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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9172323" data-attributes="member: 11760">I think you're right on the rationale, but does it actually feel bad to give more depth to regularly appearing NPCs? Yes, bad DMs* can have their pet NPCs hog the spotlight, but I don't think we can extrapolate from that to say that NPCs shouldn't have bigger motives and desires than &quot;kill another NPC in this same adventure&quot; or &quot;sell players some equipment.&quot;I haven't played BG3 yet, but I've played Dragon Age, and the NPCs there all have goals and desires and are the star of their own stories, which overlap with the PC's. To answer [USER=63]@RangerWickett[/USER]'s question, I think it's possible to give NPCs a campaign-length ambition and to put things in their way that will cause them, and the PCs, to have to reckon with them.In a live roleplaying game with multiple players, I would probably limit the number of NPCs I gave this deluxe treatment to one or two, not five or six or eight (I think some of the later Mass Effect games had pretty big casts).This is a good question. When I get an ongoing live campaign going again (as opposed to a bunch of one shots), I'm going to try and see if I can make this work.* Not paying attention to how the spotlight is being shared -- or not -- is the &quot;bad DM&quot; behavior I'm talking about here.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 9172323, member: 11760"] I think you're right on the rationale, but does it actually feel bad to give more depth to regularly appearing NPCs? Yes, bad DMs* can have their pet NPCs hog the spotlight, but I don't think we can extrapolate from that to say that NPCs shouldn't have bigger motives and desires than "kill another NPC in this same adventure" or "sell players some equipment." I haven't played BG3 yet, but I've played Dragon Age, and the NPCs there all have goals and desires and are the star of their own stories, which overlap with the PC's. To answer [USER=63]@RangerWickett[/USER]'s question, I think it's possible to give NPCs a campaign-length ambition and to put things in their way that will cause them, and the PCs, to have to reckon with them. In a live roleplaying game with multiple players, I would probably limit the number of NPCs I gave this deluxe treatment to one or two, not five or six or eight (I think some of the later Mass Effect games had pretty big casts). This is a good question. When I get an ongoing live campaign going again (as opposed to a bunch of one shots), I'm going to try and see if I can make this work. * Not paying attention to how the spotlight is being shared -- or not -- is the "bad DM" behavior I'm talking about here. [/QUOTE]

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