NPCs based on real people (or how Diaglo got in my game!)

[boerngrim]

stripper NPC's

In a group I played in about 10 years ago our DM used to model NPCs' appearance and personalities after his favorite strippers at a local establishment. They would make appearances as both villains and allies. We would all groan when we realized we had just met or battled one of his SNPCs. When I began DMing for the group I continued the tradition as a gag. As I recall one of the actual young ladies got upset when she found out we modeled after her a drow fighter/mage who trapped her lover's soul in an enchanted sword. We had to assure her that it was an homage, and we didn't really think she was a capable of such cruelty. (She was an intimidating yet gorgeuos woman though).

 

[Slife]

Didn't Diaglo cameo in a module as the leader of a lakeside cult?

 

[Crothian]

Didn't Diaglo cameo in a module as the leader of a lakeside cult?

Wilderlands box set.

 

[Bretbo]

I used to have a player named Brad that was into the occult. After he left our group, one of the players had a character who owned a occult shop and I needed an NPC to run the store while he was out saving the world (it was a superhero game)...thus Chad was born.

 

[fusangite]

I used to do that. I've got to get back into that habit now that I have a group of players who have never met the people I can do really good impressions of.

 

[Agamon]

If I dare say so myself, I'm pretty decent at impressions (or so I'm told), so I tend to try to stay away from real people, as it detracts from the versimilitude when a player recoginzes the source. I just keep to general accents/mannerisms, and once in a while try out amalgamations of different people (though I can confuse myself if I'm not careful).

 

[haakon1]

So, have you ever used a real life person as an NPC in your game? Either had it obvious like Burt Reynolds actually being Burt Reynolds or a little more subtle with a changed name and age or what ever.

Sure. Writers do this all the time, so why not DM's. Some examples I've used over the years:
- Jeremy "Bass" Schneider. This was a guy I knew in high school, with his personality directly ported to an NPC squad member in a RECON (Vietnam War RPG) game in college, with the major difference being the addition of a Model 1921 SAW version of the Thompson SMG (50-round drum magazines and a bipod) and better sneakiness skills. None of the players knew it was a real person -- they thought I was just a good role player. Ha!
- Blind Charlie. This is a famous historical personage from the small town where I grew up. He showed up as NPC villager in D&D. The players were all from other places, so they didn't get the reference, but liked looking after the old blind master basketweaver and his young apprentice who leads him around. I think they thought he'd break into kung fu at some point, but nope, just your "average" blind Commoner 7.
- Karl. This was a non-gaming friend of my college gaming group. He showed up as an NPC in the middle of a Boot Hill shootout, as a civilian who stumbled into the line of fire but managed to get out of the way with no harm done. There was really no good reason for it, but it made everyone laugh when they recognized who he was from how I played him.

On other the hand, I wouldn't have the BBEG be your boss or your ex or something . . . treat real people with respect, even when turned into fiction, I say.

 

[Stormborn]

Not so much when I game but I do when I write game materials. In Imperial Age Magick I use the first names of people I know and their prefrences as an example of how the different magick systems relate to campaign settings. Plus I threw in some PvP refrences for fun. Frequently the names of PCs in games we have had make it into my examples as well.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

So, have you ever used a real life person as an NPC in your game? Either had it obvious like Burt Reynolds actually being Burt Reynolds or a little more subtle with a changed name and age or what ever.

Quite often.

Usually, it's the players & folks known by the players who get this treatment. Usually, it's one of the following:

• The players are using alternate reality versions of themselves for PCs;
• The players & known associates are used for models of NPCs.
• The NPCs are amalgamations of 2 or more real people, mixed in with campaign setting elements.

Because of this, one of the things I like to incorporate (or try to incorporate) IMC is a sort of "Eternal Champion" element, where the multiple iterations of players-as-PCs & characters-based-on-real-people are acknowledged/encountered somehow.

 

[Nightfall]

I'm already an NPC. Just no one has used me yet.

*shows off his stats in Shelzar: City of Sin*