5 Tips for Foreshadowing a Villain in Dungeons & Dragons 

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If the party can take on the bbeg at third level without getting totally owned, the DM needs some more practice in designing their bbegs...

Strahd is one of the only go to where I think having him regularly interact with the players works. It actually works with his character because he is a narcissistic bully who doesn't think that anybody could ever harm him. It gives the players personal incentive to track down the magic items needed to defeat him.

Some of my players have trouble recognizing villains who don't run around going "Muahaha, look at me being Evil!", and I have absolutely capitalized on that in the past in order to have them meet and chat with major antagonists. Though at one point this did backfire a little when one of the PCs decided to hook up with the BBEG. It led to strange and interesting shenanigans, the BBEG being able to pin everything on a lesser antagonist, and the two of them sailing off into the sunset on his airship while the reanimated corpses of his previous victims (the mysterious unseen crew) danced to the Love Boat theme. The player seemed okay with this.

Wizard of the Coast way: put the main villain in the adventure's cover

Barbarian: your not very good at this dungeons and dragons thing Hold on, you don't know what you're talking about. That's luke heart, he's been a dungeon master since high-school!

My personal favourite is for the BBEG to leave a trail of destruction that the players can follow. For example a mad wizard who releases magical plagues on unsuspecting towns trying to perfect the technique and when the players arrive they find his notes strewn about in some cottage.

If the definition that we are using for Cutscene is "The part of the game where the Dungeon Master talks and the players listen.", then of course I agree that it is not necessarily fun to experience. However, we already have the solution to this problem that can make cutscenes fun for the group. Allow the players to interact with the cutscene instead of gawking. When I had a villain enter a scene and start doing dastardly deeds while proclaiming his greatness to everyone present (players included), one of my players said "I'd like to cast lightning bolt at this guy." Do you know what my response was? It was not "You can't do that, this is a cutscene." Instead, I said "roll damage." There is no rule stating that the players cannot participate in the dungeon master's cutscenes.

“Enough of the stupid skits”? Dude, I never will say that, your skits are entertaining!

I see a fake villain to throw us off the trail of the real one. I see your meta plot for the skits now Luke! Well played. (Starts going back through older skits to find foreshadowing that secretly point toward Fat Cat or old man commoner being the main villain of the skits.)

I did a bunch of different things in my current campaign to introduce the Big Nice Goodie Guy (a Bronze Dragon, players are playing pirates). They first got some info from their captain, who wants to kill it. They later had something about it in a museum during a heist quest. Some time later they had a personal encounter but managed to remain incognito, and lastly they found a pirate adrift, a survivor from the dragon's attack on his ship. When the survivor told his story, instead of me telling what happened, I gave the players NPC statblocks to run in a fight against the dragon in a flashback. This got them the chance to see the dragon fight and maybe start thinking of a strategy, and it let me run the dragon. Plus, one of the NPCs I gave them succeeded his death saves, so that was the survivor, and they got a strong crewman out of it.

I had a campaign where the players were just like what you were doing in the beginning of the video (i.e. murder hoboing), so about half way through the campaign I switched it up where the players were the bbeg's and didn't realize it.

If the evil villain is super powerful, then what's to say they dont have powerful allies that could do something like ya know resurrection. Most villains are gonna have back up plans in case something goes really wrong.

He’s a necromancer. When they killed him, his “clone” spell activates :)

I kinda use cutscenes, I just don’t let them have an enormous impact on the story. At the end of all of the sessions, I use little “epilogues”, where I show that the world that they are in is constantly changing. Usually it’s to foreshadow something, but sometimes it’s to show how they’ve impacted the world. The epilogues aren’t long either, I try to keep them short.

The "fake BBEG" technique was used in Final Fantasy 6 quite effectively. I remember being shocked when Kefka betrayed and murdered Emperor Ghestal.

My DM introduced Strahd after we just finished a large battle, and at that point whe had already almost gotten our asses handed to us by a vampire spawn, so when he rocked up with his vampire possie and most of us were at 1 hp, he had the perfect opportunity to talk down to us

Luke: And you’re probably saying, “Enough if the stupid skits, just give us the 5 tips.” Me: Enough of the tips! *draws dagger* Now it’s stabby stabby time!!!!

My tip: Make them someone inconsequential that they might even forget that was affected by the player’s actions and wants revenge.

“Use cutscenes” “Don’t use cutscenes, ever!” Whaaaaaaat?

I did a campaign once with the "BBEG meets PCs at low level" thing and, in my own opinion, it worked quite well. What I did was have the BBEG command three adult black dragons to descend on a town from across a canyon, and when the PCs finally tracked him down, he's guarded by six black half-dragon elite warriors. The PCs tried to negotiate, the BBEG ignores them, then the PCs attack and are held at bay by the elite warriors for a few rounds, when suddenly the BBEG says "there it is", transforms into an ancient black dragon, and flies towards the town. The elite warriors back down, even though they clearly had the upper hand, and one of them warns the PCs to not get involved in stuff way over their heads, before black wyverns descend and, with the warriors mounting them, fly off. By the time the PCs get back to the ravaged town, they learn about the thing the BBEG was after, all the bad news that would come with him obtaining it, and set the PCs on the path to try and stop him. In this event, I think the thing that worked was that the BBEG wasn't focused on the PCs, he had his own goals, and he had the entourage fitting a guy of his status. As for cutscene, I think I've only found one instance in ANY game, not just D&D, that I think made sense, and that's in Assassins Creed (2 and Revelations to be precise). When Ezio sneaks through a vent or whatever and eavesdrop on the bad guys doing their planning. I think the way to make that kind of scenario work in D&D (purely speculative here, I've never used cutscenes before and I doubt I ever will, but IN CASE I DO, this is how I'd go about it) is to either have the meeting room be very well guarded so even if the PCs crash the meeting there's a high possibility of TPK and not doing squat to stop the bad guys; or, have the bad guys' plans be already in motion, so even if the PCs take out the bad guys then and there all they're doing is wasting time while the evil plan is wreaking havoc elsewhere, perhaps in the hometown of one or more of the PCs, giving the PCs an invested reason to leave the BBEG alone for the time being and focus on stopping the bad things currently happening.

