One-Liner NPCs

[Kobold Boots]

I think when push comes to shove that GM authored plot is the way games start.
I also think that the longer a game goes on you become somewhat reliant on player authored plot. Especially if your group grows into a community.

Every group plays for a specific amount of time in specific media. A group with four players may play for 3 hours a week at a table. A group with 20 players might have a regular session of 8 hours every two weeks with rotating seats and ongoing gaming in parallel with FG/Roll20/Forums. Based on personalities and scale, the game morphs.

Certainly if I'm playing with 4 people in 3 hours we're going to have a certain lack of tolerance for going off the rails, but that 20 person community is going to be generating more plot off of NPC interaction than the GM is. At that point the role of the GM is to facilitate/add flavor and get out of the way. When the players finally get back around to taking on the bad guys they've woven a better story that originally existed from one person's mind alone.

 

[pemerton]

I think when push comes to shove that GM authored plot is the way games start.

This might be true as a matter of general practice. It's not universally true. For instance:

A few weeks ago we added a fourth campaign: we had the first session of 4e Dark Sun.

The first half or more of the session was spent on PC building (despite my admonition to the players that they could only have 1 hour). With three players, we got 3 PCs: an eladrin bard with the virtue of cunning (with the Veiled Alliance theme); a mul battlemind gladiator (with the gladiator theme and wielding a battle axe); and a half-giant barbarian gladiator (with the wilder theme and wielding a glaive).

<snip>

As the final part of PC building, and trying to channel a bit of indie spirit, I asked the players to come up with "kickers" for their PCs.

From The Forge, here is one person's definition of a kicker:

A Kicker is a term used in Sorcerer for the "event or realization that your character has experienced just before play begins."

For the player, the Kicker is what propels the character into the game, as well as the thing that hooks the player and makes him or her say, "Damn! I can't wait to play this character!"

It's also the thing that the player hopes to resolve at the end of the game. At the start of the next game with the same character, the resolution of the Kicker alters the character in some way, allowing the player to re-write the character to reflect changes.​

In my case, I was mostly focused on the first of those things: an event or realisation that the character has experienced just before play begins, which thereby propels the character into the game. The main constraint I imposed was: your kicker somehow has to locate you within Tyr in the context of the Sorcerer-King having been overthrown. The reason for this constraint was (i) I want to be able to use the 4e campaign books, and (ii) D&D relies pretty heavily on group play, and so I didn't want the PCs to be too separated spatially or temporally.

The player of the barbarian came up with something first. Paraphrasing slightly, it went like this:

I was about to cut his head of in the arena, to the adulation of the crowd, when the announcement came that the Sorcerer-King was dead, and they all looked away.​

So that answered the question that another player had asked, namely, how long since the Sorcerer-King's overthrow: it's just happened.

The other gladiator - whose name is "Twenty-nine", that being his number on the inventory of slaves owned by his master - had been mulling over (no pun intended) something about his master having been killed, and so we settled on the following:

I came back from the slave's privies, ready to receive my master's admonition to do a good job before I went out into the arena. But when I got back to the pen my master was dead. So I took the purse with 14 gp from his belt.​

(The 14 gp was the character's change after spending his starting money on gear.)

Discussion of PC backgrounds and the like had already established that the eladrin was an envoy from The Lands Within The Wind, aiming to link up with the Veiled Alliance and thereby to take steps to save his homeland from the consequences of defiling. So his kicker was

My veiled alliance contact is killed in front of me as we are about to meet.​

<snip>

With all that in place, we started the session proper. I started with the barbarian, describing him standing over his defeated foe in the arena as the cry comes through the crowd "The tyrant is dead!" - taking all attention away from his victory and the pending kill.

I then cut to the mul slave in the pens. I told him he could hear someone moving off in the corridors and cells under the stadium; and also that the sound of the crowd sounded more worked up than normal. He decided that, with his master's unexplained death in front of him, he would head to the arena gate rather than back into the warrens.

