Poll: Who did play in a group where the master had a "pet NPC"?

[MarauderX]

Well, I sorta learned as a DM to have spare NPCs around in case the players want to find someone to fill a spot. For example, they knew they were going to have to raid a bandit hideout that was pretty heavily fortified, and the two party players that were the 'muscle' had multiclassed. So they went to town and got another NPC to help them out as a tank for a lot of pay. Granted, I played the NPC as a begrudging sort of fellow that didn't wanna go first like they thought he should, and it threw my encounter off a tad. But they liked having him around, and sure enough in each campaign afterward the players like having someone not too smart that could help them out. The NPC wouldn't always do the smartest thing, but knowing that he was trying to help was a plus.

I have had only one player object to having an NPC around, and that was because "he was taking XP [the players] should be getting", and that player didn't stay around for long.

 

[Uzumaki]

My DM had a seemingly endless supply of Pet NPCs. Though maybe it only seemed that way because they would NEVER, EVER die, even if he said they had. It was frustrating. They were all about 40th level, and ten different classes, and they've been wandering around playing Deus ex Machina since the PC's were 2nd level. They are now 18thish. They're still there.

 

[Psion]

Not recently. But I did once have a GM in High School that would insert his own characters and use them as mentors/plot saviours.

Very irritating.

 

[King_Stannis]

My NPC's usually have one or two noticeable characteristics to prevent them from being labeled a "Sir Bullseye" (inside joke in my group ) .

NPC's also have a tough road to hoe in my games. They are killed more often than not after a level or two. Not on purpose, per se, but then again if the hammer is falling I'd rather have it fall on an NPC that can give a little drama and sadness to the moment rather than a PC (if it's possible withing the framework of the combat).

I almost always relinquish control of the NPC in combat to a PC for a "chip", too. (Note: I have a reward system for players in which they earn chips for good roleplaying, rolling perfect 20's, and helping out here and there. They can buy bonuses to rolls, experience points and outright rerolls amongst other things with these chips).

As for annoying NPC's, I'd like to think that I don't have any. Even if I do, it'd be hard to say I impose them on the PC's. Every once in a while I might need one to nudge the PC's in the proper direction, but it's hardly endemic.

 

[fusangite]

My pet NPC, the local duke, is shockingly well-received in my game. People have this grudging respect for him despite him being utterly evil and always involved in a monstrous scheme to turn their city into a gate to hell. (He's a cross between me and the Mayor of Sunnydale.)

Strangely, it's the characters who seek out his aid when they're in a tight spot -- they find it so handy to have an extremely powerful NPC (he's actually just a 13th level sorceror who has been around as the characters have progressed from 3rd to 12th level over the past few years) that they are increasingly willing to make short term alliances with him even though they know he's lying to them. The fact that he's powerful, smart and polite seems to trump the fact that he is a dark elf of purest evil.

I'm having a great time because the characters are appearing to be more and more publicly associated with him.

 

[Oghma]

Oooohhh, man, did I ever have a DM with pet NPC's. A whole party of 'em. The DM would choose which of them would play with us and we would get stuck with them, despite our wrangling.

Some memorable moments:

The DM had designed an adventure to reunite his NPC's on a certain island, despite the fact that a player had an intense dislike of being dependent on someone else (in this case, the ship captain). After a evening's worth of "I'm not getting on that ship!" and having party members foil two attempts by the NPCs to knock said player on the head and trundle him onto the boat, finally the DM had another of his NPC's teleport the player to the island. (Why didn't he just do that for all of us? Sheesh!)


Due to an interpretation of movement by the DM, my elf on a light warhorse moved 24' in a round (this is in 1e). Later that round, the NPC dwarf raced past the mounted elf (moving 60'!), wereupon I announced my intention to leap off the pokey horse and ride the dwarf into combat.


One of the players and I had finally had enough of the NPC parade, and conspired to resist any attempt to get the NPC's in our party. The following dialogue ensued:

DM: You will need to take the ranger and the dwarf with you.

Player 1: We don't want to bring them along.

DM: The adventure is designed for a larger party, you may need help.

Player 2: We don't want the help.

DM: Your characters may die!

Player1: Adventuring is a risky business, we'll take that risk.

Player2: In fact, we leave now, before the dwarf and ranger can find us.

DM(secretly rolling): OK.

Later in the adventure, we discover that the ranger has been
tracking us "for our safety". We proceed to make it difficult and unpalateable to be followed, walking through marshes and leaving behind nasty surprises...


We had more fun dodging the NPC's and making fun of the DM in that campaign...

 

[tonym]

I once had a DM with a painfully annoying pet NPC. This NPC would hang back during combats until everybody was a bloody wreck, THEN he would save our bacon. Did he ever help out 'before' our leaked blood stood two inches deep on the floor? Noooooo. The punk 'always' waited!

Needless to say, this NPC never came close to death--if he was ever wounded to begin with.

Eventually we accused the NPC of being in cahoots with the villains. After all, he wasn't dying like the rest of us. Heck, he wasn't even going unconscious from severe head trauma!

So, guess what happened during the very next battle...

The NPC went unconscious! And was bleeding! BLeeeeeeeeeeDING!!! I could hardly believe it. There he was, on the floor, next to a deep pit, BLEEDING!

So what did we do? Did we patch him? No. Cure Light Wounds? Haha, no.

We kicked his limp body into the pit!



Tony

 

[gunter uxbridge]

I have used pet NPCs twice in two different campaigns. I do this for a few reasons. First, they fill in holes in the party makeup, and they give people a character to play for one shot games, visiting players or former PCs when their character buys the farm in midgame.

In our last camaign, the party was seriously devoid of healing magic. Healing potions were few and far between, and I knew they would get seriously boned without a cleric. Sooo....enter the party NPC cleric. He worked out pretty well, and its always nice to have a new player over for one night without altering the long term makeup of the group. "Don't bother rolling up a character...just take this guy for the night." Works like a charm.

My party NPCs are never used to point out overlooked plot hooks, steer the game or any other such nonsence. They rarely come into play except in combat, and in party discussions will only be used to support a "devils advocate" position. Their stats are never better than the PCs so as to not outshine their delicate egos.

Do it right and a pet NPC can be incredibly useful. Do it wrong...and...well...you get the idea.

 

[tonym]

That kind of pet NPC I like, Gunter.

Tony M

 

[jdavis]

Years ago we had a guy who basically told a story to us instead of running a game, we'd show up with our characters and then sit around while the NPC did everything and talked to everyone and figured it all out, we basically just followed the guy around on his merry little adventures, we were the tag alongs for a great hero. When I say he did everything I mean everything, it was so crazy it was funny. Some of the highpoints were when he would use the NPC to hit on the girl he liked character, it was very sad and extremely funny. The same basic character appeared in every game he ran, if we changed games then the NPC changed too, different person in a different game but exactly the same personality. It went well beyond a pet NPC and into the realm of being a control freak. Funny thing was he was a very good player but he was just a terrible DM. As the years went by he got better but some of our funniest stories are from his games.