This is more the concept that I would run for. While the Players are important, they aren't the centre of gaming world (usually). If the big bad is a King or Duke with the ultimate aim of conquering whole nations, then they probably aren't going to be bothered by that group of peasants making a little bit of noise of the edges of their territories. Perhaps later, once those peasants are a little famous, our are even trying to build their own army, that's when the king might notice them and send someone to deal with them.craddoke said:As a variant of the tiered Enemy who gains power gradually, you can also have the tiered Enemy Organization. Basically, the greatest fear of all mid-level managers is that a problem they can't handle will be referred up the executive chain of command and they will lose their job. The same thing would be true of an Evil mid-level manager (although that's kind of a redundant title). No one who knows about the party of adventurers and their early successes would want to tell the Evil CEO about them - hence, he/she doesn't find out about them until they're a somewhat credible threat - at which point a whole bunch of (surviving) Evil mid-level managers will find themselves summarily terminated. Of course, once the Evil CEO learns this information it only makes sense if he comes down like a hammer on the party of adventurers - but this is fine since it creates a natural third act to the adventure plot (e.g., 1. humble but promising beginning [Tatooine]; 2. First major triumph [Death Star I]; 3. Horrible setback [Cloud City]; 4. Ultimate triumph [Teddy Bear Jamboree]).
The other argument is, why does there have to be a specific baddie? The only games I've ever played that featured a Boss were one-offs, with a fairly rigid story-structure.
It seems these last two articles are at odds with each other. What happens if the Players decide to join forces with "the evil one"? That would certainly derail most plots. Would you force them to always be good, even if they didn't want to? On the other hand, what if the Players decide to ditch everything and run away to a safer place, and never bother "the evil one" again? Would they get dragged kicking and screaming back in?