Do all BBEGs act this way?

[CruelSummerLord]

Do all BBEGs operate in secrecy, behind the scenes, using complicated intrigues and plots, and all these other things, never confronting the good guys directly unless forced to?

Would it be bad tactics to want to engage your enemies directly, or to take pleasure in inflicting terror on your targets? Surely a black knight might enjoy the thrill of combat, or a wizard relish the chance to display his power.

Surely some dragons, in their arrogance, might take pleasure in toying with the puny mortals, only bringing out the heavy artillery if they meet sterner resistance than they expected.

Sure, "Bad Guys Don't Fight Fair", but that doesn't mean they automatically target the PCs' defenseless loved ones, either-especially when the bad guy in question doesn't know where these loved ones live and can't afford to waste his limited resources trying to track them down and send his minions after them-especially when it turns out said loved ones live four countries away. If PCs can't always get what they want, BBEGs can't always get what they want either; heroes only have so many resources, and so do villains.

Now, I'm not saying that villains can't be master plotters and intriguers, never revealing themselves unless absolutely necessary, working through several layers of secrecy and having tremendous resources at their disposal-but not every villain is like that.

Just because something might look like the best tactic, from a cold-blooded DM's point of view, doesn't mean the villain will automatically adopt it. Whether it's out of a perverted sense of honor, a lack of resources, acting out of anger and a desire to personally crush their hated foes, or enjoying being able to display their power, villains can oftentimes act just as openly as any hero.

Great villains come in all forms: For every Professor Moriarty, there's a Darth Vader. For every Pope Alexander Borgia, there's an Attila the Hun.

That's just my opinion.

Thoughts?

Edit: Changed Sauron to Darth Vader to reflect what was pointed out in the first response.

 

[Zurai]

Great villains come in all forms: For every Professor Moriarty, there's a Sauron.

Incredibly bad example

Sauron is actually one of the most subtle BBEGs in fantasy literature, at least at the beginning. You know how he made the One Ring so powerful? He showed all the other races how to make Rings of Power first, but he did it in a way that left the Rings vulnerable to control from the One Ring that he later crafted all by himself. Only the Elves were suspicious enough of him to not entirely heed his advice, which is why the Elven Rings are the only ones Sauron doesn't control at the start of Lord of the Rings (Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel have those three). Also, at one point he manages to bluff the GODS and the entire WORLD (except, as mentioned, the elves) into believing that no, really, he was misguided when he followed Morgoth and he's really a good guy now, honest, really.

To answer your question, though: because BBEGs that just rely on brute force are pretty boring, and don't tend to live very long. Either they TPK the party, or the party kills them, or the BBEG deus ex machinas escape after escape until the players threaten to mutiny and the DM finally lets him die.

 

[Baron Opal]

The BBEGs in Midnight are as blatant as they get. They control society, play god with the peasantry, take what they want when they want it and are the only ones who have the magical means to back up their threats. Sure there are some elves in the forest and dwarves in the mountains, but Izrador's troops will root them out soon enough.

 

[jdrakeh]

Do all BBEGs operate in secrecy, behind the scenes, using complicated intrigues and plots, and all these other things, never confronting the good guys directly unless forced to?

No, though that tends to be the default mode for most BBEGs in film and literature. Exceptions that I can think of include Doctor Strangelove, Davros (Dr. Who villain), Galactus, etc, etc. They're out there, just uncommon.

[Edit: In fact, wouldn't fantasizing something like Failsafe or. . . man. . . I really need to get back to work on that fantasy '24' campaign.]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have multiple EGs in my campaign. The BBEG seems more mysterious than he really is, simply because intelligence on him is limited and mostly comes through highly unreliable sources (especially an allegedly independent MBEG). But he's pursuing a fairly straightforward plan to destroy the barony, requiring multiple McGuffins and sending agents to collect them. He also is planning on doing non-subtle things like assassination attempts and raids.

OTOH, the MBEG is subtle to the point of being seen as being one of the good guys by everyone but the player characters, making him a different sort of challenge.

And then there's the local bishop, who's not a bad guy at all, but is an antagonist nonetheless, pursuing an agenda counter to the player characters', with considerable political might to back it up.

And finally, there's the REALLY subtle group operating just under the player characters' noses that they don't know anything about yet, despite having interacted with them since the very first adventure of the campaign.

 

[CruelSummerLord]

I have multiple EGs in my campaign. The BBEG seems more mysterious than he really is, simply because intelligence on him is limited and mostly comes through highly unreliable sources (especially an allegedly independent MBEG). But he's pursuing a fairly straightforward plan to destroy the barony, requiring multiple McGuffins and sending agents to collect them. He also is planning on doing non-subtle things like assassination attempts and raids.

OTOH, the MBEG is subtle to the point of being seen as being one of the good guys by everyone but the player characters, making him a different sort of challenge.

And then there's the local bishop, who's not a bad guy at all, but is an antagonist nonetheless, pursuing an agenda counter to the player characters', with considerable political might to back it up.

And finally, there's the REALLY subtle group operating just under the player characters' noses that they don't know anything about yet, despite having interacted with them since the very first adventure of the campaign.

Ah, variety. The spice of life.

See, this is a campaign I would enjoy. Some villains operate openly, others are subtle, some are not evil, just antagonistic.

Not every villain is a cold-blooded reinarcnation of Machiavelli. One group is like that, but not all of them.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Do all BBEGs operate in secrecy, behind the scenes, using complicated intrigues and plots, and all these other things, never confronting the good guys directly unless forced to?

Would it be bad tactics to want to engage your enemies directly

No. It would depend on the character.

or to take pleasure in inflicting terror on your targets?

Depends on the victims, but inflicting terror never works on adventurers, vigilantes and so forth. (Expecting that to work is an example of genre blindness.)

Surely a black knight might enjoy the thrill of combat, or a wizard relish the chance to display his power.

That's reasonable, but the GM has to realize the BBEG will probably die early doing that. It's difficult to defeat the PCs without also killing them.

Surely some dragons, in their arrogance, might take pleasure in toying with the puny mortals, only bringing out the heavy artillery if they meet sterner resistance than they expected.

I hate it when villains act this way. Villains should never toy with their opponents. They might underestimate them (like Xykon sending the chimera to kill the OOTS) but they should never "toy with them".

Just because something might look like the best tactic, from a cold-blooded DM's point of view, doesn't mean the villain will automatically adopt it. Whether it's out of a perverted sense of honor, a lack of resources, acting out of anger and a desire to personally crush their hated foes, or enjoying being able to display their power, villains can oftentimes act just as openly as any hero.

I think you're reasonable... but the BBEG cannot be stupid. They can like fighting or have limited resources, but if they start toying with the heroes they deserve to lose, and fast.

Great villains come in all forms: For every Professor Moriarty, there's a Darth Vader. For every Pope Alexander Borgia, there's an Attila the Hun.

If you ask me, all those guys except for Darth Vader were pretty subtle. Attila would sow chaos before he attacked. The Romans couldn't face him without allies, so Attila would try to break the alliances before the attacks. He tied/lost the Battle of Chalons because he couldn't break up the alliance that time.

 

[Quartz]

IMHO BBEGs are only overt when they no longer need to be covert. It is at this point that they usually get thwarted. Pride goeth before a fall and all that.