Alright, more tips for DMs when making a campaign: Villain Edition
When creating a BBEG, stop taking ideas from popular mainstream dnd campaigns, or classic villain ideas. You can still do this if you want, but I’m suggesting a better idea.
Aspire to create Davy Jones. Why? Because he’s the perfect villain. Think of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as a dnd campaign, with everyone choosing Swashbuckler Rogue. You got the three main players, Jack, Will, and Elizabeth. Barb pass is a player too, but they joined late in the campaign and were given a premade character based on a previous villain for time reasons.
They all get caught up in stupid shenanigans. The whole first part of Dead Man’s Chest is world building. The DM shows off the kraken, and shows off what kind of man Davy Jones is. The second half is pretty much all combat. The DM sends in the kraken cause the party is running away from a planned fight, the kraken does a lot more damage than the DM was expecting, and Elizabeth betrays Jack to save the party. The DM did not plan for this.
In At World’s End, the first thing that happens is they have a time skip, and the DM introduces the true villain, the one behind everything. The British. The party goes on a quest to revive Jack, and they succeed! To put people’s minds at ease and really hammer in what a villain the East India Trading Company is, he shows off the corpse of the kraken. Jack is on a quest for immortality now, having seen death for himself. We get to the final part, the showdown. Shit happens and the main combat BBEG is slain, at the cost of a party member.
That is a dnd campaign there.
And why does it work? Because Davy Jones plays off of each character so well. He has a sense of humor, he’s intelligent, but most of all, he’s heartbroken.
A perfect example of a tragic villain. He falls in love with a goddess, she gives him a temporary job to ferry the souls of the dead, and on the one day every ten years he can go on land, she doesn’t show up to relieve him of his burden. She abandons him. And in his rage, he betrays her. He sells her out to the Brethren Court, and upon realizing what he did, he falls deeper into despair and cuts out his own heart. He goes on the be a legendary terror amongst the seas, but he never finds peace. He was used as a tool and he dies as a tool for the British.
Then there’s the comedic aspect. He deals with Jack’s antics very well, and at times he makes jokes, albeit dark ones, but still. And in a dnd campaign, you’re gonna have at least one or two Jack Sparrows.
Best part? He’s not even the main villain, nor is he in the wrong when we first meet him. He’s come to collect on the debt Jack owes, which he has every right to do. Jack then steals from him again, and he ends up forced to serve the real villain behind everything. The British. Davy Jones is the villain made to be fought, and the British were used as the overall villain.
Basically, put Davy Jones in your campaigns.
