The quest giver was the main villain all along

> The quest giver was the main villain all along.

The GM was the main villain all along.

Babby's first plot twist.

The party's dog was the main villain all along

The dark tyrant who oppresses innocent people and harnesses the souls of children for daemonic rituals was the main villain all along

I'm sure he had good reasons.

Things that never happen

I came and found what I was looking for. Thanks for this thread.

There was no villain all along.
The concept of villain is a spook, just like the concept of hero.

>One of the players is the main villain all along.
>The DM ensures this is very explicit from the get-go.
>The consequences of this only start to get gradually more serious as the campaign continues.
>The player in question isn't murdered right from the get-go

>the PCs from last campaign were the main villains all along

>The concept of quests itself was the main villain all along

I prefer it better when a character somehow turns themselves into the villain, usually be overthrowing the king/queen and then becoming a tyrant of the land, who tries best but aren't exactly diplomatic

>The MV has split personalities and was working against himself

>The hero love interest is the main villain
>They still love each other

>The evil looking, menacing and rude race of (insert generic evil race) are not evil
>Every fight with them is retconned as some kind of misunderstanding
>Yes they burned this village back then but its alright, one kid threw a stone at them

...

How would this even work? Like he's prophesized to end the world if he ever reaches his 21st birthday or something?

Upon finding out the truth, the party did everything they can to hide the Mcgiffin.

> In the end no one ever had a choice

>Your entire planet is built to make the god of evil and death more powerful

>the dragon that kidnapped the princess is also lich

The main villain was doing it so adventurers would have quests to go on

Warcraft orcs?

Come unto thy maker

>The GM was the main villain all along.
Thankfully he was born on February 29th so there is a decent chance he won't reach his 21st birthday anyway.

>not reducing to 67% HP
>not stacking defense debuffs on him
>not stacking damage and crit buffs on your Hellion
>not one shoting the fucker without losing anyone

84 is reasonable life expectation of a person that cares about their health and has a budget support it properly.

Reposting this but,

>The stated BBEG was actually the assistant of the old BBEG until he betrayed him

So far so Star Wars but

>The old BBEG had his soul locked into a low-tier sword which the heroes found early on in their quest
>It helped them grow stronger and gave them hints for taking out the nuBBEG

At the finale:

>When they cut down nuBBEG, the old one is freed and can retake his body
>The players have the opportunity to turn him away from darkness due to their bond
>If they don't, he tells them to leave for now and return to face him at their best, out of respect

I once had a bad guy turn out to be a quest giver

This is perfectly fine. The best villains are ones that aren't so obvious, and the best villainy is the ones that the players helped perpetrate unwittingly.

I don't think you understand, what happened was
>they got hired to steal an artefact from some villain
>after they'd done so it turned out that they were the one who's spread word of the quest
>anyone who was able to complete it had 'passed' and was offered another job working for him
so the villain turned out to be a quest giver, and the first quest had been their application

I think you misunderstood - sounds like an obvious villain turned out to be an unexpected quest giver. You're describing OP's situation.

Who the fuck didn't realize this from the start?

He fucking tells you in his idle dialogue.

Which line?

>idle dialogue.
He tells you in the god damn opening cinematic about how he caused all of this.

One thing is causing the unearthing of the portal and calling people to fix the situation.

One thing is causing it, then calling people to fix it but secretly becoming the vessel for the evil you let into the world, and killing them.

Also, being the direct reason every single monster and boss exists.