#BBEG concept

[terrahistorian]

BBEG Idea - The Sandman

An enemy that I've always wanted to run in a DnD campaign, is a psychic weakling. Alone, not at all a problem, the most they can do is influence dreams, give nightmares, sew a little bit of discord.

Until they come across a slumbering Beholder.

For those that don't know, Beholders don't reproduce through conventional means, they hate literally everything too much to mate with another of their kind. So, you may ask, where do Beholders come from? The answer is dreams. Whenever a Beholder dreams up another of their kind, that dream manifests in the Material Plane as a newly created Beholder.

So, seeing a chance, this psychic madman starts influencing the Beholder's dreams, burying its consciousness under the weight of its own nightmares. But it wouldn't do to just make a horde of Beholders, they wouldn't listen to anyone, let alone the psychic. But what if they weren't Beholders? Not full ones, at least.

The psychic starts concocting hybrids within the sleeping Beholder's dreams. Add a bestial element, one that can be coerced to do their bidding. They wouldn't be as powerful, or half as cunning, but an army of 200 pseudo-Beholders would still be a nigh-unstoppable force.

As an added bonus, once the party starts meddling in this psychic's plan, they could start messing with their Rests, and the party would need to find ways of safeguarding their dreams, something players never really have to do.

All told, a set like this would help a lot when running this, just for the sheer amount of pseudo-Beholders you could throw at the party at once. https://amzn.to/3PYbx22

#dnd #dnd 5e #bbeg concept #campaign prompt #the sandman

[undeadbard]

DEMI, the BBEG of a cyberpunk/computer horror campaign I've started conceptualizing. Snarky insane computer. My beloathed To make a long story fuckin short I recently became enamored with AM from IHNMAIMS, thanks in no small part to a truly amazing animatic on YouTube of the "HATE" monologue. After I discovered that, I listened to the radio drama, then watched some clips of the game, and it was all over for me. Now I have an evil robot man and a new freaking campaign. Whoops.

Anyways, enjoy the silly eye bastard

#monty's art #dnd #dnd oc #dnd bbeg #dnd npc #cyberpunk #ihnmaims #ihnmaims am #allied mastercomputer #character design #character concept #character illustration #oc art #oc #dungeons and dragons #original character #artists on tumblr #character art #character sheet #robot #robot oc #analog horror

[smogteeth]

Recent commission for a Dungeon Master to reveal to his players! I've never played Bloodborne, but when they described the creature and it's massive, god-like presence, I couldn't help but think elder horror. Royalty, with bird influence, and a sense of power and dread. I had fun with this one! Commissions are currently closed.

#commission #art #concept #monster #creature #BBEG #dungeons and dragons #boss #horror

[sysig]

A hero is only as good as his weapons, so make ‘em count (Patreon)

#Doodles #Original #Another idea smol and I are working on together :D Been a bit! #She came up with the concept on this one and I fell in love with it <3 She's very cool hehe #If you're familiar with the game Minit it has Something of a similar premise - not the same strict time pressure but yes on the time loop #Y'ever notice how in some games it seems like the wandering trader or traveling shop seems to come upon you rather than the other way around #:3c Hm ♪ Wonder how they'd know where you were gonna be :3c #The crux is that you play as the weapons shop owner and you're responsible for supplying the hero and his team with weapons! #Except the BBEG has gotten wise to how the hero keeps defeating him and it sick of it - so the shop owner is cursed to be in a time loop! #I love the concept <3 It sounds so fun to play in and there's still plenty of room to think about the mechanics and how it would be played #As well as the art design! :D #We threw around some character concepts - she's really into Baldur's Gate 3 at the moment so of course they had some influence in hers hehe #Only got the starting party for the moment but there are plans for a full team of 4 plus the shopkeep >:3c And various other NPCs lol #A lot of the gameplay would basically boil down to being a bartering simulator hehe ♪ #Very RPG trade-this-for-that style quests - under a time limit! Hehe #Since it's the type of game that pretty much requires replaying sections time-loop-style it's all about how quickly you can trial and error #And then hightail it to where you need to be lol #I think we were also tossing around a nap mechanic to skip right to the time loop reset in case you mess up a run haha #I gotta get back to Majora's Mask at some point I swear #We still have a good bit of concept work to do on the art side of things - she's also been really into pixel art lately and I love pixel art #I also managed to pick up a full release of one of the RPGMakers :D So that's an exciting possibility! #I haven't learned most of its ins and outs yet but I do know About importing custom assets at the very least >:3c #Same with Novelty and I haven't done that yet either lol - all in due time! I hope!!