<snip>

Up in the stands, meanwhile, the eladrin envoy - a student of the ancient tactics of the eladrin, and visiting the arena (i) to see how the people of this land fight, and (ii) to meet up with the Veiled Alliance - saw his contact approach, giving the secret signal of recognition that the eladrin had been told to expect. Then the contact feel down dead. The eladrin used his Sensing Eye to try to inspect the body and identify an assailant, but even with a +2 bonus (for clairvoyance) the Perception check failed, and so instead he attracted the attention of a Templar who noticed his psionic sensor. He succeeded in persuading the Templar that he didn't know the dead Veiled Alliance member, but not that his interest in the matter was innocent (there was a successful check in there somewhere - Diplomacy, I think, which is +4 CHA +5 training +5 Words of Friendship and so hard for him to fail - but also a failure, maybe on another Perception attempt). So when the Templar insisted that he come with him he teleported down into the arena itself, just as the events described above were unfolding.

You can go to the post to read more about how it unfolded if you like - the point is, that game was not GM pre-authored plot.

 

[Imaculata]

I think in a classic Nintendo game a player generally revisits the same npc multiple times, without actually progressing the plot. And that npc's role in the overall story usually doesn't change. D&D on the other hand is dynamic, so an npc's role in the plot could suddenly change. The DM may need for the npc to convey an important quest hook or clue. In D&D the players will probably not constantly revisit the same npc's over and over again, so instead of spending lots of short periods of time with the same npc's, they spend a much longer single period of time with each npc. The npc's there for must have a lot more to say than just a single line of dialogue. D&D also isn't restrictive in the way that classic Nintendo games are. The players are able to ask questions, and the npc's should be able to respond.

For this purpose it helps if the DM has a general idea of what is common knowledge (and the npc's might there for know), and what is uncommon knowledge.

 

[Kobold Boots]

This might be true as a matter of general practice. It's not universally true. For instance:

You can go to the post to read more about how it unfolded if you like - the point is, that game was not GM pre-authored plot.

Sounds like you have a great group to play with and the game start phase bled into character generation. Out of curiosity, had it not gone that way, did you have a pre-planned session to run?

Of course, I agree with your post. Not asking to counter it at all. Just curious.

 

[pemerton]

Out of curiosity, had it not gone that way, did you have a pre-planned session to run?

No.

Like I posted in the "What's an XP worth" thread (around half-a-dozen posts above your "perhaps too literal") post, "no myth" does not equal no prep. In the case of 4e D&D, thought, the designers have done that prep for me - I have books full of stats, and for Dark Sun have a map and an overall framing situation (rebellion in Tyr) as well. So I had that stuff with me, and - as I posted - that was used to inform the players' "kickers".

That session was the first one where our group used "kickers" in the literal sense. But here's another post about a first session, this one a few years ago (sblocked for length):

[sblock]

One of the players had bought rulebooks and built a BW PC (a noble-born Rogue Wizard inspired by Alatar, one of Tolkien's blue wizards of the East). I had built a PC for another player to show him what the system was capable of - a spell-using necromancer ranger/assassin (hunter-wizard's apprentice-rogue wizard-bandit).

<snip>

As well as the two 5 LP humans, I quickly worked up a 4 LP elf for the 3rd player (a Citadel-born soldier-protector and sword-singer). Writing up beliefs took a little while. The rogue wizard, Jobe, had a relationship with his brother and rival. The ranger-assassin, Halika, had a relationship, also hostile with her mentor, and the player decided that was because it turned out she was being prepared by him to be sacrificed to a demon. It seemed to make sense that the two rival, evil mages should be one and the same, and each player wrote a belief around defeating him: in Jobe's case, preventing his transformation into a Balrog; in Halika's case, to gain revenge.

Each player also wrote up a "fate mine"-style belief: He who dares, wins for the sorcerer, and Stab them in the back for the assassin. And each also wrote up a immediate goal-oriented belief: I had pulled out my old Greyhawk material and told them they were starting in the town of Hardby, half-way between the forest (where the assassin had fled from) and the desert hills (where Jobe had been travelling), and so each came up with a belief around that: I'm not leaving Hardby without gaining some magical item to use against my brother and, for the assassin with starting Resources 0, I'm not leaving Hardby penniless .

Some instincts were written up too: the ones that (sort of) came into play were, for the mage, When I fall I cast Falconskin and, for the assassin, I draw my sword when startled. That was enough to get things going with those two, while the elf player finalised some skill choices and some belief and instincts of his own.

