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Using outside players for BBEG

   
Quote:
Originally Posted by TanaNari View Post
The captain requires a certain sort of player to make work. I, personally, would LOVE to play that role. The BBEG part aside, I like strategy sims. TB or RT. And can think quickly and analytically.

The problem with me... is the part where I'm probably a bit too good at it to be the BBEG against most players... to put it bluntly, I wouldn't lose. Once the heroes prove they can beat a single strike force... I'd either find a way to buy them. Or use every resource at my disposal simultaneously to overwhelm them. There wouldn't be a middle ground.


So you'd need characters (and, more importantly, players) who know how to play the game and play it well. Either that, or it'd have to be a Luthor/Superman thing... where, frankly, the baddie would legitimately win... if the hero wasn't so incredibly powerful.
The way around this is to present the BBEG player with multiple threats. Only one of which is the PCs. So the BBEG is juggling multiple threats with limited resources, which is kind of the point of being a strategy player anyway, and can't actually spare the 'Big Hammer' to come down on the PCs. Instead has to use trickery and such, or lesser forces. And as time goes on, either the BBEG player has to give up on ancillary goals as the PCs get closer and closer to the real plan and watch his shell corporations and secondary fronts and ammo stockpiles and such go down in flames as he pulls out all his assets to fight this inordinately persistent group of NATO investigators, but by that time they're not level 3 anymore, they're level 12 and have allies, so it's not a stomp, it's an even fight.

Or maybe the BBEG wipes out the other threats but by this time the PCs have his plan and a high enough level to do something about it etc.

It's just a matter of presenting the BBEG player with enough threats that he can't instantly win against all of them, i.e. Being a GM. And if he drops everything to target the PCs just because they're PCs, that's metagaming. No different than sneaking a peek at the GM's notes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rejakor View Post
It's just a matter of presenting the BBEG player with enough threats that he can't instantly win against all of them, i.e. Being a GM. And if he drops everything to target the PCs just because they're PCs, that's metagaming. No different than sneaking a peek at the GM's notes.
If I were to do this, I'd introduce a number of different groups of plucky and courageous individuals to be thorns in the BBEG's side, so that it's not immediately obvious which is the PC group. Heck, I might even be sneaky enough not to let the BBEG in on the secret at all.

Using several groups would work, the best thing to do however is ask the pc's to give ideas about the other groups. That way the BBEG would not be able to tell one from another. Possibly make several groups of pc's to really screw with him.

I wouldn't blatantly have the players give suggestions outright like that. Rather, I'd arrange in-game events to give the PCs chances to coordinate and cooperate with the other groups, and maybe they'll offer suggestions at that time, leveraging resources from the friendly organizations.

Another idea, for if you have more than one group of PCs, lets say 2 groups of 4, and you start with about 300 troops, is to just harass them as they get closer. Go for skirmishes rather than all out fighting.

The goal of these attacks would be to A. rob them of supplies they need, which slows them down since they have to acquire more and drains them of money resources. Or B. Wear them down, which also slows them as they have to recover.

Overall the ideal way to do these things is to lose as few forces as possible while still accomplishing one of the two goals. 100 soldiers in losses would be acceptable over the course of time. All the while, you consolidate resources and prepare your forces and castle/fortress for the final confrontation.

Then when they finally arrive, all out attack, try to divide them and overwhelm them. Granted the first 4 enemies they face they may be able to overcome individually with little problems due to being higher levels by this point, but then there's 4 more incoming, they'll start to wear down due to all the damage they'll be taking.

Then once one falters, collapse and destroy them and them go back to fighting the rest as before until another falters, systematically destroying the two groups with overwhelming numbers. Of course during all this, you and the sergeant, should he have survived this long, will be out there helping the fight and directing the army from the front lines.

Side Note: I think this thread no longer serves a purpose. The OP hasn't been on since some time in February.

OP = Original Poster for those that may wonder.




 

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