The idea of introducing a rival adventuring party in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons goes back to the game's roots, yet it remains to be a criminally underused trope at many tables. Thankfully, the fifth edition module Call of the Netherdeep brought this idea back into the limelight by featuring a rival adventuring party of its own.
Presenting a fellow or rival adventuring party to your players brings many benefits to your game. It shows that they're not alone in their profession, gives them NPCs (non-player characters) to compare themselves to, and breathes life into your game world. However, there are many more ideas to play with here than the straightforward introduction of another party of adventurers.
5 The Cl൲assic Rivals 🦹
Fans of animated shows can find easy inspiration for this kind of adventuring party from characters such as Gary Oak from the Pokemon series, or Vegeta from Dragonball Z. This adventuring party is on the same level as your PCs (player characters) and may even be competing with them to complete quests, curry favor with certain NPCs, and uncover treasure and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:magical items.
As the adventure progresses, the classic rivals will be slightly stronger than your PCs at some points and slightly weaker at others. They might appear as allies during one quest and then resurface as adversaries in the next. The idea here is to provide your PCs with another group of adventurers that they are trying to best as far as the world of advent🍸uring is concerned.
Ultimately, the classic rival🐬s may end up as friends or foes of your PCs. It all comes down to how they interact with them over the course of your games. Are your PCs rooting for their rivals to succeed in ꧑their endeavors? Or will they give into jealousy and try to sabotage these opposing adventurers even if it means a greater evil rises? Needless to say, you can see why this is the most popular use case for rival adventurers.
4 𝓀 The Evil Counterparts
A rival adventuring party also makes for a great villain: particularly when they are working underneath the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) of your campaign. As opposed to the classic rivals, there's no gray area here. The evil counterparts are actively working against your PCs to try and accomplish their own nefarious deeds.
This is an especially interesting use for a rival adventuring party as it provides the dungeon master with an opportunity to show the PCs reflections of their characters i𝔉f they had chosen the path of the wicked. For example, if your PCs have a life cleric in their party whose goal is to help those in need, the rival adventuring party might feature a death cleric who enjoys taking advantage of the desperate.
This is also a great idea for dungeon masters who are starving for adversaries at higher levels of play, as adventuring parties bec🐻ome very hard to challenge as soon as they reach 13th leveꦓl. Give them a taste of their own medicine with an evil high-level party of your own.
3 The Goody Two Shoes ✃
This is the exꦑact opposite of the evil counterparts and, funnily enough, often even a more upsetting bunch of rivals for your average group of players to meet. The goody two shoes party is a paradigm of charity, valor, and justice. They are an impossibly good group of individuals that live by superhero-style codes of honor.
Seeing as many adventuring groups devolve into degeneracy, the goody two-shoes party usually ends up showing up your PCs. In fact, there's no better way to show your PCs that they truly are the villains 𓂃of their own story than by introducing a rival goody tw♕o-shoes party.
This is a great trope to use on players who tend towards the murderous in order to show them the error of their ways. That being said, dungeon masters who don't like playing with murderous players are definitely better off addressing the issue outside the game than teasing them with these NPCs.
2 The Comical Failures ♎
Every great story needs a dash of comedy and levity to lighten the horror and drama of the narrative. The comical failure adventuring party is one method of providing this levity. These adventurers can't seem to get the job done right no matter how hard they try.
It's likely that your PCs will be called in to clean up the mess that the comical failures leave behind on more than one occasion. Even so, for whatever reason, the comical failures continue to find work despite their track record of screw-ups. If you do use these rival adventurers, it's important to make it clear that they really are trying their best to succeed.
Unfortunately, they're just not very good at this whole adventuring thing. Whether it's due to bad luck or simply not being the sharpest tools in the shed is entirely up to you. As with many comedy-based characters, you'll find that the comical failures might become some of the most endearing NPCs in the entirety of your campaign when executed properly.
1 🌜 The Big Brothers 🎉
This rival adventuring group should be used with caution. To tell the truth, only veteran dungeon masters who have a very good grasp of the game should even attempt ꦬintroducing these rivals. Otherwise, you𒊎 might find your PCs questioning why they are needed at all.
The big brothers are a group of adventurers that are well beyond what your PCs can do. This party has been around the adventuring block more than a few times, and continues to tackle threats and enemies that your PCs wouldn't stand a chance against as the story progresses.
The idea here is to provide your PCs with a group of adventurers to look up to. In other words, you wa▨nt to show them a party of heroes that they are striving to become. The big brothers a꧋ct as a sort of parental figure to your PCs, providing them with encouraging words, potential gifts, and stirring roleplay.
You can 𓃲also use this group of adventurers as a deus ex machina method of saving your PCs if they ever find themselves in deep water, but you should only employ this once dur🌄ing a campaign, if at all.
Ultimately, the big brothers might be defeated later on in the game by your BBEG, giving your PCs a gripping motivator for beating them. Alternatively, the big brothers might harbor dark secrets that only come to light as your PCs become their equals, turning your party's greatest allies into their reluctant enemies.