I started things in the Hardby market: Jobe was looking at the wares of a peddler of trinkets and souvenirs, to see if there was anything there that might be magical or useful for enchanting for the anticipated confrontation with his brother. Given that the brother is possessed by a demon, he was looking for something angelic. The peddler pointed out an angel feather that he had for sale, brought to him from the Bright Desert. Jobe (who has, as another instinct, to always use Second Sight), used Aura Reading to study the feather for magical traits. The roll was a failure, and so he noticed that it was Resistant to Fire (potentially useful in confronting a Balrog) but also cursed. (Ancient History was involved somehow here too, maybe as a FoRK into Aura Reading (? I can't really remember), establishing something about an ancient battle between angels and demons in the desert.)

My memory of the precise sequence of events is hazy, but in the context the peddler was able to insist on proceeding with the sale, demanding 3 drachmas (Ob 1 resource check). As Jobe started haggling a strange woman (Halika) approached him and offered to help him if he would buy her lunch. Between the two of them, the haggling roll was still a failure, and also the subsequent Resources check: so Jobe got his feather but spent his last 3 drachmas, and was taxed down to Resources 0. They did get some more information about the feather from the peddler, however - he bought it from a wild-eyed man with dishevelled beard and hair, who said that it had come from one of the tombs in the Bright Desert.
Jobe, being unable to buy Halika any lunch, suggested he might be able to find some work for them instead.

At about this point the elf player finished building his PC: as a sword- singer he had to choose whether he had left the Citadel in good graces or not, and he decided that he had. But the lord he served had been killed by an orc archer, and the elf (ronin-like) had felt unable to continue living in pride among the elves. So he had left to travel the human lands (as he had a long time ago, as a wanderer). His beliefs included that he would prove himself among the humans, and also that he would always keep to the Elvish ways. Having starting Resources 0 (his last coin being spent on the ferry and toll to enter Hardby), his immediate goal was to obtain work as a sell-sword. The two human PCs saw him in the market at Hardby, and (through some contrivance the details of which I've erased from my memory) persuaded him to join them in looking for work.

Jobe, having both nobility and sorcerers in his circles, and a +1D affiliation with both (from Mark of Privilege and a starting affiliation with a sorcerous cabal), initially thought of trying to make contact with the Gynarch of Hardby, the sorceress ruler of that city. But then he thought he might start a little lower in the pecking order, and so decided to make contact with the red-robed firemage Jabal (of the Cabal). With Circles 2 he attempted the Ob 2 check, and failed.

So, as the 3 PCs were sitting in the Green Dragon Inn (the inn of choice for sorcerers, out-of- towners and the like), putting out feelers to Jabal, a thug wearing a rigid leather breastplate and openly carrying a scimitar turned up with a message from Jabal: Leave town, now. You're marked. Halika noticed him looking at the feather sticking out from Jobe's pouch as he said that: it seemed that the curse had already struck!

Argument ensued

<snip>

This was the first and only combat of the sessio

<snip>

the elf won outright, successfully evading the sword and delivering a superficial wound to Athog as he grabbed his sword hand and forced him to the ground.

Halika helped herself to Athog's purse (+1D cash, and no longer being penniless) and scimitar, and they insisted that Athog take them to Jabal.

The trip to Jabal's tower took them through the narrow, winding streets of the city. When they got there, Jabal was suitably angry at his Igor-like servitor for letting them in, and at Athog for not running them out of town. They argued, although I don't think any social skill checks were actually made. Jabal explained that the curse on the feather was real, from a mummy in a desert tomb, and that he didn't want anything to do with Jobe while he was cursed. Jobe accepted his dressing down with suitable Base Humility, earning a fate point. (The second for the session from a character trait. During the exchange in the bar Halika, who as a one-time wizard's apprentice is Always in the Way, got in the way of Jobe doing something-or-other to earn a point.)

As the PCs left Jobe's tower, they noticed a dishevelled, wild-eyed figure coming down the stairs. This caused suitable speculation about the nature of Jabal's conspiracy with the person who had sold the feather to the peddler.

As they were walking to the East Gate their path took them back through the market, where they saw that peddler packing up: he had just had news that his wife and daughter, in a town to the south, had fallen gravely ill, and he was finishing his business in the city before taking a boat south at dawn. The players took this as a sign of the curse being at work on the feather's former owner. Jobe also took the time to make a Perception check to see if there was anything else valuable or magical among the things the peddler was packing up. I can't remember the Ob, but it was quite high, and the check failed: with his Second Sight he noticed, instead, a sending from Jabal which branded him with a +1 Ob penalty to sorcery while in the town, for having dallied on his way to the gate.

So they left town.

