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<blockquote data-quote="Mad_Jack" data-source="post: 9083331" data-attributes="member: 6750306"><p><em> The Boss isn't The Boss</em>: In most of my games, the guy that everyone thinks is in charge is either just a flunky (and/or outright pawn) of someone bigger, or, in the opposite direction, is actually being manipulated by their second-in-command or other henchman...</p><p></p><p>In one campaign, a <em>random minion from the very first fight of the game</em> ended up turning into the BBEG of the entire campaign... </p><p>[SPOILER]</p><p></p><p> The first group of human bad guys the party fought had one particular mook that got insanely lucky on the dice rolls and gave them a <em><strong>lot</strong></em> more trouble than he was worth, and through PC error he managed to escape the fight. So I promoted him in the organization. Again. And again. He always seemed to give the party hell and it just randomly happened every time that he found himself in a position to get away. Without any real intention on my part he'd just organically become that one uber-competent henchman that all bad guys have in the movies. In the last battle against the BBEG he was the second-in-command, and conveniently skipped out just ahead of the party's victory - while vaguely implying that he may have been playing his boss for his own ends.</p><p>Cut to the next group the party goes up against. A slightly larger organization. Guess who turns up again working for them? lol. And then the next group. No matter who the party was going up against, this guy would turn up somewhere working as a henchman and give them grief. He became their nemesis. The party thought they'd killed him twice, only for him to show up again somewhere else.</p><p>I'd never meant for this guy to be a recurring villain, and I definitely didn't have any sort of master plan for him - the way things played out on their own it just kept being a logical story choice to have this guy keep showing up. And of course, the party always wanted another shot at him.</p><p>Eventually, even though I hadn't planned it that way, it just became obvious that this guy was playing out a <em>supervillain origin story</em> - due to a single tactical error on their part and some ridiculously lucky dice rolls, the party had created their own bad guy... So more than halfway through the campaign I retconned it that he'd been seeking revenge ever since that first fight, and working his way up in all these organization in order to manipulate the guys in charge and use them against the party.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mad_Jack, post: 9083331, member: 6750306"] [I] The Boss isn't The Boss[/I]: In most of my games, the guy that everyone thinks is in charge is either just a flunky (and/or outright pawn) of someone bigger, or, in the opposite direction, is actually being manipulated by their second-in-command or other henchman... In one campaign, a [I]random minion from the very first fight of the game[/I] ended up turning into the BBEG of the entire campaign... [SPOILER] The first group of human bad guys the party fought had one particular mook that got insanely lucky on the dice rolls and gave them a [I][B]lot[/B][/I] more trouble than he was worth, and through PC error he managed to escape the fight. So I promoted him in the organization. Again. And again. He always seemed to give the party hell and it just randomly happened every time that he found himself in a position to get away. Without any real intention on my part he'd just organically become that one uber-competent henchman that all bad guys have in the movies. In the last battle against the BBEG he was the second-in-command, and conveniently skipped out just ahead of the party's victory - while vaguely implying that he may have been playing his boss for his own ends. Cut to the next group the party goes up against. A slightly larger organization. Guess who turns up again working for them? lol. And then the next group. No matter who the party was going up against, this guy would turn up somewhere working as a henchman and give them grief. He became their nemesis. The party thought they'd killed him twice, only for him to show up again somewhere else. I'd never meant for this guy to be a recurring villain, and I definitely didn't have any sort of master plan for him - the way things played out on their own it just kept being a logical story choice to have this guy keep showing up. And of course, the party always wanted another shot at him. Eventually, even though I hadn't planned it that way, it just became obvious that this guy was playing out a [I]supervillain origin story[/I] - due to a single tactical error on their part and some ridiculously lucky dice rolls, the party had created their own bad guy... So more than halfway through the campaign I retconned it that he'd been seeking revenge ever since that first fight, and working his way up in all these organization in order to manipulate the guys in charge and use them against the party. [/SPOILER] :p [/QUOTE]
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