Roger wrote...
>This doesn't tend to be the case in games I run. Rather, the villain
>is acting behind the scenes to further his own ends, and the PCs are
>only gradually finding out about it. Actual combat happens very rarely
>and could well be one-sided; but that's not what the game is about.
>The PCs are more likely to be investigating, and fighting off thugs
>sent by the villain...
>
I enjoy doing this as well, although I'll admit that sometimes I'm not even 
sure what the real villain is, and what their motives are.  I start with the 
side plots, and slowly let my subconscious put together the rest of the plot 
until I know what's going on. I'll usually find out I've tied it all 
together quite neatly before I knew explicitly what was going on.

The nice thing is, this lets me vary the activity when combat comes up.  
sometimes its a cakewalk for the PCs.  Sometimes there's a particular 
mission and the PCs have it rough -- example, a set of gargoyles dispatched 
against the PCs in order to grab a magic item.  They can see magic, so when 
on PC goes invisible, he's still shining to the gargoyles.  Since he's also 
got THE magic item on him (which glows so nicely to them), they ignore the 
others, walk up, and grab him.  Made for a really fun battle, since the PCs 
never did figure out exactly how the gargoyles were operating (or their 
purpose at the time).

Later...

D.

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