shapechangers in his service, but they were not the majority of his troops. They were rarely the leaders in their community, either. Instead, they were key advisors, or beings close to key advisors. They indirectly influenced the world. Most of the NPCs on his payroll had no idea of his true nature or goals.</p><p>4.) He had contingency plans for when his nature was discovered. The PCs believed that - rather tan be a Doppelganger the entire time - he'd been replaced by a Doppelganger at some point. They actually 'rescued' him at one point. When it was undeniable that his true nature was being discovered, he faked his death and slipped into another role that had been set up (and he'd played on rare occasion) for years as well. </p><p>5.) His long term goal was to travel back in time before a different Big Bad existed so that it would stop hunting him. While being a criminal mastermind offered some benefits that he enjoyed, it really made it easy to run him when he had one major objective that took a huge number of steps to achieve.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 7446679, member: 2629"] Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It might work best as a shorter story... when there is a 'secret' focused campaign, it can come to a head faster when the secret gets out. To make it work over a longer period, you need to isolate the Doppelgangers to keep their nature suspected, but unproven. I had a Doppelganger (technically half dragon doppelganger) as a major BBEG in my campaign world for about a decade. What allowed me to run that longer was: 1.) The PCs heard about the NPC for *years* before they met him (outside of a brief encounter with him when they were first level that set the stage for a long term storyline). 2.) When they met him, he made sure to control the situation. He wanted them to perform a task, but rather than go to him and ask, he set up a situation where they were looking to him for information. Despite a reputation as a crime lord, he gave them the information freely. When they next came to him he was chastising some of his underlings for failing to complete the mission he wanted the PCs to do... and they volunteered to do it for him without him ever asking. As a DM, I intentionally did the subsequent encounter on the fly to support the optics that this wasn't something the Doppelganger planned to have them do. From there forward, they met with his minions more often than him, and when they met him he made sure he had complete control ... often encountering them when they were depleted of magic. 3.) He had other Shapechangers in his service, but they were not the majority of his troops. They were rarely the leaders in their community, either. Instead, they were key advisors, or beings close to key advisors. They indirectly influenced the world. Most of the NPCs on his payroll had no idea of his true nature or goals. 4.) He had contingency plans for when his nature was discovered. The PCs believed that - rather tan be a Doppelganger the entire time - he'd been replaced by a Doppelganger at some point. They actually 'rescued' him at one point. When it was undeniable that his true nature was being discovered, he faked his death and slipped into another role that had been set up (and he'd played on rare occasion) for years as well. 5.) His long term goal was to travel back in time before a different Big Bad existed so that it would stop hunting him. While being a criminal mastermind offered some benefits that he enjoyed, it really made it easy to run him when he had one major objective that took a huge number of steps to achieve. [/QUOTE]
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