<snip>

At this point, there was some discussion as to what to do next. The players were inclined to go looking for the mummy's tomb, to try and lift the curse. They decided that going after Jabal seemed too hard. I mocked them as weak, for two main reason: (i) overland exploratory stuff is one of my weaker areas as a GM; (ii) I didn't think that could easily be fit into the session, whereas I though a Tower of the Elephant-style tower raid probably could be.

<snip account of raid on the tower>

[/sblock]In that first session, I introduced the market and the tower. But both were responses to aspects of PC build - the belief about finding magical items, and the instinct to cast Falconskin if falling. The NPC Jabal was introduced by the player making the Circles check - though his response, and his underlings like Athog, were my creations, authored during the session as needed.

I think that if players are prepared to build and play their PCs - with some backstory/motivation as well as sheer mechanical components - that's generally enough to make a session go.

 

[Kobold Boots]

I think that if players are prepared to build and play their PCs - with some backstory/motivation as well as sheer mechanical components - that's generally enough to make a session go.

You're right about this.

That being said, when I do my version of kickers, it's to add flavor to existing prepped plot. Unless you know every one of your players from working with them in the past and have a good deal of confidence that they'll all click, it's been dangerous in my experience to not have an adventure properly prepped.

These days, it's less about being able to wing a session and more about not wanting to have a bad experience or be a bad host. If I'm inviting someone over to spend a few hours (or six) I want to be sure that regardless of what happens people get what they expect and have a shot at having fun.

 

[pemerton]

Unless you know every one of your players from working with them in the past and have a good deal of confidence that they'll all click, it's been dangerous in my experience to not have an adventure properly prepped.

These days, it's less about being able to wing a session and more about not wanting to have a bad experience or be a bad host. If I'm inviting someone over to spend a few hours (or six) I want to be sure that regardless of what happens people get what they expect and have a shot at having fun.

It's a long time since I've RPGed with strangers.

I don't have the "host" aspect to my games, as I live in a small house and so normally we play at the home of one of the other players with a bigger house (and table). I feel my job is to give the players something to do. That means coming up with (at least somewhat) compelling situations. I don't generally have to worry that they won't engage with them.

 

[GMMichael]

A group with 20 players might have a regular session of 8 hours every two weeks with rotating seats and ongoing gaming in parallel with FG/Roll20/Forums.

If I had to GM this group, I'd allow the players only one line of dialogue.

D&D on the other hand is dynamic, so an npc's role in the plot could suddenly change. The DM may need for the npc to convey an important quest hook or clue.

A hook or clue is an excellent use for an average NPC's one-line. In this way, you can spread important information around over a given area/city, and the PCs must then do some social exploring to put the pieces together.

If you have unscripted or chatty random NPCs, you could inadvertently lose this aspect of an adventure.

 

[Kobold Boots]

If I had to GM this group, I'd allow the players only one line of dialogue.

Well said and from the point of someone who's been with a group of that size.. I wish.

 

[howandwhy99]

They had it right back in 1987 (note the innkeeper):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8PHmi2L7FY

While realizing what a tangled web we weave the other day, it occurred to me that most NPCs shouldn't need more than one line of dialogue, like in some of the earliest Nintendo RPGs.

Doesn't that sound boring? Less-than-one-dimensional NPCs?
SNIP
Should players expect fleshed-out NPCs to be everywhere? Can GMs provide a single line of dialogue (or less) for an NPC and not ruin immersion for the players?

Sorry, but that does sound boring and one-dimensional. And even impractical as I'm not going to write 100s of one-liners to account for 100s of NPCs.

My advice is to stop thinking of NPCs like characters in a story. D&D is a game, not a story. So think of the elements in your RPG like a game. Your creatures don't solely require designs to designate their bodies and physical abilities. What about their remembered experiences and behaviors? What tactics do they know and can use? What magic items? What about mundane actions?

You don't need to come up with entirely new words every time you write a sentence. But it does help to have a vast vocabulary of words and a real proficiency with a functional grammar. Likewise you don't need an "everything new" philosophy to run a functional game design either. Variations of design within a challenging and sound game system is what D&D is all about. (Actually, massive variation given all the monsters and treasure and modules published for it).

What you get is more game design players can actually game. They can not only discover the world before their characters senses, but also the world within the minds of NPCs. This usually means what that NPC thinks is true about the world (rumors being more or less accurate or inaccurate), but it can also mean learning who an NPC is, their preferences, not to mention who they might have once been or may become - maybe with the player's help!