Bit villains hijack the campaign!

[Sigma]

This happens so often with us...we keep a book of grudges. Every time something happens, we write down what the quest / adventure / etc. is.

That way we stay on target (in theory anyway), but very often the players will sit around trying to determine what they think the most threatening and therefore-first-priority foe is, all the while the GM is shaking his head because they don't even have the cool big-bad on the list...

Your post nearly made me laugh. That's exactly what my players do. The funny thing is that they'll put the most random, low-key people on 'the List' just for being rude to them. At one point the question was not who in the campaign was on the list, but who wasn't.

 

[Tewligan]

Your post nearly made me laugh. That's exactly what my players do. The funny thing is that they'll put the most random, low-key people on 'the List' just for being rude to them. At one point the question was not who in the campaign was on the list, but who wasn't.

Sigma, if I didn't know that he doesn't frequent these boards, I'd be pretty sure that you're my DM. I keep the "S-List" (the "S" is for something vulgar...) in my group, and yes, an NPC can make it onto the list just for being rude. The more hated the NPC, the more embellishment he gets on the list. Basic rudeness just gets your name on the list. The more dangerous and/or offensive NPC's have their names surrounded by skulls, multiple underlinings, and little cartoon "stink lines" coming from their names. The S-List ranges from a weasely little beggar guy who hires himself out as a city guide (I didn't care for his ingratiating tone) to a goblin (who later became a ranger-in-training under my character's tutelage) to a beholder crime lord, with dozens of offenders in between.

 

[arwink]

I long ago gave up trying to make Big-bad's at the start of a campaign just because my players do this. I just let them run rampant for the first half a dozen adventures, then run with whatever seems to be interesting them the most. Results this campaign - clans of psionic demon assasins, rogues guilds and evil elemental cults aren't wroth the effort, but diplomats, traders, evil necromancers and members of the sanctioned and powerful evil churches are.