I like the "Shadowy figure on a distant hill taking notes of the party mid-battle then disappearing shortly after being noticed" approach to showing the players that something or someone is taking notice of them... Also, I like calling for random perception checks in the middle of a fight to see how the players react. Plus having the BBEG's minions far away stops them from repeating that time they broke into a high-level dungeon, repaired the escape teleportation circle early, then teleported the dragon boss to a field full of battle-ready adventures who quickly dealt with it.

Is this a jab at Matt Colville

"I'm sure that there is someone that made a cutscene work and they will let me know down in the comments." Yup, i did one once, and my players LOVED it. Allow me to elaborate. Homebrew campaign. Two of the PC's were brothers from a noble family, the BBEG was their 3rd brother, a mage tyrant who was gathering ridiculous amounts of magical energies to reshape the world into a formal version of itself (which had previously been turned inside out, long story). The players met by happenstance a legendary NPC, the Phoenix, a girl blessed/cursed to live infinite lives. She is thousands of years old and one of the single most powerful pyromancers in the history of the world. They didn't know it was her at first but that had heard stories about her and pieced it together eventually and somehow, through really good role play and amazing persuasion rolls, convinced her to join their cause. Not long after that however, on their way back to headquarters, BBEG brother #3 teleports in front of them, having just absorbed a massive amount of magical energy, he was going to end them once and for all. Characters at this point are about level 5. BBEG does a shockwave and everyone fails their saves and gets knocked back/prone.... everyone that is except for the Phoenix, resisting the magical effect as flames erupt from her and fiery wings form on her back. The BBEG's smile drops as he begins to realize just WHO PRECISELY he just pissed off! The Phoenix and the BBEG break out into an almost DBZ style magical battle that takes to the sky as i activate my cutscene and describe for the next 2-3 mins the ridiculous battle taking place in front of them, putting into perspective what kind of power they are dealing with. The battle ends with the BBEG exhausted, but the Phoenix mortally wounded. BBEG teleports away to recharge as the Phoenix asks the PC's to scoop up her ashes and take them with them. She dies and her body magically catches on fire. A few days later the Phoenix reemerges from the ashes, but she is a toddler. She retains her memories but explains that it takes several years after she dies to get her powers back. They kept the Phoenix as as ally but this event also caused her to not be able to use her crazy power for their own benefit. Like i said, my players LOVED this event, it really put into perspective the kind of power they are contending with, while simultaneously making them freak out and wonder how they are going to deal with that. It also allowed me to roll with the fact that they befriended a Legendary hero of old without it derailing the campaign or her being too powerful and overshadowing the PC's, as now the best she can do for them is give them advice and tell them stuff about history.

In my campaign I revealed the BBEG very early in the campaign. While the bard of the group was fainted near the BBEG's lair (the BBEG is an aboleth), Nashor (the aboleth), tried to corrupt the bards minds but was stopped by the bard's guardian spirit. Now the bard is still asleep and the party is going to a quest to find a powerful priest that can help their friend

I always love the intros

You know what works better than I ever imagined in my Curse of Strahd campaign? Letters. After Death House my party found a picnic basket with a letter saying "Welcome to Barovia." signed by Strahd...and promtly sent an imp to Castle Ravenloft with a reply. They keep having corespondences with the Big Bad now

There is absolutely nothing wrong with story moments. Players can literally do whatever they want for 99.99% of the game. The DM has to have their fun too and contribute to the plot.

I was creating a part of the campaign where information flow was kind of the focus, I created intrigue, complex relations between the npcs and their objective was to slowly but surely collect information, that is until the sorcerer found a very important character and used suggestion with subtle spell and basically sucked all the information they needed for free, it sucked, a lot.

Cutscenes can work if you make them very sparse and very short, also always at the end of the sessions and of events far away from the players. I've been running a campaign for ~4 months now and I've only done 2 cutscenes, the first one showed an NPC get murdered by a mysterious figure that they would learn about next session anyway; and the next showed a villain ordering 1 known minion and 1 unknown minion after the party, which they'll face only a few sessions later. If you make em small, to the point, out of the way, and reserved, like end-credits scenes, this can work wonders for boosting player engagement. With just that first cutscene alone I managed to create a wave of out of session theorizing in the group that only made everyone more excited to come back next game, especially so when I started to leave breadcrumbs of who the killer was through the next sessions that provoked even more questions. The TL;DR is this: Cutscenes can work IF: --They are very short (2-3 minutes MAX) --They deal with information the PC's already know about, while also introducing new and vague unknowns into the mix --They happen at the END of the sessions --They are a rare occurrence --Any information gleaned from the cutscenes by the players is introduced to the PC's soon after in the next session(s) There are a lot of restrictions you need to follow, but it can work *wonders* if you do it right.

I have a feeling/theory that cutscenes can be used to make the players curious (not the PCs). What if you had a cutscene that's happening with somewhere else that lasts no more than 1 minute. The thing that happens in that cutscene is mundane but a bit ominous. Like a halfling with brown hair walks down a dark alley and bumps into a hooded figure. The figure apologizes and leaves and the halfling gets back to walking only to realize that there's a letter in his hand. Then the cutscene ends and it's back to PCs and all questions of "What was that about?" is met with vague non-answers. "Trust me, it'll make sense later" or "Oh don't worry about it, it's nothing." I personally feel that a cutscene like this (done better than the example given above) can be used to make the players suspicious and want to figure out what the heck the cutscene was all about. The problem is that I have never done this, I have never heard anyone do this, I have never heard anyone suggest doing this and I have not personally seen anything like this in any other media. I think it is very easy to do wrong and doing it wrong would probably just annoy the players and make the story worse on top of all the cutscene problems Luke mentions in the video. Cutscenes in general are a bad idea I think and the hypothetical use I mentioned may not even work as intended. I just believe that they can be used this way to great effect if the DM really really REALLY know what he's doing and trying this without knowing what he's doing can go very poorly. I don't use cutscenes because I don't believe I am an amazing enough DM is successfully pull it off.

I have had success with cut scenes through dream sequences. What sells it is to make it disorienting and change perspectives. Player: "I walk up to the bar and order an ale." DM: "The bartender turns around and pours you an ale. When he turns back you see that it's you, and now you are serving that ale to a tall male elf with a goatee. He says thank you." What I would avoid is direct conversations. It ends up being far too direct or annoyingly coy. You have to have a reason for these dreams though. So far I've used it for an Aasimar PC getting info from their Celestial, and for a Warlock getting info from their patron. I plan to use a cut scene in the next session or two of my Dragon Heist campaign. If/when a PC attunes to the Stone of Golorr they will see some moments from it's history to clue them in on the greater plot.

