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Message: <blockquote data-quote="payn" data-source="post: 9395628" data-attributes="member: 90374">In adventure path play they often have a BBEG whose defeat (or victory) signals end of the campaign. Though, its usually a build up through the entire campaign to one amazing fight as the BBEG was out of sight or working in the shadows. This can be pretty exciting as players unravel the conspiracy and face its executors. My favorite was a slight edit of my own to have the BBEG befriend and mentor the PCs for the first half of the campaign before they realized, "uh oh...". I didnt think I could pull it off but it worked as a surprise and within the game rules. I know many dont introduce BBEG early becasue magic can be a shortcut to facing a campaign capstone early. While I have a great time running adventure paths, I also run open world sandboxes which operate just fine without a single BBEG. I have developed a metagoal requirement of my sandboxes as I find meandering new episode every week play to be aimless and less enjoyable. The metagoal might be something like empire building in whcih the players have a myriad of options before them, but every choice leads towards the metagoal over the campaign. Its like having a north star that the players can always look for if lost. My favorite was the players forming an alliance to beat back encroaching empires from conquering a neutral space. The BBEG in that campaign was actually a series of factions instead of a single character.</blockquote>

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