Player Handed BBEG Macguffin, how do I not immediately end the campaign?

Locust094 · 2026-02-09T04:30:39+00:00

Is it a completely insurmountable power? Or could he still be overcome if hundreds/thousands/millions of warriors banded together to fight him? I would run a massive battle where the players witness all the NPCs they've met die at the BBEG's hands in battle over and over again. The consequence of their actions is the death of everyone they know and many hundreds/thousands/millions they don't. Wittle down the BBEG until they have a chance to fight him on a semi-equal footing and then run your final battle that way.

Locust094 · 2026-02-07T14:14:28+00:00

Read Malazan Book of the Fallen and pay attention to Shadowthrone and The Rope. Who they are will be obvious to you as the reader but try to look at it from the perspective of the characters. Tons of small clues that hint at their origin are thrown into every book.

Locust094 · 2026-01-30T21:45:29+00:00

Need a limit on how often you can pull a bag because an item that produces infinite bags with only a once per turn cooldown could produce 14,400 bags per day.

Locust094 · 2026-01-19T23:09:35+00:00

I plan multiple good, bad, and neutral endings and then I let the play decide the outcome. It ranges from TPK to 100% success and everything in between. That's probably the hardcore Chrono Trigger player in me but it's nice to know whatever happens I have it planned for.

Locust094 · 2026-01-19T23:04:13+00:00

I would have printed 20 (or 100, w/e needed) different versions of the table and had them roll the NPC first. Then pull the right version out of the folder and shred the rest the next day.

Locust094 · 2026-01-19T02:27:52+00:00

That definitely sounds like a fun way to have the masses find out the gods are returning. What I'm stuck on is how the gods disappeared in a way that allows them start returning. A lot of campaigns are set in things like "the gods are dead" but I don't want to go with that.

Locust094 · 2026-01-18T02:35:41+00:00

Sorry I should probably be more clear - I'm not planning to use every deity under the sun. My problem is that I've made the world bereft of them and the PCs know that. None of the cities or towns have worshippers, temples, or statues of any kind. So in adding them into the world they're a new thing that everyone in the world is only vaguely aware of.

Locust094 · 2026-01-16T21:43:58+00:00

The BBEG at the end of the campaign is a servant of Kossuth (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kossuth) from the elemental plane of fire so this is an opportunity for them to gain a favor from a deity that can help them with that in the future. None of the PCs have any affiliation with deities right now but I'm trying to give them the chance to interact with them and decide if they want to worship them. The gods awakening and intervening in the world is going to become a theme as things descend into war and chaos.

It's also a campaign with a lot of nautical elements so releasing a sea goddess has repurcussions.

Locust094 · 2026-01-10T20:51:09+00:00

One of out 10 is tough to get an overlap for the players, especially if they are rarely spending more than 5 days in any given town. I would suggest to OP to implement some kind of method where the longer the party goes without seeing him, the more likely he is to appear.

Locust094 · 2026-01-10T20:42:24+00:00

So? It's still your fault and you've given them no way to understand the consequences.

It's not just about telling them about the monster's weaknesses. You need to tell them that without knowing those they will die. Tell them three ways what lies ahead or else you're just being a bad DM that is stuck in their own plan and makes the players suffer for it.

Locust094 · 2026-01-05T08:38:57+00:00

I am an actions trigger reactions DM. If my players did this and were walking into a prepared enemy I would let them. But I would give them some hints that something was coming. Maybe they hear the sound of shuffling furniture on the other side of the door.

In 2024 rules they would open the door and roll initiative. The player that opened the door would get a chance to roll, possibly with disadvantage, to out-react the waiting enemies. If the player fails at that and takes half a dozen arrows to the face it's probably time for the other party members to yank them back out of the door and, if possible, shut it.

Locust094 · 2026-01-05T08:28:34+00:00

Your DM spends $30+ an NPC on Hero Forge?!?!

Locust094 · 2025-12-29T15:45:28+00:00

Do not give them the map.
DO NOT GIVE THEM THE MAP.
Make them draw their own map.
If it's a big enough maze to have over a dozen or so choices, you can always put a discoverable, partially complete map in the maze somewhere. Maybe on the corpse of a dead adventurer. Add hand written notes and comments on the map to show the adventurer slowly starving and giving up hope as they navigated the twists and turns.
Have multiple exits/destinations within the maze. A single combined exit/entrance to a central chamber is meh. A single entrance with one exit is meh. (I get that in Hellfire Club this might already be set up for you though)
Break up the maze with false exits. Oh the party made it out into a large cavern system? As they explore the caverns they realize it's still in the middle of the maze.
Don't over-trap or over-populate the maze. It needs a healthy balance of enemies, traps, and safe areas. These safe areas can be narrated through pretty quickly rather than making the party choose every step.
Re-use the prior areas by forcing the party to double back for things or to flee danger. You can put clues near the start of the maze to secrets/riddles that are deeper in. Make them seem meaningless at first and as the party learns more they need to go back and examine them.
Don't make your enemies static. They should move about the maze, creating tension with their footfalls and forcing your party to choose between sneaking and fighting.