One alteration to the "PCs meet the BBG at low level" approach could be to meet them in a completely non-combat/non-confrontational scenario where they don't even appear to be a villain. This would probably work better for more intrigue or mystery focused villains rather than combat focused ones and shouldn't be used all the time because it has similar pitfalls to "NPC backstabs the party". Instead of having the big bad appear and taunt them or having the party come across them attacking some random village, introduce them as if they were a normal, friendly NPC and/or questgiver with potentially a few hints at what they are planning such as them not agreeing with the current leadership of the region. Maybe they haven't even started to execute their plans yet or aren't very far along and are secretly looking for allies and followers so they try to befriend the party before attempting to recruit them later down the line. Maybe they aren't even plotting anything when they first meet, but something (potentially even something caused by the party's actions) happens that puts them on the path to being the villain of a plotline or even the BBG for a whole campaign.

In a campaign I DM, I did step two thing, but instead of showing him do something bad, they all encountered him during a tournament event in a city. He was after the price, they could slow his plan by winning.... oh and he has a personal connection to one of the player characters as he is that characters uncle.... he is the charismatic guy that pretends to be on your side to get what he needs from you as he plans to invade his brother`s kingdom after he was exiled in order to take the throne. (The PC is a naive character, and do not know why she suddenly could not see her uncle anymore, as she also had overprotective parents) This proved to be very effective because the entire party started liking him, then they realized his real motivations, so not only did they get to know a little too OP NPC at the time they met him, but it did become a nice plot twist later on as well

One of my favorite ways to introduce a BBEG was one I had in a sci-fi post apocalyptic campaign. For the first 2 sessions, the players had been hearing rumors about this CEO of the major evil corperation attempting to control the region. When session 3 rolls around, they band together with a large group of rebels to attempt to assassinate the guy. The reality is that his time outside of corperate HQ was completely planned and intentionally leaked to draw out the rebels, who he then sacked his lv 15 elite guards on leading to a massacre. The encounter is not so much of trying to defeat the BBEG, but the players trying to brainstorm and figure out how they can escape the massacre and hide long enough to regroup and continue their journey to finding some way to defeat him.

Aw ye, got my example picked up DIRECTLY again 😀 Great list, Luke, and thanks for always reading through our suggestions!

So several campaigns back I had my group meet the BBEG in the second session of the entire campaign. They didnt realize this until they spoke to him, instead they met him in a tavern as he was gathering information of his own and one of the group went to talk to him. Through conversation the character learned that this was the person who destroyed a village the previous session (good insight check) and continued to talk to him about the information he was gathering. Using that they then went to the location he was gathering information on to try and beat him to whatever goals he had there. They fought him here (two or three sessions after meeting him) and lost. However rather than kill them he let them live, actively revealing that he was doing so because of the talk they had before. He would let them live and try and gather what he was looking for. He would view it as a challenge between himself and them, his goons and them. Who can gather the maguffins, who can gather the most. Who will get to change the world. Having the party meet the BBEG early doesnt have to be a 'you have no agency here it is cinematic' and you dont need to come up with some 'the big bad let you live because you were beneath them' reason. A simple conversation and a challenge often goes a long way.

One good idea for having your BBEG show up near the beginning is to have a social encounter with them rather than a combat encounter, where there is a possibility of receiving rewards or even punishments depending on how well the players Roleplay and interact with the BBEG. As an example, I’m currently building a campaign where the bad guy shows up in basically session 2-3, and the players have a chance to interact with him. If they choose to try to attack him, he will cast Command at 9th lvl and force all of them to kneel in his presence. If they manage to appeal to his superiority complex, they may receive rewards form him. If they anger him, he will place a curse on the ones that anger him, which can be removed by Greater Restoration or a certain NPC in-game. Because the option of fighting has been removed from the table (and even if it wasn’t, he was holding a meeting with the 4 lords that work directly under him, each one a later boss fight, so the fight would have been short-lived at best), they are forced to try to negotiate or appeal to the BBEG, and the results of the encounter have legitimate consequences to the rest of the game, so it still feels like it’s worth it because it was a legitimate encounter

The big bad of a previous campaign of mine was a character I'd played as a player in another campaign. The game started with the players getting attacked by him and saved by a dragon, who the big bad sent packing fairly easily.

Funnily enough, the next video RU-vid's playlist for me was Matt Colville's Bad Guys video where he describes an almost identical scene to the bit at the beginning and also shares several tips that you recommended against 😂

Best intro in a while! XD good ol murder-hoboing

I introduced my big bad the very first mission when my players were third level, but I introduced him as someone who was helpful to them, in fact the big bad has been working with them since the first mission. But I'm not sure if I should reveal that he's the big bad mid game or late game, part of me kind of wants them to align themselves with the big bad without actually realizing that he's the main villain, just subtle clues, and then part of me wants to reveal it more in the mid game and let them really fully make the actual choice of going "You know, we think he's right"

I’ve used cutscenes in prophetic dreams the players have had. Keep it short and players enjoy it, in my experience.

This is exactly the info I needed. We recently finished the Dragon of Icespire Peak as our first ever game and everyone wants to continue playing their characters. I was struggling to introduce the true big bad guy and there were some useful ideas here.

Lol I can only add that the cutscene is doable and well. It's about timing and context like everything else. So here's the set up: players just beat mini boss, and are leveling up (a key component is time they had alot of time not playing), they are choosing to stay in city when a bunch of refugees arrive with the expo dump. Bbeg just destroyed the kingdom. Bbeg has allies. And bbegs location. Are all for shadowed in this time as I discribe the empire falling I finish around the time they start finishing leveling. I also anwer questions and sell items sitting this time since it's all word of mouth. Other options include the party needing a scrying mirror or something to look at the bbeg/figure out something about him, convenientces of what he's doing is up to the dm but it means the players don't feel like it's out of game or something like that. They can look away from the mirror or end the spell or anything if they don't want to finish the scean. I have a pc who if any bad guy speaks he lanchrs into assault mode. He doesn't listen o monologues I sometimes give mid bosses a mini monologue to get interrupted only 2 lines in. I'm in trouble if he ever let's one finish cus it's gonna get trailpy

Ahhh, Luke 🤩❤ I love your videos, especially the skits. They're great to listen to as well as watch and I've shared a few with my D&D group.

