Ideas for a Big Bad

[Sam113097]

I recently ran the first session of a new campaign, and it went well. I've started to establish the world and all the players seem to be having fun, but I have a problem. I can't come up with an antagonist for the story! I have two imminent threats
(a rebellion and a growing Orc army), but I need something on an even larger scale. What should my players save the world from?

(I am running Dungeon World, and the world is fairly standard. The only major differences are that Orcs are not an "always chaotic evil" race", and I'm using a small homebrew pantheon.)

[VoxRationis]

The villain who is whispering in the ears of both the rebel leader and the orc warlord, urging them to violence and war? Possibly someone with some sort of mind-affecting magic? An emissary from a foreign empire of impossible sophistication and power, seeking to sow destruction and prevent advancement among the "barbarian" lands so that no one could ever rise against it?

[noob]

Standardized big bad: choose one class and give it one high level then think about why he did all this and what he wants and what he lived for each of those you can choose multiple things:
Throwing some examples
His actions were led by his hunger for power and he is not necessarily evil he is just ambitious.
He believe he is doing the right thing by creating a rebellion for striking the king he thinks to be bad.
He is helping the orcs to win the war by patriotism.
He wants the mac guffin in the kingdom for helping people/his own power/destroying/any other objective.
You can also make of any of those secondary plans and give him other plans on a greater scheme for throwing the next adventure reasons.
Then there is his past and there is tons of ways to justify why he is what he is.
And you add elements until your standardized villain looks complete and if you have a genius stroke you can make him particular.

[Flickerdart]

The bets way to think about this is - what are the consequences of failure?

1. The world is destroyed! As in, the universe is literally disassembled atom by atom. This is a threat beyond the mightiest of all but the strongest evil gods, and would have to be backed by an epic conspiracy spanning the lifetime of the universe itself! The conspiracy is probably not ready, and you can have your PCs tangle with some cultists. Evoke Lovecraftian themes of the "you may have won now, but long after your bones are dust, we will still toil" variety.
2. The world is broken! Whether the continents plunge into the seas, or plague (of diseases, undead, vermin, or a combination) wipes out all civilization, this is a high-stakes challenge with the opponent being some sort of Druid (for a naturey bend) or demented scientist/occultist.
3. The world is conquered! A warlord of immense power unites your orcs, crushes the rebels, and stomps society's face into the dust. For extra fun, add some soul sacrifices to demons or evil gods.

Most world-scale villains you can come up with are just variations on one of these three themes, which themselves are just arbitrary points on a spectrum from "not too terrible" to "literally the worst consequences".

[Maglubiyet]

What should my players save the world from?

Is there an existing thread you could expand upon based on what the PC's have done so far? Are they part of the rebellion or opposed to it? Have they learned anything about why the orcs are gathering? Has anyone they've fought gotten away? Build on these things, adding a little more each time -- to your players AND yourself. Eventually something might emerge as the clear goal.

There's also the possibility that the world doesn't need saving. Nothing wrong with adventuring solely for money, fame, and power. Of course, that'll make enemies. You can keep a campaign alive for a long time without having an overriding purpose.

[Karl Aegis]

I believe the best villain for this situation for this villain is a white room with black curtains...




In the back of a car.

[Strigon]

I've recently been toying around with the idea of a corrupted Treant BBEG in my D&D campaign, trying to punish humanoid races for being so ruthless in their expansion. It's led me to realize that making encounters for such a villain is easy, because just about any monster could be used by this thing, and it would make perfect sense.
I would consider something similar; maybe a Druid is the big enemy, fueling the rebellion, which will weaken the kingdom whether it succeeds or fails, at which time the orcs move in.
The orcs take over the weakened kingdom, and, being orcs, can't really keep an entire kingdom running too well. Population begins falling, and the evil druid uses this time to gather his power in an attempt to wipe civilization off the face of the planet.

Alternatively, dragons are always a good go-to option.

[Spartakus]

I suggest reading the article about creating villains by the giant himself:

http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTK...Zrh94H1Sn.html

[Segev]

The apparent BBEGs are the twin daughters of the king, jealous that their elder brother is the heir and each wanting the throne for herself. They've been converted to the worship of Lolth, and each has a plan to place herself on the throne: One is the secret sponsor behind the rebellion, and is arranging to have propagandic rumors spread that she wants to enact all the sweet-sounding peasant-friendly policies that would never really work so that the rebels will decide "on their own" to demand she be made heiress and the king step down. The other is secretly draining the royal treasury to build the orc army, using her seductive wiles on the would-be warchief to make him want to be her king while promising great wealth and plunder to the orcs should they succeed.

The potential third BBEG is actually the court minstrel, who is a drow bard in disguise that has corrupted the hearts of the princesses. He has wooed them both (though, due to the orc-leader's infatuation with one, has the rebellion-sponsoring princess more in his hand than the orc-using one), and convinced them that women in his society are in charge, and that's the way he likes it, hence his help getting them their priestesshood.

Depending on the PCs' actions and what parts of what plots they uncover, any of the three could wind up the ultimate BBEG. Thwart the rebellion alone, and the orc princess may outgrow the bard and become the barbarian priestess-queen, preaching a cult of Gruumsh and Lolth as married gods of evil. Thwart the orc army, and the bard could become the dragon to the evil queen who led a successful coup (or at least turned it into a full-fledged civil war) and is spreading Lolth-worship throughout the kingdom. Thwart both, and the bard could be the ultimate BBEG, using the priestess-princesses as catspaws and loyal dragons to first continue to undermine the kingdom, and then to lead a drow invasion of infiltrators and open aggression.

Discover the bard's plot and reveal it to the world, and he may get displaced and the princesses become rival BBEGs, leading a three-way civil war. They could even take some of their forces into the underdark and build their variants of Lolth's cult, creating a war amongst the drow that they plan to turn on the kingdom to make their own drow House(s).