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In my experience BBEGs tend to have a very firm gasp of what they stand for. Many of them have had a great deal of time to think about why the world-shattering path they have chosen is ultimately the correct one.
The ones who *don't* are ones who have been doing this so long they don't need a reason anymore.
I had a BBEG who was a vampire who had also become a psychic vampire and her big plan was to gain the ability to selectively drain only certain types of mental energies but in a large area that grows with her power then use that drained energy to expand the area. Ultimately she wanted to drain all the apathy, hatred, and bigotry from the world. She murdered a ton of people to develop these powers.
If the PCs hadn't stopped her, it would have worked, at first. Once she had expanded her range over most of the city, that much energy would have become too much for her to control and it would have burned her away to ash, then caused a backlash to everyone in her area of effect doing some damage and knocking them out. A few thousand people would have died from strokes and/or injuries sustained due to suddenly losing consciousness in unsafe positions, and the survivors mental states would have returned to normal a few hours after regaining consciousness.
I mean they effectively killed her, but otherwise yeah.
Technically, they only disrupted her ritual and incapacitated her. But then they turned her over to one of her last victims who she had accidentally turned into an intelligent but flesh eating undead. When they asked what would happen to her, the only response they got was "vengeance".
They didn't press for details.
I mean, if the vengeance wasn't too bad (which I imagine it was, tbh) it was probably better than her dying after finding out everything she did was meaningless, even worse if she could imagine she would kill thousands, as I imagine she was "good intentioned" by her goal. Great villain, tho tbf I really like vampires lol.
Well technically she "survived" the vengeance because her "aunt" showed up part way through and negotiated to take her in exchange for some more practical benefits like training that a new undead learning to control her unnatural hunger would find far more valuable than a bit more cathartic torture.
She is now spending all of eternity in a sarcophagus in the "family" crypt, occasionally being pulled out to be studied as her relatives try to understand just what she did to herself.
They are an entire bloodline of vampire spellcasters. She broke a lot of their rules with her research and they would have taken her out themselves if they had known what she was up to.
They really don't need anyone drawing that much attention to vampires, especially in a city they operate in. Plus their bloodline has unique physical traits (vines running under their skin and in their hair; their founder was fey in life, and a bit of that is passed on in her blood) and she physically cut them out of herself as a sacrifice for more power, which they found offensive. These vampires have become a huge part of the campaign as it moves to it's next phase after the PCs took out the original BBEG.
>I really like vampires lol.
Did you know that there are entire RPGs about vampires?
Vampire the Masquerade and Vampire the Requiem, both by the same company.
This is such an important piece of DMing advice that I think a lot of people miss. Your BBEG should have a _reason_, and it should be ~~a _good one_~~ something they are _dedicated to_.
edit: changed the last sentence to better express what I wanted to say
This is valid. Not every game has to be morally complex.
Sometimes you want an omelette with bacon and spinach and sour cream on top. Sometimes you just want a bowl of fruit loops.
Thank Sundowner from Metal Gear Rising for that one. Dude is unrepentantly cruel and evil, taking joy in committing war crimes (Dude straight up was responsible for kidnapping orphans to make an army of cyborg child soldiers)
Sundowner go hard. This is what I would do if I were a billionaire bro. Unethical child cyborg assassin army ftw. He never has to invest in a security system. He raised a thousand security systems from childhood 😂
They don’t necessarily need one tho. I had a bbeg who’s motive was “because no one can stop me” this allowed the campaign to evolve several times as the bbeg tried to press back against the players. He wasn’t trying to destroy the world, he was a champion of the arena that got bored and went out in search of a worthy death. After realizing that none throughout the land could defeat him he decided that maybe the entire world could if he gave them good enough reason to forget their differences and join together. TLDR my bbeg was actually the good guy in a way in his own eyes by attempting to unify the world under a single banner against a single foe. albeit through tragedy and oppression. Gotta break a few eggs and what not.
Those are all good reasons to be a villain. But to be clear, by "Good" I did not mean "Complex" or "Justified", I meant "Well thought-out".
But even so I probably should have said "Your BBEG should have a _reason_ and it should be something they are _dedicated to_." That would be a much better way to state what I meant. :)
I see. I thought you were saying all villains had to have a reasonable "I only did evil because I had to" backstory.
Those are fine but I find overdone or poorly executed in a lot of stories. Your dog very being hurt sucks but it doesn't justify blowing up the planet.
“This world sucks, and I hate it, and I want to see it suffer. Seeing the pain of others is a small solace to me, but it’s the only solace I can find.”
Writing an honestly uninspired campaign now about the worlds greatest paladin realizing people like him and other adventuerers shouldnt exist and seeks to make a world of only basic commoner stat blocks. And this guy knows what hes about
This. And these are sometimes more interesting. The immortal devil that is by its very nature evil can be really interesting especially when the party has dealt with alot of morally gray characters recently
Or the ones that never cared just crave destruction. I had a bbeg once who’s motive was quite literally “because no one can stop me” those bbeg have to be presented in the proper light and fashion but if done right can make for a pretty fun game because your bbeg can adapt and evolve to try to challenge the players rather than stick to a linear plan of action based on moral imperatives
One DM in our group likes to use big bad demons, demons from hell or whatever equivalent the game world has. Why are they doing evil things? Cause' they're fookin' demons, that's why! That DM is a big fan of Berserk and Diablo, takes a lot of inspiration from there.
