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Off Screen NPCs Purely Detrimental?
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<blockquote data-quote="DariusOfCT" data-source="post: 4030870" data-attributes="member: 57790"><p>I've had plenty of NPCs that have been of benefit to the party over the years. In my current campaign, a couple of the players are dedicated followers of the god of Freedom and a casual NPC that they had met several sessions back will soon re-introduce himself as a member of a group that is dedicated to stopping slavery & the followers of the goddess of tyranny & slavery. They thought him a simple caravan guard when they rescued him, but he could play a key part for them in a positive way - he did not reveal himself at first because one PC became a recent convert to the god of freedom and these PCs were also strangers to him - so, he was not sure he could trust them.</p><p></p><p>And, one player wrote up a brief background where he was the 4th or 5th son of a minor noble on the other side of the kingdom and he went out to adventure in order to prove himself to his father... the party will eventually make it back to his hometown, where there will be some internal family conflicts - some dislike this PC because he left his family and went out and associated with foreigners, elves and the like. However, he will be able to help his family and his father out and hopefully set things right...and will get some rewards because of that.</p><p></p><p>That said, there are always NPCs that can have bad things happen to them - the PCs went into a town as outsiders and hired a young man looking for work to ask questions around the docks for them. I rolled poorly "off screen" for him, and he basically wound up dead & in the gutter for asking the wrong people the wrong questions. But, it helped to advance the plot because then the players knew that the people they were dealing with were pretty serious bad guys if they'd slash an almost innocent guy's throat.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DariusOfCT, post: 4030870, member: 57790"] I've had plenty of NPCs that have been of benefit to the party over the years. In my current campaign, a couple of the players are dedicated followers of the god of Freedom and a casual NPC that they had met several sessions back will soon re-introduce himself as a member of a group that is dedicated to stopping slavery & the followers of the goddess of tyranny & slavery. They thought him a simple caravan guard when they rescued him, but he could play a key part for them in a positive way - he did not reveal himself at first because one PC became a recent convert to the god of freedom and these PCs were also strangers to him - so, he was not sure he could trust them. And, one player wrote up a brief background where he was the 4th or 5th son of a minor noble on the other side of the kingdom and he went out to adventure in order to prove himself to his father... the party will eventually make it back to his hometown, where there will be some internal family conflicts - some dislike this PC because he left his family and went out and associated with foreigners, elves and the like. However, he will be able to help his family and his father out and hopefully set things right...and will get some rewards because of that. That said, there are always NPCs that can have bad things happen to them - the PCs went into a town as outsiders and hired a young man looking for work to ask questions around the docks for them. I rolled poorly "off screen" for him, and he basically wound up dead & in the gutter for asking the wrong people the wrong questions. But, it helped to advance the plot because then the players knew that the people they were dealing with were pretty serious bad guys if they'd slash an almost innocent guy's throat. [/QUOTE]
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