I feed my players a tiny amount here and there either just before or just after fights. Like finding Abyssal runes on a Goblin corpse, or seeing an Orc Chieftain working with a Gnoll Flind, but my favorite was having the Orc Chieftain use Dimension Door with Blood Magic. It lets them know that what they understand about the world is being challenged by what they are seeing. That something bigger is happening in the background.

Really liking the tips! I've used number 2 once or twice now, but tweaked it to make it less plotty or contrived, and have it more of an impact. Basically, make the party arrive at the same place as the big bad. The just stumble upon each other. The Big bad is dealing with some personal business and the party sees them show of their power. If the party tries to stop them, then the big bad has their cronies or servants or whatever take care of it. He has no interest in some random group of adventurers. Now the party will start a manhunt. Maybe this big bad isn't a known person but some mystery assassin, some old war veteran or a manifestation of an ancient evil lost to history. In my case, it was a resurrected general with a different name. He was just the second fiddle to a far greater plan. This was an appreciated twist, knowing that this person wasn't the cause of much harm.

That cutscenes bit actually did give me a good idea for a campaign. As your players go though a game and you have a “cutscene” moment with your players foreshadowing the BBEG, you can have the players kinda build their own BBEG. The trick would be to have the DM have to work in whatever plans they have with the player’s actions. Granted the idea is for non-serious games, as expedient players would probably just have the BBEG commit sepuku or something similar but there can be limits. For instance, the BBEG may be that Shadow Queen and her advisors in this video. The players may take the role of one or both of the advisers to address the Queen on a matter related to an issue with the world. It could help with world building and perhaps inspire other character concepts that they wouldn’t have used. Alternatively, in relations with the topic of foreshadowing, the party could take an NPC role for a turn or two to set up foreshadowing a BBEG. A scene wouldn’t matter as much but it could set up something if you’re one of those DMs who think 2 sessions ahead or run a straight forward campaign.

I’m currently running a campaign where the players have met the bbeg, but he was a regular NPC when they met him, whilst also working in the shadows. He has directed the players on quests to help him get the source of power that he desires. The hardest part was gaining the players trust, coz they like to attack and kill anything (especially the vampire player) it’s still early in the campaign, but I can’t wait for the reveal at the end.

This is why there's always a messenger-boy/proxy that fits as the bad guy's theme. Fay lord the bag guy? He's got a Fay race creature to do his bidding. Beholder the end boss? He's got an enthralled (whatever henchmen of the beholder are theme) person acting as his messenger/grocery delivery boy. Necromancer? He's got an intelligent flesh golem Frankenstein style that goes into town for him. Also 10:42 video time, think of the Yellow Eyed Demon from Supernatural. I have done this a few times. Works well as the players speculate and "build" lore and facts around them that I don't even have to generate. Sometimes they're right... sometimes...

I did do a cutscene fairly once, they did a quest for a genie in exchange for info on the big bad. He arranged for a friend scry on the big bad in a magic pool. The PCs weren’t present, but I did let them intereact by asking about the scene. From this they realised the big bad a certain hobgoblin tribe as Mercinaries( the bard rolled knowledge skills to identify their tattoos) and eliminated some of the potential lair locations with awareness and nature rolls, because they could just see out the window behind him.

My Players actually Sat down for Dinner with the BBEG. I was prepared for it to turn into combat but it never did. They ask him questions and he answered. He asked them some questions as well. It was somewhat tense but interesting.

I ran HotDQ and changed the BBG. I had them travel with the player's caravan in disguise as a bard. They played music and helped fight those who attacked the caravan, because they had a vested interest in protecting the caravan. When the players figured out who the bad guys were on the caravan, he laughed at them and left. I will have to try to do a cut scene some time.

Perfect timing for me. I came across this just as I was struggling with this idea.

Currently planning a campaign. Plan is to start with a travelling theater troupe that retells the history of the war that occurred 40 years ago between the continents and a Lich. Though his phylactery was never found, the Lich was defeated, and his soul was cut in two. One half was flung into the Abyssal Plane, the other bound in the Lich's tome and sealed in a vault. The performance is interrupted by skeletons, which grab one of the Actresses off the stage and carry her off during the fight. The party gives chase and end up at the vault, with most of the deadly traps strangely disabled (they still have some non-deadly traps to make things fun). They arrive just in time to see a circle of cultists complete a ritual, and the body of the Actress get possessed by the half of the Lich's soul. The Lich begins raising dozens of undead per round, a literal horde that chases the party. Once they get outside, a massive skeletal dragon explodes out the top of the mountain and begins flying towards the battlegrounds where the Lich fell. It becomes a race against time as they try to come up with a way to defeat the Lich before it manages to make its soul whole. I plan to pepper in veterans of the first war, Cultists of the Lich, and the like.

I haven't experienced/used the cutscene and def feel I agree with Luke but would also love to hear other's experiences! I've heard good and bad stories of the bbeg dropping in at low level and I'm interested to try it out and give it a fair shot. ~Dan

I like when the BBEG is an "empire builder" for them to have an elite core, and then outsource to, and tributize other criminal groups to slowly build an incideous web. Atleast until they are ready to make some larger waves. Depending on how long you want it to take you can determine the exact "tree" if who bosses who around and how complex it is (number of layers and total number of groups). In a simple case the BBEG has a direct group of say 30 dudes who boss around 3 others and outsources to 1 other group. Have 1 of the 3 "tributaries" boss around some various goblin tribes and you know have an easy progression for the players. Plot hook order 1. Asked to deal with goblins 2. Goblins somehow expose that tributary A is making them attack the villages (possibly by stealing from the goblins so the goblins are raiding to recover) 3. Players make a move on tributary A, in their stronghold is evidence (papers?) of the BBEG's group and their relationship to Tributary A. 4. Players have a hard time researching BBEG, possibly learn of other 2 tributaries 5. Players attack either BBEG or other tributaries looking for more intel and eventually get to the BBEG Obviously the bigger the web the longer it takes for players to work through it, but you have more potential points of discovery. You can also explore what happens to the various groups as players eliminate them, does the BBEG try to eliminate the players to stop them from burning his empire. What if they go straight for the top, do the other factions splinter off or does someone try and take over the "empire". Just a fun plot structure that lends itself well to foreshadowing without exposing the BBEG directly to the players, but his minions and lieutenants will probably regularly harass them.