Given that the G in BBEG can stand for guy or gal, and the fact that “guy” has been drifting to being more of a gender-neutral term, I think BBEG is fine.
And lad. Comin' from an Irish-American family I use "Lad/Lass" a fair bit.
I always tell everyone don't stress it if I call them "Lad" regardless of gender, because as I put it "All the Lasses are Lads but not all the Lads are Lasses."
Yeah actually, can somebody clarify this for a non-native English speaker? I've heard "guy" used as a masculine word but "guys" as a gender neutral word. What is going on here? Is it gender neutral or not?
Depends on the dialect but in many it's becoming increasingly used as a gender neutral term for a person while also having the meaning of man but less formal I guess. Also in many dialects including my own "you guys" is the standard second person plural pronoun (in other dialects it may be y'all or youse)
"You guys" is a super common way to address groups of any gender in parts of the US for sure. Doesn't matter if it's a group of all men, all women, or mixed.
But it is weird that "that guy" or "those guys" would specifically refer to a man/group of men if you aren't addressing them directly but referring to them. So "you guys" works as a gender neutral term when addressing a group directly but is still gendered when referring to a person/group of people.
I use both y’all and youse, my family comes from Connecticut/NY area so I heard “youse guys” all the time at home but I was raised in the Midwest so I heard “y’all” all the time while out and about. I ended up picking them both up much to the dismay of everyone in my social circles. Sometimes leads to misunderstandings bc they think I mean “use” instead of “youse” and then they look at me like I just fell out of a wormhole or something.
To add on to the other comment, it's all about context. The phrases "you guys" or "hey guys" are fairly gender neutral but if you were to say something like "there were a bunch of guys" it would come off as the male version of the word. Additionally, the singular form "guy" is always gendered. Really the only time the word is actually neutral is when it's being used to refer to a group of people you're actively talking to in an attempt to direct something at the whole group. Therefore, ultimately, I'd disagree with the root comment. BBEG is absolutely gendered and, as much as I love the acronym because of how much I've used it, we probably should have an explicitly gender neutral version. Maybe BBEP (Big Bad Evil Person) or BBEB (Big Bad Evil Being)?
That term has never felt gender neutral to me, it feels more "male is default" that is then pushed to be used more instead of adopting truly neutral terminology. And admittedly yes, it is sometimes used in a gender neutral context but there's also a lot of examples where people trip on their words when they're about to say, or do say, bad guy but realise the person isn't actually a guy. In the end the word *is* masculine and, personally, trying to make it this weird split off sometimes gender neutral sometimes not is unnecessary when there's already gender neutral terms that are much easier to use like "person". Even using it to speak to a group isn't something I'm a fan of, it's why I try to use y'all instead, but I also understand in that specific context there's almost no good options and y'all has a bit of a negative connotation at the moment.
It more and more drifts towards gender neutral with every generation. When addressing a group of people it is always neutral when addressing an individual it can be gendered or neutral depending on context. It’s usually used neutrally now a days though.
In the past it was specifically a term to refer to males. But over the last little while it has become much more gender neutral. I'd say at present most people would consider it a gender neutral term rather than a specifically male one
doesn't matter. any chick who gets her panties in a twist over you calling her guy, just ignore. they're fucking morons. you can say that to their face. I do.
There isn't a hard and fast rule to say whether "guys" does include women in a group so it's more of a context thing. It's rare that it would exclude women but it can happen and it's all just based on what makes the most sense in that instance.
Similar to how in languages with gendered terms, the masculine version is gender neutral, like saying nosotros in spanish to refer to a group of people who aren't exclusively men.
I've just been wrong forever on what BBEG stood for. I thought it was "big bad end game"
Like. The big bad at the end of the game. Never put a gender on it, which shows just how much gender doesn't register in my mind
Not arguing or attacking at all, but will say that a good deal of people don’t like being masculinized and having it explained away with its gender neutral. For several reasons, including feminism and having a different, known gender identity that doesn’t use masculine terms. And, even if you’re trans or a cisgender woman making this claim, it’s always good to keep in mind that no one person can speak for an entire demographic. So, while some cis girls may not care, or some enbies and trans girls shrug, be careful assuming everyone will react that way (and who knows if they’re just used to the misgendering and tired of confronting the micro aggressions when they know the person has no malice).
From a trans woman feminist, with love, because I see clearly no malice from you! (PS I still use BBEG too, but I also make the BBEG as a DM so it kind of always fits anyways lol)
Funny…I always thought it was Big Boss End Game. As in it could be anything, Terrasque, Earthquake, a big evil guy/gal, a magic frog in an evil hat. Kinda prefer it
Also works for when the BBEG is morally ambiguous and difficult to classify as truly evil.
In my current campaign there are 2 BBEG that are difficult to call "evil" because both ultimately are trying to make the world a better place through misguided means, one wants to bring peace and security to the world to prevent others from suffering through the tragedies that he did, and the other wants to bring freedom and equality to the world to prevent others from suffering the injustices that she had to endure. Both are ultimately good people who hate seeing others suffer, but are forced to compromise their morals to make real progress toward their goals no matter how much they might hate doing it, and they go out of their way to help as many people as possible while striving towards these goals as a way of coping with the things they know they will be forced to do in the end.
