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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7832488" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, the "BBEG" is a particular sort of villain. Unlike in fiction, gamers rarely find themselves confined to a particular villain, but instead face off against many villains. If you are not familiar with Rich Burlew's "The Order of the Stick", then you should reserve a few hours and acquaint yourself. It's quite good and surprisingly deep and thoughtful.That done, there are many many villains in 'The Order of the Stick', but there is only one BBEG. Nale is a villain, but he's not the BBEG. Tsukiko is a villain, but she's not the BBEG. Tarquin is someone's BBEG in someone else's story, but he's not the BBEG of the party. Even Hel the death goddess isn't the BBEG of the story, despite being nominally the most powerful antagonist the party has faced off against. It's been safe to assume through most of the story that Xykon is the BBEG, but lately I'm wondering.The campaign in "The Order of the Stick" has had a complex and evolving story, but Xykon has been for the longest time the driving force behind the party's motivation. It's Xykon's plot that brings the party together and which drives most of the action by Team Good. Along the way there are many side plots and side quests, but ultimately it's all about getting back to that confrontation with Xykon.Is this the only way to construct a table top RPG campaign? No, of course not. But it is by no means a bad one. If a campaign has a structure at all, it's likely to have one or more BBEGs. For my campaign, the BBEG has been "Archmage Keeropus", and along the way there have been a huge number of other villains.Even if you have a more sand boxy episodic structure, you are likely to end up having BBEGs.   If you look at most classic D&D adventure modules, they have a BBEG in them somewhere: Acererak the Eternal, Lareth the Beautiful, Zuggtmoy, Lloth, Strahd, etc.   If you have an adventure of  the weak, it's likely to have a villain of the weak, and if that villain has a cunning plan, and is behind the event that is driving the player actions, then he's not just a villain but the BBEG.Note that B2 doesn't have a BBEG, but it might be a better module if it did.  Instead, it just has a bunch of mini-bosses with no clear overarching structure.   As such, it has no narrative, just tactics.</blockquote>

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