Supporting Caste: Memorable NPCs

[barsoomcore]

I have a page on Barsoom's NPCs right here. Some of the more notable personages:

Collette de Maynard -- accountant, political machinist and general terror of the party. She has no stat block, no abilities, no class levels that I've ever bothered to rate. She's just sneaky, smart and utterly ruthless. The party is terrified of her.

Bai She Zhuan -- sorceress what got turned into a vampire, went mad as a result, but has figured out a way to kill herself that requires the party's help. Vampires are notoriously difficult to kill on Barsoom (sunlight? No problem) but she thinks she knows how -- she just has to kill the party sorcerer to do it. It's okay, though, she'll bring him back. They hope.

Brenner -- this drug smuggler shows up in almost every campaign I run. He's smart and tough and never backs a loser. Sometimes he's a good guy, sometimes not so much -- it depends on the party's reactions.

NPCs are the most critical part of my campaigns. They are what drive the stories that the PCs end up involved in. I always fall in love with my NPCs and end up having to kill them off because I get more interested in them than in the party...

Sigh.

 

[Elf Witch]

My last DM has a real gift for making his NPCs come alive. All of them even his bad guys were great and I always hated to see them die.

My favorite NPC was a woman wizard named Morawen the party resuced her from an enchanted mirror. She played a major roll through the reat of the 2 year campaign. She often gifted the party with magic items and help but she always expected some kind of payment for the help usually a quest where we risked our lives.

The party was often split on they felt about her. The dwarven wizard adored her and always took her side and defended her actions she ended up having a hand in his death.

My character hated her almost from the start the fur would fly whenever they were in the same room.

She was very powerful and insane and the best villian ever becasue for a long time there was no proof she was the villian. In the end there still wasn't sure with the dwarf's bumbling help they destroyed a great city killing thousands of innocents but killing them was not her goal. Her goal was to become a god.

THe DM got burned out so the game ended before all the plot hooks were wrapped up but the DM told me that I was in for a shock that through some time travel thing my character and Morawen were in fact the same person.

 

[Carnifex]

Hmm... NPC's...

Well, in Acrozatarim there're a fair few.

Rat Trin, as he's called by the other undercity inhabitants of the Naserian capital city. Rat Trin is a rogue/assassin verman (basically a ratman), who for reasons as yet undisclosed lives in exile from his people and lives in a cavern tah also houses the city's black market. He's an expert tracker and helped the PC's hunt down an alienist wizard and slaver called Cancer Tierholm who laired deep in the sewers. He's also a complete drug addict, hooked on half a dozen rare spices and stimulants.

Ak'mun'tep, an arcanoloth seer the party freed from an ancient pot his spirit was sealed in. He'll be back

Tewlcroghen, the wizardly patron of the party necromancer, and a very powerful figure in the merchant city of Iril, where he is the uncle of one of the noble Houses lords. His quarters are rather... idiosyncratic, including a huge, murky pool and stained glass to make the stone room appear as if dappled by light through a forest canopy. He also has a band of half-dragon mercenaries called the Black Hunters at his beck and call.

And plenty more too...

 

[Moe Ronalds]

The only NPC my players have ever seemed to like was Winston Stantz, a character in a d20 modern shadowchasers campaign. The characters are all workers for M.A.S.K., a secretive organization dedicated to fighting the shadow (gee, never heard THAT one before! )

In any case, Winston had a few interesting (though perhaps overused in some cases) qualities. As far as physical qualities go, he was a tall, thin man of indetermineable age. He had a completely bald head, and seemed to have a few too many teeth- which were always stretched into a partially insane grin.

Mentally and personality wise, Winston was quite intelligent, though he often gave the impression that the lightbulb of his mind was a tad cracked. He often spoke in monotone, and was prone to rambling on and on.
(PC on cell-phone: Winston! We're being attacked by ghouls! We can knock them down for a few minutes but they just get back up! What do we do?

Winston: Hello Chris. My, how impressive. Many agents of your rank would have been driven to insanity by the idea of the living dead. Kudos is worth I suppose. Many of my fellows are quite eccentric by now as well. Luckily, I am quite sane. Though I suppose if I were not sane I wouldn't know about it. Then again, perhaps if I were very good at self-annalyzation I could indeed be eccentric and be knowledgeable of this fact. Then again, were I that wise, I likely would have been able to will off insanity by now. Of course, some people are quite insightful but still think that their shoes talk to them. Not that I'm one to say that shoes can't talk. I'm speaking with someone fighting the living dead, afterall. Oh yes, the ghouls...

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Edit: Assume I were a politician. Now assume I were an idiot. But I repeat myself.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The characters are all workers for M.A.S.K., a secretive organization dedicated to fighting the shadow.

No, no! M.A.S.K. is a secretive organisation dedicatied to fighting V.E.N.O.M.!

Illusion is the ultimate weapon!

-Hyp.

 

[Berandor]

I had some memorable NPCs over time, but I don't remember all of their names

One was a half-orc ranger/monk built after "Pitch Black's" Riddick. His name was - Riddick. You've seen the movie, you've seen him

Another was a bard/fighter. He had used a "wish" to get the abilities of a doppelganger (for infiltration purposes), but it misfired, and so he got a split personality; a pessimistic and nostalgic bard 3 (his dominant persona) and an angry fighter 9. Basically, he was always reminiscing about past battles or situations similar to the one the PCs were currently in, and how everyone died then.

Then I had an NPC from an adventure that became more than he looked like. It was a first level ranger with favored enemy: vermin. Additionally, I had really bad luck when rolling for him. The ranger was down in the first round, got healed by the party, and was down first round in the next fight again. That in addition to being a vermin-hater! I really played to his uselessness and his wounded pride, so that he got more and more reckless, and more and more unlucky (my rolls were unfathomably bad with him!).

And yes, Mask fights Venom and no-one else!

Berandor

 

[Moe Ronalds]

No, no! M.A.S.K. is a secretive organisation dedicatied to fighting V.E.N.O.M.!

Illusion is the ultimate weapon!

-Hyp.

This isn't some 80's cartoon thing, is it?

 

[Berandor]

This isn't some 80's cartoon thing, is it?

No, it's an 80's toy thing
At least I never saw a cartoon of M.A.S.K. ...

Berandor

 

[Moe Ronalds]

No, it's an 80's toy thing
At least I never saw a cartoon of M.A.S.K. ...

Berandor

Oh, sounds cool.