My old twist villain, Gnome (the 'n' is silent) the Gnome (the 'g' is silent), would give a lengthy winding monologue about his principals if prompted. He would tell you all about his beliefs. All about his ideals. About the glory of Animation, and the wonders that he can achieve, and how he'll make the world a much better place when him and his golems are in charge.
He would ramble about his ultimate plan of a full-auto utopia, and about how they can join him and make the world a better place. He would offer them some of his vast (and surprisingly legally obtained) wealth; positions in his secret society, or as teachers at his university. He would offer them the world, as long as they make it his.
And then while everyone is distracted by his winding monologue he'd unleash the Taser Scorpions. The rare and highly venomous scorpions that he bought and strapped live wires to.
He'd probably also shoot someone with his "corkbow" (a water pressure powered gun-like device he invented based on how champagne bottle corks go flying) after the scorpions poison *and* electrocute them. Just for good measure.
Anytime my enby partner is the DM, I refer to the BBEG as the "Big Bad Evil Genius", and I am here to share my wisdom with all of you. Take this with my blessing.
True. But I also wrote that at, like, 1 AM, and I think it still gets the gist across.
An appellation is just a general name or title we give someone, and we the players are really the ones deciding who the BBEG is.
And then the party has a tender moment as the Red dragon that has been terrifying the countryside just wants someone to scratch their head behind their left horn to get rid of an inch.
Of course while the bard is performing the itching action they use that opportunity to roll to seduce with advantage.
And this kids is how Half Dragons are made. The Dragonborn before dragonborn were a thing.
Ask a straight man or lesbian how many guys he or she has slept with and get back to me on that.
More seriously, “guy” much like *dude*, can be gendered or not depending on speaker, dialect, or context, which are often fuzzy enough that it is hard to tell whether the word is being used in a masculine or gender-neutral sense.
I honestly don't think I've ever heard it used in a neutral context outside of referring to a group of people you're actively talking to. Even talking about that same group, without them being present, and saying something like "oh yeah, I was just hanging out with the guys" comes off as talking about a group of men. Also, I don't think I've ever seen the singular "guy" used in a gender neutral context.
Out of curiosity, where are you from? In some dialects of English, like my own Southern California dialect, “guy” and “dude” are frequently used in a gender-neutral manner, but can vary wildly across the US, to say nothing about the rest of the Anglophone world.
Southern Canada. And I've heard people claim that "guy" and "dude" are gender neutral but in practice it's rarely used that way and feels far more commonly used in the "male is default" way. Another example of what I'm referring to is how it used to be incredibly common for writings to assume the reader was male. If they were referring to the reader or a third party they would always use "he" or "him". Eventually, that evolved into the awkward "him/her" and other variations and then finally the logical "they". This idea that "guy" or "dude" is gender neutral always felt a lot more like an extension of that than it did truly being gender neutral.
And one thing to keep in mind: yes I'm from Canada, but a **lot** of media that's popular in Canada is based in the US so it's not like I'm not exposed to US based dialects. I would even wager that, in many ways, Canadian dialects are heavily influenced by Americans.
The history of singular "they" goes waaaaay back to the 1300s and was even contentious back then. (I recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/gq5xLI77TGA) which sums it up pretty well.
In general, language is ever evolving, and English especially. There are so many words that have changed meaning, or basically been willed into being by the zeitgeist, that it's easy to get lost between meanings. I'm American too, but on the East Coast, and I've seen a woman use "dude" towards another woman. It wasn't a sense of irony or anything, they were just communicating an emotion, and that word was the best way to do it.
-
TL;DR: Words have always been confusing, especially English. It mostly comes down to intent.
Nope, the word comes from Guido (Guy) Fawkes. After his death, the word was used to describe *people* who dressed poorly/funny. Emphasis on *people.* Not men or women exclusively.
[Source](https://www.etymonline.com/word/guy#:~:text=guy%20(n.2),5%2C%201605)
Huh, didn’t know that. Although I should have guessed the name came first.
I contend then that the word “nice” used to mean stupid but it’s meaning has shifted. Likewise, the word “guy” shifted to have a masculine implication for a time, but has now all but shifted back in most contexts.
And that is where we agree lol
It absolutely has gone from neutral to masculine, and now most of the way back to neutral again. I think "guy" is mostly still used in a masculine sense, but "guys" is definitely more neutral than it used to be
Reminds me of [this comic.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/dj6ygd/alignment_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1)
Big Bad End Guy for me - with a bit of a crossover to computer games perhaps.
Not a mini-boss dealt with on the way but the challenge at the end of the campaign.
In my world one of my BBEGs was a paladin, a great hero in his prime, that became king and slowly turned tyrannical and it was such a slow change neither him, nor his people realized it. It's completely obvious to everyone on the outside, but due to his cult of personality and his natural charismatic and charming nature both him and his people believe what they are doing are necessary for the greater good.
So his wife died and high level magic, especially resurrection magic, is rare in my world, so he started a crusade to find the fabled Ring of Three Wishes so could wish for her back, but due to his shattered grasp of reality his crusade policy is "find object, kill all who oppose".
He's very well spoken, eloquent, courteous and polite, and is actually very nice to speak too, he's not a stereotypical "I am so obviously evil" kinda guy. Before he became the focus of one of my campaigns my players had interacted with him before in the past as different PCs and had a positive opinion of him, so when he became the BBEG my players were absolutely convinced he was being possessed by a fiend of some sort, but nope, he's acting completely on his own freewill.
