I don't have any villains.

[Stormonu]

If the characters are making friends, perhaps you might want to invest in a slaver BBEG. If the PC's allies start disappearing out from under them, I'll bet they'll hunt down the cause and put an end to it.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Your village now has water to spare...mmm, wonder if my village can get that decanter of endless water. Hell, most of the people in my village are planning to come to yours in hopes of starting over. Our clerics see your village as evil for leading our people away for the easy life of free flowing water! Already hear that the trade road is going to be re-routed to your village because of that water. Everyone in your village is rich from it!

You get the idea.

Nature and the elements can be a villian.

 

[RangerWickett]

I think the current location has gotten a bit too complicated for me to squeeze any legitimate villain out of it. Time to push the PCs on to a new location with a more obvious foe.

The plan is to wrap up the current ogre plotline and provide something a bit more 'directed,' at least in the short term. I'll fudge a few things to quickly turn last session into a victory where they've staved off war between the riverfolk and ogres, and have an ogre hand over a mini-ritual they can use to resolve the plot thread that brought them here in the first place. (A friend's soul was slowly getting sucked into the maelstrom. The ritual will stop the suckage, but not close the maelstrom yet.)

Then have them receive a dream sending from a friend back home at the village, and then point them at a quick 'dungeon crawl' to find a Portal ritual that will get them home in a jiffy. (Also, it will let me cut down a bit on redundant scenes of trekking across the wilderness.)

Ritual can be guarded by a dragon who cursed a city and caused its inhabitants to rise as undead. Defeating him lifts the curse, wins big hurrahs.

When they get home, they discover that a unit from 'the Golden Legion' came by and was driven off when they tried to forcibly recruit some villagers (the party hates mind control). They're looking for mana sources for some nefarious purpose, and they went . . . thataway.

I think that will work.

Also, I'm telling the players outright:

You like your fellow players as people, and you'd help them even if there wasn't anything immediately in it for you. Your characters got together because of mutual goals. Now that the thing that got you all together has been resolved, I'm asking that you nudge your characters so that they like each other enough to stick together. The next plot thread will focus on PCs A & B, and seriously, I think the best way to motivate C, D, and E is just to have you guys be friends.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I took a bit here, a bit there, and will put a bit in the campaign later. Much obliged.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Surely in their meandering they've had to make SOME kind of enemies, even ones that they don't know of.

"I'm lookin' for the man that shot mah paw!" as the Western stereotype goes.

As much killing as the typical party goes, they had to leave behind some survivors. I don't mean from the actual combats, but from the families of the deceased.

It doesn't matter how evil someone is, if you look hard enough, you'll find they were someone else's beloved. Even Jeff Dahmer's parents were sad to hear he died, after all.

 

[RangerWickett]

"I'm lookin' for the man that shot mah paw!" as the Western stereotype goes.

As much killing as the typical party goes, they had to leave behind some survivors. I don't mean from the actual combats, but from the families of the deceased.

It doesn't matter how evil someone is, if you look hard enough, you'll find they were someone else's beloved. Even Jeff Dahmer's parents were sad to hear he died, after all.

This is the amazing thing. The campaign is part 2 of a game I ran a couple years ago, which ended with this awesome climax: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/197996-how-end-world.html#post3564293

The total death count, since we picked the game back up in January:

* 1 ogre whom the party chased down after driving off the invaders. Four ogres had kidnapped some townsfolk before escaping, and the PCs only killed one of them because they had to.

* A few sabertooth tiger kittens were collateral damage when the PCs tried to scare off their mom who was attacking an innocent bystander. They've also killed some undead, some bats, an a twisted half-metal beast. None of them sentient.

* A Vrock who was serving as the minion of one of the ogre leaders. The fight also involved 3 ogres, whom the PCs spared. They even enlisted the ogre leader they'd beaten as an ally.

* One PC took revenge against an ogre who'd attacked his mom, and they both died in the process. Then they were fused together by magic and brought back to life as one being.

* In the last session, an enemy used an area attack on the party, which a PC redirected, and that ended up killing one of the enemies. The rest of the enemies surrendered when the PCs knocked out their leader and ordered them to stand down.

The kill count is insanely low by normal adventurer standards. Part of this is because one player consciously decided to make a 'moral' character, to show how adventuring would be if you couldn't just kill your way to victory. Still, yeah, they do have people who are disgruntled at them, but they have enough support from the people who give those folks orders that they've been safe. Another reason for me to shoo the PCs to some place new.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

The best villains are the ones the heroes create

You have a PC who intentionally takes measures to avoid killing? That is a very good source of future villains.

All you need to do is take any one survivor that the players let live after a fight, preferably one that the players did not capture and arrange to have imprisoned. Then have that villain do some especially reprehensible things, and have an NPC go to the player for help.

Once the players realize someone they let live has managed to do some truly brutal things, it will probably kick off some wonderfully angsty character development.

Hell, it is Spidermans origin story that he failed to stop someone that later did something to affect him personally.

What I propose here is a bit different. The villain should not care who the PC's are, but they should do something to someone the PC's care about.

Another idea is to have someone that the players let live decide to 'help' the players by following them, a few days behind, and cleaning up the loose ends and actually killing enemies the players chose to let live. When the players confront the person following them, that person should thank the players for letting him live, and promise he has only been killing bad people who were going to do bad things. This can create a situation where the players are put into a moral quandary. How do they deal with a villain who actually wants to help the players but does so using means that are basically unacceptable?

END COMMUNCIATION

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Still, yeah, they do have people who are disgruntled at them, but they have enough support from the people who give those folks orders that they've been safe. Another reason for me to shoo the PCs to some place new.

The world is full of people who disobeyed orders and/or sacrificed everything you'd think they held dear in order to exact revenge.