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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 6134777" data-attributes="member: 2">Good thinking, but you may be thinking of something different than what I mean. I'm not referring to a hostage of the week, a "Today is Tuesday so Spider-Man needs to go rescue Aunt May" issue. Important NPCs should have ambition. I'll argue that ambition should be a major theme in a political adventure. That means that they have their own goals that they're actively seeking. This probably gets them into trouble, and gets them great success, and both may affect the PC.- a brother gains wealth and respectability by marrying into money, and hires bards to boost the reputation of his rapscallion adventurer sister (the PC)- a father becomes ensnared in a demonic cult but is so good at managing people that he actually gets control of them, has them kick out the high priest, and starts converting them to good gods. The exiled high priest is so angry he rats them out to the authorities.- The family needs magical security for an important diplomatic deal about to be consummated.- The PCs are promised a vacation in the family's seaside mansion if they can find out why the cooks there keep hanging themselves.- The PC's little sister has become an adventurer herself, and she hasn't returned from a recent expedition. She isn't dead; instead, she's found a gem mine that could make their family rich. The local tribe of homicidal gnomes disagrees. They're in the middle of tense negotiations when the PCs arrive.That sort of thing. Use NPCs to trigger adventures, not be the helpless cause of them.</blockquote>

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