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<blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 9249593" data-attributes="member: 5948">I suppose the classic structure for using a recurring villain in a narrative where protagonists are expected to advance in capability, is Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.First act, when they encounter him, early on when he can easily crush them, he doesn't even really pay much attention to them because he's focused on other issues (the Rebel base and then Obi-Wan).&nbsp; They score an expected success against him as a result, and after that they're on his radar.Second act, he's hunting them but not necessarily looking to destroy them, he's got other things in mind which stops him just flat-out killing them.&nbsp; He wants to use Han and Leia as bait to get Luke, and he wants Luke to try to turn him.&nbsp; When they do get to face him, he's just way too strong for them and the closest they can get to a victory is escape.It's only the third act when they can face him on something like equal terms.That's probably a model you could generally follow in an RPG campaign, although it's a bit harder to implement there because of pacing among other reasons.&nbsp; If you want the bad guy to stay engaged in the story, you REALLY have to stretch out stage 2, and that's not always easy to do.&nbsp; PCs don't want to spend an entire tier or two of the mid levels running away.&nbsp; And that's assuming you have a group of players who WILL run away, rather than a group who assumes that the DM wouldn't have had them meet any bad guys that they couldn't kill.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="humble minion, post: 9249593, member: 5948"] I suppose the classic structure for using a recurring villain in a narrative where protagonists are expected to advance in capability, is Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. First act, when they encounter him, early on when he can easily crush them, he doesn't even really pay much attention to them because he's focused on other issues (the Rebel base and then Obi-Wan). They score an expected success against him as a result, and after that they're on his radar. Second act, he's hunting them but not necessarily looking to destroy them, he's got other things in mind which stops him just flat-out killing them. He wants to use Han and Leia as bait to get Luke, and he wants Luke to try to turn him. When they do get to face him, he's just way too strong for them and the closest they can get to a victory is escape. It's only the third act when they can face him on something like equal terms. That's probably a model you could generally follow in an RPG campaign, although it's a bit harder to implement there because of pacing among other reasons. If you want the bad guy to stay engaged in the story, you REALLY have to stretch out stage 2, and that's not always easy to do. PCs don't want to spend an entire tier or two of the mid levels running away. And that's assuming you have a group of players who WILL run away, rather than a group who assumes that the DM wouldn't have had them meet any bad guys that they couldn't kill. [/QUOTE]

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