The campaign I’m planning right now has three bbegs. The Perry will encounter and battle the first one in session one, but he will run away. They will have similar interactions with him throughout, but sparingly. In the end he will fuse himself with a dragon and a powerful elemental orb and fight the party. The second is a man who appears to be pulling the strings. He is the one with the dragon, he has immense dark powers, is attempting to obtain all the elemental orbs, and will interact with the party occasionally. They will fight him once mid campaign where he completely destroys them, but leaves them alive because if he killed them someone else would just take their places. In the end they battle him, and would lose if not for the third bbeg. The third bbeg is the avatar of darkness, the supreme elemental of darkness. He is introduced as a mysterious cloaked merchant near the outskirts of town early on. He offers the players powerful darkness weapons in exchange for lots of gold. In the end, he takes all of the powers back from bbeg#2 and reveals his true identity. He consumes bbeg#1 and the elemental orb, and fights the party. I plan on dropping lots of details, letters, hints, and interactions with the first two bbegs, but the third one will be a twist I hope they don’t see coming. I’m also stealing the plot directly from an old video game.

My players have been interacting with a big bad at points in our run of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and I do love leaving little clues that suggest the person they thought at first was just another filled-out NPC are more than that. They have just been getting more and more suspicious as time as gone on. It's been really fun for them as well as myself.

I have made cutscenes work in a campaign before, and I am in the comments letting you know this. :-)

There are two ways I made cutscenes work, one was a couple one use time crystals that showed echoes of the past and were used to gather clues during a murder mystery. The other was a scrying mirror that looked into a dungeons boss chamber. This was important because it showed off the layout of that chamber which was a very important aspect of the fight and gave them a chance to plan for a puzzle boss. Cutscenes work *really* well if they are being used to give tools, and opportunities to the players. Turning a clever bosses puzzle room against them was very satisfying for the group and realizing that the murder was the precursor to a bigger plot also let them go roaring down a new adventure path.

You seem to forget that there are some powerful spells out there, like idk, clone, that let a bbeg defeated at low level come back even stronger. Then you get a recurring villain that you defeat time and time again, until you can trap his soul. But by then he probably has a solution for that too. etc, etc.

Hey, its me! One of the folks who will tell you about cutscenes! Your advice is great for people who use them for 10 or 20 minutes and/or lame info dumps. DM's who do this should heed Luke's advice. That being said... I use cutscenes to great effect. But, I do it by limiting it to 20 seconds or less and have it be related DIRECTLY to an action the PC's have performed very recently. Players will pay attention when its about them or know its about them. If you keep it short, about the players, use it sparingly, and make it punchy then you can get away with it. And I have had some pretty great player reactions as a result.

I thought I'd share my favourite foreshadowing of a BBEG that occurred during my homebrew campaign. The party was completing a side quest to infiltrate a gang who was stealing items from a nearby town. They just so happened to run into the villain (disguising himself as a Wandering Druid at the time) who also had something stolen which he wanted to grab from the gang. Neither party (the PCs or the villain) knew that the other was a target. Without even knowing it, they began to work alongside each other and the party began to learn more about the villain's motivations and what drives him during calm moments in the infiltration. After the quest is completed and the temporarily joint group splits off, they eventually meet again once more back in town but this time, they realize who the other is, the goals they want to achieve, and that they're now the biggest threat to their current goals.

I would never run NPC Theater cutscenes, or let my players run the BBEG in one. But what I would do, if there are not enough players available on game night rather than cancel the session is let the players who can make it play other NPCs in other parts of the world. They might play the surviving members of a doomed party of adventurers in a desperate situation or a council of wizards deciding which nation to support in a war, or a few pirates salvaging mysterious treasures from an ancient undersea ruin, or any other scene. These side scenes are basically one shots but may impact the main story. The centuries-dead corpses of the doomed adventurers are in a future dungeon, the PCs get news of the wizards choosing a side, or some of those treasures end up in the hands of an NPC or villain. It adds richness to the world, increases player investment, and helps maintain the schedule of play.

I am having quite a bit of fun with my party. I have a NPC that acts super sus and that the whole party thinks is the BBEG. They fear him, they don't trust him, and it's great because they completely trust one of the actual BBEG who paints that NPC as super sus. This NPC even has a reputation as the black sheep and his past is a mystery. The best part is that this shady NPC is actually a complete good guy who is doing everything he can to help the party with their quest. I honestly can't wait for the real BBEG to show his true colors and shock the party.

One version that worked well for one of the mid-level-ish big bads in my campaign, albeit it happened by accident. In this world, the PCs are fighting evil undead overlords who have taken over. One conceit of the world is that many major cities are connected by a teleportation network, and the PCs essentially have a back door into this system thanks to an NPC helper they started the campaign with. But, the bad guys have access to it too and that makes these connection points dangerous as well as useful: it is their exit point from most scenarios, but it is also where the bad guys call in resources. I made a chart to see what the bad guys happen to call in, and on the first adventure of the campaign, the PCs were a little slow to reach the teleportation circle and the bad guys started bringing in minions. At which point, the PCs realized they *really* needed to get a move on before they got overrun. Well, this ended up allowing 1 encounter to happen in their base. I rolled to see what it was and rolled a Nat 20, so one of these mid-level bosses showed up. (I was flumoxxed and startled and my PCs could probably tell) So their NPC who can work the teleportation network starts trying to use it to essentially banish the big bad from the base (a trick the bad guys had no reason to suspect he could do, but the PCs did and even anticipated) while the PCs are fighting just to *keep them in that room* so they can be banished. Essentially, keeping them at bay long enough for this to work. I made the rolls publicly so they knew there was a chance it would succeed or fail. It did not go perfectly: we had a PC death, which wasn't super great, but it did work. The PCs are super invested in killing that NPC now, and I let the player whose character died write into his backstory that this particular big bad destroyed his home village so he can get that cathartic revenge while still being true to the narrative of the game. But no one thought it was contrived, and in retrospect it would be cool to do something similar deliberately in future games. Basically, if you want to give the PCs agency here, give them win conditions other than killing the big bad. Here, just surviving long enough for the big bad to be banished, with the drama of whether it would happen going on every round, kept them engaged and having fun. Or maybe they can save *one* NPC who is important to them. Or maybe they can do something before running away. They just encountered this NPC again and managed to evacuate a town before the big bad showed up. They ran away after their initial volley of attack was rebuked, but they feel like they did *something* by saving all of those people, and I made sure to let them know that they *did* save the day. In both cases, they could have failed with disastrous consequences. Give them win conditions other than "kill the bad guy" and they can be heroes even if they don't kill them. It's a good general rule, and I think it works *extra* well for introducing the big bad early.

