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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 1531151" data-attributes="member: 3820">Funnily enough, I think I have an easier time just roleplaying "good guy" NPCs simply because I get so much more practice. I can detail out a sinister villain's deliciously convoluted and misguided personality easy enough, but if you're talking D&D, that villain doesn't frequently get a whole lot of actual roleplaying time — 'cause he gets killed. I don't actually try to set the players in situations where they must parlay with the villain without violence very often, because my players would rather just kill the miscegenated son-of-a-behir. If they don't like being compelled to parlay, I don't like compelling them to do so. (No, our campaign isn't built on the political intrigue model; when you play as infrequently as we do, you want a game model where there aren't as many details and subtleties to remember.)The "good guys," on the other hand — that's where I have my reserve of romantic interests, arms trainers, benevolent nobility, city and town guardsmen, approachable magi, helpful (or not-so-helpful) priests, ship and barge captains, artists, entertainers, mentors, would-be students, relatives, prospective employers, prospective cohorts, soldiers, significant artisans, sympathetic victims, sympathetic criminal contacts, animal breeders, master armorers, heralds, merchants, and yeah, the inevitable slew of hostellers, barkeeps, serving girls and stable boys. That's where the real bulk of PC-to-NPC interaction takes place, and those are the people that motivate the PCs to go out there and kick evil ass — because they like these people, and have a strong motivation to beat evil into a greasy red paste so that they have a bunch of interesting friends/lovers/relatives to go home to when the loot is divided and the XP tallied.I think it's part of the overall appeal of roleplaying a fantasy game that you are supposed to visit cool and interesting locales, triumph over cool and interesting (and reprehensible) villains in cool and interesting ways — but also that you can have cool and interesting allies and friends. Lord knows my players agree — I've gotten all too used to having to suddenly ad-lib when a player asks "So who's the best tattoo artist in town?", "Is there a local temple to Theht? I feel a crisis of faith coming on and need to talk to somebody," or "I want to find a local weapon school and observe their training." Proactive players who like making friends as well as killing enemies will force you to flex your "interesting sympathetic NPC" muscles until you can bench-press Elminster's ego.</blockquote>

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