NPCs talking to NPCs - is the DM going crazy?

[Oryan77]

I was thinking that I don't really do that often, until I actually started thinking about my sessions and the NPC's. I guess I do talk to myself a lot It's never done in a way to hog the PC's spotlight, it's done when appropriate. I just never thought about it.

I remembered that I did it just last session. I was playing good cop/bad cop with 2 town guards. One guard was pissing the players off because he was mad about them taking a situation into their own hands rather than alerting the guards about it. The other guard was trying to calm him down so he'd stop yelling at the PC's.

When switching back and forth, I'd say things like, "The other guard says..." and "then the nicer guard says....".

 

[Crothian]

I know how it is to be a player and have one player try to dominiate a conversation, imagine if its the dm doing it with himself.

That's why you involve the PCs

 

[Nightfall]

That's why you involve the PCs

At least you TRY to. Some times they just don't wanna talk.

 

[Crothian]

At least you TRY to. Some times they just don't wanna talk.

That's why God made cattle prods

 

[Hypersmurf]

use whatever dodge you can - handpuppets...

[gasp]

Ooh, I gotta start doing that!

-Hyp.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I'm a ham!

 

[Nightfall]

That's why God made cattle prods

Really I thought he made them for cows.

*thinks maybe he'll try hand puppets too*

 

[Mycanid]

DO you as a DM ever have a situation where you have two NPCs talking to each other as well as to the PCs?

say the King and his chamberlain

or the argumentative old man and his harridan wife (who break into arguments whilst the PCs stand by)

or Tweedledee and Tweedledum

how do you handle it? How do you differentiate who is talking? and do you ever feel just a wee bit looney?

Err ... not really. Of course it depends on the conversation sometimes.

 

[Mycanid]

Indirect discourse and action tags are your friends in these cases. You'll have to play be ear which speeches should be made verbatim in character; when you have two players interrupting eachother but conveying important information in the dialog, use whatever dodge you can - different voices (even hokey ones), handpuppets, transitional action tags: (i.e.: He's getting into this speech, waving his arms around and declaiming, while the chamberlain looks more and more like he's sucking a lemon, until he can't stand it anymore and breaks in: "And then we all die. Your Majesty, we discussed this. Your feelings are admirable, but we must be practical."

How about shadow puppets?

THE SHADOW MASTIFF ATTACKS!

Aieee!!!!

 

[Mycanid]

ok ... maybe not