Desperate odds, equalizers, and leaving LotR behind

[Psion]

Okay, possibly confusing subject title.

I occasioned to rent the FotR DVD and it refreshed in my mind the "small party against desperate odds" situation, one which I used to use a lot but have sort of gotten away from in favor of the standard D&D "find who's behind this and kick their butt" routine. I had sort of neglected using the technique of making the PCs hunted, pursued, or otherwise at the mercy of the villains of the game.

So, with in mind that I want to do this more, it occurs that you need an equalizer, a way out, a solution for this sort of scenario. It also occurs to me that I use the "kill the dingus that holds the enemy's power / the key to the enemy's plan" all too often. Y'know, the same sort of thing as the "ring must be thrown in the fires of mordor." I need something fresh.

So that said, what other techniques do you use in this sort of situation to be the thing that is the "solution" that allows the PCs to overcome the Big Bad Guy [TM]?

 

[myrdden]

What's a "dingus"?



Myrdden

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I'm not a 100% sure what you're looking for, but I'll take a stab at it.


Political: There is no way the bad guy can be defeated. The party must raise an army or get several kingdoms to ally as a single force.

Talky-talk: The bad guy has already performed "the big ritual that turns him into a being of pure evil". The party must reasearch histories of the bad guy and find the one thing he cares about enough to voluntarily step down.

Salt the land: Destory the world in order to save it. The bad guy rules over all, so the party must cause a Catycalism as the only possible means to free the world from the bad guy's iron grip.


... but for pure cheese you just can't beat those wacky time travel gizmos.

 

[Crothian]

Good question. I haven't used this type of campaign in a while. The last time, it was a person they needed to seek out or more to the point save. The big bad was actually a good person who went to the side of evil to save his daughter. He was willing to do anything, sacrifice everything so she could live. The PCs had to find a different way to save her before he brought the ruin to the world. He wanted to kill the PCs becasue he knew they were after his daughter, he thought they were trying to kill her.

 

[Psion]

What's a "dingus"?

A dingus.... it's a generic term for a "very important item" in the plot of a fantasy game that is the essential solution to the problem. For example, the weed that can cure the king, the sword that can fell the demon, the ritual totem that will keep the barbarians from going to war, etc. I get the impression that it sprung for literature before that.

 

[Apok]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by Big Bad Guy. In my monday night campaign, the group's main antagonist is a Sorcerer that they have been chasing ever since he stole a book that one of the PC's was transporting as part of his mission. They managed to retrieve the book, but were then plunged into a nightmare dungeon crawl through a desecrated Temple of Tyr located about 6 miles underground courtesy of said Sorc. Now their motivation is a combination of revenge and pure hatred (I did my best to make this guy the kind of person you'd love to hate). I do intend for him to be a recurring enemy, but he is basically human and quite killable. If anything, the party will need to use lots of cunning and brains to corner and beat this guy but it can be done without the aid of a specific magical gewjaw.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Specifically, I believe "dingus" was how Bogart referred to the Maltese Falcon. The ultimate MacGuffin.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

So that said, what other techniques do you use in this sort of situation to be the thing that is the "solution" that allows the PCs to overcome the Big Bad Guy [TM]?

I don't care for the villians with the Achilles' heel.

They usually have their weaknesses, but the one-solution quest doesn't do it for me.

The closest example I have is one of my current villians comes from a mostly-honorable familiar and he is very close to his sister. If/when she discoveres his behavior, then she will be an ally for the pc's.

FD

 

[Psion]

Political: There is no way the bad guy can be defeated. The party must raise an army or get several kingdoms to ally as a single force.

That makes me think of some other thoughts I was having today. Though my game world has a rich history, my nations pretty much ally along the typical good/evil axes. I sort of need to shake this a little (and an event I have planned in the near future will facilitate that--my major evil empire will soon be get a neutral ruler, and the followers of the evil emperor will be forced into exile, but then the REALLY bad evil will come up, but people still won't trust the formerly evil empire), but for the time being, usually alliances are easily made. I have had instances where the bad guys try to drive a wedge between nations, but nothing that occurs as a natural outgrowth of the politics. There is one exception... in the islands, I have always had a sort of backdrop that there have been racial tensions between the humans and elves.

 

[Gavin]

A good equalizer would be a force more powerful than the villain, but not one initially arrayed against him. What comes to mind for me is a powerful criminal being faced with "the Law". The criminal can try to destroy the party, but he has to avoid being discovered/caught by the Law. The heroes can get the Law on their side, but first they have to find proof of the villain's wrongdoing, which can be extremely difficult.

In this scenario "the Law" can be any powerful organization in control, and "wrongdoing" could be anything that would agitate those in control. Not necessarily good or evil (or law or chaos, really).


Hmmm. See, this is what happens when you watch 3 episodes of "Law and Order" every day.