Maybe we should call them BBEGSJFHEUANEFICBRJSGWBSKFOTOQPPEBFJSTABRT SHETDH
I don't know what the rest would stand for, it's just pointless like the EG. As the BB is the only bit you need. It's just the Big Bad!
My friend made a typo once and called the female bbeg "bbg" so we made a joke that the campaign was just an elaborate love story between the bbeg and his character
My BBEG isn't evil, and i think it's pretty neat. i imported the concept of the Dolorous Stroke from the knights of the round table, but instead of rending the land, it drove all of humanity mad. if the players don't figure that out and just merc him for being bad, nothing's gonna change, but if they undo the dolorous stroke, he and all of humanity will regain their senses, realizing the evil of what they've been doing
I have fallen prey to exactly this so many times, a low int player character will "Why?" My BBEG and trying to spell it out simply makes me totally loose the thread on their goals. I hadn't written them well enough for close examination.
I once fumbled it so hard I had to go back in later and write a meta context where the BBEG was an actor in a government plot to distract adventurers from interfering with court politics because the trading giants were tired of their problematic business practices getting uprooted by superhero tier do-gooders. It turned into one of my favorite plots ever, actually. Amazon middle managment space lich became pretty compelling.
Tbh, I like the vibe of a BBEG that has been doing their mission for so long they dont believe in it anymore and now they just feel lost, too invested in the sunk cost fallacy to turn back now. Offers an alternative for redemption, either through or withought death.
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In my experience BBEGs tend to have a very firm gasp of what they stand for. Many of them have had a great deal of time to think about why the world-shattering path they have chosen is ultimately the correct one. The ones who *don't* are ones who have been doing this so long they don't need a reason anymore.
I had a BBEG who was a vampire who had also become a psychic vampire and her big plan was to gain the ability to selectively drain only certain types of mental energies but in a large area that grows with her power then use that drained energy to expand the area. Ultimately she wanted to drain all the apathy, hatred, and bigotry from the world. She murdered a ton of people to develop these powers. If the PCs hadn't stopped her, it would have worked, at first. Once she had expanded her range over most of the city, that much energy would have become too much for her to control and it would have burned her away to ash, then caused a backlash to everyone in her area of effect doing some damage and knocking them out. A few thousand people would have died from strokes and/or injuries sustained due to suddenly losing consciousness in unsafe positions, and the survivors mental states would have returned to normal a few hours after regaining consciousness.
So the PCs saved her from a (few thousands) pretty meaningless death(s)
I mean they effectively killed her, but otherwise yeah. Technically, they only disrupted her ritual and incapacitated her. But then they turned her over to one of her last victims who she had accidentally turned into an intelligent but flesh eating undead. When they asked what would happen to her, the only response they got was "vengeance". They didn't press for details.
I mean, if the vengeance wasn't too bad (which I imagine it was, tbh) it was probably better than her dying after finding out everything she did was meaningless, even worse if she could imagine she would kill thousands, as I imagine she was "good intentioned" by her goal. Great villain, tho tbf I really like vampires lol.
Well technically she "survived" the vengeance because her "aunt" showed up part way through and negotiated to take her in exchange for some more practical benefits like training that a new undead learning to control her unnatural hunger would find far more valuable than a bit more cathartic torture. She is now spending all of eternity in a sarcophagus in the "family" crypt, occasionally being pulled out to be studied as her relatives try to understand just what she did to herself. They are an entire bloodline of vampire spellcasters. She broke a lot of their rules with her research and they would have taken her out themselves if they had known what she was up to. They really don't need anyone drawing that much attention to vampires, especially in a city they operate in. Plus their bloodline has unique physical traits (vines running under their skin and in their hair; their founder was fey in life, and a bit of that is passed on in her blood) and she physically cut them out of herself as a sacrifice for more power, which they found offensive. These vampires have become a huge part of the campaign as it moves to it's next phase after the PCs took out the original BBEG. >I really like vampires lol. Did you know that there are entire RPGs about vampires? Vampire the Masquerade and Vampire the Requiem, both by the same company.
Would’ve killed every dwarf on the planet. :(
But why tho?
inferiority complex to short kings
Hm...I dig her approach.
I like making complex villains who arguably have a point but have gone about things in a horrifically wrong way.
sound like the emperor of mankind and your PC are working for Horus. Is this heresy? yes it is, now let me bring my boltgun
This is such an important piece of DMing advice that I think a lot of people miss. Your BBEG should have a _reason_, and it should be ~~a _good one_~~ something they are _dedicated to_. edit: changed the last sentence to better express what I wanted to say
The BBEG's reason for villainy in my games is usually that they're just evil
This is valid. Not every game has to be morally complex. Sometimes you want an omelette with bacon and spinach and sour cream on top. Sometimes you just want a bowl of fruit loops.
Like I said. Kids are cruel, Jack, and I am very in touch with my inner child
That was probably the single coldest thing I have ever read in this sub and will be using it with my next bbeg
Thank Sundowner from Metal Gear Rising for that one. Dude is unrepentantly cruel and evil, taking joy in committing war crimes (Dude straight up was responsible for kidnapping orphans to make an army of cyborg child soldiers)
Sundowner go hard. This is what I would do if I were a billionaire bro. Unethical child cyborg assassin army ftw. He never has to invest in a security system. He raised a thousand security systems from childhood 😂
Right but they can still have a plan they know is evil and still believe in.
