I wrote earlier about the template that can be found on the “How to be a great GM” website.

Using a Masterplot and Chapter templates – Blog of Holding (blog-of-holding.ca)

He also has an excellent youtube channel : How to be a Great GM – YouTube

But I thought I would expand a little bit on what I had learned about Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) motivations from “How to be a Great GM”. It sometimes is just assumed that the BBEG is bad and you must defeat him or her. But why? And who is he or she truly?

Part of being a good Dungeon Master is spending less time on the detailed story of how the BBEG will be defeated and more on fleshing out the story of the how the BBEG came to be and let the players tell the story about how, when, and where he or she may be defeated.

Usually the BBEG is motivated by five things:

Power – Power to shape the world as he or she sees fit.
Status – Usually the means to acquire to the power desired.
Wealth – Accumulation of the means to acquire power.
Revenge – Ability to right a wrong.
Love – Satisfy a longing that no power can replace.

I find that love, revenge, and power are the most commonly used motivations. As mentioned, status and wealth and are usually a means to the end of acquiring power.

There are a couple of additional motivations that I find useful to think about and expand on in your stories:

Legacy – Power that survives beyond death – either by children or surviving death itself.
Carnage – This is the hardest one to truly pull off. It can easily devolve it revenge. But what if the BBEG just wants to watch the world that others love burn? That is truly evil.

Just a few ideas to consider while you are creating and enhancing your next BBEG. Don’t focus on so much on the what, when, where, and how of the BBEG confrontation – think more about the why and the who.

Or perhaps the most fun, you don’t need just one BBEG. Having a false ending with a BBEG only to reveal the true BBEG is can be the most fun for the DM and players alike.

A few other variations to consider:

1. What if a defeated BBEG only releases a worse BBEG that the original BBEG?
2. What if the original BBEG had altruistic motivations that the party was unaware of and was really protecting them?
3. What if the party needs to choose to partner with a BBEG to defeat another BBEG? Who would they choose? What consequences would that create?
4. What if the one of the party becomes the next BBEG?