In this second installment of an ongoing series, we’re discussing bad guys you can write your campaign around. An Evil Mentor is someone the PCs have been working for, and guided by, this whole time. It works well for most RPG campaigns because it brings personal stakes to your end-boss, and can weave in threads of multiple missions which have already been completed. Whether an archmage who’s been possessed by a demon, a starship captain who’s been replaced by his mirror-universe counterpart, or a CEO secretly directing missions to build her stock price, the evil mentor is a familiar trope. One of the downfalls of an evil mentor is that it’s so widely used that it’s quite predictable, and so you may want to throw in some twists (there actually were evil people plotting to kill them, they have tainted themselves with wild magic *so that* Detect Evil spells wont work on them, and so on). This trope is most effective when it means something to your players- they’ve tested this relationship and they rely on the NPC, and so a betrayal like this really shocks them. Example: Mayor Richard Wilkins III has always been driven to accomplish his goal, but shucks, it’s not an easy job some days. You know what might help, just running the place... get the police on board, hush up the problems, and keep all the evil critters in check. Heck, he even pays off the Vampires to keep quiet some days. It certainly makes it easier to accomplish his own goals, and when that includes living for a hundred years, faking your death twice, and then taking power while pretending to be your own descendant, then that’s just well and dandy. His goals include better parking for the soccer moms, some urban re-zoning, some funding for the library, casual Fridays... oh, and ascending to become a true Daemon once his century-long ritual has been completed. If those pesky kids will just take the hint and stay out of the way... (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 18 August 2018) Categories All Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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