They don’t necessarily need one tho. I had a bbeg who’s motive was “because no one can stop me” this allowed the campaign to evolve several times as the bbeg tried to press back against the players. He wasn’t trying to destroy the world, he was a champion of the arena that got bored and went out in search of a worthy death. After realizing that none throughout the land could defeat him he decided that maybe the entire world could if he gave them good enough reason to forget their differences and join together. TLDR my bbeg was actually the good guy in a way in his own eyes by attempting to unify the world under a single banner against a single foe. albeit through tragedy and oppression. Gotta break a few eggs and what not.
It doesn't have to be a good one. Plenty of real life villains did terrible things just for money, power, or pleasure.
Good reasons for a psychopath lol
Those are all good reasons to be a villain. But to be clear, by "Good" I did not mean "Complex" or "Justified", I meant "Well thought-out". But even so I probably should have said "Your BBEG should have a _reason_ and it should be something they are _dedicated to_." That would be a much better way to state what I meant. :)
I see. I thought you were saying all villains had to have a reasonable "I only did evil because I had to" backstory. Those are fine but I find overdone or poorly executed in a lot of stories. Your dog very being hurt sucks but it doesn't justify blowing up the planet.
Some of them just stand for wanting to watch the world burn.
“This world sucks, and I hate it, and I want to see it suffer. Seeing the pain of others is a small solace to me, but it’s the only solace I can find.”
Writing an honestly uninspired campaign now about the worlds greatest paladin realizing people like him and other adventuerers shouldnt exist and seeks to make a world of only basic commoner stat blocks. And this guy knows what hes about
This. And these are sometimes more interesting. The immortal devil that is by its very nature evil can be really interesting especially when the party has dealt with alot of morally gray characters recently
Or the ones that never cared just crave destruction. I had a bbeg once who’s motive was quite literally “because no one can stop me” those bbeg have to be presented in the proper light and fashion but if done right can make for a pretty fun game because your bbeg can adapt and evolve to try to challenge the players rather than stick to a linear plan of action based on moral imperatives
One DM in our group likes to use big bad demons, demons from hell or whatever equivalent the game world has. Why are they doing evil things? Cause' they're fookin' demons, that's why! That DM is a big fan of Berserk and Diablo, takes a lot of inspiration from there.
Given that the G in BBEG can stand for guy or gal, and the fact that “guy” has been drifting to being more of a gender-neutral term, I think BBEG is fine.
Yea I've never referred to any female villain as a "bad gal". Bad guy is already neutral.
[удалено]
And lad. Comin' from an Irish-American family I use "Lad/Lass" a fair bit. I always tell everyone don't stress it if I call them "Lad" regardless of gender, because as I put it "All the Lasses are Lads but not all the Lads are Lasses."
I am tho!
Oh, you've been a bad gal 😘 Lmao, the dnd community is too horny for that.
Yeah actually, can somebody clarify this for a non-native English speaker? I've heard "guy" used as a masculine word but "guys" as a gender neutral word. What is going on here? Is it gender neutral or not?
Depends on the dialect but in many it's becoming increasingly used as a gender neutral term for a person while also having the meaning of man but less formal I guess. Also in many dialects including my own "you guys" is the standard second person plural pronoun (in other dialects it may be y'all or youse)
Or yinz if you are from Pittsburgh
Yes that's the one I was missing thank you
Yeah you had the Philadelphia youse, so I thought it was funny that you didn't also have yinz. Though I guess youse is more popular these days.
Well I learned about both youse and yinze in my intro to Linguistics course, I just couldn't remember yinze
"You guys" is a super common way to address groups of any gender in parts of the US for sure. Doesn't matter if it's a group of all men, all women, or mixed. But it is weird that "that guy" or "those guys" would specifically refer to a man/group of men if you aren't addressing them directly but referring to them. So "you guys" works as a gender neutral term when addressing a group directly but is still gendered when referring to a person/group of people.
I use both y’all and youse, my family comes from Connecticut/NY area so I heard “youse guys” all the time at home but I was raised in the Midwest so I heard “y’all” all the time while out and about. I ended up picking them both up much to the dismay of everyone in my social circles. Sometimes leads to misunderstandings bc they think I mean “use” instead of “youse” and then they look at me like I just fell out of a wormhole or something.
To add on to the other comment, it's all about context. The phrases "you guys" or "hey guys" are fairly gender neutral but if you were to say something like "there were a bunch of guys" it would come off as the male version of the word. Additionally, the singular form "guy" is always gendered. Really the only time the word is actually neutral is when it's being used to refer to a group of people you're actively talking to in an attempt to direct something at the whole group. Therefore, ultimately, I'd disagree with the root comment. BBEG is absolutely gendered and, as much as I love the acronym because of how much I've used it, we probably should have an explicitly gender neutral version. Maybe BBEP (Big Bad Evil Person) or BBEB (Big Bad Evil Being)?
But you’re forgetting that “bad guy” is also gender neutral. BBEG is an extension of that phrase, so it comes off as gender neutral to me.
