thesnadger:

I had a surprisingly coherent dream during that accident-nap, that contained an interesting idea for a campaign. 

I say interesting because I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or a bad one, honestly. It would definitely require some careful handling and at least one player who’s 300% on the same page narratively as the DM, but it was definitely interesting.

There was a D&D campaign in this dream where one of the players knew their schedule would make them miss a lot of sessions. So instead of playing one of the main party, they played a recurring villain.

When the

villain

player was free they’d show up to taunt or bother or try to win over the main party. If the session ended with them still involved in the action, the DM just narrated them slipping away at the start of the next one. The DM would talk with the villain player between sessions about what their character was doing, and brief them on things they might know. 

This particular villain was the “gain ultimate power and become a god” type. The climax of the campaign involved them seeking out some artifact of ultimate power. When it was clear the party would fail to stop them from acquiring it, the DM and the villain player gave each other a look. Both of them seemed to get really excited.

The DM narrated the villain reaching for the artifact, up to the point where their fingers actually touched it, then went suddenly quiet. The villain player grinned and said, “you sense a great and terrible shift in the structure of the universe. Someone new is in charge. Roll initiative.”