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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Harlock" data-source="post: 1305738" data-attributes="member: 4545">Okay, these have been fun, and I'll ad my own crowning achievement in NPC play.The players were newcomers to D&D and roleplaying (my wife and her sister both wanted to learn how to play, so I developed a campaign for them back when 2nd edition AD&D was out), so I created an NPC "guide".  Someone who would fill the roll of tank, since it was needed and someone who could be used by me to give advice to the novice players by in character means.  He was a dwarven fighter named Auglin Stonehammer.Through the course of weekly sessions I developed a nice gruff, grumpy but tender-hearted dwarf for them.  He got to know the party and let his guard down for them, exposing his soft underbelly of kindness and morale boosting by harumphing at just the right times to get a laugh.  The PCs genuinely cared about Augling and interacted with him in character almost all of the time.Then, one day as they left their hometown and base of operations to perform ascort duty for a local trader with whom they'd had kind dealings before, Auglin saw a group of Orcs on a hill in a high savannah grassy area.  The orcs spotted the caravan as well and began shouting threats and taunts in dwarven and Orcish.  Overcome by his hatred of his mortal enemies the orcs, Auglin charges the four orcs.  The characters were about fifth level at this point, and I felt it time to test their mettle and also felt, if need be, they could spread their wings and fly on their own.Auglin's charge was ill advised, for hunkered down at the base of the hill, hidden by the high grass, were two Ogres.  Auglin was slaughtered in two rounds, before the PCs could arrive to support him.  The look of shock on my wife and sister-in-law's faces was astounding.  They got mad at me.  Really mad.  At that point, I knew that they had invested a great deal of interest and emotion for the grumpy old dwarf, and they relentlessly attacked Auglin's killers, overpowering them with their strongest attacks and blind rage.  It was a thing of beauty to see two novice players come into their own.Soon after the smoke had cleared and the evil humanoids were in tatters they held a funeral for dear old Auglin.  They held up the caravan for the rest of the day but would not even hear of not giving their compatriate an appropriate funeral for the sake of saving time and avoiding the creatures of the night.  Never again have I achieved that level of devotion to an NPC from my players, but being inspired by the stories in this thread, I think I just might get back on track.</blockquote>

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