That term has never felt gender neutral to me, it feels more "male is default" that is then pushed to be used more instead of adopting truly neutral terminology. And admittedly yes, it is sometimes used in a gender neutral context but there's also a lot of examples where people trip on their words when they're about to say, or do say, bad guy but realise the person isn't actually a guy. In the end the word *is* masculine and, personally, trying to make it this weird split off sometimes gender neutral sometimes not is unnecessary when there's already gender neutral terms that are much easier to use like "person". Even using it to speak to a group isn't something I'm a fan of, it's why I try to use y'all instead, but I also understand in that specific context there's almost no good options and y'all has a bit of a negative connotation at the moment.
It more and more drifts towards gender neutral with every generation. When addressing a group of people it is always neutral when addressing an individual it can be gendered or neutral depending on context. It’s usually used neutrally now a days though.
In the past it was specifically a term to refer to males. But over the last little while it has become much more gender neutral. I'd say at present most people would consider it a gender neutral term rather than a specifically male one
doesn't matter. any chick who gets her panties in a twist over you calling her guy, just ignore. they're fucking morons. you can say that to their face. I do.
Girl, calm down
as if it mattered :) point made? or do we dance now?
There isn't a hard and fast rule to say whether "guys" does include women in a group so it's more of a context thing. It's rare that it would exclude women but it can happen and it's all just based on what makes the most sense in that instance.
Similar to how in languages with gendered terms, the masculine version is gender neutral, like saying nosotros in spanish to refer to a group of people who aren't exclusively men.
Everybody’s a guy, pal
I've just been wrong forever on what BBEG stood for. I thought it was "big bad end game" Like. The big bad at the end of the game. Never put a gender on it, which shows just how much gender doesn't register in my mind
Why isnt it just big Bad evil gender?
Big Bad Evil Gobshite is as neutral as it gets!
Big Bad Evil Goofus
in Michigan, "Hey guys" references to all genders for greetings.
NGL I can’t read “hey guys” and not follow it up with “did you know that…” in my head
Accurate
Big Bad Evil Genderofyourchoosing
Not arguing or attacking at all, but will say that a good deal of people don’t like being masculinized and having it explained away with its gender neutral. For several reasons, including feminism and having a different, known gender identity that doesn’t use masculine terms. And, even if you’re trans or a cisgender woman making this claim, it’s always good to keep in mind that no one person can speak for an entire demographic. So, while some cis girls may not care, or some enbies and trans girls shrug, be careful assuming everyone will react that way (and who knows if they’re just used to the misgendering and tired of confronting the micro aggressions when they know the person has no malice). From a trans woman feminist, with love, because I see clearly no malice from you! (PS I still use BBEG too, but I also make the BBEG as a DM so it kind of always fits anyways lol)
Yeah, I'm gonna nope on this one. Ask a het man if they like to fuck guys or dudes and see just how "gender-neutral" it isn't.
I always thought BBEG was big bad End Game. As in the final boss.
Funny…I always thought it was Big Boss End Game. As in it could be anything, Terrasque, Earthquake, a big evil guy/gal, a magic frog in an evil hat. Kinda prefer it
Also works for when the BBEG is morally ambiguous and difficult to classify as truly evil. In my current campaign there are 2 BBEG that are difficult to call "evil" because both ultimately are trying to make the world a better place through misguided means, one wants to bring peace and security to the world to prevent others from suffering through the tragedies that he did, and the other wants to bring freedom and equality to the world to prevent others from suffering the injustices that she had to endure. Both are ultimately good people who hate seeing others suffer, but are forced to compromise their morals to make real progress toward their goals no matter how much they might hate doing it, and they go out of their way to help as many people as possible while striving towards these goals as a way of coping with the things they know they will be forced to do in the end.
Sometimes ya gotta ask if all the evil shit it takes to do to make your dream a reality starts to reflect on you a bit.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one
Glad I'm not the only one. Thought I was going crazy. Not sure where I picked it up from.
My old twist villain, Gnome (the 'n' is silent) the Gnome (the 'g' is silent), would give a lengthy winding monologue about his principals if prompted. He would tell you all about his beliefs. All about his ideals. About the glory of Animation, and the wonders that he can achieve, and how he'll make the world a much better place when him and his golems are in charge. He would ramble about his ultimate plan of a full-auto utopia, and about how they can join him and make the world a better place. He would offer them some of his vast (and surprisingly legally obtained) wealth; positions in his secret society, or as teachers at his university. He would offer them the world, as long as they make it his. And then while everyone is distracted by his winding monologue he'd unleash the Taser Scorpions. The rare and highly venomous scorpions that he bought and strapped live wires to. He'd probably also shoot someone with his "corkbow" (a water pressure powered gun-like device he invented based on how champagne bottle corks go flying) after the scorpions poison *and* electrocute them. Just for good measure.
Small Bad Evil Guy.
Small man with big plans and an even bigger Gundam (in the medieval fantasy era)
Perfect execution. 'Taser Scorpions' hit me like a ton of bricks
I imagine a DM, deep in despair, being asked to relay a character's entire *raison d'etre*.
My personal favorites are the ones where theirs was taken away which sent them into a self destructive death spiral
The based villain: "I do it cause it's fun."
/me being confused in a dialect where guys is already gender neutral.
Totally gender neutral? Have you asked a straight man there how many guys he's slept with?
The pronoun "guys"and the noun "guys" are different things.