[quinty-imara]

Mina went through uhh more changes in her campaign. So here's these quick doodles about it!

#quinart #ttrpg #dnd #dnd art #oc: mina #dungeons and dragons #Like y'all... She's lvl 17 now #Fuckin extorted the moonweaver to get her boyfriend back so now she has shiny hair too #Killed bbeg 1 and soul caged him #And NOW we're on the home stretch of the end of the campaign #She's come so far #This OCs original concept is like... 10 years old almost. #THE ONE PERSON WHO KNOW THAT VERSION OF HER ISN'T EVEN ON THIS SITE ANYMORE... #dnd character

[markuami]

Lilith Jinx.

Lilith Jinx, the porcelain doll. A eldritch evil caged into its doll vessel— the sheer force of its power able to warp its prison into a new form. For once the beast could finally vocalize; it called itself Lilith Jinx.

#doodle #my art #art #my digital art #my oc #arte #oc #markuami #Lilith Jinx #horror oc #body horror #eldritch #eldritch horror #character concept #character illustration #character design #ttrpg #call of cthulhu #bbeg #illustration

[cornedbread]

I think Billy’s son would sleep with headphones since Billy sometimes works on his mechanic comissions at night time, so the workshop gets noisy. Ebigeso was right, Billy having a red glow in his eyes is cool. (The gieseigo next to him says, “jiro jiro” the sfx for “staring intenly.”)

#corny creations #billys basic educational game #son bbeg #billys basics #bbau #billy bbeg #doodle #concept art

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

Neutral evil former god in hiding manipulating the party and the bbeg into a circumstance of events all leading to the release of their lover; an infinitely more powerful goddess hell bent on torturing the world

#they have a Gomez and Morticia type of love #she’s chaotic evil #they’re like a mentor to the party and the bbeg #a puppet master setting the stage for their beloved’s return #torturing a world is the ideal 6th millennia anniversary date #possibly might build a campaign around this concept idk #this would happen around the middle ish I think of the campaign and the rest would be spent stopping them #or joining them #who’s to say #campaign idea #dnd

[lovevalley45]

my neverafter theory is that i think a lot of u are taking siobhan’s comment too seriously <3

#alli says shit #it is both the ‘it’s not that deep’ meme n also the opposite of that #like one hand. tis a joke abt known anti-capitalist brennan #but also. trying to just be like and THIS is how it’s capitalism kinda blocks u from being able to see any other nuance #like granted. i do not have any big Theories myself #other than the general concept of destiny and denying it yada yada #i feel like we’re leaning towards smth much more eldritch and philosophical #rather than just a criticism of existing social structures #there could be a way to take a season like this into that direction but they haven’t #n frankly bc of how much of capitalism as the bbeg in ASO goin in a different direction themewise would make sense #ppl pointed out grivarr was such a disney parody and yeah! so making disney the villain again seems too repetitive #i’ve been fuming quietly for a few days so i must

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

hey actually what ARE they gonna do with those Actual Live Baby Tiger Cubs

#they are ANIMALS what are you going to DO with them #give them to some end-of-animal-campaign level BBEG to raise is my best guess #critical role spoilers #critical role liveblog #tigers raised by a lesser dragon is actually a fun concept

[berureferencelibrary]

#evil #landscape #volcano #skull #villain #bbeg #concept art #scale #perspective #low light

[kmj01]

Final Boss. Monster.

