"Named" NPCs

[Thulcondar]

I was wondering how many of the DMs here used any of the "named" NPCs from published campaign worlds, and if you did, how?

Tenser, Mordenkainen, Dalamar, Elminster, etc. They have relatively set personalities and histories. Has anyone brought them into play with their PCs? I'm curious how it worked out. (I did so with Melf and Diggwell Biffson, myself, bringing the game as protagonists at one point.)

 

[MerricB]

I've used Tenser (thanks to the Age of Worms) and Elminster (thanks to the Avatar trilogy of modules), but - in general - I don't use them in my campaigns.

Cheers!

 

[howandwhy99]

I run Greyhawk with the Circle of Eight, Iuz, and Ivid the Undying. There are libraries of D&D Greyhawk published material.

It's all bunk. Just repeat to yourself, "there is no such thing as canon", and you should be okay.

All worlds (adventures, sourcebooks, whatever) are published for you to modify to taste.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

We encountered Drizz't back in our fanboy days, as well as Raistlin. I used Elminster as an NPC very briefly, but that's the closest I've come to it. I'm planning my next campaign to be as Greyhawk as possible, so it's likely that I'll do it then.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm using a bunch of 1E ones. In my Midwood campaign, a group of player characters are trying to rendezvous with Valerius from the original Rogues Gallery before he can sell their enemies an item he took from a dragon's hoard that said enemies will use in The Big Awful Ritual. His adventuring company is made up of all sorts of classic 1E NPCs and pregenerated PCs.

And Gutboy Barrelhouse will be showing up in the 165 Vock Row game I just started here at ENWorld.

I prefer these guys to the big names. I'm eventually going to stick Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk underneath Ptolus for one campaign or another, and I intend to file off the Greyhawk names, since they're just too well-known.

 

[was]

I try to stay away from using them.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

My current campaign has the Circle of Eight adjudicating a scavenger hunt between two rival guilds. Of course, it's all a big manipulation-fest on behalf of the Eight, but so far six of them have had a speaking role, though it's not much more than a cameo each time. The Big M will probably have a bit more to say and do when the PCs realise what's going on, however.

 

[blargney the second]

We haven't directly encountered any of the Eberron named NPCs, but I hope to do so one day!

 

[demiurge1138]

In my Eberron game, Sharn Freelance Police, Merrix d'Cannith was a pretty big player and the party learned at the very end about Vol's involvement in the overarching plot. When I ran Planescape, a lot of the "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil" NPCs (Shemeshka, A'kin, Seamusxanthuszenus) showed up in a variety of roles, from minor walk-ons to major antagonists.

Demiurge out.