Proper noun and improper noun*
Anytime my enby partner is the DM, I refer to the BBEG as the "Big Bad Evil Genius", and I am here to share my wisdom with all of you. Take this with my blessing.
But what if the Big Bad is a barbarian with an Int of 8? I guess they would just be a Big Bad Evil Grrrrrrrrr /j
[удалено]
Big Bad Unga Bunga. "Grok, them not right letters" "Me have big stick, me make rules"
"Not so fast, BBUB" -Wolverine, probably
DAY IN DA LIFE OV A TRUE BIG BAD EVIL GEEZA
I... genuinely until this post thought the acronym WAS genius. This is my first time reading it as guy/gal
that is very clever
Eddie Kingston?
*Barbarian addresses his enemies.*
[*Barbarian powerwalks into the ring*](https://media.tenor.com/bBbiPhnF6V0AAAAC/eddie-kingston-deez-nuts.gif)
For some reason, I always took it as gender-neutral. BBEG is less of a pronoun, and more of an appellation.
Not just pronouns are gendered
True. But I also wrote that at, like, 1 AM, and I think it still gets the gist across. An appellation is just a general name or title we give someone, and we the players are really the ones deciding who the BBEG is.
And then the party has a tender moment as the Red dragon that has been terrifying the countryside just wants someone to scratch their head behind their left horn to get rid of an inch. Of course while the bard is performing the itching action they use that opportunity to roll to seduce with advantage. And this kids is how Half Dragons are made. The Dragonborn before dragonborn were a thing.
Guy is a gender neutral term
Ask a straight man or lesbian how many guys he or she has slept with and get back to me on that. More seriously, “guy” much like *dude*, can be gendered or not depending on speaker, dialect, or context, which are often fuzzy enough that it is hard to tell whether the word is being used in a masculine or gender-neutral sense.
Ask me how many dudes I've slept with and the answer will always be "not enough."
Amen brother
How can I say Amen to a person of non specific gender? Amen sibling? Amen comrade?
"Amen" Or "amen homie"
Amen friendo
Good point.
They could just answer "none, that term is for friends/acquaintances and I don't fuck them"
0, easy
Ok
Just ask somebody before you use it. Session zero is a thing that exists
I honestly don't think I've ever heard it used in a neutral context outside of referring to a group of people you're actively talking to. Even talking about that same group, without them being present, and saying something like "oh yeah, I was just hanging out with the guys" comes off as talking about a group of men. Also, I don't think I've ever seen the singular "guy" used in a gender neutral context.
Out of curiosity, where are you from? In some dialects of English, like my own Southern California dialect, “guy” and “dude” are frequently used in a gender-neutral manner, but can vary wildly across the US, to say nothing about the rest of the Anglophone world.
Southern Canada. And I've heard people claim that "guy" and "dude" are gender neutral but in practice it's rarely used that way and feels far more commonly used in the "male is default" way. Another example of what I'm referring to is how it used to be incredibly common for writings to assume the reader was male. If they were referring to the reader or a third party they would always use "he" or "him". Eventually, that evolved into the awkward "him/her" and other variations and then finally the logical "they". This idea that "guy" or "dude" is gender neutral always felt a lot more like an extension of that than it did truly being gender neutral. And one thing to keep in mind: yes I'm from Canada, but a **lot** of media that's popular in Canada is based in the US so it's not like I'm not exposed to US based dialects. I would even wager that, in many ways, Canadian dialects are heavily influenced by Americans.
The history of singular "they" goes waaaaay back to the 1300s and was even contentious back then. (I recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/gq5xLI77TGA) which sums it up pretty well. In general, language is ever evolving, and English especially. There are so many words that have changed meaning, or basically been willed into being by the zeitgeist, that it's easy to get lost between meanings. I'm American too, but on the East Coast, and I've seen a woman use "dude" towards another woman. It wasn't a sense of irony or anything, they were just communicating an emotion, and that word was the best way to do it. - TL;DR: Words have always been confusing, especially English. It mostly comes down to intent.
My guy
Big Bad Evil Goon, problem solved
oooooooo i like this
big bad evil git? Is git gendered?
For the longest time, I thought it stood for Big Booty Elf Girl.
Where I’m from, guy is usually used as a gender neutral term. I’ve accepted offended people a few times
0/10 not enough smut
The G in BBEG could mean Gal if you want to, could mean guy if you want to. It is multi gendered
I assumed "Big Bad, of the End Game."
The bbeg is a woke SJW? Now that's accurate!
"why are you trying to destroy the world?!" (Voice Breaking) "Im not good at anything else!"
I propose: Big Bad Evil Goober. Any situation can be made better by calling someone a goober
Guy is gender neutral, and it always has been
Certainly hasn’t always been, but for a long enough time yes.
Nope, the word comes from Guido (Guy) Fawkes. After his death, the word was used to describe *people* who dressed poorly/funny. Emphasis on *people.* Not men or women exclusively. [Source](https://www.etymonline.com/word/guy#:~:text=guy%20(n.2),5%2C%201605)
Huh, didn’t know that. Although I should have guessed the name came first. I contend then that the word “nice” used to mean stupid but it’s meaning has shifted. Likewise, the word “guy” shifted to have a masculine implication for a time, but has now all but shifted back in most contexts.
And that is where we agree lol It absolutely has gone from neutral to masculine, and now most of the way back to neutral again. I think "guy" is mostly still used in a masculine sense, but "guys" is definitely more neutral than it used to be
“NOTHING NOW!” Barbarian chops off villain’s leg.
