I like the idea . Have you read the Mistborn series ? If not I ' d maybe check out the first book as it focuses on a group coming together and trying to weaken what is essentially SarumanVoldemort . Anyway , in relation to your post you ' ve already gotten some great advice . What I would recommend is to list out all your NPCs , particularly the bad guys , and give them short and long term goals . The short term goals are something they might achieve during a session if the characters don ' t interfere . The long term goals happen throughout the campaign , and come as a result of them achieving minor short term goals . Keep close track of your ingame days and nights and list out on what day the NPCs achieve their goals . So for example Day 3 captures a scholar of history . Day 4 secures support of major noble family for uprising . Day 7 tortures the scholar and they finally give up the location of the ancient tomb . Day 12 finds the ancient tomb and returns with the Magical MacGuffin Day 15 ' s coup happens . kills themI think this will really help reinforce to your players that their actions have consequences . Depending on what task they undertake it can affect how the future plays out . Maybe in the above , they chose to do something else before going to find the scholar . When they eventually do go looking for the scholar , whoops , sorry he ' s already been captured . I ' ve used this in our Curse of Strahd campaign to great effect . Its really made my players sit up and take notice that things happen when they are not around . Really makes the world feel alive and responsive .