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When PCs fail.
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5283216" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Well, what are the consequences of the BBEG's victory? Is the BBEG out to conquer the world, or destroy it, or what?</p><p></p><p>If he's out to destroy the world, you're in a tight spot. You might want to see if you can cobble together some kind of Hail-Mary option for the PCs where they make one final desperate play at a terrible cost (I suggest making it a suicide mission)... if you can figure out a way to do it without it being obvious you're giving them a do-over. If you can't figure out a way to do that, then the campaign ends and the world burns. You pays your money and you takes your chances.</p><p></p><p>If the BBEG is out to rule the world, you have more options. Here's what I would likely do: Come up with some kind of MacGuffin that can bring about the BBEG's destruction. Send the PCs on a fairly short, but brutally punishing, adventure arc to create this MacGuffin. The BBEG's minions will harry them at every turn.</p><p></p><p>The last encounter, where they actually create the MacGuffin, takes place in a special location; say, a mystical temple which a PC spellcaster had to raise out of the sea by magic. At this point the PCs are under siege, with enemies attacking from all sides and most of the easy-out escapes (teleportation, et cetera) blocked. If they come up with a clever way to escape and use the MacGuffin, good for them; otherwise, the final battle concludes with a TPK and the temple sinking back below the waves as the one who raised it perishes.</p><p></p><p>Then start the next campaign a few hundred years later, in a hell-world under the BBEG's iron fist, where a handful of 1st-level PCs are fighting the BBEG's low-level minions. After a few small-scale victories and adventures, they stumble across the legend of an artifact created long ago by a handful of heroes that can bring about the BBEG's downfall...</p><p></p><p>(Bonus points if you manage to keep the players from realizing the two campaigns are set in the same world until they find the MacGuffin.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5283216, member: 58197"] Well, what are the consequences of the BBEG's victory? Is the BBEG out to conquer the world, or destroy it, or what? If he's out to destroy the world, you're in a tight spot. You might want to see if you can cobble together some kind of Hail-Mary option for the PCs where they make one final desperate play at a terrible cost (I suggest making it a suicide mission)... if you can figure out a way to do it without it being obvious you're giving them a do-over. If you can't figure out a way to do that, then the campaign ends and the world burns. You pays your money and you takes your chances. If the BBEG is out to rule the world, you have more options. Here's what I would likely do: Come up with some kind of MacGuffin that can bring about the BBEG's destruction. Send the PCs on a fairly short, but brutally punishing, adventure arc to create this MacGuffin. The BBEG's minions will harry them at every turn. The last encounter, where they actually create the MacGuffin, takes place in a special location; say, a mystical temple which a PC spellcaster had to raise out of the sea by magic. At this point the PCs are under siege, with enemies attacking from all sides and most of the easy-out escapes (teleportation, et cetera) blocked. If they come up with a clever way to escape and use the MacGuffin, good for them; otherwise, the final battle concludes with a TPK and the temple sinking back below the waves as the one who raised it perishes. Then start the next campaign a few hundred years later, in a hell-world under the BBEG's iron fist, where a handful of 1st-level PCs are fighting the BBEG's low-level minions. After a few small-scale victories and adventures, they stumble across the legend of an artifact created long ago by a handful of heroes that can bring about the BBEG's downfall... (Bonus points if you manage to keep the players from realizing the two campaigns are set in the same world until they find the MacGuffin.) [/QUOTE]
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