#bbeg #dnd #character concept #character drawing #fictional characters #dnd bbeg #monster #dnd monster #big monster

[byoldervine]

How To Start Writing A Book (So Says This Idiot)

I’ve been working on my queer superhero fantasy novel Byoldervine for a few years now, but it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve really dedicated myself to my writing. Now I’ve gone from a fun few concepts to nearly 50K words and counting. So I figured I’d share my process to get here

1. Figure out your barebones concept

Before you can begin writing, you obviously need to know what you’re writing. At this point in time it can literally just be something like “A group of friends go on a quest through a magical fantasy world and meet loads of mythical creatures along the way”, it doesn’t even necessarily need a plot intact. You can be as vague or as specific as you like here, you just need that general idea

2. Figure out your characters

Your characters are the driving forces behind all internal conflict in your story and give your story heart; if you can pick between expanding your plot and expanding your characters, pick the characters. Start figuring out at very least the need-to-know aspects about your characters, such as their motivations and what’s holding them back from achieving them. We can flesh them out more and more as we go

3. Create the main external conflict

Often this takes the form of the main antagonist, but it can be literally anything from a curse the main character is trying to overcome, a series of misunderstandings, a goal they just don’t have the skills to achieve on their own, etc. What’s the thing that’s causing our main character problems they need to overcome?

4. Work out the beginning and end of your story

Where do you want your story to end? Do you want your characters to be living a life of peace and glory as revered heroes after they defeat the villain? Do you want them to be able to return to the life they once had with new friends and stronger powers than ever before? Do you want them to fail and experience the tragedy of their loss? Well if that’s where you want to end, they can’t have all that at the very start of the story, so that’s something that needs to change during the story. Congratulations, you just created a plot point!

5. Use your plot points to create a general plan

Now that you’ve got some ideas of what you want/need to happen during the story, you can make a timeline of these plot points. Say something like “Inciting incident, MC leaves village” or “MC trapped by BBEG” or “MC gains new weapon” or something like that. At this point things are a bit less vague because now you’re starting to see how the plot can go. Don’t forget to add things that the characters would go for, too, even if it’s not plot-relevant

6. Plotting

You’re ready to start plotting by now. For every chapter, write down a general objective of what needs to be achieved within this chapter. Each of these needs to be followed with bullet points of different, smaller plot points within the chapter to achieve this objective. This part I enjoy doing alongside actually writing so I can update it as I go, I’ll usually plot about five chapters ahead and then get to writing until I’ve used them all up

By this point, you’re ready to write! Best of luck and remember that it’s only a first chapter, all it needs to do is exist!

#writing #writers #bookblr #writeblr #book #original #writer #writing advice #how to write #writing tips #writing tips and tricks #on writing #writing ideas

[idlebeks]

Fresh SVSSS Fic Recs

Lotus Seeds by Anonymous

Upon transmigrating into the body of a xianxia antagonist destined to die after being gruesomely tortured, Shen Yuan decides he won't give in to the demands of the System to meekly accept his fate. Instead, he runs away. (WIP)

High Mountain, How I Long by Minimalistless

Shen Qingqiu, after enduring his trial, is placed into Luo Binghe’s custody at Huan Hua Palace.

Tarnished Gold by Prim_the_Amazing

Becoming emperor of the cultivation world will start with a first step as small and basic as becoming Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace. For that, he must steal the position away from the current Head Disciple. Luo Binghe will sabotage, upstage, and completely and utterly best him.

The road to destroying everything and everyone who has ever wronged him, to becoming the highest ruler so that no one will ever have the right to control him ever again - it will start as simply as ruining Gongyi Xiao’s life.

Compared to everything else he’s already done, this should be easy.