I am running a campaign currently where the player's met the big bad (I rolled to see if he cared and he did) but because of one of his abilities and some failed saves they weren't able to do more than to talk with him and request the release of one of the prisoners which he accepted on the condition that they stop going after his various bases of operation, though he didn't mention where they were so when they inevitably clean out the next place to try and protect a town from a growing plague, big bad comes in and this time demands some form of repayment, in the form of killing one of the characters. Now the characters had enough gold and resources (they had picked up a scroll of raise dead and one of the characters had revivify) so death wasn't too big of a deal for them at this point but his repayment was a message, 'stop'. They actually fought him here and he didn't use his full power because he didn't believe he needed to and he was setting the stage for his lieutenants to be angry with the party when he told them that the party did as well against him as his lieutenants did (though he left out that he held back against the party and not against them), needless to say he wanted to test his minions and knew that the party would head for his lieutenants base next so he wanted to test their strength as well as prove that they aren't ready to deal with a 'god' yet (since he proclaims himself as such but he isn't). Not something I will ever do again since, in the moment, my players didn't care for it much but now that they have killed the lieutenants they have some understanding of why the BBEG did what he did, because it made the lieutenants band together and fight as a single party against the characters party creating an extremely difficult and drawn out battle unlike anything they had faced thus far, and they loved it. It pushed their characters to the limit and they had to strategize every round in order to try and keep an edge in the fight that up until the last two rounds could have gone either way. Now with that done, the BBEG will appear again but this time to offer to make them his new lieutenants (they burned up the old ones in lava after they killed them to prevent resurrection) or to fight them for real for the first time in the campaign, at this point they aren't meant to kill him but if they do then part 2 of the campaign changes fairly significantly, otherwise they are meant to survive for a number of rounds and make their escape when an ancient dragon comes in to attack the BBEG (they have already met and are working with the ancient dragon so it's not just some random dragon, though it will die here if they don't some how find a way to kill the BBEG and with their current level and gear they may very well win). Again this isn't something I will run again but it is out of my standard for campaigns so I figured throwing a wrench in every now and then can make for a more unique story than the players are use too.

I just had an interesting situation - where one of my players was away for the week, and it didn't work well for what I had planned for the PC's. So I turned it into a chance to meet (two potential) big bads by giving my players characters in their vicinity, and having a one-shot adventure there. That way they had agency, got to play something different, and got a "cut scene" kind of feel in seeing something happen outside their main plot that will affect them down the road.

I agree with most of these, but the Cutscenes one. But I do agree that you should be wary on using them in situations involving players. One of the best ways I've found to integrate "Cutscenes" in these games is with Player Flashbacks. My players write or describe to me a scene from their characters past and it plays out as a scene sometime in the campaign. This is my main usage of Cutscenes and its one I recommend if you feel like your group will enjoy them. That is the important part, talk with your group about them. Other ways I use them on occasions is some foreshadowing of certain events (I don't do it too often) or to follow a PC that has left the party and has been replaced, so we can see how the character is still affecting the story. These can be useful tools of story-telling and I have found that they increase player engagement, as we are playing a collaborative Story-telling game. These are just some ways I recommend using Cutscenes. I wouldn't use them when players are directly involved, like the party walking into a room and seeing a bad-guy, or monologues, but using them to build up the story and to get the other players invested in another characters story are great ways to use them, if the party likes them.

I've had surprisingly good luck with the "PCs meet the big bad early on" thing in my intrigue campaign. Despite the fact that the PCs are greedy, amoral mad scientists and wannabe drug lords who want to run the city, they have successfully internalized that Lord Kul, the Invincible Warrior who rules the place is *called that for a reason*, and they are terrified of him, to the point that if he arrives in an area, any plan they had immediately shifts to "leave immediately." I think this started because his first real appearance beside a brief conversation was when he walked into the gladiator arena and killed a T-Rex in two turns. With me actually rolling that fight. (He did crit, but he also scored a hit on a natural 3.) I think this helped demonstrate that his reputation was reflected in mechanics as well as lore, and they really weren't going to take him down at that level. When they next met him at a party he was hosting (a setting which further encouraged them to interact with, not attack him), one of the PCs began a drinking contest, having secretly made himself immune to the effects of alcohol. I rolled Fortitude for everyone around to see how well they did and Lord Kul got a 35. ("I'm sorry, I know you are magically cheating, but he still beats you. His alcohol tolerance is just that high.") This really gave life to the Chuck Norris-like "Kul facts" the PCs occasionally heard when they looked for rumors, like how Lord Kul once punched the moon, or how he swims the harbor once a week to kill any sharks near the city. Now that the PCs are public enemies for that time they kinda-sorta killed Kul's son, I can use Kul arriving at a scene to control the players' actions, which would not have been my Plan A (due to the "let's attack the guy" risk), but because I know the players legitimately fear him, it has proven to be a great tool. (The PCs have actually met a number of high-level antagonists in that campaign, thanks to their start as gladiators in the city, allowing them to become adventurers of moderate renown, worthy of meeting with a power broker but not yet a threat in need of killing. Having those meetings made their plans to deal with each faction much more interesting.) Since that example is probably not a generalizable example, I have found elsewhere that having independent minor villains dislike or fear the big bads is a good way to foreshadow. The players will think "If these guys are tough enough that they are causing us trouble, how tough is the guy THEY are afraid of?". In another campaign, a fight between the PCs and one villain was interrupted by another villain arriving, floating high in the sky and summoning a snowstorm that quickly blanketed the battlefield and caused everyone to scatter. When this floating character first appeared, the leader of the other villains raised a fist to the sky and shouted "Yukesia, you heretic!" before running away. For much of the rest of the campaign, the players were wondering who/what Yukesia was, and what that other villain was talking about. When the PCs reached the abandoned fortress later, they began finding documents from Director Yukesia, and eventually a memo noting that an official investigation has definitely confirmed that Yukesia's death was an unfortunate accident and NOTHING MORE. And then a note furious that her body has gone missing. And so on. When the PCs finally faced her, they not only had much more of an idea of who she was than if they'd simply run into her, but they even had some hints at her preferred tactic - blanketing the area in a blinding blizzard that only she can see through and unleashed attacks from all directions. The result was one of the most memorable fights of the campaign.

