I am in the first stages of my first campaign of rpgs all together, not just as a GM, but as anything! I kinda liked the story of the BG, but thought it had some flaws, so I have greatly changed it. Moff Dardano is still the "big boss", but I have two lesser officers at the base who are Nemeses. Is this alright or should they be rivals?

Definitely! The terms Minion, Rival, and Nemesis is basically a term to explain how complex and powerful the NPC is, and what role they play. If these lesser officers are supposed to be primary antagonists for a while, and the players need to work through their schemes in order to get close enough to reach the Moff, that's a perfect example of a Nemesis!

I generally think of it lie this:

Minions: Most of the enemies the party encounters should be Minions. They're the masses of troops that the players need to fight through.

Rivals: Rivals are the bosses of Minions, the toughs and sergeants among the troops.

Nemeses: Anyone who is expected to appear in multiple encounters, or who is supposed to be exceptionally dangerous in some fashion (political, martial, etc.)

You can have Minions as the bosses of other Minions, Rivals as the bosses of either Minions or other Rivals, and Nemeses as the bosses of Minions, Rivals, or Nemeses. It would be very odd for someone of a "lesser" NPC type to be the boss of someone of a higher type, but it's also not outside the realm of possibility. A Senator who's a Rival might have a pair of highly-trained Nemesis body guards, if the challenge is to get to the Senator and do...whatever you need to get to him for, and the body-guards are the main obstacle.

So needlessly-long-answer short: Yes! Do what works for the story and the different NPC's position within it.

There's always a bigger fish.

43 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

There's always a bigger fish.

And that’s Kanan

Sure. I had a pirate crew the PCs ran into. The captain was a charming (well, he tried) and scheming (mostly trying there too) kind of guy, but not a fighter. So I used the Pirate Captain nemesis statline for his chief enforcer, and left the captain as a rival (i think i used the shuipjacker statblock), albeit with the "Pirate Leader"-ability transferred to him.

The Emperor's Hands are Nemeses, and they most definitely have a boss. Small guy, likes to dress in black, has a problem with wrinkly skin... You might have heard of him.

18 hours ago, EpicTed said:

The Emperor's Hands are Nemeses, and they most definitely have a boss. Small guy, likes to dress in black, has a problem with wrinkly skin... You might have heard of him.

While I don't really see a point in statting out the Emperor, if I did, I would seriously consider making him a Nemesis too.

You could easily have a bunch of nemesis-type opponents who answer to a minion-type boss - minion/rival/nemesis defines their combat (and equivalent) strength against a PC and doesn't necessarily relate to their organizational role.

On 12/17/2017 at 6:42 PM, Garran said:

You could easily have a bunch of nemesis-type opponents who answer to a minion-type boss - minion/rival/nemesis defines their combat (and equivalent) strength against a PC and doesn't necessarily relate to their organizational role.

Huh, I believe the exact opposite. The role in the story defines the stat line. To me, minions are fodder. They're lucky if they even have a first name. Rivals get a name, and might even be extremely powerful, but they're really only intended to be there for one scene. If I were writing Return of the Jedi as an adventure, the Rancor would have been one **** of a rival.

Nemeses are important to the story. Yeah, most of them are good in a fight, but that's not what makes them a Nemesis. I have one coming up: an evil scientist based on Professor Hubert J Farnsworth. Zero combat ability, but he's central to the story. Nemesis.

Totally to NOT help.

And just because the Nemesis has a boss doesn't necessarily mean that they are a paid employee.

They might be a 1099.

<sigh> Yeah, tax season approacheth.

Think of it this way, would you call Vader a nemesis or rival? He had a boss in the Emperor.