I need some help with my BBEG. The idea is that the characters live in a world that thinks their continent is the only one on the planet, recently they learned differently. This newly discovered country is more advanced in technology and magic. Think Forgotten Realms gets attacked by Ebberon. So how do I actually make a nation the BBEG? From a narrative stand point how do I slow down a superior force from just steam rolling another nation? I am willing to let the war simmer and be slow until the characters are level 15-20, but what am I doing besides side quests to keep them going, what could they be doing to work up to a final fight or confrontation while keeping the invasion relevant? Any thoughts ideas or suggestions would be really helpful.
Historically, the way you keep a superior nation from steamrolling you is an alliance with their enemies. If that won't work, you find their internal political weak spots and apply pressure. Somebody's always unhappy under the status quo, whether it's an ethnic group treated like second-class citizens, an ethnic group driven insane with rage that they're no longer allowed to treat the first ethnic group like second-class citizens, the impoverished masses, the greedy oligarchs, crusading reformers or a jealous clique of entitled nobles. Find those people and turn them against the current order. Read the paper and you should find plenty of ideas.
If you want to stave off an invasion, you bribe and blackmail a cadre of their corrupt nobles, develop and support a domestic antiwar movement to keep the government occupied, and steal their technology and magic until they're not superior anymore. Once the war looks like its ready to start, they can shift to sabotage and espionage. That's enough to get ANYONE to level 15, and you'll have an interesting cast of NPC's in place for the war.
I really appreciate your response, those are all excellent ideas. I was not clear enough though, this is more like two different, non connected continents meeting for the first time when one went beyond its borders and founded an island colony and the other nation stumbled upon that by accident making both nations realize they were not alone. My adventurers probably will not run into their nation till after 10-12 levels.
Logistics are a good way to slow down a conflict. Specifically, invading over an ocean is immensely difficult. European countries never, or very seldom, took over countries in Asia or Africa or the Americas through open warfare. In Asia or Africa, it always started by setting up businesses and trade companies and colonies. They got the local powers to agree to some presence before expanding. Transoceanic invasions with a conquering army have, effectively, never happened in history: Normandy was launched from Britain. The War in the Pacific was only possible because of island hopping. Had an American fleet set out from LA or NY or wherever and tried to land in occupied France then the Germans would have made mincemeat out of the ill-supplied troops because feeding an army is hard, and my examples were all modern conflicts. Troops that have spent much longer at sea will likely not be battle-ready upon stepping off the boat. They would have to send a sort of vanguard to set up a forward base to securely store their supplies, which would likely need to rely on surrounding communities to provide a steady supply of food. This gives the players a chance to act as guerrillas, winning small victories against detachments or supply trains or depots. Maybe the invasion isn't an invasion at all-- maybe some neutral power on the player's continent accepts to let the Ebberon empire set up bases in exchange for money, technology or other benefits. The Ebberon empire is doing this to launch an invasion of the whole continent (either turning the neutral state into a puppet state or a colony, or by stabbing their hosts in the back), and so the players have to rally the other independent realms (or at least their people) to turn back the would-be conquerors.
You might want to check out the Sharpe series, which follows a British rifleman, Richard Sharpe (played by Sean Bean) through the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.
edit: If you want to slow down the conflict starting, use politics. There are factions in the Ebberon empire that don't want a war. Maybe they allocated those fund for other purposes, maybe they think the country can gain more out of free trade, maybe they think the Empire's duty is to preserve the peace of the lesser nations. It's up to you. But they have some sway at court or in parliament. While tensions might be running high: maybe a ship gets stopped or is confiscated. Maybe some sailors from the Empire get arrested for breaking the law in the Realms, but the Empire insists that only Imperial law applies to its sailors, maybe the Empire is peddling opium. Flashpoints that don't catch fire. This can keep the players engaged in the diplomatic situation without having it be open war from the get-go. Then something changes: maybe an ambitious minister comes to power, maybe there is a coup d'etat, maybe a high-level official is assassinated while visiting the foreign country. If the last one, maybe that doesn't lead to a declaration of war, but rather a series of demands allowing the Empire to launch a detailed investigation (absolutely breaking any norms of sovereignty) in the Realms and the unreasonableness of these demands cause them to be turned down and that leads to war.
For the record, all of these ideas are directly lifted and referencing historical events in our own world. It could be useful to read a few history books on figures that you are interested in. Napoleon, Charles XII, Frederick the Great, Metternich, Otto von Bismarck, Oda Nobunaga are all great personalities to steal for your campaigns. Even Field Marshal Radetsky and Marshal Yorck, who aren't so well known, so you can likely get by putting them into your campaigns without people realising you're lifting anything at all.
