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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrgh! Mark!" data-source="post: 2223052" data-attributes="member: 14559">I used to be a DM like that. My desire for everyone to be as excited by the plot and situation as I was was everything.I don't do that anymore. Interestingly, the players both find themselves harder pressed. If bad guys aren't scripted, they tend to make decisions that directly inhibit the party. Party: Finds an ancient complex filled controlled by The Great Mind, a computer (Not that the characters could know that) hoping to find the final red gem that binds Set to this dimension. The bad guy wrote a letter that the PC's picked up from some dead liutenant mentioning a temple with this fabled gem in it, and he would be moving in a week. They moved in a day.They make it to the most strongly guarded room...To find he'd laid an ambush, the temple didn't have any evil artifact and the BBEG was no-where within a hundred miles, busily assassinating the general they'd left in charge of a country. Teaches characters not to trust blindly that the nemesis isn't as intelligent as they.Between sessions I actively think of his power level as I've described it and where he could be at any given time and what he would want to do. If they catch him off guard, they catch him off guard - and good for them! It lets low level parties fall under the radar, and high level parties have to outthink rather than just outfight any bad guys.Every DM is tempted to make their bad guys omnipotent. Don't do that. Make them a credible threat, and the less made to die a dramatic death the better. IMHO, you aren't a hero unless you win against insurmountable odds. If a villain is designed to eventually be defeated after trial and tribulation, he is surmountable, eventually.</blockquote>

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