Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8596409" data-attributes="member: 93670">there were some random context free examples given when someone asked what benefits an npc could give &amp; I tried to make them clearly obvious how they could be useful to a pc without needing to describe a scenario.&nbsp; It's not always guaranteed that players can get what they want, sometimes it's reasonable that a convenient NPC might be able to help arrange something by opening a door that might be more difficult to open in the plot themselves.&nbsp; Maybe the players tried to meet someone &amp; got told by a secretary to come back in a week or go do something they don't want to do to jump the list because the NPC is not a good person who shares&nbsp; the same values as the PCs &amp; bob thinks his background NPC can offer a third option.&nbsp; Nothing is undermined if I choose to allow that third option because bob created a string I can yank later when it's going to make for interesting plot.If you want a deeper hypothetical reason why the hypothetical players are trying to do that.... Maybe the players are trying to solve a problem created by a mine polluting a faerie grove &amp; they decided that meeting with the owner of the mine might let them make a persuade check that convinces&nbsp;&nbsp; them to stop polluting the faerie grove&nbsp; instead of dealing with the corrupted black puddings in the forest or exterminating the faeries that the NPC feels would solve her problems &amp; justify a meeting much sooner Who knows, there could be any number of reasons a PC might want to call on their background connections.&nbsp; Calling on background connections has a cost of those connections being given reasons to call on their connections to a powerful PC.&nbsp;&nbsp; What the players think they might be able to do &amp; what the players can successfully do are completely different from what the players can try.&nbsp; Interesting story can happen when the players try things even if those things might fail.&nbsp;Managing the NPC:NPC interactions when some NPC pulls that string bob created isn't any problem because NPCs can act like real people with their own influences &amp; resources in the world.&nbsp; When background NPCs are used like that&nbsp; &amp; other NPCs react to them later it makes waves through the NPCs &amp; groups in player backstories that complicate life &amp; create&nbsp; &amp; conflicts the PC has to deal with.&nbsp; We got started on this topic because there's nothing a PC needs in 5e that can be threatened when that happens.edit: backstories have existed decades if not centuries before 5e introduced backgrounds. In order for the world &amp; things within it to function like a living breathing thing it needs to act like it when poked at around the edges by the PCs, the only thing that I can think of functioning with no needs going around fighting problems&nbsp; like PCs is agent smith from the matrix.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 8596409, member: 93670"] there were some random context free examples given when someone asked what benefits an npc could give & I tried to make them clearly obvious how they could be useful to a pc without needing to describe a scenario. It's not always guaranteed that players can get what they want, sometimes it's reasonable that a convenient NPC might be able to help arrange something by opening a door that might be more difficult to open in the plot themselves. Maybe the players tried to meet someone & got told by a secretary to come back in a week or go do something they don't want to do to jump the list because the NPC is not a good person who shares the same values as the PCs & bob thinks his background NPC can offer a third option. Nothing is undermined if I choose to allow that third option because bob created a string I can yank later when it's going to make for interesting plot. If you want a deeper hypothetical reason why the hypothetical players are trying to do that.... Maybe the players are trying to solve a problem created by a mine polluting a faerie grove & they decided that meeting with the owner of the mine might let them make a persuade check that convinces them to stop polluting the faerie grove instead of dealing with the corrupted black puddings in the forest or exterminating the faeries that the NPC feels would solve [I]her[/I] problems & justify a meeting much sooner Who knows, there could be any number of reasons a PC might want to call on their background connections. Calling on background connections has a cost of those connections being given reasons to call on their connections to a powerful PC. What the players think they might be able to do & what the players can successfully do are completely different from what the players can [I]try[/I]. Interesting story can happen when the players [I]try [/I]things even if those things might fail. Managing the NPC:NPC interactions when some NPC pulls that string bob created isn't any problem because NPCs can act like real people with their own influences & resources in the world. When background NPCs are used like that & other NPCs react to them later it makes waves through the NPCs & groups in player backstories that complicate life & create & conflicts the PC has to deal with. We got started on this topic because there's nothing a PC needs in 5e that can be threatened when that happens. edit: backstories have existed decades if not centuries before 5e introduced backgrounds. In order for the world & things within it to function like a living breathing thing it needs to act like it when poked at around the edges by the PCs, the only thing that I can think of functioning with no needs going around fighting problems like PCs is agent smith from the matrix. [/QUOTE]

Verification