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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SweeneyTodd" data-source="post: 4284515" data-attributes="member: 9391">I think it's plenty enough foreshadowing to just have the "theme" of the eventual Big Bad in the challenges you face at low level. Think Buffy -- the big bads evolved naturally out of what was going on in the series.Your "big bad" for a lvl 1-3 adventure, heck it could be a crazed madman using some dark ritual to raise undead. Yes, he's being influenced by Orcus, but it's not like he knows the game plan -- he got a peek of Things Man Should Not Know and it broke his brain. Stuff like that. There's no harm in starting simple. The way I like to handle it is to have lower levels involve fleshing out the characters, what they stand for, their goals, things like that. Give them time to feel some ownership in the game world before it's threatened. The Dungeon magazine adventure paths seemed to do a pretty good job of having relatively self-contained threats going on that had been brought about because of the stuff that would eventually be the Big Bad of the campaign; those might offer some advice.I do really like the advice of talking to the players about what kind of theme you'd like to do, to gauge their interest. A lot of people might say "well that spoils the surprise", but what I've found GMing is that if the folks at the table know up front where things are eventually heading, they really enjoy picking apart clues and reading into foreshadowing.</blockquote>