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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 678899" data-attributes="member: 5868">My advice here would be along the lines of: make your PCs the stars.  You've done a good job of dropping hooks that fit your characters' motivations --  focus on following them up.  Let their explorations of the missing father suggest to you some options.You might, for example, come up with three possible explanations for the father's disappearance -- make hints toward that diffreent information.  It could be conflicting.  You don't even need to decide yet what is true -- see how the PCs react to the various leads, and then decide what the truth is.As to the NPC's tribe -- perhaps everyone only thinks it was a virus -- maybe it is something else entirely.  Try to find a bridge between your PC's goals and the NPC backstory to link the two together.  Why, for example, do the PCs want to find out what happened to the NPC when they have their own immediate investigations?  It sounds like you've based a lot of your plot on this NPC -- be very careful, here.Use of NPCs is a potential trap that I am very cautious of.  I try to use NPCs to advance the plot, provide hints, allow for interesting interaction, etc.  What I try to avoid doing is making the plot ABOUT an NPC.  As a player, I don't want to be second fiddle to some NPC and his motivations -- I want my character's (and the party's) motivations to matter.That's why I try to avoid "DM PCs", the NPCs that become long-term members of the party and have an important role in the plot.  First, there is the temptation to become too attached to that NPC.  Second, I find it difficult to be a player and DM at the same time -- I don't think its fair to the players to play both roles; doing both causes my DMing to suffer.  I'd prefer to concentrate on DMing -- I think it is more fun for the players that way.  Finally, there is a temptation to wrap the plot around the NPC, since the DM controls him/her.  This can rapidly turn into the PCs following the NPC around, watching the NPC be the star -- and the players lose interest.As DM, I kind of think of myself as playing the bit parts, the extras, and the occasional supporting role -- the PC's are the main characters.  If an NPC travels with the party, it is because he's hired by the party, or has a short part to play, or has a single key function, after which s/he fades to the background.If you have a small party (two players), I've found it is almost better to give each player a cohort, or have them hire some hirelings.  These "red shirts" can be nominally under player control, occasionally given a bit of action by the DM, but they are mostly there to keep a small party from getting overwhelmed. Take a hint from Star Trek -- when CPT Kirk beamed down to the surface, he had a couple of "PCs" with him (Spock, Scotty, Bones), plus some "red shirts" to fill out the party -- but the emphasis stayed on the main characters.</blockquote>

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