Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Rivals
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8706425" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I agree with Justin Alexander that rival NPC groups would be very tricky to get to work well in pretty much any system that gets grittier than resolution at a scene level. Probably the best use of a rival NPC group is to create color of time pressure in that you know they are out there and if you dally too long well you'll end up chasing them or otherwise behind. Actual contact between PCs and rivals known to have conflicting goals is difficult to orchestrate in the way that any reoccurring NPC is difficult to orchestrate, with the additional problem that you have to manage the entire team being able to evade pursuit and not just one character. </p><p></p><p>As with many things, Order of the Stick presents a very realistic take on the rival party in that OotS's rival party the Linear Guild really is only Nale with a rotating cast of disposable and replaceable generic rivals so that the GM would really only have to keep Nale alive and not the entire opposing party. This would be much more doable than a full party of reoccurring characters.</p><p></p><p>One big problem I would have with rival NPC groups is characterization of multiple NPCs simultaneously is really different. You'd probably only have the 'face' of the group do any talking which means the rest of the group is going to be pretty anonymous. Scenes with multiple talking NPCs are really hard on the DM because few things are worse than talking to yourself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8706425, member: 4937"] I agree with Justin Alexander that rival NPC groups would be very tricky to get to work well in pretty much any system that gets grittier than resolution at a scene level. Probably the best use of a rival NPC group is to create color of time pressure in that you know they are out there and if you dally too long well you'll end up chasing them or otherwise behind. Actual contact between PCs and rivals known to have conflicting goals is difficult to orchestrate in the way that any reoccurring NPC is difficult to orchestrate, with the additional problem that you have to manage the entire team being able to evade pursuit and not just one character. As with many things, Order of the Stick presents a very realistic take on the rival party in that OotS's rival party the Linear Guild really is only Nale with a rotating cast of disposable and replaceable generic rivals so that the GM would really only have to keep Nale alive and not the entire opposing party. This would be much more doable than a full party of reoccurring characters. One big problem I would have with rival NPC groups is characterization of multiple NPCs simultaneously is really different. You'd probably only have the 'face' of the group do any talking which means the rest of the group is going to be pretty anonymous. Scenes with multiple talking NPCs are really hard on the DM because few things are worse than talking to yourself. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Rivals
Top