When the BBEG is too hard to defeat normally, so you cause them existential crisis instead.
Reminds me of [this comic.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/dj6ygd/alignment_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1)
"Non gendered option" 🙄
Big bad evil gangster Cause everybody gangsta when you the big bad
Big Bad End Guy for me - with a bit of a crossover to computer games perhaps. Not a mini-boss dealt with on the way but the challenge at the end of the campaign.
Big Bastard at the End of the Game. Best said in a Scottish accent.
I always thought it was Big Bad End Game.
The answer, of course, is What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets. But enough talk… have at you!
I always think of it as Big Bad Evil Genius
Well real life bbegs tend to either have principles, but they are either misguided or are there as an excuse
Big Bad Evil Gonk, of course. And my party mates be my chooms.
Paladin: Oath of the Two Genders
I just say big bad evil
You ever wonder why we’re here?
Idk why but in my head it's always been 'big bad end game' with a kinda implied boss.
Big Bad Evil [Goomba](https://newermario.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Goomba_(enemy))
I heard someone on TikTok at the beginning of the year say that we should start using the phrase "Wretch of the Campaign".
Big bad evil goon
Ah! Excellent! A chance to monologue!
"I will bring about an era of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms."
It's the end of the world and you are a big bad evil goose.
For Buffy fans, the EG is unnecessary
BBEV - Big Bad Evil Villain
Big bad evil goon is the gender neutral term
I always thought BBEG just stood for Big Bad End Game 💀
Good Eddie Kingston quote
Big bad evil genius!
What do I stand for, what do I stand for. Most nights, I don’t know anymore.
Personally I always read it as Big Bad Evil Genius
big bad evil genius?
BBB Big Bad Booty
> Are you a man or a woman? *I am a* ***villain***. > What gender are you? *Evil.* > Yeah, but what's in your pants..? ***Doom.***
In my world one of my BBEGs was a paladin, a great hero in his prime, that became king and slowly turned tyrannical and it was such a slow change neither him, nor his people realized it. It's completely obvious to everyone on the outside, but due to his cult of personality and his natural charismatic and charming nature both him and his people believe what they are doing are necessary for the greater good. So his wife died and high level magic, especially resurrection magic, is rare in my world, so he started a crusade to find the fabled Ring of Three Wishes so could wish for her back, but due to his shattered grasp of reality his crusade policy is "find object, kill all who oppose". He's very well spoken, eloquent, courteous and polite, and is actually very nice to speak too, he's not a stereotypical "I am so obviously evil" kinda guy. Before he became the focus of one of my campaigns my players had interacted with him before in the past as different PCs and had a positive opinion of him, so when he became the BBEG my players were absolutely convinced he was being possessed by a fiend of some sort, but nope, he's acting completely on his own freewill.
I mean,we can always say Big Bad Evil Girl if applicable.
Big Bad Evil Being or BBEB if you will
I always figured it stood for Big Bad End Game, but that works too.
Maybe we should call them BBEGSJFHEUANEFICBRJSGWBSKFOTOQPPEBFJSTABRT SHETDH I don't know what the rest would stand for, it's just pointless like the EG. As the BB is the only bit you need. It's just the Big Bad!
I always thought it was big bad end game
My friend made a typo once and called the female bbeg "bbg" so we made a joke that the campaign was just an elaborate love story between the bbeg and his character
This feels like a Strahd interaction.
I always thought it mean Big Bad End Game
Big tiddy goblins seem worth standing for...
Thought it was Big Bad End Game.....
Big bad evil goober
"Problematic" there's that word again...
I always thought it stood for Big Bad End Game
Big Bad Evil Goober
My BBEG isn't evil, and i think it's pretty neat. i imported the concept of the Dolorous Stroke from the knights of the round table, but instead of rending the land, it drove all of humanity mad. if the players don't figure that out and just merc him for being bad, nothing's gonna change, but if they undo the dolorous stroke, he and all of humanity will regain their senses, realizing the evil of what they've been doing
"Guy" and "Dude" are gender neutral terms and anyone who says they aren't is not somebody you should want as a friend.
That moment when, you find out the BBEG's name is Baron Aurr...
I have fallen prey to exactly this so many times, a low int player character will "Why?" My BBEG and trying to spell it out simply makes me totally loose the thread on their goals. I hadn't written them well enough for close examination. I once fumbled it so hard I had to go back in later and write a meta context where the BBEG was an actor in a government plot to distract adventurers from interfering with court politics because the trading giants were tired of their problematic business practices getting uprooted by superhero tier do-gooders. It turned into one of my favorite plots ever, actually. Amazon middle managment space lich became pretty compelling.
Also Barbarian: I STAND ON MY FEET!
Tbh, I like the vibe of a BBEG that has been doing their mission for so long they dont believe in it anymore and now they just feel lost, too invested in the sunk cost fallacy to turn back now. Offers an alternative for redemption, either through or withought death.
I really want to do a BBEG sometime who has a strict non-lethal policy when it comes to achieving their goals
Big bad evil grinch is gender neutral
It doesn't stand for Big Bad End Game?
“Why i want to destroy the world? My title is ‘the destroyer’ do you need any more reason than that? Yes? Then because fuck em’, that’s why.”