DM Question: How to distinguish between leading by the nose and keeping your plot.

[dascarletm]

Like it says, how do you know what's the line between keeping your plot going and just forcing your characters. My current campaign seems to be going good but I foresee problems in the future and I want to get some help before hand

So, I'm running a campaign using one of the deities and demigods alternate religions (the one with Elishar and Toldoth if you have the book or read it), and the main villain is a necromancer that I intend to be a recurring character throught the campaign. Pretty much he's bringing toldoth into the world through necromancy so that him and the forces of elishar are so weakend after the great battle that he can mop up and rule the world afterward as the one and only god. He's like supposed to be like this smartest man in the world deal and whatever...

Anyway, so they fought the necromancer once and he died but he planned it so that he'd just get rezed afterwards. They found out and know he's going to be tricky and all that but anyway let me get to the point.

My players are pretty clever and they'll no doubt try to find a way to outsmart him and put an end to him for good. Which is great I want them to try and think of ways to defeat him (really the campaign cruxes on them just trying to screw up his plans to make both forces as equal as possible) and get him for good. If they do this my campaign would just end prematurely unless I just keep coming up with ways to make their plans fail.

I know as a player that can be frustrating to know that no matter what I did the DM would just make the same outcome anyway.

So what should I do? Where do I draw the line between keeping my planned plot going, and letting the players be creative to solve problems?

[kharmakazy]

Having the BBEG somehow survive against all odds is a time tested plot element.

The trick, is letting the players do whatever it is they want to do and not just declaring that what they attempt to do doesn't work. Nothing is more frustration imho. So at some point after they think the guy is clearly dealt with, he comes back somehow. The players needent find out exactly HOW either. They can choose to investigate and maybe find out how he came back THAT TIME, but in a world chock full of magic coming back from the dead just isn't all that hard to do. Come up with a good half a dozen ways he could have survived and pick one.

Contingent teleport and cure? PaO a statue of him into a him and poof? Clones? Whatever.

So long as he actually goes down when the players trounce him soundly enough, him coming back later will probably be viewed as an obstacle to overcome rather than railroading. Think Jason Vorhees. :smallcool:

Railroading only really becomes a problem IMO when you are deciding at nearly all times what places players are allowed to go, what actions they can take, how their character behave (:smallfurious:), and performing various blatant acts of world rewriting directly in front of their faces just to stifle their actions.

That doesn't sound like you from what you posted. You really just want to have a recurring villain like darn near every piece of fiction ever. Good on you and good luck!

[Kefkafreak]

What I did once was the BBEG had a way of trapping the soul of his most powerful lieutenants so that the characters couldn't do it themselves, even if he wasn't there when they died.

[Darcand]

I would let them stop him. Nothing is as satisfying as defeating the bad guy and few things are more frustrating then being thwarted over and over again.

If you really want to stop them from stopping him right away though then just don't have him come back right away. Distract them with another mini campaign in the middle. Maybe he set gears in motion for something really bad and really urgent to happen as part of his plan to keep his killers too busy to deal with him.

Typically, if you give players something to do then they'll do it. Give them nothing specific and they will keep beating the dead horse in the assumption that you plan on it coming back to life.

[Temet Nosce]

So what should I do? Where do I draw the line between keeping my planned plot going, and letting the players be creative to solve problems?

Well, how far does your BBEG go? Don't just automatically rule whatever the PCs do a failure or a success based, try to work out your NPCs plan of action in advance, and adhere to it. If the players manage to kill off the character in spite of the preparations he would've taken, then more power to them.

What you really shouldn't do is use your power as a DM to interfere with what would occur. They can either succeed or not based on their own merit, and if they do... well, either repurpose the campaign or let it end on a high point. Still, depending on what the BBEG was doing/other NPCs involved I'd think it wouldn't hard to just switch the focus if they do kill him. Maybe killing him made something worse happen, let loose an imprisoned servant, or otherwise made a mess.