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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8671774" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think how context is established can vary a good deal. It depends on how you want things to progress, and what the preferences are for the folks at the table.For me, taking into consideration the idea of meaningful choices, I think it really depends on what is meant to make the NPC important. If it's one that's been chosen/created by a player to be an existing relationship... a mentor or friend or family member... then likely very little context is needed beyond what already exists. Think of player authored backstory and how that can give a player context for play....but we don't need to have established all that backstory in play. We may not have established any of it early in a game, yet it may still inform the player. There's no reason NPCs can't work similarly. It's your sister, you obviously care about her (even if the relationship may be complicated, etc.). If it's an NPC that the GM has created/introduced, then maybe some more context is needed, and so some time can be spent on this. I think establishing this kind of thing has a bit of a science to it, and I think works best with a light hand. Want an NPC to be meaningful to the players? Make them likeable, make them funny, make them vulnerable in some way, make them relatable. There's an economy to this that I think needs to be considered. I lean toward brevity and catchy dialogue or character traits to help here. But I also think we need to ask "why do I as GM want this NPC to be important?" I'm not saying the GM shouldn't have ideas about this, but I think ultimately, the players are the ones who are going to decide if someone's important. But also, importantly, a lot of the context will only emerge through play. I may not care at all about an NPC in session 1, but by session 12, I may care deeply about them. Does that mean that huge chunks of time need to be devoted to spotlighting this NPC? Or is it possible that small snippets over several sessions will accomplish the same thing? We don't always need the context to be front loaded in this regard.</blockquote>

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