this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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Okay so my players have spent most of their time in Eastern Berlin. After their latest run a big group of anarchists will approach them.

I think I played a bit too much with the "faceless evil" trope so I kinda want to have a proper bad guy on this few runs. The issue being that I don't really know what kind of bad guy would be a good fit. Even the obvious corpo exec I'm having a hard time finding a good motivation.

Do you guys have any idea for a cool bbeg that people would remember? Also even if it doesn't apply to my situation I'd love to hear about your bbeg!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

In general, I think, that the most rememberable BBEGs are the ones which are not inherently evil but the ones that have good motivations but have to make sacrifices when implementing a plan. But that can be sometimes hard to pull off, you have to somehow show the players the real motivation, and the twist has to be understandable/relatable without getting too deep into RL.

What I can offer you right now is pure evil:

Anarchists want runners to steal a prototype chicken breed that some other stolen data shows to be very effective (i.e. resilient to illnesses and high protein meat).
During a run players "accidentally" find data that shows that when green-light from higher ups, the breed will quickly dominate the market. The product is a gem of our BBEG scientist, they are the driving force behind the project.
The twist: it needs to be fed the corp-engineered feed. Otherwise the breed is much less effective. A subscription basically. If you want to try to not have a pure evil BBEG, maybe they are traumatized after a big hunger somewhere in the past and simply do not see other way to solve the "gene trigger" mechanic?
Players will get another mission from the group to try to find out why their new chickens are performing worse than the regular ones.
The main lab of the scientist, where the secret formula is kept, is guarded by genetically modified, technomancer/awakened chickens with temper of hungry piranha sharks.

What will the players do after learning the truth? Sabotage the lab? Hack the report the higher ups skim through to give the final go? Hack the lab so the data that go into production is false? Kill the BBEG? Show him the truth?

Or maybe the scientist wants well but some bean pusher found a way to convince them to put the dietary requirement in place and they are the real BBEG? They only want to boost income so they can outperform the other branch because head of that branch has a better looking business card (something petty).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Another twist to make the subscription totally evil: financial analysis of chicken farmers that indicates the maximal price that can be charged before the farmers go bankrupt. ie, the corp intends to sell the chickens, dominate the market, and then raise feed prices as much as possible.

Also: if the chickens are taken off the feed, their souls weaken and they can be easily possessed by insect spirits.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Also: if the chickens are taken off the feed, their souls weaken and they can be easily possessed by insect spirits.

Calm down there Satan!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The twist: it needs to be fed the corp- engineered feed. Otherwise the breed is much less effective. A subscription basically.

Isn't this Roundup and Roundup-Ready crops from Monsanto?

This is a great idea. Thanks for the write-up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

My inspiration was this but it could very well be Monsanto crops too ;)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

That's such a great idea, thank you so much for the inspiration! Plus the idea of magic/techno chicken guarding a top secret factory factors really well with the more Pink Mohawk style I wanted for that campain

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

corpo exec

motivation

Greed isn't enough?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Well it can be a good base but a greedy exec tends to feel somewhat 1 dimensional to me

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