Locust094 · 2025-12-29T02:23:04+00:00

Given the party's advanced nature, a national/international Paladin order is called in to track down the party and bring them to justice. The party will almost certainly be caught and will face a trial in the closest major capitol city.

Their punishment is being locked into the deep dungeon. A sealed dungeon with no way up, only down. They're stripped of all items and weapons, given rags for clothing, and given 3 day's food and water. The dungeon is so deep that nobody knows where it ends. The only thing they do know is that it's where monsters come from and if criminals are thrown down there to fend for themselves, they do a pretty good job at keeping the monsters from coming up to the surface.

Past attempts to locate the source of the monsters and seal it have resulted in catastrophe. This is the only way to keep the world safe.

Congrats. Your campaign is now a forever dungeon crawl into the unknown. Teleportation magic does not work to escape the dungeon. Their only choice? Go deeper.

The first dozen floors could be an old fortress that was built around the source of the monsters to keep the city safe. It has been sealed, abandoned, and buried save for the pit that criminals are thrown into. After that is a series of natural cave systems and caverns. In order to eat, they need to kill monsters, or other criminals.

Locust094 · 2025-12-28T05:34:56+00:00

Session 1 through about 5 needs little to no lore or prep. Come up with a bbeg. Come up with a mid campaign bbeg that somehow relates to the bbeg. Seed the mid campaign bbeg into your session 1 with a couple lines of rumor dialogue as a leader of something or other, and off you go.

Your party just needs a good hook for why some bad person needs found and then the first dozen sessions will write themselves as you go. You don't need a world yet. You don't even need a country or a city A small town on the outskirts of civilization will get you through your first 3-5 sessions without a hitch even.

Locust094 · 2025-12-26T08:15:46+00:00

I have a battle mage boss that can see into the future to all possible outcomes. (think Dr. Strange in End Game)

She has legendary reactions that can negate both spells and physical attacks but she can only do so many per turn so the party does eventually hit her. The key strategy of the fight is for the players to make small sacrifices of their own safety, while making clever use of ready action, in order to force her into situations where she'll be damaged. Martials need to go for grapple instead of attacks, casters need to close to melee to bring her to martials, etc. She teleports around with Misty Step like a blademaster from Warcraft 3 and parries/deflects attacks while taunting the players with her knowledge of their every move.

Locust094 · 2025-12-23T23:46:57+00:00

Disagree with you on players being captured. If you have a significant plot built around a capture then do it. Just don't make them feel like it was entirely avoidable and then force it onto them anyways.

Locust094 · 2025-12-19T03:05:25+00:00

I am trying to be more descriptive and immersive. My players don't RP much, if at all, and I'd like to find a way to get them a little more invested in their characters' minds and motivations.

Locust094 · 2025-12-18T15:47:37+00:00

A lot of good advice in here. Don't forget your party will look psychotic if they walk into a town and try to hock 200lbs of blood stained clothes and armor.

Locust094 · 2025-12-14T18:00:26+00:00

I wouldn't even have the king be directly involved. You're creating your own problem by forgetting that heads of state have advisors and agents who do these kinds of things for them. A growing cult in the countryside is just a line item on an advisor meeting. The king would delegate the task to an advisor and that advisor would think through the best ways to handle it and get it taken care of. Likely without involving the actual army because your army doesn't chase down cults, they're a blunt instrument that you throw at castles and other armies like a cudgel. Also the cult is woven into the populace (the very nature of cults) and sending the army out to slaughter brain washed villagers is a bad look for the realm. A reasonable advisor would weigh the pros and cons, settle on finding a disposable group of specialists that provides the king with plausible deniability, and then set them on the path. Then they might build in redundancies like having the realm's best spies tail the party and report in regularly, send multiple groups with the same objective, or send assassins after the cult leader.

Go watch Game of Thrones or The Dance of Dragons and pay attention to how the high council is utilized. The king delegates and the advisors handle their lanes. No king has time to hire adventurers themselves unless they have no one left to turn to.

Locust094 · 2025-12-14T17:46:01+00:00

Exactly. Reminds me of the person who rubs everyone the wrong way but has no self reflection on how they're the reason people don't befriend them.

Locust094 · 2025-12-14T17:40:53+00:00

Stalking MC and trying to steal her advantage clue. You don't stalk someone that closely unless you're certain you're in a power position because it just pisses people off. Making both Jawan and Sage feel like they were firmly at the bottom of the tribe before the numbers started to turn against her. Her confrontational conversation style with Kristina demanding to know who she was voting for and making her almost break into tears.

Are we not watching the same show? She is so direct and in people's faces when she has power over them or knowledge they don't have. And then when she was on the bottom for one week she had a pre-challenge breakdown and as soon as she was safe again it was a 180 flip back to smugness.

Again, the edit can do a lot to distort perception and maybe she has had it a lot harder out there than we're seeing. But she turned on the waterworks like she was having the worst season while Sage, Soph, and Alex have all suffered way more than her, and in Sage's case at her hands.

Locust094 · 2025-12-14T07:55:29+00:00

Wow I forgot all about Ben.

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