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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 1294519" data-attributes="member: 259">I got to this point in your post, looked over at your location, and felt my heart sink -- are you a player in my campaign?  Oh, thank god! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> This is definitely something I struggle with in running a game.  I create one villain and a big old plan for him, as well as the first night's session material.  But the players only get through a third of what I'd prepared, so for the next week I start thinking about the plan and decide that the BBEG might be pulling in assistance from a secondary villain, and create more material.  The following week, I've decided that the secondary villain is planning on betraying the first villain, but that there's also this other NPC who might be friendly, but who will initially look like the villain to the PCs. By the fourth week, the players are just getting to the heart of the real story, and there's fifty million villains and potential allies out there, all plotting against one another and occasionally against or with the PCs.  Players are loathe to let anything slide for even an afternoon of game-time, because they know that some bad guy or another is going to be making a move. It got so bad that at one point, when I deliberately tried to inject some downtime into the game, the players just about lynched me for being so stingy with clues about where their next contact, their next adventure, might lie. At the same time, intricate plots can allow for very satisfying conclusions:  by the time you finally get to confront the five tweakers who've been making your life hell, you've got a mighty fine grudge worked up. Daniel</blockquote>

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