D&D 5E Where's the Villain? and other musings. Why some published campaigns are great and some aren't (Spoiler alerts)
TheSword
Legend
Absolutely.
I do often think Paizo APs end villains come out of the middle of nowhere.
Hussar
Legend
Fair enough. I was simply taking issue with the idea that Savage Tide “sold itself” as an urban campaign.
To be fair though, I stopped the campaign after before they left Isle of Dread because I had zero interest in the planar stuff.
Starfox
Hero
I find it hard to get the players to actually read and absorb the Players' Guides. And after the first scenario everyone was hyped for adventures in the cool city of Sasserine. I had warned everyone this was becoming a naval campaign, but if I recall, the planar episodes had not yet been published at this point. Yes, I had the episode summaries, but this was before I truly realized Paizo's bait and switch problem so I kept that part close to my chest.
As I said, all of this worked out well in the end, we had a lot of fun over several years. But the switches in play style could easily have become problematic.
As I said, all of this worked out well in the end, we had a lot of fun over several years. But the switches in play style could easily have become problematic.
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The biggest problem I faced was that Sasserine was so more interesting than the Isle of Dread (and certainly as the Isle was depicted in the early adventures in the series). The way the player guide was structured, you really wanted to build a character tied to Sasserine, and leaving it was taking away all the compelling stuff.I ran it at the time. There were multiple articles in both Dungeon and Dragon detailing the Isle of Dread, even before the campaign came out. IIRC, the campaign conversion guide came out with the first or second module, ish, and detailed that only the first two modules take place in Sasserine. There was an article in the issue of Dungeon before Savage Tides came out that previewed the campaign and told you up front that you would only spend a short time in Sasserine and the bulk of the AP was on the Isle of Dread.
I'm not entirely sure how anyone could look at the AP and think that this was going to be an urban campaign in Sasserine.
(It wasn't "build a character who wants to leave for a new life", which it needed to be!)
Cheers,
Merric
My homebrew campaigns tend to meander, looking at lots of small villains and adventures, until halfway through we latch on to the TRUE VILLAIN of the piece and go from there. It's not always who I have on the table at the beginning.
Personally, I don't think campaigns need great villains as much as they need characters with great goals. It might be defeat the villain, or it might be something completely different.
Cheers,
Merric
Personally, I don't think campaigns need great villains as much as they need characters with great goals. It might be defeat the villain, or it might be something completely different.
Cheers,
Merric
Starfox
Hero
The computer game from Owlcat Games really improved this aspect of the story. The villain presents herself early on and keeps up just the kind of annoying monologue that makes you hate her. She does this in dreams, making her invulnerable and makes you the player unable to charge to your death against her.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I just want to bring your attention to an article on D&D Beyond. Especially points 1, 2 and 4.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1658-9-dungeon-master-lessons-from-baldurs-gate-3
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1658-9-dungeon-master-lessons-from-baldurs-gate-3
TheSword
Legend
Very good article.
Do you think that BG3 features the three elements I think makes a published campaign great?
- Great villains
- Open world
- Meaningful NPC roleplay
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