I need some help with my BBEG. The idea is that the characters live in a world that thinks their continent is the only one on the planet, recently they learned differently. This newly discovered country is more advanced in technology and magic. Think Forgotten Realms gets attacked by Ebberon. So how do I actually make a nation the BBEG? From a narrative stand point how do I slow down a superior force from just steam rolling another nation? I am willing to let the war simmer and be slow until the characters are level 15-20, but what am I doing besides side quests to keep them going, what could they be doing to work up to a final fight or confrontation while keeping the invasion relevant? Any thoughts ideas or suggestions would be really helpful.
Historically, the way you keep a superior nation from steamrolling you is an alliance with their enemies. If that won't work, you find their internal political weak spots and apply pressure. Somebody's always unhappy under the status quo, whether it's an ethnic group treated like second-class citizens, an ethnic group driven insane with rage that they're no longer allowed to treat the first ethnic group like second-class citizens, the impoverished masses, the greedy oligarchs, crusading reformers or a jealous clique of entitled nobles. Find those people and turn them against the current order. Read the paper and you should find plenty of ideas.
If you want to stave off an invasion, you bribe and blackmail a cadre of their corrupt nobles, develop and support a domestic antiwar movement to keep the government occupied, and steal their technology and magic until they're not superior anymore. Once the war looks like its ready to start, they can shift to sabotage and espionage. That's enough to get ANYONE to level 15, and you'll have an interesting cast of NPC's in place for the war.
I really appreciate your response, those are all excellent ideas. I was not clear enough though, this is more like two different, non connected continents meeting for the first time when one went beyond its borders and founded an island colony and the other nation stumbled upon that by accident making both nations realize they were not alone. My adventurers probably will not run into their nation till after 10-12 levels.
Logistics are a good way to slow down a conflict. Specifically, invading over an ocean is immensely difficult. European countries never, or very seldom, took over countries in Asia or Africa or the Americas through open warfare. In Asia or Africa, it always started by setting up businesses and trade companies and colonies. They got the local powers to agree to some presence before expanding. Transoceanic invasions with a conquering army have, effectively, never happened in history: Normandy was launched from Britain. The War in the Pacific was only possible because of island hopping. Had an American fleet set out from LA or NY or wherever and tried to land in occupied France then the Germans would have made mincemeat out of the ill-supplied troops because feeding an army is hard, and my examples were all modern conflicts. Troops that have spent much longer at sea will likely not be battle-ready upon stepping off the boat. They would have to send a sort of vanguard to set up a forward base to securely store their supplies, which would likely need to rely on surrounding communities to provide a steady supply of food. This gives the players a chance to act as guerrillas, winning small victories against detachments or supply trains or depots. Maybe the invasion isn't an invasion at all-- maybe some neutral power on the player's continent accepts to let the Ebberon empire set up bases in exchange for money, technology or other benefits. The Ebberon empire is doing this to launch an invasion of the whole continent (either turning the neutral state into a puppet state or a colony, or by stabbing their hosts in the back), and so the players have to rally the other independent realms (or at least their people) to turn back the would-be conquerors.
You might want to check out the Sharpe series, which follows a British rifleman, Richard Sharpe (played by Sean Bean) through the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.
edit: If you want to slow down the conflict starting, use politics. There are factions in the Ebberon empire that don't want a war. Maybe they allocated those fund for other purposes, maybe they think the country can gain more out of free trade, maybe they think the Empire's duty is to preserve the peace of the lesser nations. It's up to you. But they have some sway at court or in parliament. While tensions might be running high: maybe a ship gets stopped or is confiscated. Maybe some sailors from the Empire get arrested for breaking the law in the Realms, but the Empire insists that only Imperial law applies to its sailors, maybe the Empire is peddling opium. Flashpoints that don't catch fire. This can keep the players engaged in the diplomatic situation without having it be open war from the get-go. Then something changes: maybe an ambitious minister comes to power, maybe there is a coup d'etat, maybe a high-level official is assassinated while visiting the foreign country. If the last one, maybe that doesn't lead to a declaration of war, but rather a series of demands allowing the Empire to launch a detailed investigation (absolutely breaking any norms of sovereignty) in the Realms and the unreasonableness of these demands cause them to be turned down and that leads to war.
For the record, all of these ideas are directly lifted and referencing historical events in our own world. It could be useful to read a few history books on figures that you are interested in. Napoleon, Charles XII, Frederick the Great, Metternich, Otto von Bismarck, Oda Nobunaga are all great personalities to steal for your campaigns. Even Field Marshal Radetsky and Marshal Yorck, who aren't so well known, so you can likely get by putting them into your campaigns without people realising you're lifting anything at all.