-

Luo Binghe brings all his skills of cunning and brutality to bear on Gongyi Xiao, Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace Sect. It… doesn’t go too well for him.

prophets on hold by nex_et_nox

Luo Binghe led the charge in the trial against Shen Qingqiu in < Proud Immortal Demon Way >. By all rights, the concept of a trial shouldn’t even be a glimmer in anyone’s eye until Shen Qingqiu’s blackened lotus has crawled his way out of the hell Shen Qingqiu tossed him in.

So why is Shen Qingqiu wrapped in immortal binding cables and locked away in the Huan Hua Water Prison?! 

[or: Luo Binghe is precisely one (1) year late getting out of the Abyss. This does not put a halt on anyone else's plans.]

Starstruck by Camorra

His phone buzzes again and Shen Yuan scoops it up irritably. It’s another message from DemonHeart. DemonHeart: you seem to be a Luo Binghe fan DemonHeart: we can get you access to him Shen Yuan scowls. PeerlessCucumber: do I look like I was born yesterday? The response is instantaneous. A picture pops up on screen. Shen Yuan vaguely recognizes the woman that plays the drums, still in full stage makeup. Next to her, arm slung around her waist, is a face Shen Yuan would know anywhere. Luo Binghe, giving a wry smile to the camera. DemonHeart: he’s a fan, you know PeerlessCucumber: where exactly would we be meeting

Immortal Lamb Crusader Way by Mikkeneko Shen Yuan finds himself transmigrated into the last video game he played before his death -- the dungeon-delving, cult-building anthro hit game of the year, Immortal Lamb Crusader Way. Much to his dismay he finds himself in the role of the BBEG, the God of Death, He Who Waits -- Shen Qingqiu! Is there any way he can guide the protagonist, Luo Binghe, to level-up and victory without falling victim himself to the Lamb Crusader's blade? And why does he want to pet the Lamb's fleecy head so badly? He's not a furry, okay! He's not!

The Scum Villain's Second Save File by the-night-gods-moon (HelloMyNameIsAlias)

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua's shroom scheme falls through in a big way, and Shen Yuan is forced to re-transmigrate into another world that revolves around half-demons and messy, convoluted romances. Good thing he's an expert!

Can't we just skip to the end? by chaoticgoodlawyer When it was all said and done, Shen Qingqiu comforted himself that the end of the plot meant that, surely, all major events were out of the way. They were firmly in HEA territory and he could relax a little. Right? Right. A year and a half into his marriage to the protagonist, he cursed himself for a fool when he woke next to a Luo Binghe from ten years in the past. Meanwhile, a recently transmigrated Shen Yuan struggled to retain what little face he had when confronted with an overgrown, disturbingly gorgeous demon lord claiming to be his husband. Which is impossible, because he’s straight, the most hetero heterosexual to exist. System? A little help here?? Series

Celestial Afterglow by elanor_pamShang Qinghua, also known as Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, stared flatly at what had once been a field boasting near sect-level Feng Shui alignment, and the drowned, bloated remains of the Sun and Moon Dew Flower cuttings that had sprouted within it. Their plan was now quite literally a wash. If only he could consult Cucumber Bro on how to save Cucumber Bro! But in the absence of Cucumber Bro, he could but rely on the one plot coupon the infamous Peerless Cucumber had ever applauded.

Tongfang by The Feels Whale (miscellea)

Shen Yuan is reincarnated as a cannon fodder character and eventual murder victim in one of the whodunnit arcs in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Things escalate quickly. Or: that one where young Luo Binghe’s career goal is ‘Bride’. --- Shen Yuan shut his eyes as a young man waiting to die in a hospital and opened them again as a wrinkly infant covered in substances best left unimagined. [Welcome to the System! The System is based on the concept ‘YOU CAN YOU UP. NO CAN NO BB.’ We hope to provide you with a rewarding experience. It is our sincere hope that during the course of your adventure, you can achieve your desire to transform a ‘Stupid Novel’ into a high-end and impressive classic. We pray for your happiness,] a mechanical and inflectionless voice announced over the general hubbub of the group of women handling him. Then it added, somewhat more worryingly, [Error.]

