Johannes wrote: > There is also the story archetype, where the quest is not really to defeat > the enemy, but to get the McGuffin. In such a story, you could put the > zombies in as obstacle, to prevent prevent the pcs from getting it without > proper and lengthy preperations.
Hello Johannes, when Mike asked about a most vicious enemy, I was automatically thinking in terms of "defeat X" rather than "recover and deploy Y" -- but building or rebuilding can make a satisfactory game, too. In theory our Traveller campaign has a main enemy, but in practice it is just as satisfactory if we jump from world to world and make enough credits to improve the ship bit by bit. And Mike wrote: > Better than a classic dungeon crawl, though zombies don't have to eat? Hello Mike, I thought zombies need lots of brains and flesh? > One big bad > With several assistants. > And many minions. The archenemy, the named henchmen, and the mooks. The mooks are interchangeable. If the players recognize one as an individual, he or she becomes a minor named henchman. Henchmen are recognizable and have their area of expertise, possibly better than the archenemy in their niche. And then there is the archenemy. Think of a typical James Bond cast. > Big bad might be just one facet in a much larger or a dispersed > group/organiization or co-conspirators. The co might not always be behind the > one the > PC are dealing with, but .. If this was planned all along, it is the classic setup of a campaign -- starting characters gain experience against the lesser henchmen of the archvillain, and when they get enough experience and artifacts/gadgets, they go against more senior henchmen and then the archenemy. Or this is a retcon to continue the campaign when the PCs have defeated the original archenemy. This retcon doesn't have to be a bad thing -- when you have a good party you want to keep it going -- but it is always a bit awkward. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
