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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 9249566" data-attributes="member: 3586">Not all adventures treat villains in the same way.In Curse of Strahd and Princes of the Apocalypse, you've got pretty strong villains that work best when the DM takes the material and runs with it. I have problems with the structure of PotA, but I had huge amounts of fun running the different villain factions - who deceived the players, sent them to attack other factions, betrayed them again, claimed to be allied agents working to take the temple down from within - only for the players to learn later that it was the second-in-command using them to eliminate his superior so he could take over!The ideas are there in the adventure as to some uses you can put the villains to, but because the adventure structure is more open-ended, it's very easy to use the villains in such a manner - for the DM to inject their own personalities into it.Then you have more linear experiences where the villains are more constrained in their appearances. Shadow of the Dragon Queen is of that sort, and after hearing about the leader of the Red Dragon Army (and seeing how her armies lay waste the land), you finally meet her in the final encounter of the campaign and kill her. She's not that interesting, but it provides good closure for the campaign. (I rate Shadows of the Dragon Queen as an excellent adventure which is also a terrible representation of the Dragonlance setting).Likewise, in Tomb of Annihilation, you only see the effect of Acererak. He only appears in the final encounter. That's fine. It works well.One of the real disappointments to me is Descent into Avernus. It has a great villain, and if you read the final chapter first, you get all excited about the adventure and how it can end. Then you play through the extremely linear and shallow previous chapters first, and the enthusiasm wanes - the set-up doesn't support the potential brilliance of the villain.Cheers,Merric</blockquote>

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