Rubbing Elbows with Powerful Known NPC’s

[Boz Shulun]

Rubbing Elbows with Powerful Known NPC’s

We (the Gamerstable podcast crew) are talking about this on our next show recording and want some of the community’s insight on it.

Jayson’s (the cast member who came up with the topic) example of this was: in a Star Wars RPG meeting Han and hitching a ride on the Falcon.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Does it enhance or detract from the game?

Our intention is to mention examples of the community’s on our show, so if you don’t want to have your name (or online handle) mentioned please say so.

 

[Stormonu]

If the characters know (generally via metagame) who these characters are, and it isn't done in a way to undermine or overshadow the PCs, I think it's great.

Your example is a great one. In a similar vein, I ran a Star War Imperial game set during the opening of Empire. The characters were playing the bridge crew of a Star Destroyer, and upon the untimely death of the NPC captain, one of the characters was summoned to the Executor to be promoted to captain by Vader himself - and escort Boba Fett to their Star Destroyer and have his ship transferred as well (as it turns out, it's the Star Destroyer with the Falcon attached...). The players greatly enjoyed the interactive "cut-scene".

 

[Ringlerun]

It must be the group of friends i play with but if any notable npc shows his face its open season on who can get the kill. I think this mentality was first introduced with fewmaster toad in the dragonlance moduels. He was the NPC you were not allowed to kill so we made it a group effort to hunt him down.

In WEG Star Wars a friend was running a game were we were going to be interrogated by Vader. He thought it was going to be an awe inspriing piece of gameplay. How wrong he was. Initiative was declared instantly by all members of the group. As a group we declared bogus attacks against vader hoping that he will call on the darkside which he did. The GM not knowing how to run Vader properly goes for the Telekinetic kill on all 6 of us. Losing a grand total of 18 dice. Vader is good but not that good. We all call upon the force and haste our attacks. Thermal detonators and blaster fire ring out and poor Vader is a smoking corpse. Well thats what we thought but the GM in his "you cant kill my NPC" abuses the rules and has Vader absorb all the damage then kills us. Not bad for starting characters.

But that just fuels our dislike of of GM's putting in named NPC's into games and expecting the players to cow tow in awe and obedience. Not from my group. We just see the NPC as a challenge.

You bring Elminster into a game expect him to get a fireball in the face, a sword in the gut and a poison blade in his back before he opens his mouth.

If you tried to play the Han Solo card expect him shot in the back for his bounty. The Millennium Falcon stripped and sold and Chewbacca back in chains.

 

[Dioltach]

Strangely enough, another Star Wars example here: I was running a game in which the PCs were infiltrating a pirating organisation that was secretly being run by the Empire, and Darth Vader came to inspect the progress. The one time I've truly seen my players look scared was when I described the large cloaked figure in black walking toward them and imitated the iconic breathing.

For the most part, my players seem to get more of a kick out of meeting historical figures or being part of historical events. (This is probably because most of our games are set in the past or future of the "real" world.) Two of my groups have already sunk Atlantis, and one was instrumental -- albeit accidentally -- in the sacking of Troy.

 

[S'mon]

In Star Wars I once mentioned that Luke Skywalker was on the same Rebel base ship as the PCs, between missions. It seemed to make them happy.

I don't tend to include canon NPCs on-stage, and if I do they're fair game. I recall this made the old (1e) FR unplayable for me, all games degenerated to 'kill the annoying canon NPCs'. I like 4e FR, the no-statted-friendly-NPCs thing actually made the setting playable for me.

 

[Kaffis]

In the Dresden Files RPG I'm running, the notion of contacting Harry has come up once or twice among my players (or rather, the two players with characters who would know who he is). He is in the phone book, after all, so it's not like it would be hard to do so.

However, Harry's reputation for attracting danger, being a loose cannon, and generally having buildings fall apart around him wherever he goes has made the characters balk at the notion of dragging him into their affairs.

I think that works out pretty darn well that way, actually. You get the name dropping and setting-confirmation of having him, without the headaches of having him actually present. I couldn't be happier with the situation.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think it can be fun if it's done quietly and without attracting a lot of attention - like a big star making a cameo appearance in a movie or TV show.

I was involved in a long running Forgotten Realms campaign many years back and our group got to meet Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon once when we did something to help the city out at the time. She thanked the group for our help, gave us some medals or something, etc. Before I had joined the group, they had also met Mirt the Moneylender back in Waterdeep as well, but I forgot what was involved in the group meeting him.

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

I think that this is far more common and practical in homebrew games. I think everyone does some of this as the party becomes more famous and powerful, meeting kings and arch mages and the like.

Star Wars and FR are probably the two most known universes commonly played in RPGs, so I think that is why we're seeing these examples. I like to go off canon whenever possible because I think it interesting.

For example I ran a SWSE game in which the party had the opportunity to meet and talk to Anakin during the Clone War. It wasn't much but it made sense in the story, and the party (mostly clones) were fascinated by him both in and out of character. If something goes awry, like perhaps the clones decided to switch sides to that of the Separatists and take Anakin hostage, I would have let it play out as rules permitted (Anakin was built fully in the SWSE books, but I rebuilt him as I thought some of their choices were strange.)

Anyways, it can definitely be done, but if it is used as a way to hijack the game or have the party play as second fiddle to the NPC, it gets old very quickly. In homebrew games, I think it is neat for a party to finally encounter some famous persona or individual who they have heard so much about.

 

[The Shaman]

I think it can be fun if it's done quietly and without attracting a lot of attention - like a big star making a cameo appearance in a movie or TV show.

For cape-and-sword games, involving adventurers with important figures in the setting is integral to the genre. A swashbuckling game without the adventurers being swept up in the intrigues of the powerful would feel very flat to me.

 

[NewJeffCT]

For cape-and-sword games, involving adventurers with important figures in the setting is integral to the genre. A swashbuckling game without the adventurers being swept up in the intrigues of the powerful would feel very flat to me.

good point. And, thinking back, there was another FR campaign I was involved with where we met several celebrities, including somebody we knew out of game was Elminster... and, my PC hit on some drow priestess of some renown (no idea who she was out of game - but, the guys who knew her name were like, "holy $#!% - do you know who that was??"). Our group had to make temporary allies with a group of drow for some reason that now escapes me. But, hey, my character was the Capt. Kirk of the Realms - he didn't care if the girl was green, black, pink, striped or had six arms...