Help with failed adventure.

[Iczer]

Orcs aren't the greatest strategists in the world. Probably violent retaliation after 3-5 days of building up (quelling dissent, lifting morale, sharpening weapons etc etc).

To make the big bad a recurring villain is a bit harder.
As frequently as possible, you should have him equipped with an escape plan. Keep him out of actual fighting as much and as long as possible, giving him the best chances of fleeing. If PC's get within sword swing of him then he's pretty much in a fight to the death. So give him a ranged weapon, and have him aid fights from the comfort of distance. it gives him the best chance of escaping when PC's start mowing down his minions and body guards. Also, be merciful and give him access to things like waterfalls ('no way could he have survived that fall') Body doubles ("damned changelings/illusionists') and trapped hallways ('We'll never catch him at this rate")

Batts

[wolfsgrin]

You could make him a high orc. There's a Rifter that lists their stats. Sorry not at home to look up wich Rifter it is.
Could also give him a sidekick, like an imp, witch, or just something with magic capabilities.
Heck, the orc could be a minor demon himself that has changed shape and taken over this band orcs.
But as others have said, keep him out of direct combat, players like to roll nat 20s when facing the big baddies

[Noon]

As a group are you playing to win challenges, or just kinda experience the world?

If it's to win challenges, then either say they lost, then move on with the orc attacks, or give up on the orc thing. It'll sour play alot if, when they clearly lose, nobody says anything and you keep going as if nothing happened.

If it's to experience the world, then it's not about saving your ideas/prep work. It's about what the orcs would do next, since experiencing that would be experiencing the world. Trying to force your prep work back into the mix will just spoil any true experience of the game world.

[Misfit KotLD]

How well armed is the city? Can it handle an orc assault? If so, that may be why the orcs have not taken over yet. But if that is the case, maybe the orcs start raiding merchant caravans and the like, hitting outlying farms. But keep the leader aloof from the actual contact. He should be in the background, a name whispered in fear.

[jedi078]

But as others have said, keep him out of direct combat, players like to roll nat 20s when facing the big baddies

G ive the boss Orc a second in command, who would take over the Orc band/tribe if the leader was killed. This way the real threat is the enire Orc band/tribe itself. I do this a lot in my games just in case a player rolls a lucky nat 20.

[jedi078]

Killing players is a stooge tool. I for one do not kill players - I humiliate them into some form of control.

Killing players is NOT stooge tool. You kill characters for stupidity and the off chance that a nat 20 kills one of them.

As a GM, it is your responsibility to create excitement. Why else play? Near death is a far greater learning tool than snuffing the character. PC games have NO remorse. Roleplaying is not a game of hard line KILLING for a GM.

While near death is a learning tool, snuffing out a PC in the first few melees of combat or early in the game is also useful. It lets the players know that their characters are not immortal and simple bad luck can just kill them.

In fact my players like my games (and I have been running games online for the past five years) because characters can/will do. As they have said: “Immortality in an action game breeds boredom. No one wants their character to die, but it happens. The beauty of it is that it's just a game, and you could always make a new character. In fact it could be an opportunity to do so.”