An Angel loses it's wings every time Luke says "Stabby stabby time".

The best Idea I've heard for a BBEG foreshadow, Simulacrum. I'm going to make a Wizard for mine that is using the infinite Simulacrum exploit. The first one they meet will have used all his high level spell slots and is just kind of weak, but as they see him more and more often they will have to fight groups of him with higher level spell slots available.

I think that cutsecenes are a great tool, but ONLY if is short, I agree wih you luke, taking 20-30min of the game just to tell what the BBEG is doing some random stuff bogs me down really hard as a player and DM. Like always, awesome video!

The skits are fun! Haha. Great advice, thanks!

Came across this video again and thought of another way you could foreshadow the main villain without risking him: Send his powerful enforcer/emissary to do his dirty work! You get the effect of showing off the BBEG but without the risk. And if the party somehow kills the emissary/enforcer, that will only draw attention to this new threat to the BBEG’s plans and will get them to react in some way to it either by sending an invitation or a hit squad to squash these upstarts.

I record music and different audio things as a passion of mine and I formed that into dnd using a cutscene lol. The information giving was foreshadowing of the next part but it was kind of already known by the players. So I kind of made it work with sound effects, an orchestration score. And a chat between two villains.

I use cutscenes to visually describe something that the players are going to hear about through rumormill or eyewitness accounts anyway. It invokes more emotion to describe it in detail than for them just to hear what happened from an NPC. I could have the NPC relive it through his or her's own experience, but then it feels forced to introduce them to an NPC with that information. A short cutscene does the trick much more efficiently. I typically foreshadow my BBEGs in instances where the players won't know at that point that they are the BBEG, but does give the players a small insight about the BBEG. In my last campaign, the BBEG was the main knight who was in charge of investigating and eliminating cults in the kingdom. The players had encountered a cult and she brought them in to interrogate them to ensure they weren't a part of the cult and also learn about them. (They were mercenaries for a group that was familiar to the knights) There was only a little bit of rumor among the commoners that this knight was brutally effective and feared if she came to their town. So they didn't suspect her as being the BBEG until much later, when she assassinated the King and took control of the kingdom, but by then they weren't in a position to fight during a huge speech ceremony in the capital. (I think they were deathly afraid of her at that point too)

These skits are amazing. :)

I've only ever used (short) cutscenes during long rests, like dream sequences, and only at the end of a long, highly-involved session. These serve as more of a cool-down of the session than anything else.

My group is level 2. They were being treated to cooked alligator and baked fruits by some Lizardfolk. They gave some foreshadowing to a module they will revisit around level 7, tomb of horrors. It was some lore on Acererak and Archwraith Moghdam. They were too low to fight them, and I didn't want them to feel like they were in a cut scene. I had an aoe that plane shifted them to the ethereal plane. So they could see Acererak, but not interact and I could cut scene to end one module and begin introducing another. It was only a minute of DM RP, conversation, but I thought I would share a way to introduce/cut scene that can still allow PCs to not feel helpless. I run a converted original Ravenloft and have Strahd interact through illusion, perception checks of him closing one way secret doors behind the group, or one round of combat before mists come to PCs rescue. I think the biggest point is don't bully your PCs in an unfair fight, and don't tell them you can't do anything shut up and watch me. Everything else can bring fun and enjoyment as long as you allow the delivery method to PCs to allow them to feel like they matter and are a part of your world. These are just a few ways to deliver info, and as all walks of life too much of anything makes things dull and repetitive. Thanks, I hope this is found to be helpful.

So I have actually incorporated little cutscenes into every game. The players are given little visions each day by their patron as she find information about the BBEG in the weave. In a prior campaign I gave the players a mirror of scrying they could use once per day. Little historical moments, or little snippets of information, or when they find some new info they can get context in a more atmospheric way from their patron or mirror. I always keep it super short, 2-3 minutes at most, but it gives me an in game way to impart lore and foreshadow. I usually open the game session with it allowing us to bring focus to the table and off our side chats. Just keep it tight and wait until the characters discover a clue or a name, then their patron or mirror is responding to them.

My best foreshadow of the big bad was when I had my players inadvertently release the lich, Indrus the Brittle, from his prison know as the Vault of Indrus the Brittle. They thought it was vault as in a vault of treasure but when they opened it, there stood a blue crystalline skeleton in flowing black robes. He then thanked them for releasing him and said as a reward, he would not kill them at this time. The dwarven barbarian tried to rush him, but they were like third level and liches have a paralyzing touch so Indrus just tapped the dwarf’s face paralyzing him and tipped him over like he was nothing, bade them farewell, then plane shifted away. This was all using valid actions from the lich’s stat block. Most of the players realized that it would not be smart to try to kill him because I am known to not hold back. So they tried to get as much information before he left. He fought off the dwarf while conversing with the other players. From then on, they kept hearing rumors of groups of bandits, rogue mages and orcs gathering to some new master as they tried to figure out where he went and defeat him before his power grew too much. They knew he was near, but could not figure out exactly where. Or who was converting to his power.

"Cutscenes" only work when you give the players some between-games reading to do. Which is what keeps groups together when schedules are randomized frequently during vacations, military deployments, and the like. ...and give EXP and loot for each player to try rewriting them better!

