you read the title, I've got a problem. I'm planning a spelljammer campaign but it can support up to 13 characters and not everybody will be there all the time. fine. great. but I want to add a rival team. what do?
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About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
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My personal solution wouldn't be to make individual rival characters to match or foil each of your player characters. Rather, I would set up the rival team as exactly that. They are on board a rival ship and they are recognisable as a group by the similar uniform they wear, or crest they emblazon on their weapons/armour. Then you can focus on making a few really good antagonistic characters rather than lots of them. Each time your party go off to achieve something maybe that other group are already there. It's more modular and free flowing, but also less workload on yourself as a DM.
The Avengers versus the Dark Avengers style. Have them be twisted versions of the Characters (If that works with your campaigns
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In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
One thing I did was give each of my players 2 rivals. 1 of them was more comic relief, something to counter their personalities, match them by skill, continuously return to test their mettle. Another was a more serious rival, a final boss for their personal life. Ei, a monster who hurt their loved ones, a character from their backstory, ect.
How often do you expect them to encounter this rival team? Most of the time, it would be enough to just note that its out there, doing whatever its doing. I assume its maybe competing with the PC party for contracts, maybe not because the rivals are evil, but because they have similar goals, and so need similar resources. Or, they could just be an evil image of the party, trying to destroy the PCs. Either way, I'd probably structure it like a larger entity, maybe like a mercenary company. When you want the party to encounter them directly, you build the enemies needed for that encounter. When the party encounters the rivals again, maybe its some of the same members, but not all -- the other company has sent the people best suited to the particular mission. I'd actually try to keep a couple the same, one or two team leader types, to develop some personalities and keep some continuity, but not necessarily all of them.
The big benefit here is you only make as much as you need to, so you're not spending time making individuals who the party doesn't end up encountering because Bob and Sarah missed the session today.
I'll also add there's the book "Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep", which is a (WotC) published adventure that has a mechanic built in for a rival party you may want to check out.
I like the opposing team mechanic with different NPCs and personalities and the entire team becomes competition for the PCs.
However, I am not sure what you mean by "foil" .. if you are referring to having a personal enemy/opponent for each PC on an opposing team then it really doesn't make sense to me without a really good backstory reason explaining why there is a nemesis for each and every PC also in an opposing group flying a spelljammer.
That story wouldn't make sense to me ... unless you decide to toss in the whole alternate evil universe idea. You could have evil versions of each character who grew up on an alternate version of their home world who then also took to space, crossing between the infinite worlds of the prime material plane, finally encountering the PCs who are the "good" twins. They would not be exactly the same since their experiences/knowledge/character would be quite different but they would be recognizable versions of the PCs. They could even first encounter them through some sort of mistaken identity at a port/supply base in spelljammer ... but it would depend what you want to do with the story. (I don't know if you have ever seen the original Star Trek episode called Mirror, Mirror).
I don't understand the question. I have to say that I'm embarrased by that, because I really thought the english language had lost it's ability to stump me. What is a foil in this context?
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Foil in this context means a rival, one that contrasts the others personality. Like draco Malloy and Harry Potter, they contrast eachother in personality.
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you read the title, I've got a problem. I'm planning a spelljammer campaign but it can support up to 13 characters and not everybody will be there all the time. fine. great. but I want to add a rival team. what do?
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
My personal solution wouldn't be to make individual rival characters to match or foil each of your player characters. Rather, I would set up the rival team as exactly that. They are on board a rival ship and they are recognisable as a group by the similar uniform they wear, or crest they emblazon on their weapons/armour. Then you can focus on making a few really good antagonistic characters rather than lots of them. Each time your party go off to achieve something maybe that other group are already there. It's more modular and free flowing, but also less workload on yourself as a DM.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
The Avengers versus the Dark Avengers style. Have them be twisted versions of the Characters (If that works with your campaigns
In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
One thing I did was give each of my players 2 rivals. 1 of them was more comic relief, something to counter their personalities, match them by skill, continuously return to test their mettle. Another was a more serious rival, a final boss for their personal life. Ei, a monster who hurt their loved ones, a character from their backstory, ect.
How often do you expect them to encounter this rival team? Most of the time, it would be enough to just note that its out there, doing whatever its doing. I assume its maybe competing with the PC party for contracts, maybe not because the rivals are evil, but because they have similar goals, and so need similar resources. Or, they could just be an evil image of the party, trying to destroy the PCs. Either way, I'd probably structure it like a larger entity, maybe like a mercenary company. When you want the party to encounter them directly, you build the enemies needed for that encounter. When the party encounters the rivals again, maybe its some of the same members, but not all -- the other company has sent the people best suited to the particular mission. I'd actually try to keep a couple the same, one or two team leader types, to develop some personalities and keep some continuity, but not necessarily all of them.
The big benefit here is you only make as much as you need to, so you're not spending time making individuals who the party doesn't end up encountering because Bob and Sarah missed the session today.
I'll also add there's the book "Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep", which is a (WotC) published adventure that has a mechanic built in for a rival party you may want to check out.
I like the opposing team mechanic with different NPCs and personalities and the entire team becomes competition for the PCs.
However, I am not sure what you mean by "foil" .. if you are referring to having a personal enemy/opponent for each PC on an opposing team then it really doesn't make sense to me without a really good backstory reason explaining why there is a nemesis for each and every PC also in an opposing group flying a spelljammer.
That story wouldn't make sense to me ... unless you decide to toss in the whole alternate evil universe idea. You could have evil versions of each character who grew up on an alternate version of their home world who then also took to space, crossing between the infinite worlds of the prime material plane, finally encountering the PCs who are the "good" twins. They would not be exactly the same since their experiences/knowledge/character would be quite different but they would be recognizable versions of the PCs. They could even first encounter them through some sort of mistaken identity at a port/supply base in spelljammer ... but it would depend what you want to do with the story. (I don't know if you have ever seen the original Star Trek episode called Mirror, Mirror).
I don't understand the question. I have to say that I'm embarrased by that, because I really thought the english language had lost it's ability to stump me. What is a foil in this context?
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Foil in this context means a rival, one that contrasts the others personality. Like draco Malloy and Harry Potter, they contrast eachother in personality.