In Service by x_los

Emperor Luo Binghe goes looking for a Shen Yuan of his own. The one he finds has yet to fully ripen, but Luo Binghe is used to turning adversity into advantage.

#svsss fic recs #bingqiu #unorganized as always #check the tags before reading people

[ask-dcf]

Dnd session Was crazy aaand.. NEW PIC.

So yeah our group was facing an evil King and Henchmen of the bbeg. And well. Our rolls were very terrible this session despite the Two Bosses we faced were nasty but we were able to have them win. We had some character lore teases. MAJOR EMOTIONAL DAMAGE to one of our players ships. Aaaaaand.

OUR NEXT MISSION IS TO SAVE THE PRINCESSES!

YES THE BEANS ARE THERE! They are the princesses of the dnd world i made. Although in this their name are different and they are born from the same evil dad so no shipping these two.

Red is Chelsy Blue is Faye

I would also like to thank @purplebehittindifferent for helping as she was the one who made concept art for them! Bless your sweet soul for your help. And thank you for the art @xjunjox

#dnd #dnd5e #dnd character #princesses #dungeonmaster #art #npcs

[utilitycaster]

…so I decided to check out Polygon’s D20 coverage, and frankly I think you were entirely too kind to them. Good. GOD, some of that stuff read like they’ve never watched AP that *wasn’t* CR, D20 or the first season of TAZ. And have somehow made it thru the 2010s without encountering urban fantasy…

Anyway, to further nudge you towards your destiny of AP journalism (and with the understanding that you have a Real Job and a life outside TTRPGs and the internet); can you please expand on what you think D20 brings to the table?(pun unintended, but I stand by it) Because speaking as someone who has watched a handful of eps and enjoys the concepts, the praise PG were offering was damningly faint.

Hi! Thank you, and for what it's worth I don't think most of them have listened to the first season of TAZ either, given the way they talk about WBN as inventing the actual play longform podcast. I do want to note: I like writing longform stuff about actual play but I am adamantly not a journalist. I am not investigating or interviewing or reporting; I'm doing analysis and editorial. Amateur critic is the most I can claim to and that's a stretch (and even there I have a particular privilege in that I'm writing all this for free, anonymously, by choice, and don't need be be nice or maintain relationships with actual play performers within the space because I could burn every bridge and still make rent.)

Anyway. I think a major flaw of Polygon is that it's so focused on novelty and subversion that it forgets a well-worn concept, executed with skill, is actually great and for many people, preferable. Brennan, from everything I have heard him say and from how he actually runs games, has a deep respect for fantasy as a genre, and the stories he tells in D20 are ones he is clearly familiar with and loves. I also think to subvert things you must be a fan, and when D20 does successfully subvert or twist a genre, it's coming from a place of respect and understanding.

Anyway, just covering a few Intrepid Heroes seasons: I think Fantasy High (and I haven't gotten to the latest episode of Junior Year) is actually increasingly a brilliant deconstruction of D&D as a game by making the world aware that it's in a D&D game. What does it mean to be in a D&D party and be an adventurer and have that be a significant part of who you are? What does it mean to be a commoner in this world? What do you do when you're sort of a broke teen in generic suburbia but also you need the loot that an adventurer would theoretically get from dragon hoards? Why do you have to know what your life's calling will be when you're 14? One of my personal favorite things, as a lover of mechanics and TTRPGs as a system of storytelling and more generally as someone who believes that your medium of choice should be informing the story you tell, is when people engage with character roles and classes instead of treating them as just a set of cool things you can do, and Fantasy High very much pushes the players to do this. I also mentioned elsewhere that the downtime stress mechanics are a brilliant addition to one of the genuine gaps in D&D, namely, while downtime is a time for open RP, there's not a good way to handle things like stress or crafting or prioritizing well.