I do not use cutscenes to foreshadow bbeg but they are a useful tool to give the players more context into events happening around the story. A meteor shower destroying the lords castle destabilizing the area and leading to the bbeg using their army to conquer the region has more impact when the players know more info then they could have come across that quickly. I usually use cutscenes as a way to introduce potential allies/enemies. In the prior example maybe I describe an ettin performing a ritual to summon the meteor shower from a cave in the mountains to the northwest. But that character has their own reasons for doing that deed. I feel like this is a useful tool to help flesh out that the world is a living place. And although the players shape the world with their decisions there is always something things going on in the background. The world isn't static and just waiting for them. Although the bbeg is important for game reasons they do not exist alone in a void, and as various events unfold through the world the players get to experience the plans of the bbeg more organically as the villain uses these events to their advantage. It also makes it a little easier in my opinion to prep as you already know the bbeg's desires and agenda and through these events the party can learn that without you smacking them in the face with it.

Ahahaha your opener is fantastic! I let the big bad appear when it makes sense, but always have an escape plan. It usually involves a nearby trap door and a darkness spell, though if they're powerful enough I have teleport prepared

I was thinking of putting in *very short* cutscenes at the start of the season. Just enough to describe the BBEG in their lair, a lieutenant coming up and summarizing the PCs actions last session, an overdramatic "All according to plan muahaha" or "Curses! I underestimated them for the last time" etc. Then cut back to PCs for the start of the session, maybe no more than a minute or two after they're already familiar with the scene descriptions.

Awesome video Luke!!! Thanks 😈

About cutscenes, I'd like to add my two cents : Luke is absolutely right, don't ever use them as exposition scenes, but they could be marvellous as a mean of tension. I was mastering a Star Wars game, where the pc were trying to prevent an evil sith to get some mysterious crystals. They knew who was the bbeg, as they barely escaped him twice already, but he was closing up on them as the rythm of the campaign rised up. Then... And only Then I used a VERY short cutscene, to show Darth Vader contacting the "bbeg" - angry about the lack of results - to tell him he was taking the lead on this affair ("captain, set a course to the system WhereThePCMustGo"). Their reaction to the brutal rise of importance of the opposition was priceless, and they doubled their efforts to reach safety. Short, meaningful and strategically placed cutscenes could be awesome !

I used to use cutscenes in my Monster of the week game (think buffy the vampire slayer) to help set up the main plot of that session, I'd only really do a "cold open" where I explain something happening before a violent act happens (think someone walking into an alley and the alley is described as covered in blood, cultists sacrificing someone) to help set my players in the right direction and bury themselves into the mystery!

I plan for my PCs to meet the BBEG in a couple different ways, 1 through a cult that worships him learning through environmental tidbits or 2 (my personal favorite) the opportunity to stumble into my BBEGs house (a reflavored twist on the CoS Death House). Most likely both. There's also a bit more or a planned lore dump before phase 3 but that's in character through a character that they'll most likely meet, who knew the BBEG before he became the BBEG. In the basement of the death house, they can meet a residual projection of him that he can interact with the world through but can't leave the house in. Functionally a visible Poltergeist with a couple extra actions. As of right now he's been banished to the Abyss, so he can't interact with the mortal plane directly; just in small bubbles. So a pseudo remote BBEG that gets closer and stronger the longer the campaign runs.

One thing I like to do is have big bads meet the party at lower levels not because I as a DM contrived it, but because the big bad in-character contrived it. It's a bit of a tightrope, but if a player does something unexpected, seeing that it's not the DM who gets surprised but the big bad themself does embolden them to feel like even there their choices matter.

so informative, thank you!!! super useful content ^^ Just downloaded your traps too from drivethru. Awesome stuff ^^

I'm running my players through the original Ravenloft (not Curse of Strahd, but I did use part of that for conversion). The first time the players came across Strahd, he was dressed as the driver of long black carriage with a coffin in the back (an analog to a modern day hearse). They interacted with him, got some backstory, and learned the carriage was there for Ireena (and them too). When they came back a few minutes later, the carriage was gone. They later learned who he was and exactly what kind of danger they had been in. He later turned up with the carriage and a small force of minions that the players had to fight off to keep him from getting to Ireena. Needless to say, they have been afraid of carriage drivers in ravenloft from that point forward. >:)

Intro scene reminds me of Matt Colville’s perfect campaign intro for Keep on the Shadowfell. In the best way possible.

In my current campaign (we just finished session 6) the BBEG was set up to be an ancient shadow dragon... the party teamed up with the Raven Queen to absolutely destroy him in 3 rounds of combat only for it to be revealed that the Raven Queen used them to help her take the dragons power. She then betrays the party and becomes the new big bad. There’s also a war going on so they have to deal with that as well...

Nailed it! I'm currently running a 5e conversion of Wrath of the Righteous. So far, in general, it's a really fun campaign (highly recommend). HOWEVER, it starts with what would probably be a 30-minute cutscene. WORSE (yes, you can make a bad idea worse, imagine that!), it's a cutscene in which the players fail and fail hard. Thankfully, I read ahead when I'm running a module so I wasn't surprised and I tweaked the s*** out of the beginning of the campaign. The end result was the same but: 1) It wasn't the first scene in my version or first session. Instead, I had them run an unrelated, short module for Sessions 1 and 2. 2) I didn't run that scene as a cutscene. Instead, it was a combat encounter with "safe" terrain (this scene takes place in a fortification specifically for countering demons after all!). So, the players correctly deduced that they should save as many innocents as possible and gathered them and themselves within the "safe" terrain, which is what plummets into the chasm. The combat above was still described as the dragon's and demon's actions on their respective turns. But, now, instead of just talking at my players, it's interspersed with their own meaningful actions. Yes, the players still lost the city but, instead of helplessly listening to a monologue that, frankly, sucks, they got to save some extra NPC's and kill some demons on their way to the loss.

I had a leading antagonist that I trotted out for show early on and the player's decided to act. He could have trounced them, but that would have revealed that he was THE big bad as opposed to just a bad guy so he didn't reveal his full power and the players captured him and took him to the local baron, who imprisoned him. He was a mage and orchestrated his scheme from inside his cell using one of his henchmen as a stalking horse. The group was convinced the #2 was their primary antagonist, who they ultimately defeated (along with the big bad's plot). The big bad, however? He engineered his escape and lived to plot again. The players eventually figured it out and taking him down was just that much more sweet in the end.

Love your videos. Extremely helpful