... and I keep coming back to the idea that he's a solution in search of a problem. He needs to get out of teh box and start walking around, giving us a nice Big Bad for a while. His company doesn't have the resources or it'd have happened by now.
... Great Captain's Ghost,
why ?!?Look, the best high-end opponents are those who
recur. More, those who are functionally
untouchable. Lofwyr. Damien Knight. The Shiawase Family, Buttercup, any Great Dragon or major CEO, etc. etc. etc. Darke is a fantastic villain, Dr. Halberstam
still gives me the willies 25 years post-Renny, I damn near break into panicked tears whenever I re-read Captain Chaos announce to everyone to 'Let the world know. There are bugs here.'
'Ultimately' defeating any of these, with the possible exclusion of Darke or Halberstam, is an event that in most campaigns is never likely to happen. (Or even unlikely to happen.) The individuals, and Roxborough can be counted amongst them, are simply too powerful, too influential, and/or too well-protected. You might get fried by your Opponent directly; you might get shot by the bodyguards. You might get captured, tortured, interrogated, then brainwashed into being a good little corporate stooge.
Roxborough is so intensely interesting because
all he can do is plot, plan, and send mooks out to do his dirty work. Oh, I expect by this point he's a moderately competent hacker; I also expect by this point for him to be missing more than a couple of links in the chain anchoring him to reality. But my god, if for some reason he casually disses the PCs (who are nobodies in his eyes), and they make their life goal 'doing him wrong', they'll eventually gain his attention -- and
then he'll go to work on them.
Rox becoming a Big Bad? He already is. Enabling him to walk around in the flesh just lessens his threat level.