The Unsleeping City is one I like, honestly, just because I lived in New York for a few years and Brennan lived there far longer (as did much of the cast, though not all) and his love for it is apparent. I don't think it's groundbreaking; I just think it's really good. The characters are excellent and the story is fun. It's true that, for example, it allows you the satisfaction of making Amazon's and its attempted move into Long Island City the BBEG and smiting its ass instead of having to harangue your senators and councilpeople (as I did, and I wasn't even living in Queens) but really it's just a good story. It doesn't need to be more than that. It did not invent urban fantasy or the idea of a secret magical version of a real city or "most myths are real"; it's just a good story!

I think A Crown of Candy is also just a fun setting and, by making everyone food, emphasizes how petty and arbitrary the alliances in a Game of Thrones-esque milieu can be. It casts a scathing eye on religious interpretation as a tool for conquest without clumsily proclaiming the mere concept of religion is the problem. It has one of the best explorations of character death I've seen and Brennan's acting as Caramelinda remains a tour de force for him. Bringing the entire story of succession and war down to a final choice between two half-sisters remains a brilliant decision, the setting is supported by the mechanical limits Brennan imposed upon character creation, and it's overall beautifully done.

Even Neverafter, which I think have openly said didn't live up to its initial promise, had that promise with the fantastic handling of the TPK; I have a love for metanarrative and honestly my issue is that it was the wrong place to do metanarrative, but it was a bold choice to do in the unpredictable medium of actual play.

That's really only covering a fraction - I think some other standouts are Mentopolis, A Court of Fey and Flowers, Coffin Run, and Escape from the Bloodkeep, and while Shriek Week is just not a genre I'm personally super drawn to, I think the Mythic system is a great system for the story being told and Hicks does a great job running it.

Really what it comes down to is that D20 falls in between what a lot of shows are. It doesn't have the freedom but also the burden of a very long-running campaign (indeed, WBN exists because its performers, all of whom have featured in D20, wanted to be able to do longform actual play), nor is it quite as rushed as an all-miniseries or one-shot show. It has space to explore one or two things really well without having to carry a thousand different threads (and believe me, Brennan tries to put in as many as he can in that space - I actually wonder if the reason Fantasy High Junior Year feels a little more streamlined to me is that WBN was by that time in full swing). But it's not the first edited actual play, it mostly uses very widespread systems, the production values are high but not unheard of elsewhere (and I think that production values in AP beyond the basic 'can you hear and, if relevant, see things clearly and does the set look nice' are overrated though that's a personal preference), the cast is strong but not the first group of professionals or even comedians, and they didn't invent the concept of filming remotely or scrims or having an anticapitalist message.

My issue with the journalists, to reiterate that, is that they're not really doing much journalism, actually; and that their bias is horribly apparent. There's little analysis - just shallow reviews that show little understanding of actual play as a medium, fantasy as a genre, or TTRPGs as a system. And while being entirely free of bias is unavoidable - we are people, and we will bring our own interpretations and experiences in, and there are people who will love D20 and dislike Critical Role without doing so in bad faith - the fact that several of the journalists have openly crowed and preened about their special access to the D20 cast really makes it apparent that they like D20 because Dropout gives them early access and says nice things about them. And it's a feedback loop; Critical Role is going to keep saying "well, you constantly shit on us, so no, you don't get early access" and they'll keep writing bad reviews because they don't get early access.

But to return to the point, D20 is legitimately great and yeah the bias in my mind is only hurting them because, speaking only for myself, if there's two things I like and people heap fawning and inaccurate praise on one and nitpick the other? I'm going to start looking into that praise and find more flaws, and I'm going to start defending the nitpicked one. I really love Fantasy High Junior Year but the Polygon article is so bad I have to remind myself that it's just because the person who wrote it is an idiot. I probably would have gone into Kollok much more neutrally if people didn't act like it was the fucking invention of television. Do give D20 a try if you can! Don't read the articles.

#answered #greatgodempresspan #d20 tag